Reformed Blogging

  I wanted to blog about Pope Francis' health condition. However, the Internet speed has slowed down presumably due to ongoing repairs. WordPress requires faster Internet speed than Blogger. That's why I decided to write here (for now). Hopefully, I'll be able to go back to WordPress when the speed is back. The 88-year-old Pope Francis has been diagnosed with pneumonia . I lost a mid-80s relative to pneumonia.  This reminds me of the sensationalism I got engaged in. It's basically eschatomania. I remember thinking that Pope John Paul II's successor would be the False Prophet. However, Benedict XVI ruled for more than two years, before retiring due to health reasons. Benedict XVI would be too sick to play the role of the False Prophet. Some speculated that Pope Francis may be Petrus Romanus. This is all based on the Malachy Prophecies -- not a very reliable tool for studying Revelation ! Malachy is known today for a set of prophecies, purportedly written by him in 1...

I remember the time I had my slow transition from fundamentalist nutjob (like Jesus-is-Savior and Chick Publications) towards a more reformed view. Take note that I don't consider all fundamentalist Baptists to be nutjobs. I don't think all King James Version Only or KJV Only are belligerent like nutjob Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church. One of the authors I started to embrace is James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. White is a Reformed Baptist pastor and the author of many books such as "Sola Scriptura" and "The King James Only Controversy". I used to think debates are useless. The context of 1 Timothy 2:16 is to shun profane babblings - it doesn't mean that formal (and professional) discussion isn't allowed. A formal debate can be helpful in helping see the truth. White has had Catholic apologists in his show every now and then. One of them is Catholic apologist Trent Horn (who is part of Catholic Answers) whom he's had some ...

I'd like to give my own   thoughts on another possible reason why Martin Luther launched a reformation. People call it the Reformation but I'd call it simply another reformation. Before Luther, there was also Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola who can be considered as reformers themselves. Reforms mean amendments or correcting what's wrong. The Baptists and other pre-Reformation groups also emerged before Luther came. I heard Baptists got called as such because they insisted on Biblical baptism by immersion and told Roman Catholics that their infant baptism didn't save. For that, many Baptists were massacred during the Dark Ages. As Paul David Washer had said it right that the reformers didn't want to be called as such - they just wanted to be biblical . Luther as a Roman Catholic priest went to Rome and finally saw what he didn't expect - a city that was full of hypocrisy from within! Matthew 23:27-28   27 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! ...

I remembered the time after I got saved that I was guilt-induced many times. I had an aunt-by-marriage who came from an Evangelical background who later converted to Roman Catholicism. I was told about so and so was once a Protestant, found the truth, and became a Roman Catholic. At first, I was wondering should I go back to Rome? But the more I studied the Bible - the more I realized I had to let go of past ambitions that didn't match up with it. I was told to read the book "Rome Sweet Home" which two Presbyterians became Roman Catholics later on. No one can deny that Steve Ray was formerly a Southern Baptist. Some members of Catholic.com are former Evangelicals. But does that mean that Roman Catholicism is the true Church? Far from it. If you had the Bible known to you by God's grace then you can no longer accept a lie. But these Evangelicals converted into becoming Roman Catholics. John MacArthur's book "Hard to Believe" even had some of his former se...

  It's Reformation month and I want to write about why  I didn't return to attending Catholic masses after I got saved. I could remember I was too mad at God, I wanted to convert to either Islam (so I could have more than one wife) or to full-time Buddhism at some point. Fortunately, the repeated preaching of the message of salvation and me knowing how bad I am really got me to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I can't recall the number of times I said an empty sinner's prayer. I could remember the message of salvation was preached in Bible class that it's all about trusting Jesus. Was it all there was to it? I found it hard to believe. One day, an Anabaptist sermon on a Saturday morning by Pastor Danny Bornales (back when he preached on TV) had convicted me of the need to get saved. It was then I finally realized that I had to get saved . In Reformed Theology, it's that moment that it's not me who found Jesus but Him who found me at that moment I w...

This is a recent quote by Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas. I really find it really something that this guy should talk about corruption and money that should be given to the poor. Just because you talk about money that should be given to the poor doesn't mean that you're a man of God. Do you remember when Mary Magdalene gave an alabaster ointment anointing for Jesus in John 12? You need to consider that Judas Iscariot was noted to be a thief and that he stole from the treasure box of the apostles. This is where Villegas shows that he's indeed a Judas Iscariot along with the other Pharisees of Rome. This is purely selective outrage such as when he criticizes the Anti-Terrorism Bill and the non-renewal of the government franchise of ABS-CBN. Villegas dares to talk about freedom of speech and now helping the poor never mind the well-documented crimes and scandals of Rome that are hidden away from Roman Catholics lest they find out the truth! What scandals am I talking ab...

Studying Revelation can't work together on a purely historical view without considering that not every event has been fulfilled. There are events that were fulfilled such as the seven churches yet we must consider that many churches today can be categorized as such. Now, a curious figure in Revelation is Babylon the Great. J. Vernon McGee has the view of having an ecclesiastical Babylon and a commercial Babylon. To say that the Great Whore will only surface during the first 3.5 years of Revelation (at least for me) seems nonsensical. Revelation requires a study of both history and current events to understand it better. We have types of antichrists, many antichrists, and the coming Antichrist. I reject the idea of the Antichrist being every Pope in Rome even if I do consider the Pope to be an antichrist. The Reformers' historicist view of Antichrist just feels awkward. Good thing later Reformed theology preachers like Arthur W. Pink rejected the rather mind-numbing idea beca...

My current study on Revelation 17 to 18 reminded me that I used to be into Vatican conspiracy theories. As a newbie Christian - I really wanted to get all the nourishment I could get. So I started watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network then dropped it. I did also watch a now-defunct Anabaptist TV program which caused me to finally receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I admired the pastor a lot though it turned out that he had a bad habit of quarreling other pastors who won't use the King James Version rather than talk nicely with them. Then I went to an Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) bookstore and one of the many things they were selling were the "Crusaders" comics which I no longer recommend due to inconsistencies. The most fascinating of them was the testimony of "Dr." Alberto Rivera who had died last June 20, 1997.  Rivera's story seemed fascinating, In fact, too fascinating that one has to wonder is it possible? I remembered r...

While I did retire Chick Publications from my list of sources but they did sell one video that was rather useful. It's called "Catholicism: Crisis of Faith" which is also sold by Chick Publications . Unfortunately, Chick Publications has been guilty of publishing several fraudulent testimonies. Rebecca Brown's story was too fantastic to be real. The late John Todd was a fraudster. A dead man who I put above the pedestal was Alberto R. Rivera. Unfortunately, documentation of Rivera having shown signs of being a fraud while he lived has shown up and I ignored it for several years. What seemed to be just a malicious work by the Vatican turned out to contain facts against the man. Rivera is too dead to defend himself but the facts aren't. What was also amazing is that some Protestant groups and Baptist groups are speaking against Rome also discredit the "Alberto" comics as spurious sources .  Was Rivera really a man of God or a fraudulent man of Satan ...

I remembered for a long time that I was fascinated by Chick Publications. There were also the Crusader comics which  also  featured the "Alberto" series. Part six presented the comic book "The Prophet" which allegedly contained the  secret  history of Islam. Alberto Rivera himself was proven to be a quack yet I was holding to the belief it was a Jesuit conspiracy to discredit him. What would be very detrimental to missions to Muslims and Roman Catholics (or to anyone lost) is the use of spurious sources to witness to them. It was claimed that a lot of Muslims were supposedly saved after reading "The Prophet". However, it's very easy to fabricate testimonies, right? Somebody can get paid to write a phony testimony these days. That's why there's the command to  test  the spirits if they are of God or not! The early Roman Catholic institution created Islam? Well, that's got to be mind-blowing. It seemed to explain why the Roman Catholi...