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Wealth, Status, and encouragement

When you pray to God for money for bills for example, and you later receive money, is that proof of God's "favor" in your life?

When someone encourages you to do something or purse something how do you know it is God working through them?

Everything seems like it would be Him.  The blessings of wealth and the blessings of positive words.  Sounds like something God would do right?

But what if I told you these are things Satan and a godless world can also give and do.

Christians that are 'too christian'

I have heard people called this, by other Christians.  That someone is "too churchy" or "too biblie" or "too Christian".  They are usually labeled this when they make something, a discussion, or a situation that is not in a religious context; about God.  They are accused negatively of making things in life about God, too often.  But that brings up a couple very important questions:

1.  Can a Christian, by making everything in life about God, be a bad thing?  That leads us to ask are Christians commanded to making everything about God?

2.  Is too much God wrong or is too little God wrong?  The reverse can also be asked; Is too much God right or too little God right?  Because they both can not be true.

3.  Is there a discussion, topic, situation, or thing in life where God should not be brought up?  Is there an area of life where we should leave God out?

Do You Want To Hear God Speak?

He has spoken. 
He has been speaking for thousands of years.
He spoke and created reality.
He had man write down his words throughout history.
His written word is carries with it Himself- The Holy Spirit.
He speaks to this day, all day, every day, through out the world to all people at any moment.
Do you want to hear his voice?

Read His written word aloud and he is speaking to you!

The Jewish nation understood this and kept His words written from the moment it was necessary. 
The early church understood this and kept His words written and circulating.
The church now understands this and keeps His words open for all generations.

The Reformers understood this greatly.  They knew for a fact that Holy Scripture was God's very own words.  They understood that God influenced man to record the very things that God wanted man to know.  The accumulation of God's own words reached the beginning of time and the future all the way to eternity.  It addressed all points of human existence and nature.  They formed the principle 'Scripture Alone' to express this very issue about the God's Words- Holy Scripture.

50 Shades of Christian Deception

You can know if you or someone you know is blinded by themselves or the world by their heart felt view of the movie 50 Shades of Gray.  It comes down to if they find it acceptable to expose themselves to its contents and stand idle or support others to be exposed to it.  But what is inherently wrong and dangerous about the movie?

The Seemingly Lonely Transition from Wordly to Godly

In America it is difficult to find a church that is not so superficial and seemingly fake in their 'welcoming new believers'.  They all have greeters at the doors to say hi.  They may help you find a place to sit.  They may have their uncomfortable 'turn to your neighbor and say hi' at the early part of the service.  but all of that is just routine.  At the end of the day, everyone does home, separate.  You may fill out a 'new visitor card' and get a phone call or email a few days later but that's it.  At the end of it all, the average church, expects the new believer to come charging in and make friends with everyone and not vice-versa. 

The American Christian Religion

This is not a new problem of the religious but is a very common issue in America now.  In 2012, 77% of Americans claimed to be 'Christian'.  That includes 2% who are Mormon, 23% Catholic, and the rest 52% Protestant and 'other' Christan.  In those stats alone we already see a problem.  Mormons deny essential truths of Christianity like The Trinity among others; they are not Christian by their own beliefs.  Yet, claim the Christian title.  This just validates the point being made here;  That the American Christian Religion has become a religion of its own with its own sects and has parted ways with the true Christian Faith from Jesus Christ as The Lord God and Savior in the Trinity. 

What is the American Christian Religion (ACR):

Tongues of Angels of 1 Corinthians 13

This is the one and only go-to verse, 1 Corinthians 13:1, for people who believe there is a kind of language in heaven that is not of this world.  Here is the major flaw in this thinking.

Paul is using a Hyperbole. 

Hyperbole is a figure of speech.

Just like if someone went to a concert and listened to their favorite singer said "that singer has the voice of an angel".  That is a hyperbolic expression.  The voice was not literally an angle from heaven voice.  It is describing the positive effect from the human voice. 

What is Paul saying then:

He said that it doesn't matter if he speaks to people with his own language or if the Spirit gives him the ability to speak in another language he has never spoke before; its all useless if there is no love. 

An interpretation that he is talking about a language of Heaven that angels speak to each other is a poor understanding of literature comprehension and adding into scripture what is not being said.  Because of this failed biblical hermeneutics; people are confused and deceived. 

Speaking In Tongues

This is a very simple subject that is made difficult because of the hearts and minds of man.  When we let The Holy Spirit speak through scripture and let Him tell us what he is saying in scripture we can see exactly what it is. 

Acts 2, 1 Cor 12, and chapter 14 is where The Holy Spirit, through Paul, addresses this gift. 

The Montanists of 170 AD and Charasmicits of Today

The saying 'history repeats itself' is true for false teachings and pseudo-Christian movements.  A perfect example is Montanism and the Charasmatic, Word of Faith movements.   First lets took at what the Montantist believed and taught in the late 2rd century then we will look at what the Word of Faith and charismatic movements are teaching now.

Montanus, a self described Christian around 160 AD jumped to fame when he started teaching that he had visions from God.  He teamed up with two other followers, Maximilla and Priscilla, who also claimed to be receiving visions and messages form God.  Their visions were so energetic and grand that it drew a large crowd and soon become a movement.

Chalcedonian Creed

The Council of Chalcedonian was brought together by the Roman Emperor Marcian to come to an agreement and an explanation about The Person of Jesus Christ.  It addresses and explains the 2 natures of Jesus, being God and man.

Chalcedonian Creed (451 A.D):

Athanasian Creed

Athanasian was born around 296 AD and died 373 AD.  He was a speaker at the First Council of Nicaea where Roman Emperor Constantine attended along with all the church leaders of the time.  He was a foundational teacher about the Person of Jesus and The Trinity.  His creed directly address The Trinity and other areas that the church in that time was having a hard time trying to understand and explain.

Athanasian Creed (325 AD):

Hippolytus' Baptism Confession

Hippolytus of Rome lived around 170 AD to 235 AD. He was a disciple of Irenaeus. He wrote the Refutation of All Heresies in the very early part of the 3rd Century. In one of his writings he records a baptism service and what is required of the person being baptized to confess.

Hippolytus' Baptims Confession (210~ AD):

"When the person being baptized goes down into the water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say: "Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?" And the person being baptized shall say: "I believe." Then holding his hand on his head, he shall baptize him once.

And then he shall say: "Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?" And when he says: "I believe," he is baptized again.

And again he shall say: "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church, and the resurrection of the body?" The person being baptized shall say: "I believe," and then he is baptized a third time"

Irenaeus' "Rule of Faith"

Irenaeus was a very early Church teacher. 130 AD to roughly 202 AD is the time period in which he lived and wrote. He was a 'hearer' of Polycarp who was a disciple of John The Apostle. His generation is when all kinds of heretical and false christian teachings started to take off. His greatest works are called "Against Heresies" and in them he laid out what these false teachings are and why they are not Christian. Through this he came up with a simple summery of what exactly the genuine and true Christians beliefs are. He called it the "rule of faith"

Irenaues' Rule of Faith (180 AD):
"this faith: in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all the things that are in them;
and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation;
and in the Holy Spirit, who made known through the prophets the plan of salvation, and the coming, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead,
and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and his future appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things and to raise anew all flesh of the whole human race"

The Bible Is a Book Like Any Other





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Gold Teeth, Fillings, Flakes Cloud, and more

Sense the 1980s some christian groups claim to have been experiencing a miracle from God.  It began with the appearance of Gold fillings in teeth.  It was first reported in South America and then spread to North America and spread through the 80s.  A conference in Canada in the late 90s is what set off the phenomena more popular and more international.  It has become to be known as "New Wine" groups and meetings from The Toronto Blessings Movement now generalized as the Blessings Movement.   

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