Contending EARNESTLY For THE Faith 1 September 1999
ContendingEARNESTLYSeptember1999 for THE FaithVolume 5.21Published byChristian Witness MinistriesDirector & Editor: Philip L. Powell philip.powell@christian-witness.co.nz http://www.christian-witness.orgThe CrowningDAY!“I live for today nor anxious be;Jesus my Lord I soon shall see;GLAD DAY! GLAD DAY!Is it the crowning DAY?”ECUMENISMOUR Lord’s End Time Prophecy—Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21—emphasises four progressiveand three specific “signs” that we are totake note of:WARS: i.e. continuing and escalatinghuman conflict;EARTHQUAKES: i.e. ongoing and increasing natural disasters;SIGNS IN HEAVEN: i.e. unusual astronomical events;APOSTASY: i.e. undermining of truefaith.There is no doubt that these thingshave occurred in varying degreethroughout Church history. There isequally no doubt that they are happening with greater regularity and increasing intensity in our time precisely asJesus warned.The three specific signs are:National Israel Restored;Jewish Worship Corrupted;Jerusalem Surrounded.The coming together of these four progressive and three specific signs in anintensifying manner is a certain indication that Christ’s return may be close.That’s why we must re-double ourefforts to reach the lost and to rescuethe deceived. To this end we dedicatethis issue of CETF with confidence, faithand optimism. God bless you.Luke 21:28 “And when these thingsbegin to come to pass, then look up,and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.”BABYLONRISINGTHE Pope was recognised as theoverall authority in the Christianworld by an Anglican and RomanCatholic commission which describedhim as a ‘gift to be received by all thechurches.’ After five years of debate, the18 member Anglican-Roman Catholiccommission concluded that the Bishopof Rome had a ‘specific ministry concerning the discernment of truth’ andaccepted that only the Pope had themoral authority to unite the variousChristian denominations.Dr George Carey, the Archbishop ofCanterbury, called for a debate on thereport’s findings. He said, ‘In a world tornapart by violence and division, ChristiansINSIDE:2411131922need urgently to be able to speak with acommon voice, confident of the authority of the gospel of peace.’It is in fact the authority of the Gospeland the whole Word of God which hasin the past prevented Bible believingChristians from being able to speak witha common voice with the Roman Catholic Church. Rome’s history is one of suppression of the truths of the Gospel andtheir replacement with a religious system which bound people up with deadworks in the vain attempt to earn salvation and brought them into submissionto a corrupted clergy.It has also been guilty of the mostappalling persecution of Bible believingChristians for which it has never repented or made any restitution. Themajor false doctrines of Roman Catholicism which the Reformation opposedare:1. Justification by works. BUT theBible teaches we are saved by faith inthe work of Jesus Christ dying as asacrifice for our sins (Ephesians 2:8-10).2. Baptismal regeneration—that ababy becomes a Christian throughbeing baptised. BUT the Bible teachesthat we must be ‘born again’ (John 3:58) through repentance and faith in whatJesus Christ has done for us, after whichwe are baptised (Acts 2.38).3. Worship of images. BUT the 10commandments which forbid idolatryremain valid for Christians (Exodus 20:46, Romans 1:18-25).4. Celibacy—forbidding priests tohttp://www.christian-witness.orgFOOL’S GOLDDarkness or DawnRHB—“Good News New York”NEWS and MORE VIEWSBenny Hinn—The Next LevelBOOK REVIEW: White Cane Religion
2marry, thus creating a distinctionbetween the priesthood and the laity.BUT the Bible teaches the priesthood ofall believers (1 Peter 2:4-10, Revelation5:10). Peter, considered falsely to be thefirst Pope, had a wife and enforced celibacy is described as a ‘doctrine ofdemons’ (1 Corinthians 9:5, 1 Timothy4:1-3).5. Confessionalism—where sins areconfessed to a priest who then declaresabsolution for those sins. BUT the Bibleteaches that we confess our sins to Godand receive forgiveness through theblood of Jesus (1 John 1:5-2.2).6. Purgatory—a place which is neither heaven nor hell, BUT a place whereone has to be refined before going toheaven. But in the Bible there is onlyheaven and hell and those who aresaved in this life need no further refinement (Matthew 25:46, Revelation 21:18).7. Transubstantiation—the conceptof the continual and perpetual sacrificeof Christ through the Mass. BUT the Bible teaches that Christ’s sacrifice wascomplete and that the communion or theLord’s supper is the remembrance ofthat sacrifice (Hebrews 9:28, 1Corinthians 11:23-32).8. Indulgences—where through thegiving of money a person’s time in purgatory could be reduced. BUT sincethere is no such place as purgatory, thisbecame a trick to deceive people intogiving money to the church in the Middle Ages. There is no way that we canbuy favour with God (1 Peter 1:18-19).9. Penance—involving the torment ofone’s body in order to reduce time inpurgatory. BUT Christ died for our sins,the just for the unjust, in order that wemight be redeemed to God.10. Mariolatry—the worship of the virgin Mary, her elevation to the ‘mother ofGod’ to be considered co-Redemptrix(i.e. she plays a part in our redemptionalong with the Lord Jesus) and the declaration of her ‘immaculate conception’—i.e. she was conceived withoutsin. BUT this is the importing of theBabylonian system of the worship of thegoddess, ‘Queen of heaven’ into Christianity. Mary was in fact a faithful Jewish woman called Miriam who played avital role in bringing Jesus into the worldthrough the miracle of the virgin birth.After this she had other children in thenatural way and was a believer in Jesus. There is no other mediator betweenGod and man except the Lord Jesus (1Timothy 2:5).While Rome may play down some ofthese doctrines in order to appear moreacceptable to modern man, none havebeen repented of or renounced and ba-Contending EARNESTLY for THE Faithsically Rome remains in its own words‘semper eadem’—always the same.In view of all this, the push for a unitedchurch, with the Pope as its head willnot be a triumph for the Gospel but forapostasy. As Protestants abandon theBible as their authority it becomes possible for them to consider what wouldhave been unthinkable for the Reformers—accepting the Pope as the authority over the Christian world.However in these days where theAlpha Course has become the norm forevangelicals and Catholics as an introduction to Christianity, nothing shouldsurprise us. Alpha is acceptable to Romeand its authors see no conflict betweenRoman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity.This is part of the general trend ofreligious unity, which goes way beyondsimply uniting the Christian churches.It ties in with the prophecies relatingto an apostasy (falling away from thetruth) amongst evangelical churches anda coming together of world religions ina religious system like that of ancientRome. In the Roman Empire people werefree to follow which ever god theywished to, as long as they submitted tothe overall authority of the Emperor whowas known as ‘Pontifex Maximus’(supreme bridge maker—a title takenover in the fourth century by the Bishopof Rome/Pope). They placed their godsin the Pantheon (all gods) in Rome(the Spirit Zone in the Millennium Domeis a modern parallel to this) and keptthe peace (‘Pax Romana’) by not tryingto convert people from their religions.The early Christians could neitheraccept the divine status of the Emperornor keep quiet about the one way ofsalvation they had found in Jesus andso ran into conflict with the Empire,resulting in persecution and martyrdom.As we come into the last days of thisage we should not be surprised to seethe rise of Babylon as described in Revelation 17:3-6:“And I saw a woman sitting on ascarlet beast which was full of names ofblasphemy, having seven heads and tenhorns. The woman was arrayed inpurple and scarlet, and adorned withgold and precious stones and pearls,having in her hand a golden cup full ofabominations and the filthiness of herfornication. And on her forehead a namewas written: Mystery Babylon the Great,the Mother of Prostitutes and of theAbominations of the Earth. And I saw thewoman, drunk with the blood of thesaints and with the blood of the martyrsof Jesus. And when I saw her I marvelledwith great amazement.”TONY PIERCEFOOL’SGOLDIn light of the recent coverage inthe media concerning the claimsof gold teeth manifestations,Siam Bhayro casts a concernedeye on the portrayal and perception of Charismatic/PentecostalChristianity.THE British ITV night-time news andcurrent affairs programme Tonightwith Trevor McDonald featured anin-depth report by journalist JonathanMaitland on the “gold-teeth” and “golddust” phenomena sweeping through theCharismatic and Pentecostal churchesat present. The report itself is to becommended for its objectivity and fairminded approach, as well as its knowledge of the context within which thesephenomena are occurring—particularlythe same circles which promoted theToronto Phenomena.The interview was of considerableinterest, not least because it providedample air-time for Gerald Coates to putacross his view of current events. In viewof our past articles on Mr Coates, itcomes of no surprise that, rather thantake advantage of the opportunity topreach the gospel of Christ, he launchedhimself into a flawed and rather embarrassing defence of the “gold teeth” phenomenon.Mr Coates’ opening comment was:“If there is just one case of this that’sproven, then it’s the scientist’s holygrail.”The following is an unedited transcription of the interview between MrMaitland and Mr Coates:
Contending EARNESTLY for THE Faith Gerald Coates: I know of three separate people who are friends and acquaintances who have been back to theirdentist and the dentist has said, “Wellwhat is in your mouth is not what is inmy records” so something quite unusualis going on here.Jonathan Maitland: In your view,how significant is this?GC: Well God doesn’t intervene inmany of the situations we would like Himto, because He would have to intervenein everything we say and do that’swrong, right the way through to some ofthe most terrible things happening innations. What He does is He gives ussigns that He is with us and that we candraw help from Him. Jesus changedwater into wine. That had no functionreally. They had already run out of winein the party so He was only aiding andabetting more drinking.JM: So you think this is just a modernequivalent of that—this is a bona fidemiracle?GC: Yes I think it’s true to say that Godis touching people with gold as signsthat He is still with us and although millions have turned their back on Him, Hehas not turned His back on us. The report showed footage of a meeting in Surrey with Gerald Coates andChilean Miguel Escobar. At this meeting, a lady called Sally was brought tothe front amidst exciting claims that goldwas appearing in her mouth. Standingat the front, with Gerald Coates holdingthe microphone beside her, she said, “Ifit is gold, then I just praise the Lord because I really want to show people howreal Jesus is and if this is a way of showing them then thank you Jesus.”Sally’s thanksgiving and prayer werecertainly genuine enough, which is sadin view of what followed later in the report. A few days later, Jonathan Maitlandinterviewed Sally in her Kent home. Sallyhad been to the dentist and had the following statement to make: “The dentisthad a look at my teeth and as I’d probably suspected anyway by that momentall he saw was amalgam.” He said, “No,your fillings are amalgam—they’re notgold.”Jonathan Maitland commented as follows: “But Sally says the dentist’s verdict was irrelevant. Far more importantshe says was that she felt God’s pres-ence at the meeting and as a result herfaith is stronger than ever.”As if to reinforce his assessment, Sallythen said, “My faith has been here for along time. It’s not going to be rocked bythe fact that gold did or didn’t stay.”Another part of the report featuresanother Charismatic meeting after whichJonathan Maitland interviews severalworshippers. One claims to have golddust on her hands, to which the bemused reporter is compelled to answerthat he only sees sweat. The responsefrom the believer was a relativistic“that’s your opinion.”This feature was seen by many viewers in the United Kingdom and, as such,presents certain problems. Firstly, thepresentation of fundamentalist Christianity in the media is at best embarrassing, and at worst a discredit to Christand His Gospel. The report itself was fair.Jonathan Maitland did his best topresent all involved in a positive manner. But the objective viewer cannot escape the conclusion that CharismaticChristians are quite willing to deludethemselves and build their faith on experience rather than on the Scriptures.What is particularly distressing is thateven when the world is not out to discredit us, we discredit ourselves!When will we realise that the Gospelof Christ is itself a stumbling block? Ourfaith appears foolish to many in its purest form, but it is a “folly” in the world’seyes only, and a folly we are privilegedto share in. But to take the purity of theGospel and sully it with true foolishnessis an affront to our Lord and somethingwe should weep over. Let the world discredit us, but let us not do it ourselves.But even more distressing than theignorance demonstrated by the faithfuladherents to these latest phenomenawas the ignorance demonstrated by theone presented as their leader—the onechosen to speak on our behalf andpresent us to the outside world—GeraldCoates.From his opening statement concerning the scientistís holy grail, to his explanation of the significance of the current phenomena, Mr Coates displayeda lack of coherence and understandingof our Lord’s ministry.Ask yourself this simple question—What does the phrase the scientist’s holygrail actually mean? The answer obviously varies from field to field, but such3things as cold fusion or perpetual motion come to mind. Just what has thistrain of thought got to do with the supposed supernatural appearance of goldtooth fillings or the materialisation of“gold dust”? With a little bit of thought,Mr Coatesí opening phrase turns out tobe complete nonsense. Now there is aserious point to this reasoning. Whenone subjects the prating (c/f. 3 John 10with 1 Tim 6:20) of this man to any reasonable analysis, it is found to be in wantof reason and coherence. In short, it isvain and nonsensical babbling.This is compounded by the utter lackof respect for our Lord. In the past, MrCoates has described the Lord JesusChrist as “fun and unthreatening”—twoadjectives which are not suitable for theOne who will appear in the air and smitethe armies of the world. In the interviewreproduced above, the demeaning of theLordís first sign at the wedding of Canaagain betrays Mr Coates’ scorn for theperson and work of our Saviour. If wedisplay no respect for our Lord, what canwe expect of the world?I recently heard a preacher state thatthe significance of the Cana miracle wasthat the Lord Jesus was making the following statement: “The kingdom ofheaven is a party—and the drinks are onme!” Such folly in respect to our Lordnot only betrays the wanton state of thevisible church, but also that many ministers today have simply forgotten howto preach properly. Take as another example this quote from Nicky Gumbel inthe UK national daily newspaper The Independent (Thursday 17th September,1998): Paul says “Don’t get drunk withwine, be filled with the Spirit. Cometo a party where you can get drunkon God”.Just how can we ask for respect fromthe world when we allow ourselves tobe presented in this manner?But beneath all the nonsensicaljabbering of the Gumbels and Coates ofthis world lies a more sinister problem—doctrine. We have already covered theproblematic doctrines of these two menin past issues of Vanguard and suchthings do not need repeating here. Itsuffices to say that it comes of no surprise that, in the absence of anythingtrue and good to say, such men are leftto babble their own inflated thoughts anddiscredit our Lord further.by SIAM BHAYRO
Contending EARNESTLY for THE FaithDARKNESSORDAWN 4 “.but David encouraged himself inthe LORD his God” —1 Sam 30:6 b.HE needed to for no-one else didor would. Look at the context.Read the previous two chaptersand the one in which our text is found.Humanly speaking the situation washopeless.Saul had led Israel into such abackslidden state that the truly anointedof the Lord — David — was actuallyjoined against the people of God, if notin battle at least in heart. He had joinedforces with the Philistines. May bethere’s a parallel today! Some of us havefrequently been accused of being opposed to the church, but I’m not. Pleaseread on and let the Holy Spirit illumineto your mind other present day applications to the Church.Just prior to the incident, which givesrise to our text, were it not for the factthat a Sovereign God was orderingthings, David would have found himselfin an untenable position, which wouldhave threatened his true loyalty or hisvery life; and it wasn’t really of his making. It was because he was harassed andpursued by Saul whom God continuedto allow to rule over Israel. I wonder why?Well, God permits strange things attimes to reveal His glory and show thatit’s neither Saul nor David but God Almighty who truly rules over the affairs ofHis people.Have you noticed the irony of God’sways? Chased from his land by Saul,David sought refuge among the peopleof the giant that he slew when he became champion of Israel and not onlythat but in the very city from whichGoliath hailed. It was Achish, king ofGath who gave David refugee status —1 Samuel 27:1-4 — having previouslybeen deceived by David playing the“mad-man”, when it first became knownthat he was the slayer of Goliath of Gath— c/f 1 Sam 21:10-15.But in the providence of God the tables will turn and first it will get worsebefore it gets better as it so often doeswith the ways of God. The Philistineswho hosted him as a refugee will eventually turn against him and drive Davidaway. God couldn’t allow King David tofight for the Philistines against Israel.That would be irony gone mad. Ofcourse it might give David anotherchance to kill Saul or, as the Philistinesfeared, an opportunity to ingratiate himself with his king and former master —c/f 1 Sam 29:4. God has other plans —His own plan.Saul’s time is running out! Like hismuch later successor King Ahab ofwhom we wrote in the last CETF, (Vol 5.1— March/April ’99) Saul too has an appointment on the mountains of Israel andit’s going to be a witch, the Witch ofEndor who will prophesy it via anectoplasmic or demonic impersonationof the great prophet and intercessor,Samuel — 1 Sam 28:15-20. Strange indeed are the ways that God allows, butthank God He is always right, and Histiming is always precise.As Philistia is fighting Israel and whileDavid and his men are absent from thecity that King Achish gave to them —c/f 1 Sam 27:6 — the raiding Amalekites,another enemy of God’s true people,make their attack. Setting fire to Ziklagthey carry off all the defenceless womenand children. David and his men returnto such utter devastation that they weepunashamedly until they can weep nomore.After the tears things are about to turnreally nasty for the man who is destinedto be Israel’s greatest King. All the people began to turn on him. Then Davidshows his true greatness:“ .but David encouraged himself in theLORD his God” —1 Sam 30:6 bNow let me draw some specific parallels between that day and our time aswe apply the truth of our text. I’m sureyou’ve seen others as the Holy Spirit hasopened His truth to your heart and mind.CHRISTIAN LEADERSA backslidden leadership has brokenthrough t
demons’ (1 Corinthians 9:5, 1 Timothy 4:1-3). 5. Confessionalism—where sins are confessed to a priest who then declares absolution for those sins. BUT the Bible teaches that we confess our sins to God and receive forgiveness through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:5-2.2). 6. Purgatory—a p
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6 Contending for the Faith I Was a Heretic 1) The Trinity My friend was having trouble getting his mind around the Trinity. He was certainly not alone in his perplexity. Perhaps no teaching of Christianity has generated more debate, discussion and literature. Yet this fundamental tenet of the
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