I hear the word gospel thrown around quite often these days. Some say the gospel is feeding the poor. Some say the gospel is living right. Some say it is voting the right person into office. This sort of thing goes on and on. While we should do all of those things and more those things are not the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the Apostle Paul tells us what the gospel is,

1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

That is the gospel according to the scriptures. That Christ dies for us poor miserable sinners, was buried, and rose again. We have lost this today for some reason. I think it is because most don't truly understand the gospel. I was that way most of the time I sat in church. When the preacher would preach another gospel message I was bored. It turns out my probem was that I was dead spiritually and needed to be raised to new life in Christ.

In his epistle to the Galatians Paul writes to defend the gospel. A group known as the judaizers had infiltrated the church pretending to be something they weren't. By attacking Paul they had undermined the gospel he preached. With the gospel at stake how does he start this most amazing epistle? Look at Galatians 1,

1Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)

2And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

3Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

4Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

5To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul starts out by talking about Christ's resurrection and substitution. No mention of works or doing good deeds or loving others. He preaches Christ. That is the gospel. Pay attention from now on when you hear the word gospel used. Most of the time it will be used in a most unbiblical way. Here are some videos that explain the gospel :

1. John Piper

2. The True Gospel

I've seen this problem for years now. I once had this problem until Christ chose me and called me to be His own. Then He cleaned my addiction out. Here are some stats on sexual addiction :

1. 51% of pastors say cyber-porn is a possible temptation. 37% say it is a current struggle (Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, 12/2001). It is even higher now.

2. Over half of evangelical pastors admits viewing pornography last year.

3. As of 2003, there were 1.3 million pornographic websites; 260 million pages (N2H2, 2003).

4. The total porn industry revenue for 2006: $13.3 billion in the United States; $97 billion worldwide (Internet Filter Review).

5. More than 70% of men from 18 to 34 visit a pornographic site in a typical month (comScore Media Metrix).

I could go and on with statistics and I don't even need to. All one has to do is turn on a computer or tv and you'll see how pornified our culture has become. The Washington Times did a great article on this issue. Why would someone risk losing their family, job, or friends over something like porn? Are we really that perverted? Sadly, i think the answer is yes. That is the maddening affect of sin. Sin is illgical. It makes no sense. Sin is why people believe in evolution (Romans 1). Sin is why people murder or hate. Sin is why people lie. Sin is why porn is so popular. Mankind loves its sin and we don't care what damage it does. We do anything we can to suppress the knowledge of God. The mind of man is deceitful above all thing and desparately wicked. The evil mind of man clings to anything that will keep them in their delusion. Anything to get rid of the knowledge of God upon our hearts. Porn is one of those ways to suppress that knowledge. It is why I got into it. I hated God and I wanted Him to leave me alone. Porn has become the major addiction in the U.S. Are you one of those addicts? Feel free to email me if you are. I won't tell anyone who you are and I'll direct you to a ministry that will help you. Here are 2 videos that tell what porn really is :

The Problem of Porn 1

The Problem of Porn 2

Have you ever been on a farm or on a horse ranch? I have and it stunk. The aroma of poo filled the air. My favorite thing to see is the horse carriage rides one can get in most cities. The horse will stop and plop a large pile of poo right in the street. It isn't fun to see and for many people it spoils the ride. The smell isn't to fun either. It doesn't matter though. When he rain come it will wash it all away and no one will ever remember it happened. I want you to think back to those times you have smelled something reallly bad. Turds always bring to mind vivid imagery. That is why God uses them in the bible. Look at Job 20,

4 Don't you know that ever since antiquity,
from [the time] man was placed on earth,

5 the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?

6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,

7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know him will ask, "Where is he?"

8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

Did the Holy Spirit really put that in the bible? Did God call men a turd? Yes He did! While Zophar was dead wrong in calling Job wicked he was right in what he said. Those outside Christ are nothing but turds to God. They take up space, stink, and accomplish nothing. Wicked man is something God smells day in and day out. It is no surprise that God is angry at mankind. I'd be angry to if I had to smell poo everyday without a moments break. The question is why does God look at men that way?

We must remember that God is perfect. Deut. 32:4 says of God,

4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity (lawlessness), just and right is he.

That is God. He is by nature perfect. Perfection cannot lower its standard otherwise it would no longer be perfect would it? While God is perfect in every way man is wicked. How do we know that? Look at the mirror of God's commandments,

1. We are to have no other God's before us yet we serve ourslves, and everything else, rather than the one who created us.

2. We are not to blaspheme God's name yet all of us has done it. Imagine if I mocked your name every day. How would you react? Not well I presume.

3. We are to never kill which includes hatred and making fun of others. We break this one all th time.

4. We aren't to lie yet we lie all of the time.

5. We aren't to steal yet most of us has stolen at least one thing in our lifetimes.

That is just 5 of the 10 commandments. Now are you getting the picture? Now do you see why God looks at the unsaved man outside Christ like he is a turd? In the major prophets God calls men a parasite. In the Psalms God calls men a dead stone statue. In Ephesians God calls men a walking corpse. In Jeremiah God calls men a wild horse that refuses to be tamed. In Peter men are called nothing but animals. In Daniel God calls men a beast and says h doesn't have the ability to reason. Simple logic is impossible to the unsaved. The atheist is an atheist because he can't reason anything out. In his unregenerate state he lacks the capability to use logic and hye doesn't even know it. The same applies to the catholic, mormon, buhhdist, muslim...ect. That is the scriptural position.

I injured my back some time ago and haven't been near a computer. Please feel free to visit the Christian Witness Union or the Bible Believer's Union. You will not be sorry.

I'm not sure who wrote this poem. I looked it up but there are various claims to authorship. The title of the poem is, The Prayer that Sends Many to Hell. There is a grave heresy today. It is no different from the baptismal regeneration controversy in the 1800's. It is the heresy that because you at one time prayed a prayer you are now saved. It is treated as some magic prayer that when prayed you have hell insurance. What kind of superstition has befallen us? Here is a video that goes along with the poem is you want to watch - The Prayer That Sends Many to Hell

The preacher said don't despair
the disease of death is not rare!
And you will leave here without losing a hair
Just open your mouth and let in the air
it is even ok if you shed a tear,
for that would not be rare

he made me feel very swell
by his magical spell
and I stopped dwelling on my fear
for I trusted all would be well

I tell you beware
of such an affair were you say a prayer
and its promised you'll be an heir
and that your soul will be sparred
it makes you feel sure
that you will endure
but he forgets to tell
that you would not yell
till you'll be burning in hell

This man may now be preaching
but till be soon he be screeching

Just ask the Apostle Paul
for he will not be able to recall
when a church was like a mall
where buildings stood tall and dresses were small
and no one responded to the gospel call

to say all you have to do is utter a sentence
is the most shameful scam
and be sure it will have you dammed

the sinner's prayer might have a good impression
but it is full of demonic possession
and only leads to eternal transgression
for it is a false profession

for the Bible's sake
the sinner's prayer is fake
it's time to wake
for on judgment day you will begin to say
I asked you in my heart
and he will say depart

This article is written by Dr. R.C. Sproul. He can explain this far better than I. It is called predestination. It has been one of the foundational doctrines in church history.

Few doctrines spark as much controversy or provoke as much consternation as the doctrine of predestination. It is a difficult doctrine that demands to be handled with great care and caution. Yet it is a biblical doctrine and therefore demands to be handled. We dare not ignore it.

Virtually all Christian churches have some doctrine of predestination. This is unavoidable since the concept is clearly found in Holy Scripture. Those churches however disagree, sometimes strongly, over its meaning. The Methodist view differs from the Lutheran view, which disagrees with the Presbyterian view. Though their views differ, each is trying to come to grips with this difficult matter.

What predestination means, in its most elementary form, is that our final destination, heaven or hell, is decided by God not only before we get there, but before we are even born. It teaches that our ultimate destiny is in the hands of God. Another way of saying it is this: From all eternity, before we even existed, God decided to save some members of the human race and to let the rest of the human race perish. God made a choice-He chose some individuals to be saved into everlasting blessedness in heaven and others He chose to pass over, to allow them to follow the consequences of their sins into eternal torment in hell.

Accepting this definition is common to many churches. To get to the heart of the matter one must ask, how does God choose? The non-Reformed view, held by the vast majority of Christians, is that God makes that choice on the basis of His foreknowledge. God chooses for eternal life those whom He knows will choose Him. This is called the prescient view of predestination because it rests on God's foreknowledge of human decisions or acts.

The Reformed view differs in that it sees the ultimate decision for salvation resting with God and not with us. In this view, God's election is sovereign. It does not rest upon the foreseen decisions or responses of human beings. Indeed, it sees those decisions as flowing from the sovereign grace of God.

The Reformed view holds that, left to himself, no fallen person would ever choose God. Fallen people still have a free will and are able to choose

what they desire. But the problem is that we have no desire for God and will not choose Christ unless first regenerated. Faith is a gift that comes out of rebirth. Only those who are elect will ever respond to the gospel in faith.

The elect do choose Christ, but only because they were first chosen by God. As in the case of Jacob and Esau, the elect are chosen solely on the basis of the sovereign good pleasure of God and not on the basis of anything they have done or will do. Paul declares:

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." . . . So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:10-12, 16)

A vexing problem with predestination is that God does not choose or elect to save everybody. He reserves the right to have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. Some of fallen humanity receive the grace and mercy of election. The rest God passes over, leaving them in their sin. The nonelect receive justice. The elect receive mercy. No one receives injustice. God is not obligated to be merciful to any or to all alike. It is His decision how merciful He chooses to be. Yet He is never guilty of being unrighteous toward anyone (see Romans 9:14-15).

Summary

1. Predestination is a difficult doctrine and must be handled with care.

2. The Bible teaches the doctrine of predestination.

3. Many Christians define predestination in terms of God's foreknowledge.

4. The Reformed view does not consider foreknowledge to be an explanation of biblical predestination.

5. Predestination is based upon God's choice, not the choice of human beings.

6. Unregenerate people have no desire to choose Christ.

7. God does not elect everybody. He reserves the right to have mercy upon whom He pleases.

8. God treats no one unjustly.

Biblical passages for reflection:

Proverbs 16:4

John 13:18

Romans 8:30

Ephesians 1:3-14

2 Thessalonians 2:13-13

For further reading go to monergism.com

So many say that God is a God of love. While that is true (1 John 4:8; Jere 31:3), most view God's love as always overlooking sin. Like a parent who lets their child do whatever they want without ever punishing them. If society looks down on parents for being that way why should we think of God's love that way? Is God a derelict Father? The truth is, if God is a loving God He must hate. I love children therefore I hate abortion. I love african-americans therefore I hate racism and slavery. I love truth therefore I hate lying. You see, God must hate if He is truly loving. The bible says God is perfect (Deut. 32), righteous (Psalm 7:9), holy (Isaiah 5:16) and on and on. His attributes are neverending. One could study God and never come to an end of His knowledge. He is truly majestic.

In Isaiah 6 Isaiah sees the Lord on His throne high and lifted up. Isaiah gets a small glimpse of God's purity. That glimpse was enough to send him to the floor in agony and cause him to pronounce a curse upon himself. Isaiah was admitting that since God was so pure He could not pardon him. (Proverbs 17:15) God is so pure that if e came down to earth right now in all His glory we would all immediately die. Consumed in seconds. Dead before we could hit the floor. God's purity is of such a nature that our minds can't even grasp it. Thank on that?

What does that have to do with God hating? Well, if God is that pure He must hate evil. Since He is a God of truth He must hate liars (9th commandment). Since He is life (Psalm 36) He hates murder which would include hate which kills the soul. Since God is perfect He demands perfect obedience to you parents (5th commandment) and hates disobedience. I could go on. The Doctrine of the hatred of God is all throughout the bible. Let's look at some passages.

Psalm 5:4-6 says,

4For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. 5The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 6Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

Notice that in verse 4 its points to God's purity and perfection. God and evil cannot coexist. Get that! Understand it! Because of that purity and perfection God hates those who are lawless (that is what iniquity means; see 10 commandments). You cannot seperate the sin from the sinner. The verse says God hates the lawless. Verse 6 says God abhors the deceitful. We have all lied which puts us in deep crap. we have all broken God's commandments (thus making us lawless) and done it with joy. if God is love He must punish us. He must hate us. Here are some quotes from some great men of church history,

Augustine (354-430): "He who said, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,' loved Jacob of His undeserved grace, and hated Esau of His deserved judgment" (Enchiridion, xcviii).

D. A. Carson: "Fourteen times in the first fifty psalms alone, we are told that God hates the sinner, his wrath is on the liar, and so forth" (The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, p. 79).

John MacArthur, Jr.: "In a very real sense, God hated Esau himself. It was not a petty, spiteful, childish kind of hatred, but something far more dreadful. It was divine antipathy-a holy loathing directed at Esau personally. God abominated him as well as what he stood for" (The Love of God, pp. 86-87).

If you ate outside Christ that means God hates you. His wrath is on you. But, in His everlasting love, Christ took your place. God demanded perfection. So Christ was perfect when you couldn't be. God's law was still broken and someone must suffer the just punishment. That is where Christ took our place. He suffered the punishment you and i deserved. Christ's love is eternal and unlike any other.

If you wish to learn more on the attributes of God go to Heartcrymissionary.com and download the pdf file One True God. i would als recommend you read the pdf file Truth About Man.

Nekros is where we get our word necromancer. It is koine greek and found in Revelation 20:12. It basically means one who has breathed his last or who is inanimate. The odd thing about this is it is said of people who can walk, talk, think...ect. While it is the time of the judgment these people still have all their faculties. So why are they called nekros? I want you to think of the world around you. Why do men murder over nothing. Why lie for no reason? Why lie at all? We all know how much better the world would be, especially our gov't, if we all told the truth, but we don't. Why? Why do spouses cheat on each other knowing it will destroy their families? Their marriages? Why do people steal knowing they'll likely get caught? Knowing their lives may be ruined? It is maddening and illogical but we do it any way. Why are we so greedy? We do everything we can to get more and more stuff and it often doesn't matter who we hurt? The world around us is a mess. Evolution can't explain this. Evolution can't explain why man is natually corrupt. Why kids are naturally wicked. They aren't called the terrible 2's for nothing. Scripture can,

1. Ezekiel 13, in the Hebrew, says we are a rotting stinking corpse. That is spoken of the living.

2. Psalm 51 says we are born loving sin. That it is natural to us.

3. Jeremiah 17:9 says man's mind is desparately wicked. Don't think so? Would you want us to show what you are thinking to your school? Parents? Neighbors? You'd never be able to show you face again. None of us would.

4. Job 15:16 says we drink sin like it is water. Doesn't that describe the would around you?

5. Ephesians 2:1 says we are dead in sins. A corpse. Utterly lifeless. Not if you are reading this you are onvously breathing. So what does that mean? It means you are dead spiriually.

6. Ezekial 36 compares your mind to that of a stone. Both are inanimate. Lifeless.

7. The gospels teach man is both blind and dumb.

8. Romans 1-3 teaches your mind is completely darkened. You have no ability to understand spiritual things. You have no ability to do good.

9. Romans 6 says those that are outside Christ are dead. A walking corpse.

If mankind is this depraved spiritually, then doesn't that explain why mankind has always been wicked? From the beginning of history man has lied, cheated, killed, stolen, raped, oppressed, enslaved, coveted...ect. If evolution were true mankind could evolve morally but we don't. Man has always been corrupt. You know this is true! You know lying or taking God's name in vain or killing (includes with words) comes naturally to you. You've done it without a second thought. All of us has. It is just natural to you just like the bible says. Evolution cant explain that.

If you are outside Christ you are a walkin corpse. Ever wondered if you were in the bible? Turn to Revelation 20:12. John seens a vision of the nekros. The dead. He saw you. Repent of your sins this day and truth in Christ. Call out to Him and Him alone for salvation.

This is one of the basic questions of life. Why do we do the things we do? Why do we lie, cheat, steal murder, rape, lust? Why can't we stop doing these things? We are we naturally corrupt? In his book the Essential Truth's of the Christian Faith Dr. R.C. Sproul deals with the doctrine of man's depravity.

As we said in the previous chapter, a common point of debate among theologians focuses on the question, are human beings basically good or basically evil? The hinge upon which the argument turns is the word basically. It is a virtual universal consensus that nobody is perfect. We accept the maxim "To err is human."

The Bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Despite this verdict on human shortcomings, the idea persists in our humanistically dominated culture that sin is something peripheral or tangential to our nature. Indeed, we are flawed by sin. Our moral records exhibit blemishes. But somehow we think that our evil deeds reside at the rim or edge of our character and never penetrate to the core. Basically, it is assumed, people are inherently good.

After being rescued from captivity in Iraq and experiencing firsthand the corrupt methods of Saddam Hussein, one American hostage remarked, "Despite all that I endured I never lost my confidence in the basic goodness of people." Perhaps this view rests in part on a sliding scale of the relative goodness or wickedness of people. Obviously some people are far more wicked than others. Next to Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler the ordinary run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint. But if we lift our gaze to the ultimate standard of goodness-the holy character of God-we realize that what appears to be a basic goodness on an earthly level is corrupt to the core.

The Bible teaches the total depravity of the human race. Total depravity means radical corruption. We must be careful to note the difference between total depravity and utter depravity. To be utterly depraved is to be as wicked as one could possibly be. Hitler was extremely depraved, but he could have been worse than he was. I am a sinner. Yet I could sin more often and more severely than I actually do. I am not utterly depraved, but I am totally depraved. For total depravity means that I and everyone else are depraved or corrupt in the totality of our being. There is no part of us that is left untouched by sin. Our minds, our wills, and our bodies are affected by evil. We speak sinful words, do sinful deeds, have impure thoughts. Our very bodies suffer from the ravages of sin.

Perhaps radical corruption is a better term to describe our fallen condition than "total depravity." I am using the word radical not so much to mean "extreme," but to lean more heavily on its original meaning. Radical comes from the Latin word for "root" or "core." Our problem with sin is that it is rooted in the core of our being. It permeates our hearts. It is because sin is at our core and not merely at the exterior of our lives that the Bible says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10-12)

It is because of this condition that the verdict of Scripture is heard: we are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1); we are "sold under sin" (Romans 7:14); we are in "captivity to the law of sin" (Romans 7:23) and are "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3). Only by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit may we be brought out of this state of spiritual death. It is God who makes us alive as we become His craftsmanship (Ephesians 2:1-10).

Summary

1. Humanism sees sin at the edge or periphery of human life. It considers human beings to be basically good.

2. Biblical Christianity teaches that sin permeates the core of our life.

3. Total depravity is not utter depravity. We are not as wicked as we possibly could be.

4. Radical corruption points to the core sinfulness of our hearts.

Passages for Reflection

Jeremiah 17:9

Romans 1:19-3:18

Ephesians 2:1-3

I am reading a simple little book by Dr. R.C. Sproul entitled The Essential Truths of the Christian Faith. In it he has a chatper on justification by faith alone thru Christ alone. it is the most important doctrine for christians yet most don't even know wha it is. Catholics think this doctrine a fairy tale. I'm not sure why. Paul spends almost 3 chapters on it in Romans 3:19-5. Paul also deals with it in Galatians 2-3 as well as many other passages. Here is a tiny article on what this vital doctrine is,

Martin Luther declared that justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls. This cardinal doctrine of the Protestant Reformation was seen as the battleground for nothing less than the gospel itself.

Justification may be defined as that act by which unjust sinners are made right in the sight of a just and holy God. The supreme need of unjust persons is righteousness. It is this lack of righteousness that is supplied by Christ on behalf of the believing sinner. Justification by faith alone means

justification by the righteousness or merit of Christ alone, not by our goodness or good deeds.

The issue of justification focuses on the question of merit and grace. Justification by faith means that the works we do are not good enough to merit justification. As Paul puts it, "By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20). Justification is forensic. That is, we are declared, counted, or reckoned to be righteous when God imputes the righteousness of Christ to our account. The necessary condition for this is faith.

Protestant theology affirms that faith is the instrumental cause of justification in that faith is the means by which the merits of Christ are appropriated to us. Roman Catholic theology teaches that baptism is the primary instrumental cause of justification and that the sacrament of penance is the secondary, restorative cause. (Roman Catholic theology views penance as the second plank of justification for those who have made shipwreck of their souls-those who have lost the grace of justification by committing mortal sin.) The sacrament of penance requires works of satisfaction by which human beings achieve congruous merit for justification. The Roman Catholic view affirms that justification is by faith, but denies that it is by faith alone, adding good works as a necessary condition.

The faith that justifies is a living faith, not an empty profession of faith. Faith is a personal trust that clings to Christ alone for salvation. Saving faith is also a penitent faith that embraces Christ as both Savior and Lord.

The Bible says that we are not justified by our own good works, but by what is added to us by faith, namely the righteousness of Christ. In a synthesis, something new is added to something basic. Our justification is a synthesis because we have the righteousness of Christ added to us. Our justification is by imputation. God transfers to us, by faith, the righteousness of Christ. This is not a "legal fiction" because God ascribes to us the real merit of Christ, to whom we now belong. It is a real imputation.

Summary

1. Justification is an act of God whereby He declares unjust sinners to be just after He has imputed to them the righteousness of Christ.

2. No one can earn justification by good works.

3. Faith is the necessary condition to receive the imputation of the merits of Christ.

4. Justification requires a living and real faith, not a mere profession of faith.

Biblical passages for reflection:

Romans 3:21-28

Romans 5:12-19

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Galatians 2:11-21

Ephesians 2:1-10

Philippians 3:7-11