tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212120242024-03-18T05:59:17.433-07:00Pyromaniacs"Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD (Jeremiah 23:29).Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.comBlogger3077125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-89946932727682776362023-06-08T08:57:00.012-07:002023-06-08T10:27:02.642-07:00About that Missing Blogpost....<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">A note from Dan Phillips</font><P>
<TABLE WIDTH="97%" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"><TR><TD><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#F0F8FF"><TR><TD><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">After about seven years without a post, I posted a copy of a letter I sent to the congregation I serve in Houston, Texas. I wanted to help parents talk with their children about the ubiquitous "Pride Month" intrusions. Then I followed up with a sermon. But someone flagged it to Blogger, where it was ruled that my post was "Hate Speech." Their definition: <i>"content that promotes or condones violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against an individual or group on the basis of their …sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization."</i> This, of a post that literally says "we don't hate people who want bad things…. We love people who don't know Jesus…" But today, to believe in the actual Jesus is to be called a "hater." You will find my letter <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/DanP.html">posted elsewhere,</a> unedited.</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
<font size="4">Click <a Href="http://romans45.org/misc/DanP.html">HERE</a> to read the post Blogger tried to censor.</font><P>
<a Href="http://romans45.org/misc/DanP.html"><img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/30day.gif" title="" border="0"></a><P>
<div><div><br /><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/"><img alt="Dan Phillips's signature" border="0" src="http://www.bibchr.com/djp.gif" /></a><br /><hr style="color: #aa0000;" /><br /></div></div>
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-14267472036344079682022-12-28T13:35:00.006-08:002022-12-28T13:46:34.375-08:00Not Today, Devil<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pdr.jpg" title="" border="0"><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/m14.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">any readers will remember <a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/08/pornographic-divination.html">a blogpost I wrote in August of 2011</a> analyzing Mark Driscoll's claim that he had a bizarre spiritual gift: an uncanny psychic ability enabling him to function as a kind of supernatural peeping Tom. He claimed to be able to watch vivid, full-color replays of his counselees' sexual sins on some sort of cosmic big screen. It was a tasteless claim—<P>
<b><i>No, it was worse.</i></b> It was a rank blasphemy to claim such a freakishly prurient peculiarity had been given to him by the Holy Spirit.<P>
A few weeks ago he filed a copyright claim to have YouTube remove that video. It was an ironic stance for him to take, given his own reputation as an unbridled plagiarist.<p>
Anyway, I never received any notice of the takedown, and since I rarely look at my own YouTube channel, I didn't notice until YouTube's referees had already judged Driscoll's claim as legitimate. I nevertheless wrote three appeals pointing out that my use of the video clearly falls well within the 1976 Copyright Law's definition of "Fair Use," because I posted it in order to make critical commentary for a purpose that was both newsworthy and (in the proper sense) educational.<p>
YouTube's judges held their ground, however—apparently because my actual criticisms of Driscoll's remarks were posted in <a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/08/pornographic-divination.html">the accompanying blogpost,</a> and not in the video itself.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/fairuse.png" title="Fair Use" align="right">So I have corrected that problem by incorporating the gist of my critical remarks into the video and reposting it, together with a quotation from the relevant legal statute demonstrating why the Fair Use doctrine protects my posting of these excerpts.<P>
If you'd like to see the revised video (unaltered except for the addition of my commentary), you can observe it where it is now imbedded in <a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/08/pornographic-divination.html">
that 2011 blogpost,
</a>or <a href="https://youtu.be/CaH3rFm6E-g" target="_blank">at my Youtube channel.</a> I won't imbed it here, because frankly it gives me nausea every time I see it. But I wanted to keep the matter well documented, because I hear that Driscoll has gained a sizeable new following of naive young people, and frankly, I think he is more dangerous and more unorthodox than he was at the peak of his original popularity.<P> <P>
<A HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><IMG SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A>
<hr style="color:#aa0000;"> Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-35906555247839385892022-11-21T08:12:00.009-08:002022-12-20T17:26:19.748-08:00Current Status<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/twitterjail.jpg" title="" border="0">
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>Still no response from Twitter:</b></FONT><P>
<table border="4" cellpadding="12" bordercolor="#910000" bgcolor="#FBFBF0"><TR><TD><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="3" COLOR="#004364"><b>19 December update:</b> People keep writing to tell me they don't think I'm banned from Twitter because if they go to <A Href="http://twitter.com/Phil_Johnson_"><b>my Twitter account,</b></a> they can see my Tweets. Here's the deal:<P>
Anyone with Twitter access can see my old Tweets, up to the day I was banned (October 14, 2022). But <i><b>I</b></i> can't sign on, post, or read any Tweets using my own account. They are holding me hostage, insistent that I must first confess that I committed a crime of "hate speech."<P>
What did I say? Well, I linked to a news story about a drag-queen crossing guard hired to work at a public elementary school. Then on that same day I linked to a TikTok video posted by an elementary-school teacher who insists it ought to be a very high priority for all public schools to indoctrinate kindergartners to embrace and celebrate gender fluidity, regardless of their parents' opinions. And then I said this is tantamount to government-sponsored, taxpayer-funded grooming.<P>
Twitter demands that I delete the offending Tweet[s], and they say I can have my account back whenever I do that. However, they also add: "By clicking delete you acknowledge that your Tweet violated the Twitter [hate speech] rules."<P>
I refuse to kowtow to such a worldview. Hence it seems I'm off Twitter permanently or until <b><i>they</i></b> acknowledge my right to have moral convictions that are shaped by Scripture rather than the opinions of humanistic elitists. It's not an insignificant fine point, in my judgment.</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
<TABLE WIDTH="97%" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"><TR><TD><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#F0F8FF"><TR><TD><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000"><b>5 December update:</b> Last week's promised "general amnesty" didn't materialize. Also, Twitter support has not replied to any of my queries. Apparently the old policy is still in place—namely if you want to be reinstated, you <i><b>must</b></i> plead guilty to the charge of "hate speech."</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
Twitter's staff are just as unresponsive as ever to emails and other queries from people they have arbitrarily banned.<P>
Elon Musk needs to assign a cohort of capable employees to answering people's appeals, or (better yet) go ahead and implement the general amnesty he promised.<P>
<A HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><IMG SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A>
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-65063955810700331422022-11-14T09:25:00.005-08:002022-11-17T16:35:27.696-08:00About my Twitter "Hiatus"<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/tpatt11.jpg" title="" border="0"><p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/t04.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">witter banned me a month ago today because I said that local school boards' efforts to normalize sexual perversion in the minds of elementary school children is taxpayer-funded, state-driven grooming.<P>
Twitter says I can have my account back if I will delete the Tweet that offended their censors' notion of civil propriety. For the record, I would be happy to do that. I have even written them and offered to to that.<P>
However—<P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/grooming.png" title="" border="0"><P>
They also expressly stated that by deleting the Tweet I would be formally admitting I broke Twitter's rules against "hate speech," and that is something I cannot conscientiously do.<P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/blackmail.png" title="" border="0"><P>
This is a classic example of how social media moguls are attempting to overrule and reshape the consciences of their users. My Tweet was not an expression of "hate" aimed at anyone—not even the drag-queen crossing guard into whose custody kindergartners have been placed (contrary to many parents' wishes)—not even the teacher who boasted on Instagram how she was inculcating LGBTQRSTU ideology into the minds of her elementary students while keeping her moral agenda secret from parents. My Tweet (like this blog entry) was a simple statement of my own moral convictions, without malice or ill-will.<P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/19cherubs01.png" title="" border="0"><P>
Several have urged me to go ahead and delete the offending Tweet rather than be silenced. I will be happy to do that if Twitter will state in writing that they understand my compliance with their wishes is not a guilty plea.<P>
I'm not asking for anyone to start a campaign about this. I'm simply explaining (for the sake of <b><i>many</i></b> who keep asking) why I'm off Twitter and why I haven't done what Twitter is asking me to in order to get my account restored.<P>
<A HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><IMG SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A>
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-77229735073503032732021-11-22T15:04:00.003-08:002021-11-22T17:50:50.133-08:00Spurgeon to Archibald Brown<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font>
<a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/CHS2AB.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/CHS2ABsm.jpg" title="Spurgeon to Archibald Brown" border="0"><BR>
<font size="2" color="#B90000">(Click for a hi-res image.)</font></a><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/o12.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">n October 28, 1887 (a Friday)—well into the Down Grade controversy—<a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Booth.jpg" target="_blank">Charles Spurgeon wrote the Secretary of the Baptist union to withdraw his membership in the Union.</a><P>
The following Tuesday, November 1, he hand-wrote this letter to his friend Archibald Brown, urging him to withdraw from the Union as well:<P>
<TABLE WIDTH="97%" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"><TR><TD><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#F0F8FF"><TR><TD><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" color="#800080"><div align="right"><b>Westwood<br>
Beulah Hill<br>
Upper Norwood<br>
1887 Nov 1</div><br>
Dear M<sup>r</sup> Brown,<p>
Mr. Booth rec<sup>d</sup> a formal notice from me on Friday. Let him have yours too, for otherwise they will not know of yr going with me. We are to sink or swim together. Blessed be God for so dear a comrade.<p>
Did you see <a href="http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/misc/Clifford.pdf">Clifford's Appeal in Pall Mall</a> on Saturday? Deceivableness of unrighteousness!"<p>
The fire is catching in Scotland. God will I trust work by this discussion.<p>
The Lord bless you<p>
Yours Heartily<P>
C. H. Spurgeon</font><P></b></FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
My most treasured item of historic Baptist memorabilia is the handwritten original of that letter. Some details about the context:<P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Clifford.jpg" title="John Clifford" align="right">"Clifford" is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clifford_(minister)" target="_blank">John Clifford,</a> who had written an unctuous <a href="http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/misc/Clifford.pdf" target="_blank">"Appeal to Mr. Spurgeon"</a> in the Saturday edition of <i>The Pall Mall Gazette.</i> (That article is what Spurgeon is referring to in his letter to Brown.)
Clifford was serving at the time as Vice-President of the Baptist Union. A year later he would be elected president, and in that role he would preside over the Baptist Union's infamous censure of Spurgeon. In his mostly excellent <a href="http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/misc/bio13.htm" target="_blank">biography of Spurgeon,</a> W. Y. Fullerton charitably tries to portray Clifford as "one of Mr. Spurgeon's most ardent admirers." <i>He was anything but.</i> He was analogous to those who call themselves "progressive" today.<P>
When Clifford first came to London at the age of 20 in 1856, he came to the city specifically to hear Spurgeon. But even in those days, Clifford was hardly a solid Bible-believing evangelical. He was enthralled with Ralph Waldo Emerson and had seriously contemplated becoming a Unitarian. Ultimately, however, he remained at least <i>nominally</i> evangelical and in 1858 took a position as pastor of the Praed Street Baptist Church in London, where he remained until his retirement in 1915.<p>
By the late 1880s, Clifford had concluded that Spurgeon and the brand of evangelical conviction he represented were oldfangled and out of fashion—and Clifford thus helped lead the modernist effort to silence Spurgeon's concerns about doctrinal down grade. <a href="https://sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/equip/uploads/2010/07/sbjt-064_win02-nettles.pdf" target="_blank">Tom Nettles describes Clifford as an "irrepressible liberal.</a> Personally, I like Spurgeon's description of Clifford's passive-aggressive approach to Spurgeon and the Down Grade: "Deceivableness of unrighteousness!"<p>
A month later, Spurgeon wrote the secretary of the Baptist Union Council, declining the council's plea for him to reconsider his resignation. In that letter, Spurgeon said candidly, "I regard full-grown 'modern thought' as a totally new cult, having no more relation to Christianity than the mist of the evening to the everlasting hills."<p> <p>
<A HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><IMG SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A>
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-75683369301818016302021-11-20T20:24:00.011-08:002021-11-21T16:43:15.124-08:00"Enemies Within the Church": A review<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/ewtc.png" title="Enemies Within the Church" border="0"><p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/i14.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left"> finally had an opportunity to see the documentary <a href="https://enemieswithinthechurch.com/">"Enemies Within the Church,"</a> and as promised, here is a candid review:<p> <p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>The Good</b></FONT><br>
You need to watch this documentary. Its central message sounds a clear and necessary alarm that today's evangelicals (leaders and lay persons alike) urgently need to hear and heed. It is a two-hour video presenting undeniable evidence that influential forces within the church have been (and still are) working hard to advance an agenda that is rooted in neo-Marxism, overlaid with identity politics, and peppered with postmodern jargon. In other words, countless Christians are being force-fed an ideology that comes from the world, not from Scripture. It is being pushed in our seminaries and churches with tactics (and a lot of financing) taken from secular left-wing sources.<p>
The worldview and values these change-agents promote are clearly influenced by radical feminism, the sexual revolution, academic elitism, socialist tenets, and critical theory. Those who traffic in these ideas don't necessarily <i>sound</i> overtly hostile to the authority of Scripture. Instead, they subtly undermine moral principles, vital doctrines, and the gospel itself. They subvert historic evangelical convictions by lobbying for Woke doctrines and liberal trends while relentlessly warning evangelicals that the church will lose the next generation, maybe even die, if we don't stay in step with the drift of the secular intelligentsia.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/shanec.png" title="Shane Claiborne" hspace="5" align="left">This is by no means a new phenomenon. There is an easily traceable line of descent that runs from the Socinians of the 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> centuries through the Deists and Unitarians of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, the modernists of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, the liberals and pragmatists of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, and the Emergents of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Today's Wokevangelicals are following identical lines of argument, employing similar rhetoric, and drifting in the same direction as all of those previous departures from evangelical orthodoxy.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/s&t.png" title="Sword and Trowel" align="right">In 1887, <I>The Sword and the Trowel</I> (Charles Spurgeon's monthly journal) published <a href="http://www.romans45.org/spurgeon/misc/dwngrd.htm">two articles titled "The Down Grade,"</a> by Robert Schindler. A fierce polemical war ensued and lasted for several years, known as "The Downgrade Controversy." Anyone who has read about Spurgeon's final years of ministry knows of this controversy. Spurgeon himself and most who were close to him believed the stress of fighting the Downgrade hastened his death. He died less than five years after publishing Schindler's articles.<p>
Robert Schindler's (and Spurgeon's) whole point was that the path of liberal apostasy is well-worn and familiar, and it should therefore be obvious to any vigilant observer when a church, educational institution, denomination, or Christian leader starts down that path. As the title suggests, Schindler noted that it's a steep downhill path, so once any person or group takes that turnoff, it becomes nearly impossible to stop the movement downhill.<p>
Schindler was warning against the modernist influence that infected the Baptist Union in Victorian England, but his words are totally applicable to the current drift of Wokevangelicalism.<p>
Be forewarned: "Enemies Within the Church"—like those 1887 articles in <I>The Sword and the Trowel</I>—will be deeply controversial. Sadly, many believers will conclude that the controversial nature of the documentary basically nullifies its message. <I>After all, aren't Christians supposed to love one another? How can we warn against the influence of fellow church members and not be guilty of divisiveness?</I><p>
But the New Testament is full of admonitions to be on guard against destructive influences within the church. These are wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7:15)—"fierce wolves [that] will <I>come in among you,</I> not sparing the flock; and <I>from among your own selves</I> will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:29-30). We are commanded to "to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3)—especially against those who want to rewrite the faith anew for each generation.<p>
This documentary does a superb job in that task, and for that reason I commend it. The cinematography is stunning. The editing is superb. The story is told in a clear and compelling way. The message is poignant. Overall, I give the production high marks, and I hope it gains a large audience.<p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>The Bad</b></FONT><br>
I should, however, mention that I have a few minor theological quibbles. The narrator (Cary Gordon) and several of the featured faces seem to be from Wesleyan backgrounds. That's not my complaint (though I'm a Calvinist). If there was any overt Arminianism in the presentation, I didn't notice it. On the whole, they did a fine job.<p>
But at times speakers mentioned points of doctrine that I thought should have been presented with greater care, or omitted completely. For example, around 47:40, one of the interviewees mentioned John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."<p>
Pastor Gordon replies, "That means the Old Testament was made flesh in Jesus Christ."<p>
"Yup," says the interviewee.<p>
Pastor Gordon continues: "So if we're to vilify the Old Testament and say we don't need it anymore, we're talking about some part of Jesus."<p>
<I>"No!"</I> I say out loud. That's not what the apostle John is saying. The expression "the Word" throughout John 1 is a reference to Christ in his eternal glory, not the Old Testament. I share Pastor Gordon's contempt for the idea that Christians don't need the Old Testament, but it's not necessary make that point by getting sloppy with our exegesis of John's gospel.<p>
Still, that's a disagreement that doesn't materially affect my endorsement of the film. It doesn't alter or diminish the validity of the larger central message.<p>
A bigger objection of mine would be the way the documentary deals with the Ten Commandments. Here again, I agree with the point the documentary apparently wants to make, but I'm not completely satisfied with how they make it.<p>
Here's the part I <i>agree</i> with: Postmodern evangelicals <I>do</I> overemphasize the love of God and deliberately truncate what Scripture says about sin, righteousness, and judgment—to the point where most in the evangelical movement today seem to think the whole gospel message is that God is love, or that God loves you in particular. The documentary correctly points out that we have not preached the gospel at all if we don't deal with the problem of sin and call unbelievers to repentance (Acts 17:30).<p>
(I also agree that anyone who says the Ten Commandments have no relevance for Christians is an antinomian. And when you try to syncretize Wokeism with evangelicalism, antinomianism is one of the inevitable, and spiritually deadly, results.)<p>
Nevertheless, I wish the documentary had taken greater pains to make clear that the Ten Commandments are not the gospel, or even part of the gospel. They are a <I>prelude</I> to the gospel—a tutor that points us toward Christ and the gospel (Gal. 3:24). The gospel itself is a message about the work of Christ to liberate us from the bondage of sin and the condemnation of the law. The heart of the gospel is the doctrine of justification by faith—not the Ten Commandments.<p>
I'll mention just one other nagging complaint: I think what the documentary says about pietism vs. political activism seems to imply that these are the only two options in a fairly well-defined either/or choice for Christians. But lots of godly, biblically astute, reasonable Christians are neither pietists nor political Zealots. They recognize that churches tend to lose their focus and sometimes even cease preaching the gospel when they become immersed in unbridled political activism.<P>
The true remedy for what ails both the evangelical movement and secular culture is not something that can imposed by legislation. Nor can righteousness be achieved by Christians flexing their collective political clout. "If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (Gal. 3:21). Dominionism is a corruption of the church's true agenda (Matt. 20:25-26). The disciples, not the party of the Zealots, are our role models in seeking to turn the world upside down.<p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>The Ugly</b></FONT><br>
Now, if you've seen the online chatter surrounding the release of this documentary, you may be aware that there's a noisy squad of smart-alecky Zealots who began badgering a list of conservative Christian leaders who had previously spoken out against the influence of Wokeism. The Zealots demanded endorsements for this documentary almost as soon as it appeared in a downloadable format. Their nagging quickly turned to ugly public taunts and accusations.<p>
I don't believe the documentary's producers were directly involved in or keenly aware of that campaign of harrassment. In fact, Judd Saul, the project's director, responded graciously to all the noise by making sure I had a speedy opportunity to see the full documentary. I would have eventually watched it anyway and most likely posted a recommendation, but I appreciate Judd's efforts to link me up with a timely review copy.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/belgrnt.png" title="Belligerance" align="right">Still, those unauthorized efforts to promote the film by browbeating men in Christian leadership have prompted me to say once again that nothing undermines biblical discernment and the cause of truth more deeply and hurtfully than haughty controversialists who act like they firmly believe they are the kingpins and custodians of the cosmic war against false teaching. They seem to think the truth is best advanced by intimidation, insults, crass language, and caustic rhetoric. Passages like 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Galatians 5:22-23; and 2 Timothy 2:24-25 have no obvious impact on their dealings with others—because as they will point out, undiscerning people misuse those texts to justify their refusal to contend for the faith. But that doesn't give spiritual warriors license to ignore those features of true Christlikeness altogether.<p>
My counsel: Beware of anyone who treats captiousness as sport. Frankly, such people actually undermine the cause of truth, and in their own way, they can be just as dangerous to the spiritual health of the church as the out-and-out Marxists.<p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>One Final Thing</b></FONT><br>
Virtually all the negative pushback I have seen aimed at "Enemies Within the Church" has come from Southern Baptist sources. The Conservative Baptist Network promoted the film and announced that they would host the premier on the campus of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. The President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary protested the showing and <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamGreenway/status/1461035803421945858">Tweeted an open letter</a> expressing with "deep disappointment but strong conviction," a charge that the documentary contains "scandalous and scurrilous slander."<p>
What about that claim? What is the right response to those who claim the documentary is slanderous?<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/farside.png" title="The Far Side" align="right">Let me speak plainly: I don't have the time or the need to investigate and verify every individual claim made in the documentary. "Enemies Within the Church" echoes an opinion I have stated many times already, so yes I emphatically agree with the central message. Most of the claims made are either well-established facts, or they are sufficiently documented in the film itself with video records and direct quotations. Plus, the clear and persuasive testimony of multiple eyewitnesses is hard to gainsay.<p>
So the documentary raises questions that need to be answered. It points out issues that need to be addressed. It highlights problems that need to be corrected. To single out a disputed claim or two and blow the whole thing off as "slander" would be a monumental mistake. Deconstructing the critics' concerns by splitting hairs over terminology or by denying that Critical Race Theory (CRT) has infiltrated Baptist seminaries is not an adequate answer to the concerns raised in this documentary. We've all seen the videos where Baptist seminary professors <I>do</I> parrot rhetoric from CRT sources. The concerns raised by this film cannot be sidestepped or pushed aside. They <i>must</i> be answered.<p>
For the record, I didn't notice any factual claims in the documentary that struck me as questionable. Some statements were made that I would like to see thoroughly documented. For example, a critic might claim that some of the connections drawn between various people and organizations may or may not be more tenuous than the narration noted.<p>
However, it would be ludicrous for any biblically minded believer to deny that large-movement evangelicalism is speeding quickly in a bad direction; that some of the very best leaders in key evangelical institutions do not appear to be trying very hard (if at all) to reverse the drift; and that many other key leaders are aggressively promoting wokeism, identity politics, and other ideas that clearly obscure the straightforward simplicity of the gospel. Those are all legitimate—and weighty—concerns.<p>
In the 1970s, all conservative evangelicals regarded the Sojourners organization as a left-wing outlier and a threat to orthodoxy because of the socialist and radical political agenda they were pushing. Today that point of view is considered mainstream in the larger evangelical movement. Such a profound shift does raise vital questions (or should I say "serious doubts"?) about whether we are truly together for the same gospel.<p>
"Enemies Within the Church" demands a careful inquiry and answers to those questions.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/babyhcht.png" title="Adios" border="0">
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<hr style="color:#aa0000;"><br>Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-84738163836746010992021-09-22T10:18:00.004-07:002021-09-22T12:28:59.804-07:00COVID Masks and Congregational Worship<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/21mask02.png" title="Nope" border="0"><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/w06.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="W" align="left">e regard the wearing of masks in worship first of all as a matter of conscience—and since we are forbidden by the teaching of Christ not to make extrabiblical religious rules that bind men's consciences (Matthew 23:1-7; 15:1-9), we neither mandate nor forbid the wearing of masks in worship.<P><P>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/21mask01.png" title="Nah." align="right">Veils and face coverings have profound religious significance in many world religions. Indeed, much of the rhetoric surrounding COVID masks (even among evangelical Christians) describes them as symbols of personal piety. Serious questions about the usefulness, effectiveness, or medical necessity of masks are routinely dismissed or swept aside, and people are told to wear them simply because they are a tangible, visible means of showing love for one's neighbor. This rationale is pressed on people's consciences regardless of whether it can be proved statistically that they really safeguard anyone from the virus, and irrespective of the fact that masks can cause other medical problems. But COVID masks have become, in effect, secularism's substitute for religious vestments. No one can reasonably deny that face coverings have become the chief symbol of popular culture's sanctimonious devotion to the secularist credo.<P>
But one of the distinctives of Christian worship is face-to-face fellowship. <i>Koinonia</i> is the Greek expression the New Testament uses to describe it. The word conveys the idea of community, close association, and intimate social contact. Thus the apostle's instructions: "Greet one another with a holy kiss" are repeated four times in the Pauline epistles (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:22).<P>
The importance of face-to-face <i>koinonia</i> is stressed repeatedly. Paul writes, "We . . . were all the more eager with great desire to <i>see your face"</i> (1 Thessalonians 2:17). "We night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may <i>see your face"</i> (3:10). The apostle John writes, "I hope to come to you and speak <i>face to face,</i> so that your joy may be made full" (2 John 12). "I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak <i>face to face"</i> (3 John 14).<P>
Worship, in particular, is best seen as an open-face discipline. Covering the face is a symbol of disgrace or shame (Jeremiah 51:51; Job 40:4). Concealing one's mouth while praising God suppresses the visible expression of worship. The Psalms' calls to worship are filled with the words "tongue," "lips," and "mouth." "Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise" (Psalm 81:1). " Wholehearted worship cannot be sung as intended—unrestrained and unmuted—from behind a state-mandated face covering. We see "the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (4:6), and our faces were designed by him to reflect that glory back to heaven in uninhibited praise.<P>
It is true, of course, that for now, "We see in a mirror dimly, but [someday] <i>face to face"</i> (1 Corinthians 13:2). That speaks of a face-to-face encounter with Christ himself, when we will be brought into the fullness of knowledge and moral perfection. John the apostle says, "We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because <i>we will see Him just as He is"</i> (1 John 3:2).<P>
Despite the temporary limitation of seeing heaven's glory as if we were looking in a dim mirror, we nevertheless are privileged as Christians to have a view of divine glory that is superior to what Moses and the Israelites enjoyed at Sinai. We see God's glory revealed in Christ—"glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Unlike Moses, who was shielded in the cleft of a rock from seeing the full display of divine glory; and unlike the Israelites, who only saw the fading reflection of glory on Moses' face (and even that was covered with a veil) we see Christ so clearly revealed that it is as if we are looking in the very face of God's glory. "We all, <b><i>with unveiled face,</i></b> beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Again: we see "the glory of God <i>in the face of Christ"</i> (4:6).<P>
Yes, the language of that biblical passage is symbolic. We don't literally see the face of Christ physically. For now, we see him as he is revealed on the pages of the New Testament. But the symbolism embodied in Paul's description of seeing him with <i>"unveiled face"</i> is important, and the wearing of masks—especially government-mandated masks that serve as the vestments of secular religion—feels like a covert attempt to erase one of the core truths that makes Christianity unique.<P>
<i><b>Those are my personal convictions about masks.</b></i> It's not a dogma we teach. It's certainly not a rule we expect people in the church to swear fidelity to. Again, we don't want to bind anyone's conscience with manmade restrictions. We especially do not want to shame the person who wears a mask purely because he or she genuinely believes the current orthodoxy about masks as an effective shield against viral transmission. People in the church are free to wear masks <i>if they choose.</i> But people who share the above view are likewise free to worship, sing, pray, and proclaim God's Word without a face covering—even if that goes against the vacillating, sometimes arbitrary, and frequently heavy-handed dictates of government officials. It is simply not the church's duty to enforce executive orders based on a politician's whimsy—particularly when those edicts impinge on our freedom of worship.<P>
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<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-15226898702340370712021-08-31T14:13:00.008-07:002021-08-31T14:50:54.625-07:00California's "Indefinite" Lockdown vs. the Free Exercise of Religion<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/sam2020.png" title="Sad Uncle Sam" border="0"><p>
<div align="center"><TABLE WIDTH="77%" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="3" BORDER="0"><TR><TD><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#FFFFF4"><TR><TD><FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" COLOR="#0C4B72" size="2"><b><font color="#B90000" size="3">Note (31 Aug 2021):</font></b>I wrote this post last year to answer some evangelical critics who insisted that our church could easily follow all government-mandated shutdown protocols without sacrificing our freedoms or compromising our worship. Almost as soon as I posted it, the attorneys handling the church's court case asked us to refrain from discussing the case online—to make sure the legal argument they were making did not get clouded by a social-media debate. So I removed the post. Now that the legal case has been settled, here is that information. Internal links will take you to documentation that proves what an impossible burden the government-mandated restrictions imposed on the church.</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE></div><BR>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#004E73"><b>(This is kind of long. Pack a lunch.)</b></font><p>
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<tr><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#000000">For the past eight weeks or longer, Sunday morning worship services at Grace Community Church have been open to anyone who wants to attend. John MacArthur and the elders made that fact as public as possible in <a href="https://www.gracechurch.org/news/posts/1988" target="_blank">a statement they issued</a> on July 24, saying they would continue to have normal worship services despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/california-shuts-bars-indoor-dining-and-most-gyms-churches/2020/07/13/d3ae1fda-c540-11ea-a825-8722004e4150_story.html" target="_blank">a July 13 edict from the California Governor ordering churches to close again</a> after a brief respite from the original quarantine.<BR>
The most common question sent to me about the elders' position is, <b>"Why not just avoid conflict with the government by downsizing your congregation, meeting outdoors, and following the simple masks-and-social-distancing guidelines?"</b> For those who have ears to hear, the elders' statement itself gives a carefully reasoned answer to that question.<BR>
I've explained <a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2020/07/i-think-id-better-think-it-out-again.html" target="_blank">how and why my own thinking changed</a> on the relative weight of Romans 13:2 vs. Acts 5:29 as those texts apply to the church's current circumstances. I've also answered a number of honest questions about the elders' statement <a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2020/08/questions-we-get-about-gcc-elders.html" target="_blank">here on the blog.</a> But there is a small group of ill-tempered cyberhecklers who endlessly Tweet and retweet variations of the same protestation: <i>"Why not just comply with the government's guidelines? You could easily do that if you were willing to have your worship services outdoors with masks and social distancing."</i> For readers who still aren't sure of our answers to that question, this blogpost is a compendium of my replies.</font></td></tr>
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/a07.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="A" align="left"> few splenetic people (the kind who put the "Twit" in Twitter) have been relentlessly posting shrill criticisms of Grace Church's decision to stay open for congregational worship in spite of the California Governor's edicts ordering church doors closed. All the criticisms we get echo the same basic claims—namely, that the shutdown hasn't resulted in any actual "persecution" of churches, just inconvenience; that the Governor's orders don't really "target" churches, because they apply to sporting events and concerts as well; and that Grace Church would be perfectly free to meet and worship as a congregation if the elders would simply enforce the experts' guidelines for social distancing and keep everyone outdoors.<p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>Some typical examples:</b></font><p>
Here's a guy, for example, who Tweets, "The Church is free 2 meet in California. <b><i>Not restricted.</i></b> Truth matters." That Tweet was accompanied by more than 75 additional Tweets from the same Twitter account in 48 hours' time, all sharply critical of Grace Church's elders' decision.<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Tweet1.png" title="A critical Tweet" border="0"><p>
Another person likewise insists that "churches <b><i>are</i></b> free to meet in California, <i><b><font size="4" color="#B90000">provided</font></b></i> they comply with social distancing rules re: masking and not singing. . . Those are <i><b>facts.</b></i>"<p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Tweet2.png" title="Another critical Tweet" border="0"><p>
There is also a persistent stream of people who want to dispute whether there's any element of <i><b>persecution</b></i> in the constraints California officials have placed on worship. <p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Tweet3.png" title="Yet another critical Tweet" border="0"><p>
More noisome foes of the elders' position have gone even further, <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet02.png" target="_blank">challenging the fundamental integrity of John MacArthur and the elders,</a> or <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet01.png" target="_blank">imputing evil motives to them</a> for wanting the church to meet. Some of our critics have seized the opportunity to vent accusations of <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet03.png" target="_blank">greed,</a> <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet04.png" target="_blank">racism,</a> <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet05.png" target="_blank">pride</a>—or <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Tweet06.png" target="_blank">whatever nasty bitterness they might have stored up in their hearts.</a><p>
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/Tweet4.png" title="One final critical Tweet" border="0"><p>
I'm not surprised that we would get criticism. But I am somewhat surprised that the most angry, ill-tempered, accusatory—even imprecatory— remarks have come from within the evangelical community.<p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b>Some preliminary comments</b></font><p>
So before I deal with the central question, let me clarify some facts the critics tend to misconstrue.<p>
<i><b>First,</b></i> the elders' statement gave a clear and simple reason why the church is continuing to meet—namely, that the State has no legitimate authority to determine what churches teach or how they worship. The document's key sentence is italicized for emphasis on page 1: <i><b>"God has not granted civic rulers authority over the doctrine, practice, or polity of the church."</b></i> Christ is the Lord of the church, and he mediates his rule in the church through duly qualified elders. Open-ended executive orders from State officials dictating how, when, or whether the church can meet for worship overstep the bounds of Caesar's authority.<p>
That is the whole argument we are making. It doesn't hinge on the question of whether the government's restrictions qualify as "persecution" or not. Our protest is not because we think there's something sacrosanct about the church building. We have <i>not</i> refused to hold services outdoors. We erected the largest tent available in the church parking lot, and it has been filled with worshipers every Sunday morning. Our refusal to limit attendance is not driven by any of the crass motives some pathologically cynical critics have ascribed to Grace's elders.<p>
<b><i>Second,</i></b> the elders of Grace Church would not flippantly or injudiciously defy a legitimate government-imposed quarantine if it were clear that a deadly pestilence posed a real and present threat to life and well-being in our community. By "legitimate," I mean a quarantine with 1) a well-defined, quantifiable objective; 2) trustworthy monitoring and honest reporting from qualified health officials; and 3) well-considered restrictions that are impartially enforced in every public gathering. In other words, every event that draws a crowd, including political protests, would have to be treated even-handedly.<p>
Not one of those conditions is being met in the current shutdown.<BR>
<ol><BR>
<li>The stated goal when the quarantine was announced in March was <a href="https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2020/07/through-the-overton-window/" target="_blank">"15 days to flatten the curve."</a> It quickly morphed into a months-long stay-at-home order. Here in California, that phase, in turn, became an "indefinite" lockdown that now threatens to keep schools, businesses, and churches closed through the Fall season and beyond. Given the early cancellation of the Rose Parade on New Year's Day, <b><i>there's little doubt our political overlords have every intention of not allowing life to return to normal for the remainder of the calendar year—if ever.</i></b><BR>
<li>The "science" behind the predictions that started the pandemic panic <a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/what-the-infamous-oxford-68-of-the-uk-has-covid-19-study-really-says-49f633339620" target="_blank">turned out to be false and absurdly fluid.</a> The model that originally motivated so many world leaders to shut down their economies and put their people under quarantine <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tilakdoshi/2020/05/14/coronavirus-and-climate-change-a-tale-of-two-hysterias/#1ad2b1c9b53b" target="_blank">was grossly wrong in virtually every prediction it made.</a> Most experts admit that <a href="https://reason.com/2020/06/04/george-floyd-protesters-coronavirus-health-officials-disease/" target="_blank">the data being reported on the spread of the virus even now is untrustworthy.</a> The majority of them signed a letter in support of the "Black Lives Matter" mass protests, saying <a href="https://reason.com/2020/06/04/george-floyd-protesters-coronavirus-health-officials-disease/" target="_blank">"we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission."</a> The nation's top infectious disease expert has <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/1585946488038/dr-fauci-admits-health-experts-lied-about-masks-at-the-beginning-of-coronavirus-pandemic" target="_blank">admitted to lying to the American public about the effectiveness of masks.</a> California's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/us/sonia-angell-ca-health-director-resigns.html" target="_blank">top public health official quit this week</a> because the computer system used to gather statistics was hopelessly faulty. <i><b>There is no rational reason to trust the fear-mongering spin that politicians and the media continue to put on coronavirus statistics.</b></i><BR>
<li>When large crowds of angry protestors are permitted free reign to gather in the streets and spawn riotous behavior (often <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Garcetti.jpg" target="_blank">with support and encouragement from the same government officials who say they intend to keep lockdown restrictions in place indefinitely</a>), <b><i>that's not a legitimate quarantine.</i></b></ol><BR>
<i><b>Third,</b></i> for context, remember that the State of California and others have consistently categorized churches as <i>non-essential</i> while keeping liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries, casinos, and abortion clinics open for business as usual. Perhaps no institution is <i><b>more</b></i> vital during a time of fear and uncertainty than a church where the gospel is preached. We wouldn't necessarily expect an increasingly secular government to recognize or celebrate that fact, but we do expect American officials to safeguard our unalienable, God-given rights to freedom of worship and assembly. They are sworn to uphold the U. S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The fact that <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/crazyTweets/Gorsuch.png" target="_blank">they have not done so</a> is perhaps the most telling sign that religious liberty in the United States is indeed being threatened.<p>
<i><b>Fourth,</b></i> I might also mention the fact that <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/10/889861014/california-will-release-up-to-8-000-prisoners-due-to-coronavirus" target="_blank">hardened felons are being released from prison</a> lest they risk being infected with COVID-19. <a href="https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/nation-world/rape-suspect-washington-post-alexandria-crime/65-13310ff6-43bf-444d-acc3-e229d7699b6b" target="_blank">Recidivism in the wake of that experiment has already exacted a costly toll.</a> It is also well known that political demonstrations have been held in various places around Southern California every day since June, and no legal pressure has been put on participants to abide by social-distancing guidelines. In fact, some of the same experts and officials who insist severe restrictions are absolutely necessary for the rest of us have <a href="https://www.kqed.org/science/1966378/no-coronavirus-spike-from-black-lives-matter-protests-experts-say" target="_blank">winked at or encouraged the protests.</a> Meanwhile, pastors holding regular worship services are routinely <a href="https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/conejo-valley/2020/08/10/ventura-county-covid-church-services-newbury-park-rob-mccoy/3339732001/" target="_blank">hectored by public officials and threatened with legal action.</a><p>
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#DD0000"><b><a name="rules" id="rules">Back</a> to the original question:</b></font><p>
Here's my reply to those who wonder why we don't simply accept the restrictions and alter our worship services accordingly in order to comply as much as possible with the quarantine restrictions.<p>
The list that follows is taken from official guidelines that have been issued for places of worship in California. You'll find those documents linked below. (If you can't find where a specific bullet point can be documented, email me or comment below, and I'll give you specifics. I didn't want to clutter this list with references.) So here is a short list of just some of the things that <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/13%20July%202020%20SHO%20Order.pdf" target="_blank">our Governor's edict</a> and the State of California's <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf" target="_blank">current guidelines</a> would require of us: <ul><BR>
<li>All "indoor operations" must close and remain closed indefinitely.<BR>
<li>Congregants must pre-register in order to come on campus. They are not permitted on campus at all except during scheduled events.<BR>
<li>Attendees must be screened for symptoms and have their temperature taken as they come onto campus.<BR>
<li>Everyone at all times must remain at least 6 feet away from anyone else who is not a household member. (That applies to the tent, the parking lot, restrooms, and the open areas of our campus.)<BR>
<li>Maximum occupancy of the tent is therefore determined by how many people can stand or sit inside the tent with a six-foot radius around each family group, with extra space allocated for aisles. We have the largest available tent that will fit in our parking lot. (The tent is 20,000 sq. ft.) At most, it can hold 350-400 people with social distancing. That's not even a tenth of our congregation.<BR>
<li>Attendees must therefore be counted as they come onto campus, and once the maximum occupancy of the tent is reached (400 people), anyone else who comes must be turned away.<BR>
<li>Every other parking space must be closed in order to maintain social distancing even in the parking lots.<BR>
<li>There must be marked, designated pathways from the parking lots to the tent. Staff members must be positioned along those pathways to remind people to maintain social distancing and stay masked at all times.<BR>
<li>Everyone who attends must wear a mask at all times, and <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/2weeks.htm" target="_blank">anyone who comes within six feet of a maskless non-household member should self-quarantine for two weeks.</a><BR>
<li>Children are required to stay with their parents at all times and not intrude on the six-foot radius of non-household members. <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf" target="_blank">"Children should remain in the care of those in their household unit and not interact with children of other parties at any time while visiting facilities. [The church must] close play areas and discontinue activities and services for children where physical distancing of at least six feet cannot be maintained."</a><BR>
<li>Restrooms must be guarded by a monitor—a staff member tasked with making sure the six-foot rule isn't violated and that everyone who enters stays masked. (If those standards are strictly followed, most of our restrooms will accommodate only one person at a time.)<BR>
<li>Tape must be laid out on the ground outside the restroom to indicate where people in the queue should stand in order to maintain social distancing.<BR>
<li>Congregants should be encouraged to use the restroom <i>during the service</i> to minimize the rush before and after the service.<BR>
<li>Hand sanitizer must be provided at places around the campus. (We do that already.) In addition, all surfaces in high traffic areas must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. That includes "lobbies, halls, chapels, meeting rooms, offices, libraries, and study areas and areas of ingress and egress including stairways, stairwells, handrails, and elevator controls. . . . [also] doorknobs, toilets, handwashing facilities, pulpits and podiums, donation boxes or plates, altars, and pews and seating areas."<BR>
<li>Hymnbooks, seat cushions, offering plates, communion trays, and any other shared items are not to be used at all.<BR>
<li>If there is more than one service, disposable seat covers must be provided and changed between services.<BR>
<li>Signs must be posted at all entrances reminding people to wear masks, maintain social distancing, and go home if they are sick. Additional signs must be posted around the campus forbidding hugs and handshakes. And still more signs must be placed in the restrooms reminding people to wash their hands frequently and with soap—for at least 20 seconds each time.<BR>
<li>A list of all rules governing behavior for attendees must be posted on social media so that people can be informed of these restrictions before they come for worship.<BR>
<li>Church services must be "shortened to limit time spent at the site." (The guidelines aren't specific about the amount of time that must be shaved from our services.)<BR>
<li>The entire campus must be closed to the public when the service ends.<BR>
<li>If three people from the church test positive for COVID-19, church staff must report that to the Department of Health. The State will then send a representative to come and give us additional instructions on how to respond.</ul><BR>
<p>
To that guy who Tweeted that churches in California are <b><i>"free 2 meet . . . Not Restricted"</i></b>—and then had the chutzpah to add, "Truth matters," my answer is that I don't believe truth really matters very much at all to someone who is as militantly determined as he is to perpetuate that false narrative. <table WIDTH="225" align="right" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0">
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<tr><td><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#004E73">To that guy who Tweeted that churches in California are <b><i>"free 2 meet . . . Not Restricted"</i></b>—and then had the chutzpah to add, "Truth matters," my answer is that I don't believe truth really matters very much at all to someone who is as militantly determined as he is to perpetuate that false narrative.</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
To those who have had questions of conscience regarding the position our church has taken, I hope this information is helpful.<p>
Professing Christians who bow to tyranny under these circumstances are setting a bad precedent. It will be very hard for them to justify the position the Apostles took in Acts 5:29 when they finally realize that is what they need to do.<p>
And finally, for anyone seeking my sources, here are some of the documents issued by various government agencies listing restrictions for places of worship in California: <ul><BR>
<li>From the California Department of Public Health, Health and Human Services Agency: <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/13%20July%202020%20SHO%20Order.pdf" target="_blank">"Statewide Public Health Officer Order," July 13, 2020.</a> This was Governor Newsom's edict renewing and tightening the restrictions of his stay-at-home order after Californians had enjoyed a few days' respite from the original quarantine.<BR>
<li><a href="http://romans45.org/misc/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf" target="_blank">"COVID-19 INDUSTRY GUIDANCE: Places of Worship and Providers of Religious Services and Cultural Ceremonies"</a>—from the California Department of Public Health.<BR>
<li><a href="http://romans45.org/misc/COVID-FAQ.pdf" target="_blank">COVID-19 FAQ</a>—from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.<BR>
<li><a href="http://romans45.org/misc/Appendix%20F.pdf" target="_blank">"Protocol for Places of Worship: Appendix F"</a>—from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.<BR>
</ul><p>
No end to these draconian restrictions is anywhere in sight. The Governor says, <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/13%20July%202020%20SHO%20Order.pdf" target="_blank">"These closures shall remain in effect until I determine it is appropriate to modify the order."</a><p>
We answer: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge" (Acts 4:19). God's Word says, "Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).<p>
"We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).<p>
<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A> <hr style="color:#aa0000;"><BR>Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-12380925476115498242020-08-04T19:22:00.001-07:002020-08-04T19:22:12.333-07:00Questions we get about the GCC Elders' Statement<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson (and friends)</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/faq.png" title="FAQ" border="0"><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/s06.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">ome friends and I collected common questions that have been raised regarding the recent statement from John MacArthur and the Elders of Grace Community Church, titled <a href="https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B200723">"Christ, Not Caesar, Is Head of the Church."</a> Here's our FAQ in its current form:<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">1.Why did you consent to the original government order, citing Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2?</font></b><br />
The elders of Grace Church decided to follow the recommended procedures set forth in the original government order, not because we believed the state has a right to tell churches when, whether, or how to worship. To be clear, we believe that the original orders were just as much an illegitimate intrusion of state authority into ecclesiastical matters as we believe it is now. However, because we could not possibly have known the true severity of the virus, and because we care about people as our Lord did, we believe guarding public health against serious contagions is a rightful function of Christians as well as civil government. Therefore, we voluntarily followed the initial recommendations of our government. It is, of course, legitimate for Christians to abstain from the assembly of saints <I>temporarily</I> in the face of illness or an imminent threat to public health.<br />
When the devastating lockdown began, it was supposed to be a short-term stopgap measure, with the goal to "flatten the curve"—meaning they wanted to slow the rate of infection to ensure that hospitals weren't overwhelmed. And there were horrific projections of death. In light of those factors, our pastors supported the measures by observing the guidelines that were issued for churches.<br />
But we did not yield our spiritual authority to the secular government. We said from the very start that our voluntary compliance was subject to change if the restrictions dragged on beyond the stated goal, or politicians unduly intruded into church affairs, or if health officials added restrictions that would to attempt to undermine the church's mission. We made every decision with our own burden of responsibility in mind. We simply took the early opportunity to support the concerns of health officials and accommodate the same concerns among our church members, out of a desire to act in an abundance of care and reasonableness (Philippians 4:5).<br />
But we are now more than twenty weeks into the unrelieved restrictions. It is apparent that those original projections of death were wrong and the virus is nowhere near as dangerous as originally feared. Still, roughly forty percent of the year has passed with our church essentially unable to gather in a normal way. Pastors' ability to shepherd their flocks has been severely curtailed. The unity and influence of the church has been threatened. Opportunities for believers to serve and minister to one another have been missed. And the suffering of Christians who are troubled, fearful, distressed, infirm, or otherwise in urgent need of fellowship and encouragement has been magnified beyond anything that could reasonably be considered just or necessary. Major public events that were planned for 2021 are already being canceled, signaling that officials are preparing to keep restrictions in place into next year and beyond. That forces churches to choose between the clear command of our Lord and the government officials. Therefore, following the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, we gladly choose to obey Him.<br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/ps18.png" title="Gentlemen, sharpen your pencils." border="0"><br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">2.Are you saying that pastors who choose to follow the government guidelines are thereby guilty of abdicating their responsibility before the Lord and violating the God-ordained spheres of authority?</font></b><br />
To be clear, we're not trying to tie faithfulness to a particular evaluation of the severity of the virus or the best way to take precautions in response. For many churches, elders will independently conclude that the recommended regulations are the best course for the present time. Our point is that <I>these decisions are the church's call to make, not the state's.</I><br />
How elders make their decisions on whether and how to meet is a Christian liberty issue, and not every faithful congregation will make those decisions exactly as we have. Given the size, health, age, and location of their congregation, as well as how the virus has affected their own community, some pastors and elders may decide to suspend fellowship for a bit longer. Our statement was not intended to target faithful pastors and elders striving to exercise their own independent discretion and navigate their own congregation's needs. Our desire was simply to equip and empower such faithful men—not cause them trouble or bind their consciences to choices we are making.<br />
With that said, it is not a Christian liberty issue for elders to farm out to the state their God-given authority to make such decisions. That <I>is</I> abdication. Pastors and elders who allow the government to dictate the size of their gatherings—or whether they can meet at all—give authority to the government that God has given only to Christ as the head of the church. If church leaders have ceded Christ's authority to the government, which God never gave nor intended government to have, it is our prayer that they would repent of that and reaffirm that Christ and not Caesar is the head of the church. The statement calls other faithful congregations to join us in recognizing that God has committed to elders the authority and responsibility to make these decisions, and they should not forfeit to the state that authority and responsibility in contradiction to God's design.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">3.Are the spheres of church and state as distinct as the statement implies? Doesn't the church submit to government fire codes and zoning restrictions? <img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/dude.png" title="" align="right">If so, why not likewise acquiesce to these public health restrictions?</font></b><br />
While it is true that the church is subject to fire codes and zoning restrictions, those are routine civil, not spiritual, matters, so the state exercises legitimate authority enforcing them. But the government's authority in civil matters associated with the church does not give it authority in spiritual matters, which are the lifeblood of the church. Attendance caps, singing bans, and distancing requirements (especially those that are established arbitrarily and by executive fiat) have the effect of suppressing or eliminating the congregational worship that is an essential element of church life. Therefore such orders fall outside the jurisdiction of civil authorities.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">4.Why did you ask for signatures on this statement?</font></b><br />
We wanted to find a way for other pastors and church leaders who agreed with our perspective—but who were perhaps apprehensive about reopening—to have a way to express their support and solidarity.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">5.Why haven't the elders of Grace Church enforced social-distancing rules and the wearing of masks?</font></b><br />
The medical community has widespread and dogmatic disagreement on the effectiveness of both of these restrictions. We do not believe it is within the elders' purview or responsibility to resolve that disagreement or act as enforcers of such a hotly debated policy dispute—especially when government authorities themselves have declined to enforce those rules during countless mass demonstrations with crowds much larger than any of our worship services have ever drawn. Instead, we leave it to each individual to be "fully convinced in his own mind" whether or not to follow these guidelines. We gladly welcome anyone to Grace Community Church and leave those choices to each individual, in the spirit of Romans 14.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72"><br />
6.What if officials intervene in our services or force us to comply?</font></b><br />
The threat of even the most severe consequences from government has never stopped faithful people from submitting to the authority of God's Word. And we know that any opposition we receive will be within the will of our Lord, and for the good of His church. We simply desire to gather peacefully and reverently in worship of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:2), free from the prohibitions of the state. We also understand how desperately the world needs the church, because we are (in Jesus' words) "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14)—an absolutely indispensible influence for truth and righteousness in society. Of all people, we understand how desperately the world needs the Gospel, a spiritual priority far more important than any physical threats which can kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. If the governing authorities feel the need to assail us for that, we will trust the Lord, rejoice, and glorify God for the privilege of suffering in the name of Christ (1 Peter 4:12þ16; cf. Philippians 1:27þ30).<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">7.Is Grace Church open for anyone to attend?</font></b><br />
Yes. Please feel free to join us for worship.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">8.Must we meet in the tent, or will the worship center be open?</font></b><br />
We trust the members of our congregation to be mature adults, so they and their families are welcome to sit wherever they feel comfortable. We have ample outdoor seating available, and have uniformly observed that congregants have been respectful of those wearing masks and/or seeking to social distance.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">9.What if I don't feel comfortable returning?</font></b><br />
We understand that we are in unprecedented times, and that the information from governing authorities and health officials changes each day. If you are not comfortable returning to worship, please feel free to take advantage of the live stream and other alternatives. We love you, we miss you, and we are eager to welcome you back when you are able to join us (1 Pet 1:22), but we recognize there are some of our members for whom this is the right decision—especially if you are sick or experiencing symptoms of the virus, are at high risk of complications due to age or other health conditions, or have regular contact at home with someone who is at high risk.<br />
While you're away, please continue to reach out to your fellowship group pastors, Bible study shepherds, and other fellow members. We are eager to learn of and meet your needs.<br />
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<b><font size="4" color="#0C4B72">10.When will fellowship groups, children's ministry, the nursery, and student ministries resume?</font></b><br />
As soon as we can work out the logistics.<br />
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<A HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><IMG SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-69127264108119458252020-08-03T13:00:00.002-07:002020-08-04T21:59:37.636-07:00Not Forsaking the Assembling of Ourselves Together<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="4" color="#FF0000"><b>. . . and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.</b></font><br />
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/tent.jpg" title="GCC 2 Aug 2020" border="0"><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/g10.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">avin Ortlund has written <a href="https://gavinortlund.com/2020/08/02/should-churches-in-california-defy-government-restrictions-a-response-to-john-macarthur/">a blogpost titled "Should Churches in California Defy Government Restrictions? A Response to John MacArthur."</a> Time won't permit me to go through his entire post, but I want to clarify one point that Ortlund gets wrong, because it's a crucial one, and I've seen it repeated several times on Twitter. (I've even had a couple of angry emails from people who think John MacArthur said what Ortlund claims he said.) Since it's the starting point of Ortlund's blogpost, much of what he writes in the piece hinges on his misunderstanding of a partial quote he has pulled from MacArthur.<br />
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Ortlund writes, for example, <b>"To claim that those <i>complying with the government restrictions</i> 'don't know what a church is and . . . don't shepherd their people' is both unhelpful and unkind"</b> (italics added). MacArthur made no such blanket statement, but Ortlund seems to believe that's what he <i>meant,</i> and Ortlund feels personally targeted by it.<br />
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Here's what John MacArthur <i>did</i> say, with a little bit of context:<br />
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<blockquote><i>Churches are shutting down. Large churches are shutting down <i><b>until</b></i> (they say) </I><b>January.</b><i> I don't have any way to understand that—other than they don't know what a church is and they don't shepherd their people. But that's sad. And you have a lot of people in Christianity who seem to be significant leaders who aren't giving any strength and courage to the church. They're not standing up and rising up and calling on Christians to be the church in the world.<br />
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—John MacArthur (2 August 2020)</i></blockquote><br />
As the context plainly shows, Pastor MacArthur was talking about pastors who are doing what Andy Stanley and JD Greear have done—namely, they have stopped gathering as a church and made small home groups a long-term substitute for congregational worship. <i><b>And they say they have no intention of re-gathering the whole flock until sometime in 2021.</b></i><br />
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MacArthur's remark was not about masks and social distancing. It wasn't aimed at churches that have continued to gather the flock by moving their services outdoors or off site. And let's be clear: That would exclude Gavin Ortlund from MacArthur's censure. In his blogpost, Ortlund himself says, "Our church has chosen to meet outdoors." <i>Wonderful. He is to be commended for that.</i> But would Pastor Ortlund not actually agree that it would reflect an unbiblical notion of what the church should be if he had given up on the duty spelled out in Hebrews 10:25—which (by the way) Ortlund himself lists <i>first</i> in his list of "four biblical values that should inform our decision-making in this situation"?<br />
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No one who is making a good-faith effort not to forsake the regular assembly has any cause to feel insulted by John MacArthur's comment. I'm convinced that no one who is listening carefully to what Pastor MacArthur is saying (and what he has said—repeatedly—about Grace Church's response to the indefinite extension of the quarantine in California) has any cause to feel targeted—<i><b>unless they are arguing that long-term closure of churches is the right response to the pandemic.</b></i><br />
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I admit, it did surprise me last week when Jonathan Leeman, Editorial Director of the 9Marks ministry, indicated <a href="https://www.9marks.org/article/a-time-for-civil-disobedience-a-response-to-john-macarthur/">he appreciated JD Greear's approach,</a> implying that canceling congregational worship for the rest of the year is a viable (perhaps even better) answer to the quarantine than John MacArthur's decision simply to open the doors of the church and allow the congregation to come. Leeman himself had previously written an excellent article, <a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-church-gathered/">"The Church Gathered,"</a> defending the priority of the congregational assembly.<br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/20boot.jpg" title="Boot to the head." align="right">In the discussions currently taking place in various Internet forums, it seems there is no shortage of church leaders who, faced with the pragmatic difficulties of the recent pandemic, have adopted the view that it's just fine for a pastor to make plans not to gather the flock at all for the better part of a year. Those who think that way <i>ought</i> to feel the sting of John MacArthur's rebuke. The prevalence of such thinking among evangelicals is a disturbing reality, and one that shouldn't be glossed over or downplayed just because someone's feelings might accidentally get hurt.<br />
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MacArthur was absolutely right in what he said. Those who think closing churches for the remainder of the calendar year is a good plan frankly <i><b>don't</b></i> have a biblical understanding of what the church is to be. The fact that so many in current positions of church leadership don't see that sets up a scary scenario for the future of the evangelical movement.<br />
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<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-41509133027590981232020-07-24T15:49:00.001-07:002020-07-25T08:41:38.802-07:00I think I'd Better Think It Out Again<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/tsa.jpg" title="" border="0"><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/g06.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">ot this question today in more than one Tweet (regarding <a href="https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B200723">the Grace Church elders' statement "Christ, Not Caesar, Is Head of the Church"),</a> so I'll answer it here:<br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/twq.jpg" alt="Twitter Question" width="374" border="0"><br />
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Thanks for the question. I'll answer candidly. Speaking for myself alone, I'll acknowledge that yes, my thinking on the question of the COVID-19 quarantine and Romans 13 has changed somewhat—or at least been refined, illuminated, qualified, and enriched. I've been forced by circumstances to rethink and amplify my answers carefully because of the government's relentless attempts to keep churches closed despite the fact that months have passed without the apocalyptic quotas of death and disease that were originally predicted. My original concern about the virus was clearly overblown. At the time, I needed to be cautious, because we could not possibly know how serious the threat really was. My concern <i><b>now</b></i> is for people whose need for fellowship and pastoral care is going unmet. I do have firsthand knowledge of how critical <i>this</I> emergency is.<br />
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In the weeks since March several things happened that affect my perspective. For one thing, the California Governor's edicts have become increasingly onerous.<br />
<ol><li>He has told churches they should not have congregational singing.<br />
<li>He wants to limit church attendance to 100 (even in a massive 3,000-seat auditorium).<br />
<li>He says churches are "nonessential" while insisting that marijuana dispensaries, liquor stores, and casinos are vital businesses that must be kept open.<br />
<li>Although he briefly showed signs of backing off the policy of church closures, he then immediately doubled down to try to force the mandatory re-closure of all places of worship <i>"indefinitely"</I> (even though there's no evidence churches have been hotspots for passing the virus).<br />
<li>Meanwhile, government officials have not only permitted but actively encouraged mass demonstrations (including riots) for political causes.</ol>With all of that going on, I was forced to rethink my position on Romans 13. The elders of our church also realized the need for us to answer in greater detail the question of who has the authority to govern the doctrine, worship, and polity of the church. <a href="https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B200723">The elders' statement</a> that was affirmed on July 23 and made public the following day is the result. It's a clarification and qualification of everything we have previously said about the duty imposed on us by Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. <i>Without denying that duty,</I> we're endeavoring to explain biblically why those passages <i>don't</i> call for blind, automatic acquiescence to government overreach into church business.<p>It is of course still the case that in a real and impending health crisis, the elders and pastors of a church may wisely decide to follow the recommendations of health officials with regard to protecting against dangerous contagions. That's precisely what we did at the start of the quarantine. Circumstances have changed, however, and we have adapted (and explained) our response accordingly.<p>An observant person who has been following me might have noticed subtle shifts in my position since the quarantine began. I knew from the start that things might change if politicians began to use the health crisis in an opportunistic way. <a href="https://teampyro.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-is-christians-duty-to-unjust.html">When explaining our position on Romans 13 several weeks ago,</a> I wrote this: <blockquote>How long until the government-ordered quarantine is undeniably excessive, or we conclude that it's targeted persecution against our worship and therefore an illegal attempt to make us disobey Hebrews 10:25? That time may come, and when it does, we may have to implement the principle of Acts 5:29. The question of whether we have <i>already</I> passed that point is another subjective issue . . . .</blockquote>But now I don't see it as altogether "subjective." In our congregation, by every metric I can conceive of, the amount of hardship, suffering, death, and disaster inflicted by the quarantine far exceeds whatever grief has been caused by the virus. It is time—<i>past</i> time—to get the church back together.<p>I hope that's helpful. Again, thanks for raising the question. You'll find John MacArthur's reply to your question has been added at the bottom of <a href="https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B200723">the statement at the Grace to You blog.</a><p><a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A> <hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-70411028018283473472020-07-10T11:15:00.001-07:002020-07-27T14:57:13.060-07:00My thoughts about Congregational Worship, Social Distancing, Submission to Caesar, and Obedience to God<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/lagnsot.jpg" title="Like a good neighbor, stay over there." border="0"><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/i14.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left"> do of course, wholeheartedly affirm the principles of Romans 13:1-7 ("be in subjection to the governing authorities") and 1 Peter 2:13-17 ("Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution")—while recognizing also that those commands are limited by the principle of Acts 5:29 ("We must obey God rather than men").<br />
<br />
<table WIDTH="225" align="right" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#F0F8FF"><tr><td><font FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="3" COLOR="0C4B72">If you believe the threat to public health is real and deadly, you'll probably be inclined to submit to all the governor's orders. If you suspect politicians are milking the entire thing and exaggerating the threat for partisan purposes, you're more likely to conclude that the duty of Hebrews 10:25 outweighs any obligation to kowtow to the governor's latest whim.</FONT></TD></TR>
</TABLE></TD></TR>
</TABLE>Circumstances surrounding the current quarantine, riots, and mass political demonstrations have greatly blurred the question of whether Acts 5:29 applies in this case. Good, Bible-believing Christians have landed on both sides of the question. If you believe the threat to public health is real and deadly, you'll probably be inclined to submit to all the governor's orders. If you suspect politicians are milking the entire thing and exaggerating the threat for partisan purposes, you're more likely to conclude that the duty of Hebrews 10:25 outweighs any obligation to kowtow to the governor's latest whim.<br />
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During more than 16 weeks of quarantine (with the death toll just a sparse fraction of what experts originally predicted) the elders and staff of Grace Community Church observed every order related to the quarantine. But the rules change almost daily and are being applied unfairly. Statistically, people are far more likely to get the virus in a gym or a bar than in a worship service. <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/out-of-3-million-coronavirus-cases-only-650-are-linked-to-churches.html">(Of 3+ million cases in the US since March, only 650 have been traceable to churches.)</a> Yet bars, gyms, gambling casinos, and even massage parlors have been given freedoms that are withheld from churches. In fact, as these and other businesses are finally being permitted to reopen, restrictions targeting churches are becoming even more onerous. <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article243973397.html">The California Governor has gone so far as to tell churches they must cease all congregational singing.</a><br />
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<table WIDTH="400" BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"><tr><td><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/gnncotc.jpg" ALT="Governor Newsom: Not clear on the concept. It's supposed to be a mask, not a chin strap." BORDER="0"><br />
<font FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" color="#B90000" SIZE="2"><b>Governor Newsom: Unclear on the Concept.</b><br />
(It's supposed to be a mask, not a chin strap.)</FONT></TD></TR>
</TABLE><p><br />
Our elders and security team cannot in good conscience become enforcers of rules that 1) we believe unfairly target the church, and 2) the government itself has declined to enforce. Owing to the arbitrary, capricious way these regulations are made and changed, combined with the fact that authorities did nothing (and are doing nothing) to enforce the masks-and-social-distancing rules on political demonstrators who gather regularly in downtown L. A. in crowds of thousands, it seems only right to leave the question of how far to go in observing social-distancing recommendations up to each individual. <table WIDTH="225" align="right" BGCOLOR="#AA0000" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="2" BORDER="0"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#F0F8FF"><tr><td><font FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000"><font size="3" color="#0C4B72"><b>The degree to which we permit masks and social-distancing recommendations to impinge on our worship in the congregational context ought to be seen as a matter of conscience. "Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5).</b></FONT></FONT></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>In other words, the degree to which we permit masks and social-distancing recommendations to impinge on our worship in the congregational context ought to be seen as a matter of conscience. "Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). And don't be quick to condemn believers who hold a different opinion, no matter which side of the issue you have come down on.<br />
<br />
Grace Church's elders have made it possible for people with scrupulous consciences to obey every government-issued regulation to the letter. The church provides masks and hand cleanser at stations around campus, and there are ample outdoor seating spaces where people can hear the sermon, participate in the singing, and still practice careful social distancing if they are bound by conscience to do so.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, for those (like me) who are not fearful of exposure to the virus, or those who are deeply skeptical of the motives behind this level of government intrusion, they can likewise do what their conscience dictates and gather in the auditorium for worship as usual—with or without masks. If government officials choose to single those people out and enforce rules they aren't enforcing at political demonstrations, let them do so. I for one am willing to suffer the consequences if it comes to that.<br />
<br />
<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-90889506230371725732020-06-13T17:53:00.001-07:002020-06-15T09:52:50.094-07:00Wokeism Is a Hateful Religion<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/getwoke2.jpg" title="Woke acolytes" border="0"><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>BTW, "Get Woke or get out" is no way to promote Christian unity.</i></blockquote><br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/j03.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="J" align="left">ohn McWhorter, professor of linguistics, comparative religion, music history, and Americana at Columbia University has been pointing out (since at least 2015) that <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion" target="_blank">Woke anti-racism is a <b><i>religion.</i></b></a> McWhorter says, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/why-third-wave-anti-racism-dead-end/578764/" target="_blank">"When someone attests to his white privilege with his hand up in the air, palm outward . . . the resemblance to testifying in church need not surprise. Here, the agnostic or atheist American who sees fundamentalists and Mormons as quaint reveals himself as, of all things, a parishioner."</a><br />
<br />
Wokeism satiates the religious cravings of the human spirit for people who have rejected conventional expressions of theistic worship. It has therefore become the current orthodoxy in the academic world and the official religion of secular society.<br />
<br />
It has also become a kind of plaything for evangelicals who crave the world's admiration and approval—and who don't mind dabbling in syncretism. This is a frivolous and dangerous experiment, however, because no one who holds any real evangelical convictions can ever be <i>truly</i> Woke. Too many of Wokeism's cardinal tenets flatly contradict biblical principles. The <i>truly</i> Woke are militantly pro-abortion; devoted to the LGBTQAFLCIO agenda, rabid socialists, and high-handed secularists. Pure Wokeism is openly hostile to any whiff of evangelicalism.<br />
<br />
<table border="4" cellpadding="12" bordercolor="#910000" bgcolor="#FBFBF0"><tr><td><font FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" SIZE="4" COLOR="#004364">Wokeism has become a kind of plaything for evangelicals who crave the world's admiration and approval—and who don't mind dabbling in syncretism.</FONT></TD></TR>
</TABLE><p><br />
Plus, Woke religion has a very insular creed. Soul liberty is antithetical to their fundamental convictions. They have a deep and abiding hatred for every worldview, idea, or person that challenges any point of their authorized credo. <a href="https://quillette.com/2019/02/04/liberal-orthodoxy-and-the-new-heresy/" target="_blank">Indeed, to challenge Wokeism on any point or at any level whatsoever is deemed damnable heresy.</a> Wokeism ironically fosters this extreme illiberality in the name of "tolerance and diversity."<br />
<br />
Wokeism is <a href="https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/woke-gone-wild-review-tyranny-of-virtue-identity-academy-hunt-for-political-heresies/" target="_blank">as narrow-minded as any brand of fundamentalism</a>—and <a href="https://spectator.us/slayed-queens-girlboss-dethroned/" target="_blank">getting more narrow every day.</a> Every article of faith must be formally affirmed and faithfully adhered to. A catalogue of insider jargon signals other adherents that you too are Woke. But there are forbidden words that must be carefully avoided on pain of excommunication. And the list of taboo expressions is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/la-times-executive-editor-says-the-word-looting-is-racist" target="_blank">constantly being revised and expanded,</a> so you must stay conversant with the approved vocabulary or risk being publicly shamed and shunned.<br />
<br />
In addition to the <a href="https://archives.frontpagemag.com/fpm/scripps-most-racist-college-america-matthew-vadum/" target="_blank">strict cardinal dogmas,</a> Wokeism has its own <a href="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/rituals.jpg" target="_blank">sacraments and rituals,</a> high priests, saints, and <a href="http://www.sjsacademy.com/say-their-names.html" target="_blank">martyrs</a>—even <a href="https://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/25-woke-songs-beyonce-childish-gambino/">a kind of hymnology.</a> The flavor of Woke rhetoric is homiletical rather than scholarly; it's a sermonic appeal to deep emotions, utilizing personal testimony and a carefully-crafted narrative (the Woke mythology) rather than statistics.<br />
<br />
It's an odd religion—teaching people to nurse grudges, cast blame, cultivate ill will against whole people groups, and deepen that personal sense of resentment. But it is nonetheless fully religious in character, for all the reasons noted.<br />
<br />
The push to spread Woke doctrines therefore has all the characteristics of a religious campaign—a crusade to win converts by any means possible. Conversion conveys a moral standing that non-converts (the uncooperative, unwashed, unWoke) don't have. It's a limited veneer of virtue that offers a provisional reprieve—nothing like full forgiveness. (More on that later.) But it entitles the penitent to join the Woke in heaping full-throated condemnation on the <i>un</i>Woke.<br />
<br />
To a devotee of Wokeness, being <i>un</I>Woke is tantamount to being a rank heathen or an evil infidel. They see Wokeness not merely as a matter of politics; it is the <i><b>only</b></i> righteous worldview, and it <i><b>must</b></i> be embraced with pure religious fervor. Indeed, Woke anti-racism has quite literally become a point of religious doctrine so important that <i>even in the minds of the kinda-Woke evangelicals</i> it has upstaged and eclipsed abortion as the number one moral crisis in America.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/getwoke.png" title="Get Woke, Fools!" border="0"><br />
<br />
<b><i>Wokeism is a nasty religious cult.</i></b> Its votaries routinely declare people guilty for the sins of others, elicit rote confessions, and then refuse to offer absolution. They define sin mainly (if not entirely) as a horizontal offense—but not necessarily even a <i>personal</i> offense. You are guilty mainly for what your ancestors may have done. And even if your ancestors were themselves poor subsistence farmers who never oppressed anyone, if other members of your ethnic group did, you are made to bear the guilt for that. Guilt is therefore a corporate responsibility, apportioned differently to different ethnicities.<br />
<br />
If you don't have the right kind of victim status or skin color, it would be utterly foolish for you even to <i>think</i> of asking for forgiveness. Still, you <i>must</I> confess the guilt you bear by <a href="https://twitter.com/bethmoorelpm/status/1049278827376123904?lang=en" target="_blank">kneeling and reciting the prescribed confession.</a> And if you don't do this, your refusal to genuflect on command will mark you as a fascist. The fact that you dissent from the received opinion intensifies the criminality you inherited when you were born into the wrong ethnic group. Preachers of the Woke doctrines will do everything they can to make sure you are shunned by polite society. Apologize publicly and you will merely be mocked <a href="https://spectator.org/drew-brees-involuntarily-and-interminably-catechized-by-the-church-of-the-left/" target="_blank">(and subjected to endless re-indoctrination).</a> But if you remain stubbornly <i><b>un</b></I>Woke, those who are Woke will scold and harass you publicly, relentlessly, trying to get you fired from your job.<br />
<br />
Or worse.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/2020riot.png" title="Retribution, not reconciliation" border="0"><br />
<br />
On the other hand, if you are a cop, a civic leader, or a Christian, kneeling and accepting the Woke credo will do nothing to make you any less worthy of public contempt and censure.<br />
<br />
After all, this is a religion that has no doctrine of atonement, no concept of forgiveness, and no possibility of real redemption. The recent demonstrations and riots made clear that no matter how frequently they use the word, <a href="https://theappeal.org/minneapolis-city-council-members-announce-intent-to-disband-the-police-department-invest-in-proven-community-led-public-safety/"><i>reconciliation</i> is not the real goal of Wokeism.</a><br />
<br />
In short, the Woke worldview is impossible to blend with gospel truth—and its inevitable drift will take today's wanna-be-Woke evangelicals exactly where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauschenbusch">the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch</a> took the mainline denominations in the twentieth century: into rank theological liberalism and unbelief.<br />
<br />
The notion that the gospel can be improved by blending it with Wokeism is sheer folly anyway. The Woke worldview is rooted in secularism—and arguably, Marxism. Its central claims and distinctive jargon are taken not from Scripture but from secular political discourse. It is a canon of doctrine deliberately designed to provoke conflict, prolong resentment, and foster bitterness between different ethnicities. It encourages people to be offended by things that never actually happened to them—while blaming others for sins they did not actually commit. It doles out guilt and shame rather than grace and redemption. Though it is promoted by people who say they oppose ethnic strife, it is a blatantly racist worldview, condemning entire ethnic groups for sins that were committed generations ago by people long dead.<br />
<br />
All of that hits at the heart of the gospel message of forgiveness, grace, oneness in Christ, and unity in the church. It is as anti-Christian as every other cult or false religion, and faithful followers of Christ <i><b>should</b></i> recognize that.<br />
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<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-47830880658214000562020-05-25T10:14:00.001-07:002020-05-27T18:39:04.645-07:00What Is a Christian's Duty to Unjust Government?<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/plaguedoc.jpg" title="Masks Required. No Exceptions" border="0"><br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/t07.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="T" align="left">his guy, angry that Grace Community Church yielded to the 9th Circuit Court's ruling banning church meetings in California this weekend, Tweets at me: <i>"An unjust law need not be followed."</i><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/ThisGuy.png" title="" border="0"><br />
<br />
I'm appalled at how many people who profess to believe Scripture echo that sentiment. Nero was emperor when Paul wrote Romans 13:1-7: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. . . ." First Peter 2:13 was written to people suffering unjustly. ("Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him...")<br />
<br />
Peter goes on to say: "Be subject . . . also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly" (vv. 18-19). Indeed, "to this [unjust suffering] you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps." (v. 21). When someone in authority over us treats us unjustly, the example we are to follow was set for us by Christ, who simply "continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly" (v. 23).<br />
<br />
The <i><b>only</b></i> exception to this principle is when the one in authority instructs us to sin. <i><b>Then</b></i> "we must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).<br />
<br />
So does a government-mandated quarantine ask us to violate Hebrews 10:25 ("not neglecting to meet together"), or is the quarantine in keeping with the principle of Leviticus 13-14, where quarantines are expressly mandated?<br />
<br />
The answer to that question may vary according to where we live. Quarantining people in the midst of a pandemic <i><b>is</b></i> a legitimate prerogative of government. How long the quarantine should last and who should be exempted are questions that don't have clear, fixed answers. The severity and duration of the pandemic determines what's reasonable or not. We may or may not agree with <i><b>how</b></i> the quarantine is being implemented <b>(I certainly do not),</b> but we have a clear duty to submit unless we are being asked to sin.<br />
<br />
How long until the government-ordered quarantine is undeniably excessive, or we conclude that it's targeted persecution against our worship and therefore an illegal attempt to make us disobey Hebrews 10:25? That time may come, and when it does, we may have to implement the principle of Acts 5:29. The question of whether we have <i>already</i> passed that point is another subjective issue, but it's clear that among believers—in the church itself—there is not yet consensus on whether the quarantine has gone too far.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, if you hang out on Twitter or Facebook, you may have noticed that there are countless people in the evangelical community who refuse to regard any of the above questions as matters of conscience. They believe the answers are perfectly obvious. They are eager to tell you what <i><b>you and your church</b></i> ought to be doing. They are locked and loaded with vituperation for anyone who sees matters differently. Two camps of them have squared off against each other—hordes of angry Karens at opposite extremes, all of whom disagree with the position I've outlined above. Some of them are scolding us for thinking Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 actually apply in today's circumstances. The others are berating us for wanting to resume public worship ASAP.<br />
<br />
Sorry, but in the words of Martin Luther, here I stand. I can do no other. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help us.<br />
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<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-23022430128574776472020-04-13T11:03:00.001-07:002020-04-13T11:13:08.682-07:00Virtual Communion?<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#FF0000">by Phil Johnson</font><br />
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<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/guy.png" title="Virtual Communion" border="0"><br />
<br />
<img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/alphabet/o27.gif" hspace="1" border="0" alt="" align="left">ne of the questions prompted by the quarantine is about "virtual communion." After all, in lieu of regular worship services, we are listening online every Sunday while our pastor preaches from the pulpit of the church. So why not have a kind of virtual communion service, where we all take the elements simultaneously in the privacy of our homes?<br />
<br />
Five times in Paul's instructions regarding the Lord's Table, he uses the phrase "when you come together as a church" or its equivalent (1 Corinthians 11:17, 18, 20, 33, 34). In verse 34 he expressly contrasts "eat[ing] at home" with the act of eating the bread and drinking the cup as a church body "when you come together." Clearly, the communion ordinance is supposed to be shared by the gathered assembly of the church <i><b>collectively,</b></I> not taken by individuals in solitude. It is not a private sacrament.<br />
<br />
We <i><b>might</b></I> sometimes serve communion with a small group of 5-10 church members gathering at the bedside of someone who is homebound or permanently confined to a nursing home or long-term health-care facilities. But there's a significant difference in a case like that—because you have a subset of the church in genuine communion together, contrasted with isolated people in quarantine who serve themselves (which destroys the symbolism of the Supper).<br />
<br />
I agree that extraordinary times do sometimes call for extraordinary measures, and I understand the desire to be flexible in a time of emergency, so although I don't approve and wouldn't participate, I wouldn't <i>necessarily</I> inveigh publicly against a church that offered a "virtual communion service." There may be some well-meaning church leaders who sincerely believe some kind of makeshift online Eucharistic ceremony (sans any actual <i><b>communion</b></I> among the saints) is better than none at all. <i><b>They are wrong about that.</b></I> But if done anyway, such dramatic revision to the sacrament needs (at the very least) to be carefully and thoroughly explained, along with clear instructions telling participants that this is a temporary measure only, a one-time exception to the normal practice, and it should not change how the church normally observes the Lord's Table or regards its significance.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://romans45.org/misc/saddleback.pdf"><img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/xcrpt.png" title="" border="0"></a><br />
<br />
In practice, however, "virtual communion" services <i><b>do</b></I> confuse people—or worse. Saddleback Church, for example, has embraced the idea of "virtual communion." In an email message to church members during Passion Week, Rick Warren wrote, <font color="#B90000"><a href="http://romans45.org/misc/saddleback.pdf"><i>"Last weekend, thousands of our members participated in this tradition at home in our first online Communion in the history of this church. Many people just used what they had: cheese crackers, pancake bits, and various juices. It's <b>hilarious</b> seeing on social media all the things our members used!"</I></a></font><br />
<br />
They have <a href="http://romans45.org/misc/saddleback.pdf"><img src="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/hlars.png" title="HILARIOUS!" align="right"></a>literally made a mockery of the Lord's Table—the very kind of thing the apostle was rebuking the Corinthians for in 1 Corinthians 11.<br />
<br />
So the best course of action—and what Grace Community Church's elders will be doing—is to wait to serve communion until the church can legitimately assemble. Better to forego the ordinance altogether during the quarantine rather than risk confusing people about the meaning of the Lord's Table and how it is normally to be administered.<br />
<br />
<a HREF="http://www.romans45.org/"><img SRC="http://www.romans45.org/images/pyromaniac/TeamPyro/pjsig07.gif" ALT="Phil's signature" BORDER="0"></A><br />
<hr style="color:#aa0000;">Phil Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00649092052031518426noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-16559655719145302182019-07-21T00:01:00.000-07:002019-07-21T00:01:04.116-07:00“What weak creatures we are!"<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from The Golden Alphabet, pages 150-151, Pilgrim Publications. </span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" height="182" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2n_IZ1Gpd2OpgdRarZ4FMjG9BdizHQg71JJh6TGCF0jql3pTA" width="400" /><br />
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<b>Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Psalm 119:67 </b><br />
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Often our trials act as a thorn-hedge to keep us in the good pasture; but our prosperity is a gap through which we go astray. If any of us remember a time in which we had no trouble, we also probably recollect that then grace was low, and temptation was strong.<br />
<br />
It may be that some believer cries, “Oh that it were with me as in those summer days before I was afflicted!” Such a sigh is most unwise, and arises from a carnal love of ease: the spiritual man who prizes growth in grace will bless God that those dangerous days are over, and that if the weather be more stormy it is also more healthy.<br />
<br />
It is well when the mind is open and candid, as in this instance: perhaps David would never have known and confessed his own strayings if he had not smarted under the rod. Let us join in his<br />
humble acknowledgments, for doubtless we have imitated him in his strayings.<br />
<br />
Why is it that a little ease works in us so much disease? Can we never rest without rusting? Never be filled without waxing fat? Never rise as to one world without going down as to another?<br />
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What weak creatures we are to be unable to bear a little pleasure! What base hearts are those which turn the abundance of God’s goodness into an occasion for sin!<br />
<hr style="color: #aa0000;" />
Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-15308288135418288942019-07-14T00:01:00.000-07:002019-07-14T00:01:05.207-07:00Home spun wisdom<br />
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" height="200" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMuPwr1DIAMD5n-Hv0GcjOdaEwveo2miegQwO7W_WFZT9ku_3H-Q" width="200" /></div>
<br />
<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from John Ploughman's Talk, pages 92-94, Pilgrim Publications. </span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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<b>"Husbands should try to make home happy and holy."</b><br />
<br />
It is an ill bird that fouls its own
nest, a bad man who makes his home wretched. Our house ought to be a little church,
with holiness to the Lord over the door, but it ought never to be a prison where there
is plenty of rule and order, but little love and no pleasure. Married life is not all sugar,
but grace in the heart will keep away most of the sours.<br />
<br />
Godliness and love can make a
man, like a bird in a hedge, sing among thorns and briers, and set others a singing, too.
It should be the husband’s pleasure to please his wife, and the wife’s care to care for her
husband. He is kind to himself who is kind to his wife.
I am afraid some men live by the rule of self, and when that is the case, home happiness is a mere sham.<br />
<br />
When husbands and wives are well yoked, how light their load becomes! It is not every couple that is a pair, and the more's the pity. In a true home all the strife is which can do the most to make the family happy. A home should be a Bethel, not a Babel.<br />
<br />
The husband should be the houseband, binding all together like a corner stone, but not
crushing everything like a mill-stone. Unkind and domineering husbands ought not to
pretend to be Christians, for they act clean contrary to Christ’s commands. Yet a home
must be well ordered, or it will become a Bedlam and be a scandal to the parish.<br />
<br />
If the
father drops the reins, the family-coach will soon be in the ditch.
A wise mixture of love and firmness will do it; but neither harshness nor softness
alone will keep home in happy order. Home is no home where the children are not in
obedience, it is rather a pain than a pleasure to be in it. Happy is he who is happy in his
children, and happy are the children who are happy in their father.<br />
<br />
All fathers are not
wise. Some are like Eli, and spoil their children. Not to cross our children is
the way to make a cross of them. Those who never give their children the rod, must not
wonder if their children become a rod to them. Solomon says, “Correct thy son, and he
shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight to thy soul.” I am not clear that
anybody wiser than Solomon lives in our time, though some think they are.<br />
<br />
Young colts
must be broken in, or they will make wild horses.
Some fathers are all fire and fury, filled with passion at the smallest fault; this is
worse than the other, and makes home a little hell instead of a heaven. No wind
makes the miller idle, but too much upsets the mill altogether. Men who strike in their
anger generally miss their mark. When God helps us to hold the reins firmly, but not to
hurt the horses’ mouths, all goes well.<br />
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When home is ruled according to God’s Word,
angels might be asked to stay a night with us, and they would not find themselves out of
their element.Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-78331017209714830652019-07-07T00:01:00.000-07:002019-07-07T00:01:01.391-07:00Turn away<br />
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<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
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<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from The Golden Alphabet, page 96, Pilgrim Publications. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<b>“Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.” Psalm 119:37</b><br />
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“<i>Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.</i>”<b> </b> He had prayed about his heart, and one would have thought that the eyes would so surely have been influenced by the heart that there was no need to make them the objects of a special petition; but our author is resolved to make assurance doubly sure.<br />
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If the eyes do not see, perhaps the heart may not desire: at any rate, one door of temptation is closed when we do not even look at the painted bauble. Sin first entered man’s mind by the eye, and it is still a favourite gate for the incoming of Satan’s allurements; hence the need of a double watch upon that portal.<br />
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The prayer is not so much that the eyes may be shut as <i>“turned away”;</i> for we need to have them open, but directed to right objects. Perhaps we are now gazing upon folly, we need to have our eyes turned away; and if we are beholding heavenly things, we shall be wise to beg that our eyes may be kept away from vanity.<br />
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Why should we look on vanity?—it melts away as a vapour. Why not look upon things eternal? Sin is vanity, unjust gain is vanity, self-conceit is vanity, and, indeed, all that is not of God comes under the same head. From all this we must turn away.<br />
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It is a proof of the sense of weakness felt by the Psalmist and of his entire dependence upon God, that he even asks to have his eyes turned for him; he meant not to make himself passive, but he intended to set forth his own utter helplessness apart from the grace of God.<br />
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For fear he should forget himself and gaze with a lingering longing upon forbidden object, he entreats the Lord speedily to make him turn away his eyes, hurrying him off from so dangerous a parley with iniquity. If we are kept from looking on vanity we shall be preserved from loving iniquity.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-54847541028797942092019-06-30T00:01:00.000-07:002019-06-30T00:01:04.389-07:00Did you set out but not hold out?<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from the MTP, volume 14, sermon number 843, "Effectual calling." </span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" height="240" 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" width="400" /></span><br />
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<b>"Brethren, it is no child's play to be a Christian." </b><br />
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Many have I known who have had a call of a certain sort, who have tried to go to Canaan and yet to stop at Haran. They would fain serve God and yet live as they used to live. They think it possible to be a Christian and yet to be a servant of the world. They attempt the huge impossibility of yoking the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion of the pit in the same chariot, and driving through the streets of life therewith.<br />
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Ah, sirs! the call which comes from God brings a man right out, while the call which only comes to your fleshly nature leaves us with the rest of mankind, and will leave us there to be bound up in the same bundle with sinners, and cast into the same fire. Many come out of Egypt but never arrive at Canaan, like the children of Israel who left their carcasses in the wilderness, their hearts are not sound towards the Lord.<br />
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They start fairly, but the taste of the garlic and the onions lingers in their mouth, and holds their minds by Egypt’s fleshpots still. Like the planets, they are affected by two impulses: one would draw them to heaven, but another would drive them off at a tangent to the world; and so they revolve, like the mill-horse, without making progress; continuing still nominally to fear the Lord, and yet to serve other gods practically and in their hearts.<br />
<br />
Beware, dear friends, of the call which makes you <i>set </i>out, but does not lead you to <i>hold</i> out. Pray that this text may be true to you, “They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and to the land of Canaan they came.” Do not be content with praying to be saved, never be satisfied until you are saved.<br />
<br />
Do not be content with trying to believe and trying to repent; come to Christ, and both repent and believe, and give no slumber to your eyelids till you are a penitent believer. Make a full and complete work of your believing. Strive not to reach the strait gate, but to enter it. For this you must have a call from the Lord of heaven.<br />
<br />
I can call you as I have called many of you scores of times, and you have gone a little way, and you have bidden fair to go the whole way; but when your goodness has been as a morning cloud and as the early dew, it soon has been scattered and has gone. God grant you yet to receive the call of his eternal Spirit, that you may be saved.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-26761762320313160092019-06-23T00:30:00.000-07:002019-06-23T00:30:09.420-07:00Spurgeon on women preaching<br />
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<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSXfi_U0coZgSHN20ScmLmoYgzRe0U2nr3qar_c9TZy-O3ogkI6" style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /></div>
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<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
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<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpts are from the original sources cited therewith. </span><br />
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<br />
When Boswell told Johnson one day that he had heard a woman preach that morning at a Quaker's meeting, Johnson replied, "Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on its hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." We will add that our surprise is all the greater when women of piety mount the pulpit, for they are acting in plain defiance of the command of the Holy Spirit, written by the pen of the Apostle Paul.<br />
<i>Feathers for Arrows, page 260, Pilgrim Publications.</i><br />
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Peter’s wife’s mother did not get out of bed and go down the street and deliver an address to an assembled multitude. Women are best when they are quiet. I share the apostle Paul’s feelings when he bade women be silent in the assembly.<br />
<br />
Yet there is work for holy women, and we read of Peter’s wife’s mother that she arose and ministered to Christ. She did what she could and what she should. She arose and ministered to him. Some people can do nothing that they are allowed to do, but waste their energies in lamenting that they are not called on to do other people’s work.<br />
<br />
Blessed are they who do what they should do. It is better to be a good housewife, or nurse, or domestic servant, than to be a powerless preacher or a graceless talker. She did not arise and prepare a lecture, nor preach a sermon, but she arose and prepared a supper, and that was what she was fitted to do. Was she not a housewife? As a housewife let her serve the Lord.<br />
<br />
I do not say that if you were converted a week ago you are at once to preach. No: but you are to minister to the Lord in the way for which you are best qualified, and that may happen to be by a living testimony to his grace in your daily calling.<br />
<br />
We greatly err when we dream that only a preacher can minister to the Lord—for Jesus has work of all sorts for all sorts of followers. Paul speaks of women who helped him much, and, assuredly, as there is no idle angel there ought to be no idle Christian. We are not saved for our own sakes, but that we may be of service to the Lord and to his people; let us not miss our calling.<br />
<i>MTP, volume 31, sermon number 1,836, "First healing, and then service."</i><br />
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In like manner, you Christian people who cannot talk,—the women especially,—I mean that you cannot preach, you are not allowed to preach,—I want you to shine. Some people seem to think that there is no shining without talking, whereas the very best shining is that of Christian women, who, if they have little to say, have a great deal to do.<br />
<br />
They make the house so bright with heavenly grace, and decorate it so sweetly with the flowers of their cheerful piety, that those round about them are won to Christ by them. Therefore, shine, dear brothers and sisters, by your gracious godliness, for so you will bring glory to God.<br />
<i>MTP, volume 45, sermon number 2,617, "Shining Christians."</i>Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-39067024697335953712019-06-16T00:30:00.000-07:002019-06-16T00:30:04.442-07:00Tall talk<br />
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<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from John Ploughman's Talk, pages 155-156, Pilgrim Publications. </span><br />
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<b>"I've known men who opened their mouths like barn doors in boasting what they would do if they were in someone else's shoes."</b><br />
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We must try to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If we
begin calling eleven inches a foot, we shall go on till we call one inch four-and-twenty. If
we call a heifer a cow, we may one day call a dormouse a bullock. Once go in for exaggeration, and you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb; you have left the road of truth,
and there is no telling where the crooked lane may lead you to.<br />
<br />
He who tells little lies
will soon think nothing of great ones, for the principle is the same. Where there is a
mouse-hole, there will soon be a rat-hole; and if the kitten comes, the cat will follow. It
seldom rains but it pours; a little untruth leads on to a perfect shower of lying.<br />
<br />
Self-praise is no recommendation. A man’s praise smells sweet when it comes out of
other men’s mouths, but in his own it stinks. Grow your own cherries, but don’t sing
your own praises.
Boasters are never worth a button with the shank off. Long tongue, short hand.
Great talkers, little doers. Dogs that bark much run away when it is time to bite. The
leanest pig squeaks most. It is not the hen which cackles most, that lays most eggs.<br />
<br />
Saying and doing are two different things. It is the barren cow that bellows.
There may be great noise of threshing where there is no wheat. Great boast, little
roast. Much froth, little beer. Drums sound loud because there is nothing in them. Good
men know themselves too well to chant their own praises. Barges without cargoes float
high on the canal; but the fuller they are, the lower they sink. Good cheese sells itself
without puffery. Good wine needs no bush; and when men are really excellent, people
find it out without telling.<br />
<br />
Bounce is the sign of folly. Loud braying reveals an ass. If a
man is ignorant and holds his tongue, no one will despise him; but if he rattles on with an empty pate, and a tongue that brags like forty, he will write out his own name in capital letters, and they will be these—F, O, O, L.<br />
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<i>As "by the ears the ass is known"— </i></div>
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<i>A truth as sure as parsons preach, </i></div>
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<i>"The man," as proverbs long have shown, </i></div>
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<i>"Is seen most plainly through his speech."</i></div>
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-89131426517713555652019-06-09T00:01:00.000-07:002019-06-09T00:01:01.703-07:00The way of acceptance<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
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<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from the MTP, volume 35, sermon number 2,100, "Faith essential to pleasing God." </span><br />
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<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" height="224" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTwYw-R4tibeBNO417mVmVt2i1UUZQmKMtS_5egTa_9oykSiimd" width="400" /><br />
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<b>"To attempt a difficulty may be laudable, but to rush upon an impossibility is madness."</b><br />
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The way of acceptance described in Scripture is, first, the man is accepted, and then what that man does is accepted. It is written: “And he shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”<br />
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First, God is pleased with the person, and then with the gift, or the work. The unaccepted person offers of necessity an unacceptable sacrifice. If a man be your enemy, you will not value a present which he sends you. If you know that he has no confidence in you, but counts you a liar, his praises are lost upon you; they are empty, deceptive things which cannot possibly please you.<br />
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O my hearers, in your natural state you are so sinful that God cannot look upon you with complacency! Concerning our race it is written: “It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” Concerning many God has said, “My soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.” Is this true of us?<br />
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“Ye must be born again,” or ye cannot be pleasing to the Lord. Ye must believe in Jesus; for only to as many as receive him does he give power to become the sons of God. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Lord God accepts us for his Beloved’s sake, and in him we are made kings and priests, and permitted to bring an offering which pleases God. As the man is, such is his work.<br />
<br />
The stream is of the nature of the spring from which it flows. He who is a rebel, outlawed and proclaimed, cannot gratify his prince by any fashion of service; he must first submit himself to the law. All the actions of rebels are acts done in rebellion. We must first be reconciled to God, or it is a mockery to bring an offering to his altar.<br />
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Reconciliation can only be effected through the death of the Lord Jesus, and if we have no faith in that way of reconciliation we cannot please God. Faith in Christ makes a total change in our position<br />
towards God—we who were enemies are reconciled; and from this comes towards God a distinct change in the nature of all our actions: imperfect though they be, they spring from a loyal heart, and they are pleasing to God.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-39963715679921366992019-06-02T00:01:00.000-07:002019-06-02T00:01:00.776-07:00The history of fools<br />
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<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from the MTP, volume 45, sermon number 2,604, "Open praise and public confession." </span><br />
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<b>"Those gentlemen who want to mend the Bible, really need mending themselves: that is where the mischief lies in most cases." </b><br />
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They say that we ought to alter Scripture because scientists have found out something or other. Yes, I know all about that kind of talk; scientists found out many things years ago, and within ten years somebody else rose up, and found out that they were all wrong.<br />
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The history of so-called philosophy is the history of fools; and the philosophers of this day are no more right than those of fifty years ago.<br />
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The men are coming to the front who will confute the positive assertions of the present; and, when they have made their own assertions, and made their bow, another set of wise men will be coming after them to confound them.<br />
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They are all as the grass that withereth, but “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” It has been tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times; and here it remains, the pure refined metal still, and in<br />
this will we glory, and not be ashamed.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-42031324972636408252019-05-26T00:01:00.000-07:002019-05-26T00:01:07.210-07:00A very loving Comforter<br />
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<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwjaIEX3umC-XUW36U3LU5Fm2m-9FN8MDOO7SXFMFLXgz5B2Jj" /></div>
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<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from Words of Cheer, pages 36-37, Pilgrim Publications. </span><br />
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<b>"God the Holy Ghost is a very loving Comforter."</b><br />
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I am in distress, and want consolation. Some passer-by hears of my sorrow, and he steps within, sits down and essays to cheer me; he speaks soothing words; but he loves me not, he is a stranger, he knows me not at all, he has only come in to try his skill; and what is the consequence? His words run o’er me like oil upon a slab of marble—they are like the pattering rain upon the rock; they do not break my grief; it stands unmoved as adamant, because he has no love for me.<br />
<br />
But let some one who loves me dearly as his own life come and plead with me, then truly his words are music; they taste like honey; he knows the password of the doors of my heart, and my ear is attentive to every word; I catch the intonation of each syllable as it falls, for it is like the harmony of the harps of heaven.<br />
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Oh, there is a voice in love, it speaks a language which is its own, it is an idiom and an accent which none can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; oratory cannot attain unto it; it is love alone which can reach the mourning heart; love is the only handkerchief which can wipe the mourner’s tears away.<br />
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And is not the Holy Ghost a loving Comforter? Dost thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves thee? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? Dost thou know how great is the affection of His soul towards thee? Go, measure heaven with thy span; go, weigh the mountains in the scales; go, take the ocean’s water, and tell each drop; go, count the sand upon the sea’s wide shore; and when thou hast accomplished this, thou canst tell how much He loveth thee.<br />
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He has loved thee long; He has loved thee well; He loved thee ever; and He still shall love thee. Surely He is the person to comfort thee, because He loves. Admit Him, then, to your heart, O Christian that He may comfort you in your distress.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21212024.post-54734227464064093932019-05-19T00:01:00.000-07:002019-05-19T00:01:00.131-07:00“...it is so just because it is there"<br />
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<br />
<b style="color: red; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Your weekly Dose of Spurgeon</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Pyro</span><span style="color: red;">Maniacs</span></span></b></a><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">devote some space each weekend </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, </span><span style="color: #9b0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following excerpt is from The MTP, volume 49, sermon number 2,862, "The way of wisdom." </span><br />
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<img alt="Image result for charles spurgeon" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTIT4WgQdP_q3M8Fjt1ST7dfCvbSA22CG4jCpSNToMB-a1JC1zH5A" width="280" /><br />
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<b>"I am not responsible for what is in the Book, I am only responsible for telling out what I find there, as it is taught to me by the Holy Spirit."</b><br />
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Let us never arraign God before our bar. It is a horrible thing for any man ever to say, “Well, if God acts like that, I do not see the justice of it.” How dare you even hint that the Judge of all the earth is not just?<br />
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He hath said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion;” so do not you say, “It cannot be so.” Is it so written in God’s Word? Then it is so just because it is there. If God has said anything, it is not right for you to ask for an explantion of his reason for saying it, or to summon him to your judgment-seat.<br />
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What impertinence is this! He must always do right; he cannot do wrong. Some have staggered over the doctrine of eternal punishment, because they could not see how that could be consistent with God’s goodness. I have only one question to ask concerning that or any other doctrine,—Does God reveal it in the Scriptures? Then, I believe it, and leave to him the vindication of his own consistency.<br />
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I am sure that he will not inflict a pain upon any creature which that creature does not deserve, that he will never cause any sorrow or misery which is not absolutely necessary, and that he will glorify himself by doing the right, the loving, the kind thing, in the end.<br />
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If we do not see it to be so, it will be none the less so because we are blind. The finger on the lip is the right attitude for us in the presence of things revealed by God, or wrought by God, as David said, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.”<br />
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If thou didst it, O Lord, there is no question about the rightness of it, for thou art supreme, and thou oughtest to be supreme! There is none like thee for goodness, for love, for wisdom. Thy will ought to be—so let it be—done on earth, as it is heaven, let it be done everywhere, for what thou doest is ever best.<br />
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Kerry James Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083436735702873300noreply@blogger.com