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Resources Highlighting the Current Cultural Clashes

Note: We do not necessarily agree with all of the content in these various resources, but thought these were all notable enough to post here

Gay Marriage Debate's Sore Winners by Kirsten Powers
Liberals should be celebrating in good cheer, not by muzzling opponents for wrongthink.

I Support Gay Marriage And Religious Freedom Laws
By Ramon Lopez - Pushing for gay rights will be easier if religious objectors can trust that the state will not be used to compel them to violate their deepest beliefs.

Wed, 04/08/2015 - 17:44 -- john_hendryx

You Should Care

Do any of you remember the 90s show Seinfeld? Well there was one episode where Elaine has a "Christian" boyfriend Puddy. Elaine is deeply troubled because he does not seem bothered by the idea that she is going to hell. He says "You are the one going there, not me." She says "David, I am going to hell, the worst place in the world with devils and those caves and the ragged clothing" Puddy says "Pretty rough" and so she begins hitting him and says "you SHOULD BE trying to save me." Puddy says, Don't boss me, this is why you are going to hell." Elaine: I am not going to hell, and if you think I am going to hell YOU SHOULD CARE that I am going to hell, even though I'm not."

Wed, 04/08/2015 - 14:45 -- john_hendryx

Can Someone Who is not of the Elect Be Saved if they Choose Jesus as their Savior?

Visitor: Can someone who is not of the elect be saved if they choose Jesus as their savior?

Response: The summons to believe the gospel and the offer of Christ is not restricted. The gospel call goes out to all and any who hear it. If men do not believe, it is only because they don't want to. But left to ourselves there is no one who fits your description. All people turn aside from God (Rom 3:12; Isa. 53:1, 6). Left to themselves, not one man on earth will choose Jesus as their Savior. People have something akin to Stockholm syndrome.. they love their captors and have gotten so used to the darkness that they cannot understand the light... blinded and captive to sin men want God like a thief wants a policeman (M. Horton). Like a greedy person who runs into oncoming traffic because he sees a dollar bill in the street. He will hear no other voice calling to warn him. Yet even though all people are in active rebellion against God and love darkness, and reject his merciful call to come to him for life... God still has mercy on many ...He gives them new eyes to see, ears to hear and turns their heart of stone to soft flesh... it is these who, because of God's grace, trust Jesus as their Savior because they behold the beauty truth and excellency of Jesus Christ and what He has done for them. So in the end some get justice... others mercy but no one gets injustice. In Jesus some are pardoned for their sins.. they are not getting what they justly deserve... because, in love, Jesus took the punishment in their stead. Believe this day in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved

Tue, 04/07/2015 - 11:01 -- john_hendryx

Our Culture's Moral Outrage

If you have been paying any attention, there is a great deal of political and media-inspired moral outrage from certain segments of our society toward theological conservatives regarding their core beliefs about marriage. What lies behind today's cultural phenomenon is that traditional views about marriage are now considered sinful and immoral. Proponents of traditional marriage are frequently shouted down, mocked and marginalized even before they have the opportunity to express their views.

But no one should miss the irony: this moral outrage is coming from so-called relativists who originally prided themselves of having rid the world of all dogma, sin and heresy. But as soon as a person begins telling other people how they ought to (and ought not to) behave and think, then you are speaking as if you really do affirm an objective, universal morality (which is morally binding for everyone). So which is it? Do relativists believe everyone's beliefs are equally valid or do they believe that some ideas are truly better then others? If better, then they are appealing to a real moral standard as if one existed outside of ourselves. If you cannot demonstrate the objective existence of this standard that is binding on everyone then their moral outrage at our position is both absurd and contradictory.

If someone says, "but you are getting in our way of what we want" then it demonstrates that this is no longer about right and wrong but simply about wanting raw power. Relativists put on their "Tolerance" and "Coexist" bumper stickers but can't seem to get along with anyone unless they agree with them.  Must everyone agree with relativism? To claim everyone OUGHT TO believe in relativism is to deny its very existence.

Mon, 04/06/2015 - 17:57 -- john_hendryx

Teaching That Sin is Sin: From One Bad Guy to Another

by Danielle Camorlinga — March 25, 2015

Without fail, when our family opens up The Action Bible (or any book, for that matter) one question will be asked. Every time. Multiple times.

“Which one is the bad guy?”

And each time, without fail, we explain that things aren’t so black and white. That some of these bad guys will become good guys, and some of these good guys were once bad guys, and ultimately, every guy in here is a bad guy in one way or another, except Jesus. This has gotten us thinking about how we categorize bad guys and how that translates to our apologetic interactions.

So who are the bad guys?

I have little doubt that most of us answered that question fairly automatically, probably in spite of ourselves. Was your first thought homosexuals? Adulterers? Pesky old earth creationists? No, I believe this is a trick question. The answer should sound something like “Who isn’t?!”

Sin is sin, but our sin nature inclines us to cherry pick which sins are *really* bad and which are *basically* harmless. We ignore the plank and focus on the speck (Matthew 7:3), fixate on sins that we have deemed especially bad, and sweep other sins under a rug of “well, I’m basically good, aren’t I?”  When we do this, not only do we act in a manner contrary to scripture, we also hinder our witness to others.

Thu, 04/02/2015 - 13:28 -- john_hendryx

Why is Faith Not Mentioned in the Five Points of Calvinism?

Visitor: It is interesting that faith is not mentioned in the five points of Calvinism. Faith is actually downplayed and not considered necessary to salvation in Calvinism, because it is instead based on unconditional election and irresistible grace! If regeneration precedes faith then the formula would be regeneration, then faith, then justification! Illogical!

Response: this statement of yours is simply disinformation. Reformed theology is much broader than simply the five points of Calvinism. Among other things, of equal importance, the Five Solas also find their source in Reformed theology (Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura and Soli Deo Gloria). Those of us who are Reformed in theology affirm that when we declare the gospel that we must call all men to faith and repentance in the message. It is a summons to repent and believe:

"Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent." -Acts 17:30

"And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ..." - 1 John 3:23

I would encourage you to factually represent your theological opponents. Without the Spirit opening our heart and uniting us to Christ through faith no man is justified.

Furthermore... your critique against regeneration appears to be saying that a person can believe the gospel apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that unless the Spirit opens your eyes, ears and heart to the gospel no one will believe (see Deut 29:4, 30:6, John 6:63, 65)

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 19:50 -- john_hendryx

Open Thou Mine Eyes

God’s Wondrous Law

by John Calvin

"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalm 119:18

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 19

God gives light to us to see the wonder of his Word, the prophet says. We are blind to the gospel even in the midst of the clearest light until God removes the veil of blindness from our eyes.

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 12:12 -- john_hendryx

You Reason That God Killed Canaanites for Thoughtcrime, Therefore, So Can We

I read a comment on an online message board which made the following assertion:

VIsitor: Since *God* killed them for thoughtcrime, so can *WE*. Your idea is the same as tyrants throughout history, including the present day. With the identical argument with hate-subject substitution you get the Holocaust over Jews, Orwell’s Inner Party over the Proles, Mao’s Red Guard over the peasants, the Khmer Rouge over the educated, Islamic fundamentalists over Western Civilization. Just have enough of a sliver of moral decency to admit it: you want to kill anyone who believes differently than you do. And don’t give me sophistry as to why it’s okay for *your* group to mass-murder but not others because you’re not the same as they : “A difference which *makes* no difference *is* no difference.” — William Blake and Alfred Korzybski, separately.

Response: Thank you for your comment.  There are 2 things that I would like to respond to regrading the assertions you have made..

1) You said, "Since *God* killed them for thoughtcrime, so can *WE*"

No we can't ... we don't want to kill anyone for thinking differently than we. We are broken, sinful people and need grace just like everyone else.  As for the Khmer Rouge, Holocaust, Red Guard, and Islamic fundamentalist comparisons, you have it backwards. It was the Canaanites who were carrying out the halocaust.  God sent the Israelites to destroy them specifically because they were molesting their children and burning their children alive in fires. This was God's judicial sentence for years and year of unrepentant atrocities. Your view assumes the nation of Israel is like the Nazis, Pol Pot, ISIS or Mao’s Red Guard, when it is clear that the Canaanites were the ones like Pol Pot.

Sat, 03/21/2015 - 20:58 -- john_hendryx

If You Mourn the Fallenness of Your World Rather than Curse its Difficulties, You Know that Grace has Visited You by Paul David Tripp

Life in this terribly broken world is hard. You are constantly dealing with the frustration of this world not operating the way God intended. You are always facing the unexpected. Almost daily you are required to deal with something you wouldn’t have chosen for your life, but it’s there because of the location where we live. Life right here, right now is like living in a disheveled house that has begun to fall down on its own foundation. It is still a house, but it doesn’t function as it was meant to. The doors constantly get stuck shut. The plumbing only occasionally works properly. You are never sure what’s going to happen when you plug an appliance in, and it seems that the roof leaks even when it’s not raining. So it is with the world that you and I live in. It really is a broken-down house.

Fri, 03/20/2015 - 16:27 -- john_hendryx

A Fantastic New Book for Women

Being a mom is not easy.  It is a whirlwind experience filled with exhilaration and joy on the one hand, and exhaustion and challenges on the other. There are days when a mom finds deep satisfaction in her new role as a parent, and there are other days when she doesn’t know if she can go on.

During times like this, it is critical that a mom find her joy and her assurance in a stable place that cannot be shaken.  And that is found in her relationship with Jesus Christ.

For this reason, I am very excited that this week my wife Melissa’s new book was released, Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood (Waterbrook, 2015). What makes this book unique is that it is not a How-to book about parenting, but a book that directs moms back to Christ during one of the must crucial stages of their lives.

Melissa takes moms through an eleven-week devotional Bible study on enormously critical topics such as Understanding Your Purpose, Knowing God’s Word, Entrusting Your Child to the Lord, Ordering Your Home, and much more.  If you are looking for a great gift to give at a baby shower, this is it.

Here is an amazing list of endorsements:

Thu, 03/19/2015 - 13:14 -- john_hendryx

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