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Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
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[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
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Monday, August 21, 2006
Marketing the world...
...to the church.


A while back I posted my thoughts on corrupt speech. The point of that post was to identify how some evangelicals have been flirting with the worldly idea that cuss words are not actually vulgar - they are just words for "grown ups" to use.


The main argument brought against my position was that words themselves are not vulgar unless the heart that speaks them intends them to be so. Can you not see the postmodern philosophy in such a thought? It is only wrong if I think it is wrong - I am the author of what is right - truth is subjective, and I am the arbiter thereof.


The message therefore is that if I am sitting with my children in a restaurant and two sailors are cussing up a storm beside us - I shouldn't regard the new and exciting words my children are learning as cuss words or vulgar since the sailors are speaking them in an amiable way with one another. Likewise, my own children should be able to use these colorful words so long as they don't intend to use them in a way that offends.


What is really going on is that the world is being sold to the church. The cussing thing is just a symptom.


I suspect that in the apostle's day, it was much harder to be a false convert. The church was so distinct and different from the world around it that when you entered into the church it showed in everything you did.


What is one of the greatest criticisms leveled against the church today? The church is said to be irrelevant - being no different than the world around it! Every Christian is regarded as either a hypocrite or deluded and often both. Our enemy is a P.R. whiz -he knows how to hinder the church.


What is the best weapon our enemy has in his arsenal? My money is on false converts. Not that tare sowing is new - rather it is just the best way to keep the wheat from flourishing.


It is in our enemy's interest to make the wheats as tare-like as possible. It keeps them weak and useless - and it makes it far more easier to keep tares convinced that they are (in fact) wheat.


I don't like to see Christians giving into the wiles of the enemy, and I am even less thrilled when they go so far as to carry the enemy's banner! The enemy wants to make the church as worldly as possible - we do well to guard against it.
posted by Daniel @ 9:24 AM  
10 Comments:
  • At 1:15 PM, August 21, 2006, Blogger Even So... said…

    avoid all appearance of evil...

    neither give place to the devil...

    etc., etc., etc...

    scream "context" all you want, a Christian should not countenance such behavior...

    we may not be able to quantify such language, i.e., have a list, but we can certainly qualify it, i.e., we know it when we hear it...

    so do they, hopefully...

    we have seemingly turned justification by faith into justification for anything...

    Oh, yeah, I feel another post coming on after that one...

     
  • At 1:45 PM, August 21, 2006, Blogger Even So... said…

    You're back to the old but good template, yeaaaahhh!!!!!

     
  • At 1:56 PM, August 21, 2006, Blogger Daniel said…

    The other was too annoying - even for me.

     
  • At 10:41 PM, August 22, 2006, Blogger Antonio said…

    I think false doctrine, viz. Reformed Lordship Salvation (and Calvinism), is the Enemy's best weapon.

    Anyways, this is were most of the false professors come from!

     
  • At 10:45 PM, August 22, 2006, Blogger jazzycat said…

    Good post Daniel..
    I think there is and will be even more pressure from the world to conform the church to the world. The pressure comes from within the church and from the secular world.

    Jonathan Edwards said, ”those who are spiritual are set in opposition to natural men, and carnal men.” I believe that is where the rubber meets the road as they say. Scripture tells us we can be friends with the world and be liked or oppose the ways of the world and be hated.

     
  • At 8:33 AM, August 23, 2006, Blogger jazzycat said…

    Antonio,
    Zane Hodges has stated that a former pastor friend of his that has renounced Christ, become an atheist, and mocks the faith is saved even if he remains that way for the rest of his life.

    Since you are able to discern false professors so well, I would sure be interested in what you think a Calvinist false professor looks like if that guy is saved.

    Jazzy

     
  • At 10:19 AM, August 23, 2006, Blogger Antonio said…

    By your insistence, Jazzy, you seem to condition final salvation on actions and thoughts SUBSEQUENT to the faith that justifies.

    Faith, at the very moment it is exercised, receives eteranal life. Faith, at the very moment it is exercised, brings justification.

    But you will have us think that actions subsequent to faith will cause one to lose his salvation.

     
  • At 10:22 AM, August 23, 2006, Blogger Daniel said…

    And you would have us believe, dear Antonio, that it is man who draws God to himself, and not vice versa.

     
  • At 11:07 AM, August 23, 2006, Blogger mark pierson said…

    Antonio says,"Faith, at the very moment it is exercised, receives eteranal life. Faith, at the very moment it is exercised, brings justification."

    There is not a mainstream Calvinist who would disagree with that statement.

     
  • At 3:39 PM, August 23, 2006, Blogger jazzycat said…

    Antonio,
    1. Once again you have read between the lines and put words into my mouth that I did not say. As for Zane Hodges' atheist friend that he claims is still saved, I would say that (1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.) covers that situation very well. No where have I ever said salvation can be lost. I know you cover a lot of ground and that is commendable, but slow down a bit and don't be so eager to slap the ole faith plus works label on the Calvinist bloggers here who do not hold that view.

    2. You did not answer this question: Since you are able to discern false professors so well, I would sure be interested in what you think a Calvinist false professor looks like if that guy is saved?

    Jazzy

     
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