Reformed Blogging

Is the sermon getting too long? That's what I think whenever a pastor's message is that long. You can think that a Sunday service always has its allocated time. Let's say that Sunday school starts at 9:00 A.M. to 10:00 A.M. We have a 10:00 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. worship service for the morning and 5:00 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. sunset service. There is time allocated for each activity such as the singing of hymns, the choir singing, the special number, the sermon, dealing with unsaved visitors, baptism and dedication of infants. If there's anything that could cause a worship service to conclude in a much later time it's the sermon.  What's with the worship sermon? While overly short sermons can bore me but overly long sermons can also bore me. Some pastors tend to lack discipline or are overly talkative in the pulpit. The exposition may end up becoming longer than John Gill's exposition of Psalm 119 which is the longest Psalm in the Bible. You may have a short vers...

I remember the unforgettable, irritating argument with people over the Scripture. I thought about the time I argued with someone over the Gospel. I tend to think that the only way to witness to the lost is to be as cheesy and offensive as possible towards them. But I thought there's one principle that I fail to consider: it's speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). It also brings me back to 1 Corinthians 13:2 that says I may know a lot but use is it if I don't have any love towards unbelievers? Not the worldly kind of love but the love that rebukes people for their sake and not for my own sake. It's wrong to have a Joel Osteen or sugar-coated feel good gospel. I have every right to get mad at it but to pick fights with its followers is uncalled for. I remembered I argued with an older brother in Christ who said I shouldn't be argumentative towards people. I tend to forget that what set the Christians apart and what makes them bear fruit is not their own ...

I hear some people say that they read nowhere in the Bible that the term "born again Christian" is not in the Bible, that Jesus never called anyone to be born again Christians (HUH?!) but they couldn't tell me where in the Bible did it tell them what we must be Mormons, Iglesia ni Cristo members, Jehovah's Witnesses or Roman Catholics. Some Roman Catholic apologists (not all) even have made that terrible lie that Billy Graham allegedly founded the born again Christian movement. Their "proof" may lie because Graham himself was known to tell people that they must be born again. Worse, they even deny that the late John Paul II called Graham his brother. They even dare to deny that Graham himself is yoked with the Vatican even when the evidence says otherwise. They may say, "But the Greek says born from above." I agree. It means to be born from above. But nobody is born from above by water baptism or infant baptism. None of them gets a person born f...

There's the statement that you can tell the truth without loving but you can never be loving without telling the truth. Sometimes, pastors can lose that balance. It's good to have pastors who are serious about attacking any kind of sermon like Joel Osteen's prosperity gospel or the late Robert Schuller's self-esteem teachings. If becoming too soft and preaching an easy gospel is misguided then one must be careful about the other extreme opposite.  When a pastor decides to become cheesy and offensive as possible with every known method like screaming, using selected unsightly images (ex. censored out pictures, aborted fetuses to name a few) for their digital and printed media, offensive caricatures of Jews and conspiracy theories then that's just as equally misguided as easy believism. The problem of having a cheesy and offensive preacher is that this pastor might be in the danger of abusing his authority. 1 Peter 5:3 says, "Neither as being lords over Go...

Many words today are so often abused. Words like love, hate and freedom are but a few words that's frequently used out of context. I'd like to talk about "free speech" to how it's often misused and abused by "liberals" today who are just a group of vile people (Isaiah 32:5).  Here's a good example of how hypocritical the "liberals" are today. Based on this clip, they're already accusing Douglas Wilson a Presbyterian pastor who had spoken in Indiana University. Although this is at least four years ago, I still want to remind those "free speech" people of their wickedness. They have accused Wilson of "hate speech" because he goes against sinful practices the world considers as "normal". Christianity has been so full of biased attackers like feminists think Christians are anti-women's rights, homosexuals think Christianity's anti-homosexuality stand is equal to how Muslim extremists have it and ...

One of the many reasons why I choose to avoid debate with Roman Catholic apologists is not only because the Bible says so (2 Timothy 2:16) but also because of other reasons. There's the saying in the Bible in Proverbs 26:3-5 to never answer a fool according to their folly. Titus 3:10 says that once you've warned a person once or twice then leave. That has been my experience with Roman Catholic apologists. Based on my experience, some of them are really indeed unprofessional, rude and crude and it's best not to stoop down to their level of stupidity.  As far as I've experienced, I've had a lot of headaches arguing with Roman Catholic apologists not only because they take the Scriptures straight out of context but also because of their lack of professional behavior. Many of them just react before the other party gets the chance to explain one's stand vs. their stand. It's a very common practice these days not to read the post before commenting or not to le...

I remembered a few years after I left the Roman Catholic system, I was fascinated by the world of conspiracy theories. I was hungry for the truth. After Billy Graham and Trinity Broadcasting Network were both huge disappointments, I landed with one anti-Roman Catholic conspiracy theory site after the other. I believed a lot of stuff that were written were all true. But there's one problem... some of them can't be verified to be true or they're just making up stories and mixing them up with the truth. After several years of growing up as a Christian, nothing can be further than the truth that conspiracy theories is mostly based on speculations and shaky facts. They don't even help in soulwinning and they don't have a scholarly approach. Fortunately after many years of sticking with the "fundamentalist" approach, I got more into the reformed, scholarly approach. Many anti-Catholic sources may have good intentions but how scholarly are they? Many claims a...

In a world gone mad no thanks to political correctness where people are defending the right to commit sin like how criminal rights are becoming more important than the rights of the victim like when they consider death penalty as a violation to life, homosexual marriage has become legal in many countries, adultery is further encouraged thanks to the legalization of divorce and where everyone but Christians have rights. Christianity has become more and more illegal and if Christians were to speak even one word against pseudo-Christianity like the Roman Catholic institution it's already considered a "hate crime" in itself.  When it comes to the Gospel, there is no reason to apologize for telling the truth! Galatians 4:16 says, "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" These self-proclaimed liberals say, "I don't know the whole Bible like you do Mr. Bible Thumper but didn't the Bible to tell us to love one another? You...

The great Reformed Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon said, "The proof of man's being unsaved is not only evident in self-righteousness but a wicked lifestyle." What is disturbing is that many people think they are "good" even if they love to live a life of sin. Many religious but lost people are faithful to their religion but are also degenerate in their lifestyles at the same time. When people are truly saved, they are delivered from their sinful lifestyles by the grace of God so nobody can boast." How true. Whenever I read Romans 10:2 in the Bible with Paul mourning how many of his fellow Jews are trying to establish their own righteousness while being ignorant of God's righteousness, I don't really find it surprising that there are many people who are self-righteous, religious and degenerate at the same time. My observation happened with many religious Roman Catholics. As a former Roman Catholic, I have observed many of my folks and for...

With Ramadan having started last June 3, 2016 I feel like giving a piece of my mind on evangelizing Muslims. There's the refugee problem and the chances of satanic infiltration can be very high. Where there's sin, Satan is at work. Satan may not be all-powerful but one can't underestimate his cunning or that demons are everywhere. Islam is no different as every unsaved person is heading for Hell because they reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  I remembered Dr. John F. MacArthur's sermon "Death, Terrorism and the Middle East" and I'm still thinking of the closing part of the sermon. He said, "This is where you start: show some love and give the Gospel to the Muslim. They need Christ; they're not your enemy, they're your mission field. You should have no attitude toward them except compassion and love for a people trapped in a religion of deception and damnation. If you know Arabic people, if you know people who are Muslim, tell t...

There's the current heresy that says that to teach people to repent of their sins is "works salvation". But do they know what repentance of sins mean? Repentance is taken from the word "metanoneia" which means a change in mind which begets a change in purpose. It's an inward turn from sin not an external turn from sin.  I remembered that song "Victory in Jesus" and one of the biggest messages the song is that, "And I repented of my sins and won the victory." The second stanza has it, "And then I cried, Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit." That's what it means to repent of one's sins. Repentance of sins is a change of mind about one's sins. This repentance comes when the person realizes that God's standard is too perfect. You should obey not eight out of ten or nine out of ten. Romans 3:19 and James 2:10-11 says if you want to work your way to Heaven then never break the Law even once.  One of th...

I've seen this video of Paul Washer's preaching so many times. I always felt, "God give me the grace to be as angry as he is!" Why is he angry? How often is it that worldly prosperity is taught over the Gospel according to Jesus? After reading "Hard to Believe" by John F. MacArthur and watching "Hell's Best Kept Secret", it's no secret that my anger against the "Easy Christianity" crowd hasn't quieted down. Do you think that I'm any less angry daily? No. Time has only made me angrier against those idiots who continue to teach "Easy Christianity", "Prosperity Christianity" or any perversions because salvation doesn't keep people stagnant nor is good works necessary to keep salvation! True faith is not dead. Faith without works is dead. If you're saved good works will be the evidence not the root of earning salvation or maintaining it. It's if you're saved you're going to persevere ...

Forgiveness can easily be confused with, "I forgive that person? That means I have to condone to all the wrong that person did! I'd better beat him up!" So many times it's easy for me to confuse justice with revenge and forgiveness with impunity.  In this video, a Hindu extremist starts beating up a young pastor several times. The pastor just kept praying for the Hindu extremist. Later this same person who beat up the pastor got saved and became a follower of Jesus. Would have the pastor had his revenge against the Hindu extremist, I don't think that the latter would have become a Christian.  What's the lesson for me to learn? I owed the Father I debt I could not pay. I don't deserve forgiveness so why should I say so and so doesn't deserve it. It hurts to be insulted. It hurts to be persecuted. I want to really get even and cause bodily harm to people who reject the Gospel. God give me the strength to be like this pastor!

After getting into an argument with somebody who keeps throwing mud at Reformed preachers like John F. MacArthur, Paul Washer and even the great Charles H. Spurgeon saying that their theology makes salvation too complicated, this quote by John Calvin jumped into me. The reality is that many churches today have that easy believism heresy or the Once Prayed Assuming Saved heresy. Many just say that "simple prayer" without really understanding what salvation is about. It's a diluted presentation of the Gospel. Now I agree that people need to affirm they're sinners but they must be show why they're sinners. I guess "Easy Christians" hate Reformed Theology is because it requires true humility. Romans 3:10-19 shows that no one is righteous and by God's Law, all must be silenced before God. James 2:10-11 shows we can't keep the perfect standard of God. Galatians 3:24 shows that the Law is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. I don't th...

I'll admit it's very tempting to lose my cool. Many times I feel that reaching out the lost can be a very tiresome task. I can end up asking myself what has being kind, loving and reaching out the lost done for me and that it's only making my life harder. I even feel like that I really want to lose my cool again after many years I haven't heckled or insult anybody for not taking the Gospel seriously. I feel like that I wanted to make sure that the message was given by every means possible. I wanted to get God's Word to them but all they did was laugh at me. I remembered the time I lost my cool and actually hit somebody out of anger. There's always doing the right thing the wrong way. When I remembered I was getting mad, screaming inside the pastor's office that I wanted to choke a staunch Roman Catholic to death for persecuting me, he really had to open the Bible to John 18:9-11. He said, "Look, Peter wanted to fight for Christ. Look at what Jesus sa...

Pastor Ray Comfort of Living Waters Publications believes in eternal security no questions asked but the question is, "Are you sure you really are Once Saved Always Saved or are you Once Prayed Assuming Saved?" Many people today think they're saved or others think somebody is saved because at one moment in their lives, they just prayed that prayer but the evidence of false conversion appears. These two powerful videos are called "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True & False Conversion". The two videos contain themes explored namely why is modern evangelism failing and the marks of false conversions. Many people today make this "decision" for Christ but this is the idolatry of decisionism. Nobody gets saved with just a "decision", a "prayer" but only in the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. These videos are probably on the Devil's hit list because they are really best called as "revival material". In...

A few years ago, I was foolishly believing every slanderous accusation done against Paul David Washer was teaching "works salvation" or that the "Shocking Youth Message" added works to faith, I listened to Washer's sermons it myself and realized that these critics were MISSING THE POINT one too many times. If you listen to this video carefully, he really addresses that one, YOU ARE LOOKING UP TO JESUS and two, there is EVIDENCE of your faith is in the changed life. If you're saved, there's ought to be change. I call this heresy as "Once Prayed Assuming Saved". It's because many people today say they're saved because they prayed a prayer and yet they show that they are false converts. Now I have nothing against the sinner's prayer in general. I know some people who got saved in spite of the sinner's prayer evangelism but it was only because there was a hard message before it. When these people came to pray that prayer, they...

Here's a quote by Dr. John F. MacArthur with the quote, "I don't live tin this world to give my opinion. I'm here to represent the Word of God." Many preachers today are just either opinion-driven and not representing God's Word. They care too much what the world has to say instead of what God has to say. They're not real shepherds or men of God but instead, they're pastors who deserve the curse for leading the sheep astray. Want a good pastor? Make sure he represents the Word of God with proper interpretation. One of the best reasons why I love expository preaching because it takes all verses in context. I don't deny there are mistakes made even by the best pastors. I'd dare to really say that I'm still proud of my King James Only stand. Even if a pastor is a non-Calvinist but if he shows signs of being genuinely converted I definitely can embrace that person. When people are focused on God's Word verse by verse then the whole i...

While I've been enjoying Robert Charles Sproul's "Renewing Your Mind" which does a Monday to Saturday lecture, I really thought of Ray Comfort's apologetics. Comfort himself has provided some really useful resources such as "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion". The "Way of the Master" program offers scholarly, well-balanced way of delivering the offensive truth without being purposely offensive and cheesy. I thought about a few of Comfort's programs in "Way of the Master" have tackled many important issues such as Christianity's harmony with science, atheism's self-contradictory nature, false religions and watered down evangelism. For years, I really thought he was teaching salvation by works and conditional security until I started checking his stuff up. It wasn't until I looked up at just everything that he really believes in the eternal security of the believer as he says this...

Back then, I remembered I believed a lot of biased accusations from certain Independent Fundamental Baptist groups towards John F. MacArthur that he taught salvation by works, that he doesn't believe in the necessity of the blood and many more stuff taken out of context from his preaching. I didn't even bother to investigate Grace To You especially on his posts on Lordship Salvation which I wasn't aware of what the whole controversy was about. After I started reading through "The Gospel According to Jesus" and "Fool's Gold" as well as listen to some of his sermons, I realized MacArthur and me may disagree with King James only-ism but after checking his several posts, I really find myself agreeing with him at a huge scale. The accusations hurled at MacArthur pretty much unfounded and I just bought them hook, line and sinker before. Does he really teach salvation by works and conditional security? What he emphasizes in his sermons is that if you...