Sorry for not posting much the past few months, I have been somewhat busy but I hope every one of you had a very enjoyable holiday season. I do want to share with you a great resource that I found: www.mitchin.com <- This website has hundreds of Christian apologetic and Christian philosophy resources in the form of audio (mp3) and they link to the sites that contain the mp3's. They basically are a type of 'indexer' or a 'google' of great sites such as www.reasonablefaith.org (William Lane Craig’s Website) and sites like “The Veritas Forum” (www.veritas.org) This site also contains some reading materials in the form of PDF’s. This website also contains many debates which make for great learning experience’s by listening to them and taking notes. I have listened to many debates 3 or 4 times over again to help edify my own faith.

During the past few months I have been scouring this site (Mitchin.com) and downloading and listening to many many apologetic, philosophical, and scriptural teachings. I love learning from people like William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland!

Recently I was listening to an atheistic critic who basically made the argument that the only reason Christian’s do not sin or do not try to sin is to get to heaven or prevent [a Holy Righteous] God from allowing calamity from coming upon us, but this is not true! This person lacks knowledge of fundamental Christian tenants and beliefs. For all you atheists out there who believe that we try not to sin because we cower in fear of God have it backwards; we Christians try not to sin because we love God so very much. Just as a husband buy’s flowers for his wife to show his love for her, so a Christian tries to do good in the sight of a loving God to show love for Him for we have a living, personal and intimate relationship with God because of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. I try not to sin because my God (The One True Triune and Only True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) is my everything and my only thing. He is my latern of light in a world of darkness. No matter what befalls me I know that through Christ Jesus I am loved of God and I love Him. This is the hope of the Christian, this is the reason why we try to not sin and try to please him by righteous acts or time spent studying in the Holy Scriptures which He has provided for us.

I do plan to post some more in the coming days including the sermon recommendations and great quotes as well as a leaflet I found at my door in december from a Messianic / Jewish Christian group. I do hope that all 2.5 of you reading this blog (hehe) will continue to check back. Thank You.

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” -John 15:9 KJV

P.S. — How do you pronounce 2010? Is it “Twenty-Ten”, “Two-Thousand and Ten”, “O-Ten” or just “Ten”? Personally, I like “Two-Thousand and Ten”.

“If you were offended over the symbol of the cross you really need to see a psychologist…you are far to unstable to be a citizen of this society, you make me nervous when you get behind the wheel of a minivan” – Pastor Marc Monte of Faith Baptist, Avon, Indiana.,‘Life Lessons from Jeremiah Part 18′

Hehe, gotta love Pastor Monte.

“…A free people given the vast freedoms that we enjoy as Americans can only rightly be governed if they fear God and believe in moral absolutes…” – Pastor Marc Monte of Faith Baptist, Avon, Indiana.,‘Life Lessons from Jeremiah Part 18′

“The secularism of our land increasingly embraces a pseudo-Marxist philosophy by default…when you embrace evolution you embrace ultimately Marxism because evolution is the foundational theory on which Marxism is built; survival of the fittest in the matter of the species, survival of the strongest in the matter of the human race…[Karl] Marx believed in evolution…Karl Marx wanted to dedicate his book to evolution…Why bring this up?” [you gotta listen to the sermon to find out, haha! ] -Pastor Marc Monte of Faith Baptist Church, Avon, Indiana., ‘Life Lessons from Jeremiah Part 18′

Pastor Marc Monte is preaching a series of sermons titled “Life Lessons from Jeremiah” and I find these sermons highly educational with respect to American history, Biblical history, and the history of Jeremiah’s time. Pastor Marc Monte also does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting those three subjects, therefore the sermon of the week is: Life Lessons from Jeremiah Part 18(click!) This is a very practical series in which you can take away important ‘life lessons’ as well as learn much from the three subjects mentioned above. Pastor Marc Monte is the best ‘practical preacher’ that I’ve ever heard and the best ‘straight shooting from the hip’ pastor out there. Pastor Monte will not tell you what you want to hear, he’ll tell you what you need to hear and furthermore he speaks so plainly that you’ll be hard pressed to find this kind of preaching (combined with his Biblical and Historical depth of knowledge) in any other church.

“Some of the dumbest people in this country sit on the Supreme Court, you would have to go to college for a long time to become as stupid as some of them are, takes years to get that way.” – Pastor Marc Monte of Faith Baptist, Avon, Indiana.,‘Life Lessons from Jeremiah Part 18′

– Classic Monte

Cross-Like T-Shirt Design at Penn State University Sparks Controversy

A blue, cross-like design emblazoned on T-shirts at Penn State University has some critics seeing red.

The shirts — intended to foster school spirit — sport a vertical blue line down the center with the words “Penn State White Out” emblazoned across the chest, forming a design that some say resembles a cross. The back of the shirt depicts the same blue line obscured by the words, “Don’t be intimated … It’s just me and 110,000 of my friends.” Roughly 30,000 of the shirts have been sold.

Link:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569665,00.html?test=latestnews

So, these new atheists who accuse us of being intolerant, are they supposed to be the tolerant ones? Total hypocrisy by these anti-God ‘new atheists’ who claim religion is intolerant but they are the tolerant ones?. It resembles a cross! Resembles! What a joke, like those new atheists I wrote about earlier: these new atheists are the intolerant ones, not Christians. They cannot even stand the thought of God or anything related to Him. I do wonder though, if it resembled another religious symbol — would they be up in arms over it? (Maybe if it resembled a star of David they still would be upset due to rampant anti-Semitism across this country’s universities)

RELATED: Florida Man Says Home Depot Fired Him for Wearing ‘One Nation Under God’ Pin (another disgusting article if true and it probably is but I bet Home Depot will spin this one via ‘strict dress code’)

These ‘new atheists‘ are simply notoriously vocal ‘God-haters’ who love to go on TV and attempt to shock the masses with an absurd statement without proving any premise that he may claim. His favorite avenue is the internet and television; and he loves to take statements from the Bible (almost always out of context) and misshape them to fit some grotesque argument in the process of making some random outlandish point just for the sake of being outlandish and grotesque. I do have some respect for atheists who truly understand how to debate a creationist, and truly understand evolutionary science as well as arguments from design, but Mr. Hitchens is not one of them. At the very least, he is entertaining if you can tolerate him.

I also want to mention that Dr. Turek’s site is www.CrossExamined.org on which the debate is posted. His site contains some resources for a ‘beginner apologetic’. He also has a book out titled “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” and Dr. Norman Geisler helped contribute to this fine book. Click the title or click here to order the book or learn more about it. Highly recommended for believers AND unbelievers alike.

UPDATE: Dr. Phil Fernandes talks about these ‘New Atheists‘ during a radio interview which you can access by clicking HERE. These New Atheists really do not want to debate creation, evolution, existence of God, etc… all they want to do is disparage the idea of belief in a God and insult those who do believe. I had the unfortunate opportunity to listen to a clip of Bill Maher talking about Americans and evolution, and he has some of this ‘new atheism’ in him. They don’t want a real and fair debate and they do not want to give Christians a fair shake. Instead, they want to ridicule Christianity and tear down manger scenes. While they do ridicule other religions, the religion in their cross-hair is Christianity. It’s unfortunate, but in this day and age, these people make a living off of ridiculing belief in God and especially a ‘Judaeo-Christian God’.

It is hard to read your Bible when you have unconfessed sin in your life… Grieving over sin separates the believer from empty confessors – Pastor Tom Chesko

This Book will keep you from sin and sin will keep you from this book – D.L. Moody

Grieving over sin distinguishes the believer from false believers/confessors. Sensitivity to sin is a mark of a true believer. Pastor Tom Chesko delivers a great sermon on confession of sin, and grief of the Holy Spirit which you can listen to by clicking here.

Personally, I can think of many times in my life where I have sinned and wept bitterly and felt deep sorrow, and a dark depression like I’ve never known before. It may not always be that way when you sin, but when you know that that you know you have sinned against a Holy God, it is hard to do anything except to confess your sin before God and His Son Christ Jesus so that you may receive the joy of Christ again.

Regarding the quote by DL Moody, I must heartily agree. I find it extremely hard to take any joy in any activity in and with the LORD while living in sin or having unconfessed sin in my life. It is something that unbelievers cannot know nor understand, but it is a great thing to be convicted of sin no matter how bad you feel and it is especially hard to read your Bible if you have unconfessed sin or maybe do something that you think may be sin but are not 100% sure is sin. Some of you out there will understand what I mean.

I am sorry for lack of posting, but I have been ill (I think a fever but I hope not H1N1) and have undergone some serious stress the past 2.5 weeks. I hope to start posting again despite my 1 or 2 casual readers. Hehe.

Best-Selling Bible for Conservative Evangelicals to Undergo Revision

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text.

The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

“We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand,” said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.

But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.

The changes did not make all men “people” or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn’t intend it. So in some verses, references to “sons of God” became “children of God,” for example.

Supporters say gender-inclusive changes are more accurate and make the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness. [indeed! -TMA]

Acknowledging past missteps, the NIV’s overseers are promising that this time, the revision process will be more transparent and that they will actively promote what they describe as a long-held practice of inviting input from scholars and readers.

The NIV was first published in 1978 and more than 300 million NIV Bibles are in print worldwide; its publishers and distributors say the translation accounts for 30 percent of Bibles sold in North America.

The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, will oversee the new revision.

An effort earlier this decade to create a separate version of the NIV that used more gender-inclusive language in an attempt to reach a younger audience fell flat with groups that felt it crossed the line.

That edition, Today’s New International Version, will cease publication once the new-look NIV is released, said Moe Girkins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Zondervan, its North American publisher.
…

Click here to read the full article.

I’m definitely disturbed by the gender neutral revision. All I want is a reliable translation, not a biased re-interpretation so that it meets the measure of political correctness! Please, just translate the Hebrew and Greek correctly from our most reliable manuscripts. Do not purposely change the meaning of the text to fit a preconceived bias!

As some of you know, I prefer the KJV followed by the ASV (American Standard Version of 1901) which is followed by the NKJV,NAS, and NIV. Also, I’m currently reading the CJB (Complete Jewish Bible) which is a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament with the original Hebrew names and spellings and the NT with Jewish names (for example, ‘John’ is called by his Hebrew name ‘Yochanan’) and places such as Jerusalem which in the Hebrew transliteration to English is ‘Yerushalayim’.

I’m no ‘KJV-onlyist’ as chick.com advocates which is quite ridiculous but they do offer some good history lessons regarding the translations and I linked to them a few months ago. What is more ridiculous is this “gender-neutral” translation of the NIV. Such ashame, because when I came across the title of the article I was excited to see a new translation and then followed by supreme disappointment at this ‘politically correct Bible.’ Just what we need, huh? Sigh.

At least while writing this I stumbled across a pretty cool online Bible study tool! Check it out:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/

RE: Post Below, Hulu.com took down the movie (for now?). I hope they put it back up but I guess it was supposed to be limited so that people will buy the DVD/Blu-Ray. Meanwhile, I see if anyone else is offering it in case you missed it but don’t count on me being able to find one. ;(

Link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/91195/holy-land-hardball

“…but just don’t, don’t bring your Christianity outside those four walls, that’s intolerant…” – Phil Fernandes on sermon: “Being a Person God can use”

Links: Being a Person God can use Part 1 & Being a Person God can use Part 2

Also, there is another great sermon by Dr. Kenny Rhodes titled ‘Surviving Hurts in the Ministry’, click here to go to it. Highly Recommended.

Overview of Surviving Hurts in the Ministry:

The message of the seven “mystery” parables of Matthew 13. They teach the mixture of both evil and wickedness within the sphere of Christian ministry. Because there are “tares” in the church, the Pastor will naturally be a target of the one who sowed them.

Links: Scofield Seminary

Brief Sermon Overview:
Is the Shroud of Turin the burial cloth of Christ? This ancient cloth has been the center of debate and speculation for centuries. The ramifications of the authenticity of the cloth are astounding. Dr. Fernandes looks at the history of the Shroud and points out the evidence supporting the premise that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Here is a picture of the almost hidden picture of the face on the shroud, only seen via negative photo (more on that in the teaching):

Link: Is the Shroud of Turin the Burial Cloth of Christ?
Link: Dr. Phil Fernandes Sermons on SermonAudio.com

I’ve always been very skeptical of the Shroud of Turin but have never made up my mind if it’s real or fake. I’ve leaned toward it being a fake, but the fact that we cannot reproduce the negative image on the shroud with today’s technology has got me into the debate again (thanks Dr. Fernandes). Dr. Phil Fernandes does a good job on the Pro’s and the Con’s of the Shroud of Turin complete with a full history of the Shroud. He is convinced it is the burial cloth of Christ and many brothers and sisters in Christ do not, yet it is okay to differ, for HE IS RISEN and that is what we share and say together “Maranatha, Our Lord, Come!”.

Dr. Phil Fernandes is the founder of The Institute of Biblical Defense and has written several books which you can find on Amazon.com and his website.

http://lineoffireradio.askdrbrown.org/2009/07/23/july-23-2009/

Dr. Michael Brown is now reaching out to the homosexual community to attempt to save them, he has done many interviews which you can find here:

http://lineoffireradio.askdrbrown.org/category/homosexuality/

I think it is very important that we as heterosexual Christian’s are compassionate [and understanding to a degree] towards the homosexual community and not incite violence or hatred against homosexuals, rather, if we should come across homosexual(s), we should be an example of the love and compassion of Christ Jesus our LORD. Admittedly, I myself have not thought or done so to some homosexuals that I have met online because of similar interests and by chance. I have kept friendship with one and he is very open minded, but that as far as I have got with him…

There was an interesting radio segment Dr. Michael Brown did about a ‘transgender Christian’ and here is my response to his question “How to respond to a ‘transgender Christian’?” :

It is very simple for me. To dress as the opposite sex is a perversion of God’s Word, for God created you the sex you are and not to live as another sex [for he would have created you that way if he wanted you to live that way]. To do so is a perversion of God’s created order.

Check out the segment here: http://lineoffireradio.askdrbrown.org/2009/03/17/march-17-2009/

Links:
Line of Fire Radio
Ask Dr. Brown
Fire School of Ministry
Real Messiah!
Coalition of Conscience
Think It Thru TV
[all these sites are related to Dr. Michael Brown]

P.S. Edit: Also checkout this sermon by Dr. Phil Fernandes entitled “The Biblical Perspective on Homosexuality” by clicking here.