Reformed Blogging

Mark 16:9-20 is often subject to scrutiny (as I've read) and why the modern versions still put the verses is still questionable. I was thinking about the 17 verses not found in the modern versions (though often found in footnotes) and this passage. Mark 16:18 is put into question because of what would be considered absurd to do for today's Christian: 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. The verse has been misapplied by crazy snake-handling Charismatic preachers. Yes, the Charismatic movement is full of crazy stuff such as a pastor making people do really hazardous stuff which I wouldn't elaborate on. Just reading reports of a pastor making people eat grass, drink dangerous waters, or fart on them to heal them makes me think that misapplication of the Bible happens. It's not because they don't read their Bible. It's also because they fail to take the v...

One good reason not to support Steven Anderson is how ridiculously dangerous this guy can get. Christians should not  be listening to Alex Jones' conspiracy theorist programs or be reading Jesus-is-Savior.com. I used to read Jesus-is-Savior by David J. Stewart a lot without realizing that the guy was having a lot of weird doctrines (such as gap theory which should've been a red flag for me to avoid the site), flip-flopping (such as saying a believer can live like the rest of the world then flips his stance on the next), and conspiracy theories. Stewart even made me doubt my salvation reading his site because I believed in repentance of sin from the song "Victory in Jesus". Now, back to Anderson, who can really forget this ridiculous sermon of "pisseth against the wall". The KJV has the phrase "pisseth against the wall" mentioned six times. It's amazing that every time the phrase is mentioned, it's connected to the  judgment of people. Notic...

Eli Soriano was a self-proclaimed man of God and founder of the Members Church of God International (MCGI) and the guy running the "Ang Dating Daan" program. He died a week ago and I've had issues with this false preacher. Some people think he's a glorified man of God. However, Soriano has had many unbiblical preachings. If you're going to get into the Word of God - you will see that the late Soriano has a very high chance that he's burning in Hell right now. This is not to rejoice in that fact since God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. This is to serve as a warning to living members of his movement to repent and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. His hiding in Brazil was probably due to a lot of pending cases. In short, I'd like to assume that he died a fugitive. God's wrath finally hit on him eventually. Soriano himself really frustrates the Gospel with words like: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of yo...

I find myself stuck in Psalm 119 due to the footnote found in Psalm 119:18. It's the doctrine of illumination. Illumination as defined in the dictionary is to light up or to shine with light. The "King James Study Bible" defines illumination as follows: Illumination is the ministry of the Holy Spirit by which He causes Christians to understand the truths of God revealed in Scripture. The word conviction meaning "cause to see" is primarily used of the Spirit's work in revealing sin in the unsaved (John 16:8). The word understanding is used in the Spirit's work in revealing other truth in Scripture.   Illustration: The Psalmist recognizes the need for supernatural aid in understanding the Scriptures and prayed that his eyes would be opened (v. 18). This would also bea  good prayer cor Christians today as they approach the Scriptures.  The Bible is something that's actually spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says that the natural man receives no...

I really can't count the number of times I get annoyed whenever unbelievers get the Scriptures wrong. It's written in plain simple English yet all he or she does is misinterpret it. Why does that happen? John F. MacArthur's sermon " Why the World Reject God's Word " has this meaningful excerpt: I said a couple of weeks ago that we understand that nonbelievers don’t believe the Bible, can’t believe the Bible, have no interest in the Bible. It’s not only unclear to them, it’s obscure; they have no ability to understand it . So they don’t understand us, how we can be so passionately committed to the Word of God and love it so much and love obeying it for the sake of the love that we have for the One who died for us and rose again. They don’t understand it. And on the surface I understand why. Let me give you some reasons why non-Christians don’t believe the Bible, okay.  Let’s go back to verse 18 of chapter 1. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those wh...

I remembered a frustrated discussion I got into an amateur Roman Catholic self-proclaimed apologist (I won't mention his name out loud as to avoid getting personal) concerning the primacy of Peter and Mary as an intercessor. I discussed both verses from the Good News Translation for Roman Catholics. I was discussing Matthew 16:18 and John 2:1-11. The meaning of the verses were clear as day that even a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible couldn't agree with Roman Catholicism. Yet the Roman Catholic apologist stubbornly refuses and refers to erroneous Greek to "make a point". The Scriptures are clear as day but the errors persist. Why is that? You have to remember people can be very stubborn to the truth. The atheist who already sees the evidence for a Creator yet he or she still thinks believing that God exists is for cowards. The same goes for pseudo-Christian cults. The Bible is clear but the errors persist. It's because these cults have their excuse that ...

I have no doubt that the Bible is really true so I'm not surprised it's hard to find a good preacher. We've got lazy pastors who even say that expository preaching is a "lazy" and "cheating" method to do preaching. That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Do these pastors who say that expository preaching is "lazy" and "cheating" realize that preparing an expository sermon is not an easy job. If anybody's lazy it's those pastors who love to do out of context preaching. I get angry whenever they attack sound preaching but also insist in the path of easy "Christianity".  What's worse is that some of these lazy pastors and other opponents of expository preaching are already committing strawman attacks and character assassinations towards expository preaching. One of the worst attacks I've heard from some "Baptist" heretic I had a terrible argument with that the old time pr...

Scripture taken out of context drives me dizzy. It just gets worse and worse when these people who misquote the Scripture still won't refuse to understand the Scriptures in context even when it's presented in context. Why they reject Sola Scriptura is simple: they want to keep their own tradition while they woefully misquote Mark 7:8-9 to justify their unscriptural practices and doctrines such as praying to Mary, adding works to maintaining salvation, Antinomianism or rejecting the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's hard for me to keep my cool when the Scripture is taken out of context. The reason is because so many people are too lazy to study Scripture that false teachers easily deceive them. Worse, many of them still want to insist in their out of context interpretation rather than in-context interpretation. I really need God's grace to maintain self-control while fulfilling the duty of correcting false teachers. 

I always find it funny when people take verses out of context. Worse, what if these verses were taken straight out of context from the King James Version ? Some of you may find me "extreme" because I'm a King James Only-ist. Sorry but I still think pastors should stop using the NIV, NASV, ESV, etc. because they're corrupt. I still want to talk one on one with pastors who also use other versions and convince them why they should use the KJV only. Now let's talk about the issue of Christmas trees and why Jeremiah 10:3-5 can't be Christmas trees. Let's talk about the context of Jeremiah 10:3-5: For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for th...

Studying the Greek and what it stands for is absolutely important. What I found out is that Roman Catholic apologists may either nicely point out or rudely point out that the word "kath holEs" appears in the Greek text which is translated as "done whole" and the words "eklEsiai" which means "called out". The word eklesia where we get the word "Iglesia" means church or called out assembly. In due fairness, they're right that the word "kath holEs" is found in the Greek but I'd like to point out what's wrong with the argument. Let's tackle on what the word "Catholic" means. Older versions of the Apostle's Creed (which was named as such to summarize the beliefs of the apostles but not written by the apostles themselves) called the church "Catholic". Catholic is simply a synonym for universal yet the early believers in Jesus Christ were not called Catholics but CHRISTIANS in Antioch (Act...

As I read through John Gill's commentary in Numbers today my mind was struck with the thought of lazy people having lazy pastors. It's been a few weeks and I find myself slowing down my reading to savor the Word of God. I thought about how quack Baptist preacher Andy Stanley badmouthed expository preaching to be "lazy and cheating" but look who's talking. What pains me to think is that more people want out-of-context preaching because it's easier. I think such people are also too lazy to study their Bible.  Whenever I get into a discussion turned debate with someone on the Scripture that person is always taking things out of their context. I'm still reminded of my debate with some person who kept insisting that salvation doesn't necessarily bring forth sanctification. Even after I showed him every verse I could he still dismissed me and started playing dirty with me. It was a very frustrating experience. Plus, I'm not surprised that person hat...

Although the article I found about  Andy Stanley trashing expository preaching was last May 8, 2015 but I found it to be an interesting read. Here's an answer that Stanley gave that made me go dizzy just reading it: Guys that preach verse-by-verse through books of the Bible– that is just cheating. It’s cheating because that would be easy, first of all. That isn’t how you grow people. No one in the Scripture modeled that. There’s not one example of that. I'm really amazed at that really stupid answer. I feel like my stomach is churning too fast and that he calls it "cheating". Cheating? I really want to ask people who are against expository preaching that it's "cheating"? So don't tell me any teacher who expands on subject matters in just any subject in education like history, math and science are "cheating"? On the contrary, verse by verse preaching is not easy. Taking verses out of context is very easy because all you need to do ...

It's really stupid how today's people get the dumbest quotes from Bible teachers like Joyce Meyer and Paula White. Like I said, I used to listen to Joyce Meyer back then but good thing I didn't listen to Paula White. Aside from her heresy of "binding Satan", all I want to tell her is, "If you kept binding Satan, who keeps loosening him?", I really found this quote to be so annoying. She's telling people that if anybody tells you to deny yourself, that person is from Satan. If that's the case, then Jesus must be from Satan because he said in Matthew 16:24, Mark 10:21 and Luke 9:23 that if you are to follow Him then you must deny yourself first, take up one's cross (which means you must be even willing to follow Him to death) and follow Him. Although these are not prerequisites to salvation but these definitely are the the marks of the true believer. Getting saved means denying yourself, only pleading guilty before God as a repentant sin...

"Preachers, please preach expositorily!" is one of the most common cries that I hear from those who use and/or listen to expository preaching. We have the study of Scriptural interpretation called hermeneutics. When I listened to this short lecture by Dr. John F. MacArthur, I really want to say that I missed a lot of lectures all because I spent time believing MacArthur added works to salvation. But the more I listened to him, the more I realize that he was only emphasizing the difference between true converts from false converts.  One of the worst examples of out of context preaching is this sermon called "Pisseth Against the Wall" by Steven Anderson. I admit that I really criticize the Roman Catholic institution or any pseudo-Christian cult for taking Scriptures out of context because that's what they do to maintain their power. If they did proper interpretation then people would know Peter wasn't the first Pope or that Jesus is the eternal Son of...

While reading through Jeremiah, I still can't help but mention Jeremiah 3:15 where God promises pastors after His own heart. But the problem is that there are more evil pastors who scatter the flock than those who are really pastors from God. When there are pastors who really refuse to preach on sin and repentance, I'd say these pastors are morticians of Hell.  I find such pastors annoying because they're not men of God. If all a pastor preaches is all on having a good time and nice stuff to make people "feel good" then he's a fake. It's annoying to have pastors who say that those who declare Jesus the only truth and attack other religions are bigots disturbing the peace of humanity. Didn't they even read what Jesus said that He didn't come to bring peace but a sword in Matthew 10:34? I guess they purposely blotted it out of their Bible along with other verses that are an inconvenience to them.  Just because a pastor preaches on eternal ...

Yesterday, I decided I'd probably slam my head on the desk because a facepalm isn't enough to handle Joseph Prince saying you won't find anything in Scripture that the Holy Spirit doesn't convict sin. It's just like those who believe in conditional security or the Christian can be perpetually barren challenge me to find verses to prove that salvation can't be lost or that true salvation always results to change.  Giving room for thought on their challenge, I still remembered the quote by Martin Luther saying, "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen." I guess Luther was challenged by the Roman Catholic hierarchy the same way anybody gets challenged to search Scriptures by those who ...

If listening to proponents of conditional security is already THAT ANNOYING then I don't consider it any more or less annoying to listen to "Easy Christianity" preachers. Just looking at the quote of Prince saying, "The Holy Spirit never convicts you of your sins. I challenge you to find a Scripture in the Bible that tells you that the Holy Spirit has come to convict you of your sins. You won't find any!" I really want to imagine this maybe his Bible has a LOT more missing verses than most modern day translations of the Bible. Or two, this guy just cherry picks or three, the fact he even dares people to search the Scriptures is really that funny. Consider the reality that many out of context preachers even dare to say, "You can't show me in Scriptures!" Sorry Prince, John 16:7-8 just proves you wrong!

Having been a proponent of exegesis and expository verse by verse preaching for years, it's really that annoying. Expository preachers take the Bible verse by verse and study it into context. Others just love taking things out of context. It's just like reading the flyers from Catholic apologists or Iglesia Ni Cristo missionaries, I can't help but get dizzy at how the Scriptures are taken out of context. The same goes for proponents of salvation of faith plus works or conditional security or those who support the doctrine of Antinomianism.  What's more annoying is that by the time I or just anyone will start citing verses in context, they say that the other verses really means something else. So they say that I'm taking things out of context based on their wrong grammar, wrong analysis, lets their emotions get the best of them and their arrogant attitude causes them to take Scriptures out of context. One can easily observe that stupid people tend to think the...

Is it me or does Steven Anderson really deserve to be made the poster boy for a poor state of born again Christian apologetics? While I've appreciated some of his sermons but the guy has already made headlines as not only has he launched a hate campaign against homosexuals (instead of preaching to those reprobates about Jesus Christ) but he's also preached one of the dumbest sermons of all time. The title is called "Pisseth Against the Wall" which really shows he's not taking things into context. Does he even know what the context of the words "to him that pisseth against the wall" is talking about as it's mentioned six times in the Bible? It's not about it that men should urinate standing up for the nation's judgment or that men should urinate against the wall. Every time the passage is mentioned, it's always talking about judgment to them that pisseth against the wall. The houses of wicked rulers were torn down, every person who ...