Hosea 13:4 (KJV) "Yet I am the Lord thy God... and thou shalt know no god but Me: for there is no saviour beside Me."

John 14:6 (NIV) "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:6 (Phi) "I Myself am the way and the truth and the life. No one approaches the Father except through Me."

John 1:14b (NIV) "We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Acts 3:15 (NIV) "You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this."

Acts 10:39-42 (Phi) "Now we are eyewitnesses of everything that He did, both in the Judaean country and in Jerusalem itself, and they murdered Him by hanging him on a cross. But on the third day God raised that same Jesus and let Him be clearly seen, not indeed by the whole people, but by witnesses whom God had previously chosen. We are those witnesses, we who ate and drank with Him after He had risen from the dead! Moreover, we are the men whom He commanded to preach to the people and solemnly witness to the fact that He is the one appointed by God to be the judge of both the living and the dead."

2 Peter 1:16-19 (NIV) "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "this is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12 (NIV) "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."

[Related Article: Mustard Seeds and Mega-Churches]

The stated goal of seeker-friendly churches is reaching the lost. Though biblical and praiseworthy, the same cannot be said for the methods used in attempting to achieve that goal. Let’s begin with marketing as a tactic for reaching the lost. Fundamentally, marketing has to do with profiling consumers, ascertaining what their “felt needs” are, and then fashioning one’s product (or its image) to appeal to the targeted customer’s desires. The hoped-for result is that the consumer buys or “buys into” the product. George Barna, whom Christianity Today calls “the church’s guru of growth,” claims that such an approach is essential for the church in our market-driven society. Evangelical church-growth leaders are adamant that the marketing approach can be applied–and they have employed it–without compromising the gospel. Really?

First of all, the gospel and, more significantly, the person of Jesus Christ do not fit into any marketing strategy. They are not “products” to be “sold.” They cannot be refashioned or image-adjusted to appeal to the felt needs of our consumer-happy culture. Any attempt to do so compromises to some degree the truth of who Christ is and what He has done for us . For example, if the lost are considered consumers and a basic marketing “commandment” says that the customer must reign supreme, then whatever may be offensive to the lost must be discarded, revamped, or downplayed. Scripture tells us clearly that the message of the Cross is “foolishness to them that are perishing” and that Christ himself is a “rock of offense” (1 Cor. 1:18; 1 Peter 2:8). Some seeker-friendly churches, therefore, seek to avoid this “negative aspect” by making the temporal benefits of becoming a Christian their chief selling point. Although that appeals to our gratification-oriented generation, it is neither the gospel nor the goal of a believer’s life in Christ.

...into spirituality, not religion….Behind this shift is the search for an experiential faith, a religion of the heart, not the head. It’s a religious expression that downplays doctrine and dogma, and revels in direct experience of the divine–whether it’s called the ‘Holy Spirit’ or ‘cosmic consciousness’ or the ‘true self.’ It is practical and personal, more about stress reduction than salvation, more therapeutic than theological. It’s about feeling good, not being good. It’s as much about the body as the soul….Some marketing gurus have begun calling it ‘the experience industry.’ (pp. 20-21)

There’s another item that many pastors seem to be missing in their excitement over “growing your church through attracting the lost.” Although numbers seem to rule in this seeker-friendly mania (an amazing 841 churches in this country have reached the “mega” category, with 2,000 to 25,000 weekend attendees), few have realized that the sizeable increase in church attendance is not due to the influx of the unchurched . During the last 70 years, the percentage of this country’s population attending church has been relatively constant at about 43 percent. A spike of 49 percent in 1991 (years prior to today’s initial seeker-sensitive enthusiasm) gradually declined, returning to 42 percent in 2002 (The Barna Group). From where, then, do those mega-churches, which have outfitted themselves to accommodate the unchurched, get their members? Mostly from smaller churches that aren’t interested in or that can’t afford the fleshly attractions. And what of the supposed horde of unchurched Harrys and Marys who have been assembled? They constitute a very small part of mega-church congregations. During his year of researching Willow Creek, G. A. Pritchard, in his book Willow Creek Seeker Services (Baker Book House, 1996), estimated that the targeted unchurched made up only between 10 and 15 percent of the 16,000 or so who attended weekend services!

If this percentage is typical among seeker-friendly churches, which likely is the case, a rather disturbing situation has developed. Thousands of churches here and abroad have completely restructured themselves as outreach centers for the unchurched. This, by the way, is not biblical. The church is for the maturing and equipping of the saints, who then go out to reach the lost. Nevertheless, seeker-sensitive churches have turned to entertainment and conveniences in order to attract Harry and Mary and make them feel comfortable in their new church environment. In order to keep them coming back, they have avoided the thorough teaching of Scripture in favor of positive, uplifting messages designed to make them feel good about themselves. As unchurched Harry and Mary continue to attend, they get only a vague hint of biblical truth that might bring conviction of sin and true repentance. Worse yet, they get a psychologized view of themselves that undermines that truth. However, as grievous as that situation is, it doesn’t end there.

The vast majority of those who attend seeker-friendly fellowships profess to be believers. Yet most were drawn to those churches by the same worldly allurements that were meant to entice the unchurched, and they continue to attend, being fed the same biblically anemic diet created for the wooing of unbelievers. At best, they receive the skimmed milk of the Word; at worst, pablum contaminated with “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). Certainly a church can grow numerically on that basis, but not spiritually. Furthermore, there is no opportunity for believers to mature in the faith in such an environment. In defense of seeker-sensitive churches, some have argued that mid-week services are set apart for discipleship and getting into the meat of Scriptures. If that indeed is the case, it’s a rare exception rather than the rule.

As we’ve noted, most seeker-friendly churches focus much of their time, energy, and resources on accommodating unchurched Harry and Mary. Consequently, week after week, the entire congregation is subjected to a diluted and leavened message. Then, on Wednesday evening, when a fellowship is usually reduced to quarter or a third of its normal size, would it be reasonable to assume that this remnant is served a nourishing meal featuring the meat of the Word, expositional teaching, and an emphasis on sound doctrine and discipleship? Hardly. We’ve yet to find a seeker-friendly church where that takes place. The spiritual meals offered at mid-week services are usually support group meetings and classes for discerning one’s spiritual gifts or going through the latest psycho-babble-ized “Christian” bestseller such as Wild at Heart rather than the study of the Scriptures.

Perhaps the most insidious aspect of the seeker-friendly approach to doing church is an attempt to impress the unchurched by looking to and quoting those regarded as the experts in solving all their mental, emotional, and behavioral problems: psychiatrists and psychologists. Nothing in the history of the church has undermined the truth of the sufficiency of God’s Word for “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) more than the introduction of the pseudo-science of psychotherapy. Its thousands of concepts and hundreds of methodologies are unproven, contradictory, unscientific, and thoroughly unbiblical, as we’ve documented in our books and in previous articles. Pritchard observed that at Willow Creek “Hybels not only teaches psychological principles, but often uses the psychological principles as interpretive guides for his exegesis of Scripture....King David had an identity crisis, the apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to do self-analysis, and Peter had a problem with boundary issues. The point is, psychological principles are regularly built into Hybels’ teaching” (p. 156).

During my own visit to Willow Creek, Pastor Hybels gave a message that began with Scripture and addressed the problems that result when people lie. However, he mustered his chief support regarding the harmful consequences of lying from psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, the author of The Road Less Traveled (Simon & Schuster, 1978), who declared in that book (pp. 269-70), “God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Itself)”!

Saddleback Community Church like-wise is entrenched in the psycho-therapeutic. Although claiming to be Christ-centered rather than psychological, it has one of the largest conglomerations of Alcoholics Anonymous-based 12-Step recovery programs in the country. The church sponsors more than a dozen support groups, such as Adult Children of Chemically Addicted, Codependency, Co-Addicted Women in a Relationship with Sexually Addicted Men, Eating Disorders, and so forth. Each group is normally led by someone “in recovery” from the “addiction,” and the resource materials for understanding the “disorder” include books mostly authored by psychiatrists and psychologists (www.celebraterecovery.com). Although “in denial” about his use of“pop psychology,” much of it permeates Rick Warren’s work, including his seven-million bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, which is largely about self-fulfillment, promotes Celebrate Recovery, and is sprinkled with psych references such as “Samson was co-dependent” (p. 233).

[Related Article: The Old Paths]

The overriding message from psychologically-driven Willow Creek and Saddleback is that the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit are insufficient for delivering a person from a habitual sin and for transforming his or her life into one that is fruitful and pleasing to God. Again, what these churches say and do is exported to hundreds of thousands of church leaders around the world.

[Related Article: Examining the Church-Growth Movement]

The urban political machine was born in New York but died in Chicago. It's no longer a separate entity. One of the inconveniences of urban life along with smog, muggings and excessive regulation. The urban political machine has gone national. It's here. It's there. It's everywhere.

You may disapprove of New York's soda ban or Chicago's love affair with gun control or Los Angeles' pandering to illegal aliens; but what happens in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and the rest of the country's blighted metropolises no longer stays there. You can live surrounded by ten thousand acres of wilderness on one side and the deep blue sea on the other and it will still find you because the urban political machine has gone national.

The last election was the triumph of the urban political machine. In 2008, Obama ran as a national candidate. In 2012, he ran as the figurehead for the urban political machines and let their voter turnout and voter fraud efforts carry the day. In 2008, he tried inspiring people. In 2012, he ran the same tired campaign run by a hundred corrupt mayors in a hundred cities who know that they can't lose because the game is rigged and the voters have no choice.

The urban political machine was born in New York but died in Chicago. It's no longer a separate entity from the rest of the country; one of the inconveniences of urban life along with smog, muggings and excessive regulation. The urban political machine has gone national. It's here. It's there. It's everywhere.

The machine doesn't care about individuals. It only counts bloc votes. It doesn't care about making life better for people. Its genius is for finding ways to make life worse because it knows that it has more leverage over people looking for the next meal than over people looking to buy a house in the suburbs. The political machine doesn't budget; it loots. It breaks the bank, raises taxes, drives out industries and rules over a feudal war zone sharply divided between the rich and the poor.

The machine built on that. It took as their leaders anyone who could deliver a bloc vote. And it traded entitlements for votes. The community leaders became barons, the machine operators became kings and everyone else living in narrow streets, meeting in bursts of gang violence at the boundaries, and voting in blocs to keep the other side from getting better access to the goodies offered by the machine, got to be the peasants.

In 2012, tribal politics became national politics. The country was divided and conquered. A campaign run on convincing a dozen separate groups to be afraid of each other and of the majority made all the difference, not in some urban slum, but from sea to shining sea. The country had at last become the city. And considering the state of the city... the state of the union does not look good.

Amnesty for illegal aliens is the natural next step for the machine. The urban machines always wanted their cities to be big. They never cared if the people could feed themselves or if they could feed them. More people meant more votes. More votes meant more money.

The bigger the big cities get, the more micro-districts can be carved out, gerrymandered by race, divided by language, and capable of carrying more and more of the treasury back home to the machine. And if the cities can get big enough, fast enough, then they can outrace their own inevitable bankruptcies to seize control of the wealth of a nation. It's the only hope of municipalities bulging with unfunded pensions, unfundable social welfare and a next generation of workers that doesn't exist.

Money is not the issue. Urban political machines have always spent money like water counting on their cities being too big to fail. Right off City Hall in New York City sits the Tweed Courthouse, named after one of the most infamous bosses of the Tammany Hall political machine. Despite being a modest building, it cost more four times more to build than London's Houses of Parliament. Today it houses the headquarters of the Department of Education which is spending the city deep into debt. That just goes to show you that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Obama's crazed spending spree is nothing new in big cities where the debt is sky high and there is no way to cover it. Detroit is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Chicago is facing a frightening pile of debt. California's municipalities are taking the entire state down with them and Bloomberg doubled New York's debt during his time as mayor.

The urban political machines don't fear bankruptcy. They embrace it. Crises create more opportunities. When people are hungry, it's childishly easy to get them to march round demanding this and that and then using this and that as cover for even bigger thefts. Bailouts and recovery programs are rich wells full of money that can be plundered.

The score was never as big and rich as it was during the first heady days of Hope and Change. The machine operators are no longer playing around with a few billion here or there for urban recovery programs. Instead they're juggling trillions. The amount of money at their disposal is mind boggling and so is their thievery.

It never occurs to them that the rest of the world is filled with starving human collateral and the ruins of old cities. It never occurs to them that Chicago, Detroit and New York are just places where people made things and earned a living. And that a city without an economy is just Somalia or El Salvador with a lot of tall buildings.

Can we rational say that all religions are equally valid? Some people believe that all religions are the same based on assumptions and generalizations without any knowledge of what different religions believe or deny. How can Buddhism be true when it denies the existence of a personal God and at the same time Christianity be true when it affirms the existence of a personal God? Can there be a personal God and not be a personal God at the same time? Orthodox Judaism denies life after death and Christianity affirms life after death. The person who believes that all religions are the same does so by ignoring clear contradictions between them. This line of thinking is irrational.

What motivates people to think irrationally about the equality of different religions? Differences in religious beliefs have fueled arguments between family and friends and on many occasions have led to war. In an effort to maintain peace, should we throw out the truth?

[Related Article: Intolerance]

Why is God so narrow-minded? The accusation is a serious one against a holy and righteous God - that He has not done enough to provide redemption for mankind. After creating the heavens and earth, God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:27). God blessed Adam and Eve and provided for their every need by placing them in the Garden of Eden. The Lord made trees grow and “commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and Eve disobeyed their Creator’s command and ate from the tree that He told them not to eat from. He created them and He had every right to enforce the death penalty because they disobeyed the one restriction He gave them. Because He is a merciful God, He did not kill them, but spared their lives. It was at this point that the Bible tells us that “sin entered the world” (Romans 5:12).

Genesis 6:5-6
"The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain."

The Old Testament tells us of God’s redemption of His chosen people, the nation of Israel. He brought them out of slavery, gave them His law, and delivered them into the Promised Land by giving them victory over their enemies. They thanked Him by violating His law and worshipping false gods and idols. “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them…Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders…for the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshipping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways” (Judges 2:11-12, 16, 18b-19). We see this cycle repeated over and over again in the Old Testament. Because God was still intent upon redemption, He sent judges, messengers, and prophets to plead with the people of Israel to return to Him.

[Related Article: An Open Letter to Richmond, VA]

2. Jesus was without sin.
Jesus was in a class by Himself, when He came to earth, He lived without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). No other religious leader can claim that, nor can any mortal for that matter (Romans 3:23).

3. Jesus’ work of atonement.
The greatest of religious leaders could mediate on the law, instruct on the law, counsel others, think deeply, and come up with wise sayings, but none was qualified to offer an atonement for the sins of the world. Jesus’ death was made as a payment for the sins of mankind; His sacrifice was perfect. He voluntarily suffered an exhausting, agonizing and painful death because He loved us (John 10:17-18; Romans 5:6-8).

Isaiah 64:6a
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags."

Proverbs 14:12
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

It does matter what we believe – the decision we make is an eternal one. Jesus Christ is the only way to God (heaven); He alone is able to redeem. He alone is worthy of our devotion and worship. Jesus is the truth!

[Related Article: They Call Us Haters]

- Homosexuality and the Bible (Xanga.com)

“It’s a no-brainer that (homosexual activists) should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist. …(F)ighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie.

I have three kids who have five parents, more or less, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t have five parents legally… I met my new partner, and she had just had a baby, and that baby’s biological father is my brother, and my daughter’s biological father is a man who lives in Russia, and my adopted son also considers him his father. So the five parents break down into two groups of three… And really, I would like to live in a legal system that is capable of reflecting that reality, and I don’t think that’s compatible with the institution of marriage.”

(Source: ABC - Radio National)

For quite some time, the defenders of natural marriage have attempted to point out that the true agenda behind the homosexual demands organizations is not marriage equality; it is the total unraveling of marriage and uprooting traditional values from society. (This will ultimately include efforts to silence and punish some churches that openly adhere to their religious teachings about marriage and sexual morality.)

- Examining Homosexual Myths (Xanga.com)

While few have been as vocal as this lesbian activist was in this interview, we do have numerical examples proving her point. When given the opportunity to marry, after laws have been struck down relatively small percentages of homosexuals actually bother to marry compared to their heterosexual counterparts. This raises question about the true need to unravel marriage for the “fair” extension its benefits. Only 12 percent of homosexuals in the Netherlands marry compared to 86 percent of their heterosexual peers. Less than 20 percent of same-sex couples already living together in California married when given the chance in 2008. In contrast, 91 percent of heterosexual couples in California who are living together are married.

- America's Spiritual Crisis (PilgrimPassing.com)

- Is Homosexuality A Sin? (PilgrimPassing.com)

Related Articles:

- The Ten Lies of Feminism (ONE WAY at Orble.com)

The teaching of Scripture is clear and unequivocal. Man is totally depraved, that is to say, the fall of Adam, in which all men participate,[46] extends to all man's faculties:[47] his heart (which in Scripture denotes the very center of man's being––the seat of his affections and personality),[48] his mind,[49] his will,[50] his conscience,[51] and every other part of him. Sin is described as being a state of enmity against God, and of transgression of his commandments,[52] and for as much as fallen men have no power of themselves to think, speak or will anything that may please God, until they be regenerate and renewed by the Spirit of the Lord, all works done before justification have the nature of sin, as the Anglican Prayer-Book Article XIII says. 'They that are in the flesh cannot please God.'[53] There is therefore not a single thing that a man can do that will please God, if he has not been born again. Every man, woman and child born into this world, with the exception of our Lord, is a slave to sin,[54] is dead in sin,[55] sins in all things,[56] and cannot cease from sin until God in his mercy delivers him or her from it.

[Related Article: Concerning Richmond, VA]

The sinfulness of man does not consist solely of the voluntary sins which he commits; for these are the fruits of his corrupt nature.[57] Empirically, we observe daily that sin abounds; but the Scriptures reveal to us that the situation is infinitely more desperate than we could ever have realized. Man's sin is not only what he does––which we can see––but what he is, which we cannot see as God sees it.

At this point, an objection may be made by some: If man is totally depraved, and cannot but sin, while, as we asserted above, God's providence rules the actions of men, does it not follow that man's sin is something that man cannot be held responsible for? Is not God, then, the author of sin?

These are important questions, and we will not attempt to avoid them, but to tackle them later. But a few remarks here will be appropriate.

It is noteworthy that Adam's reply to God, when asked if he had disobeyed God's commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was, in effect, to put the blame upon God. 'The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.'[58] The unregenerate man, like Adam, attempts to cover his transgressions by objecting: 'Why doth he still find fault?...Why didst thou make me thus?' The answer of Scripture to such talk is: 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' 'Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!'[59] We are not bound to explain these things, but to hold both to the impossibility of not sinning, apart from the grace of God, and to the fact that God holds man utterly responsible for his sin, and will condemn him, unless he flees to him for mercy.

The problems center around what for centuries has been a theological and philosophical minefield––'freewill'. A common argument runs as follows:

God holds man responsible for his sin.

Man cannot be held responsible for something he cannot refrain from doing.

Therefore: Man's will must be free to choose between sinning, and not sinning; and hence, to choose between 'accepting' Christ, or rejecting him.

We would assert that this conclusion is false, and highly dangerous, because of the falsity of the second premise, namely, that man can only be held responsible for what he has the ability to perform. We hold that this is false for two reasons:

First––Because Scripture denies it. We have already seen that man's will, like every other part of him, is depraved, and in bondage to sin. Anything that is in bondage evidently cannot be free. Man's will, therefore, being part of a dead nature, is not free towards God in any sense, but is 'free' only to sin. Paul says absolutely: 'They that are in the flesh cannot please God'; Job says: 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.'[60] Neither is man free to turn to Christ for mercy-he cannot, of his own volition. The one thing that, above all others, surely pleases God, that thing over which the angels of heaven rejoice, is the sight of a sinner turning to God, and repenting. Yet, men in the flesh cannot do this; it is impossible: God's Word says so. Notwithstanding, God commands and requires all men everywhere to repent of their sins,[61] and will judge them if they do not do so. God, who is righteous, will only judge a man for something for which he is responsible.

Second––Because 'free-will' and responsibility are different things. If, by 'freedom of the will', what is meant is 'freedom of action' ,i.e. that when I do something, I do it freely, without compulsion or constraint, then, it is agreed, man is a free agent, and is responsible, precisely because he is not forced to act against his volitions. 'Freedom',in this sense, therefore means nothing more than the harmony that exists, normally, between a man s volitions and his actions. If I am forced at gunpoint to rob a bank, then I am not responsible for my action, since I acted under compulsion, against my (law-abiding) volitions not to do so. Clearly, when a man sins, his will and his actions are united in sinning, and so man is to be held responsible for his sin. His volition and his action are both results of the corrupt nature which is his. But then, 'freewill' is a misnomer, and a misleading term to express the liberty of spontaneity which man does possess.

The notion that man is responsible only for what he has the ability to perform is utterly false. The fact that sinful actions spring inevitably from a sinful nature is no excuse; it rather aggravates the guilt. For man's sinful nature is no part of God's original creation, and man's duty (by which responsibility is to be judged) is determined by God's moral law, which unfallen man could keep. The fall and its consequences do not lessen our responsibility, they increase it. Our sin in Adam[62]. has rendered us unable to do good, yet the sinner, each one of us, is accountable to God in every respect, thought, word and deed. God commands us to render complete obedience and satisfaction to the moral law of the ten commandments. That we cannot do so is patently obvious. Nevertheless, it is required.

Man, then, in all his faculties, is as chained and imprisoned in the darkness of his sins, in captivity to Satan, as Peter was bound by Herod on the eve of his intended execution;[63] as dead as Lazarus in the tomb;[64] as blind as the man Jesus healed.[65] We must be on our guard against the theory that man's will is free, and not bound, or dead, or corrupted––and hence, that man can please God, if he wills to do so––for Scripture is against such a theory.

[Related Article: Requests for Company and Coworkers]

The doctrine of total depravity is not that every man is as bad as he could possibly be; but that man's nature is corrupted and disabled in every part and aspect––his mind and will as well as his body, affections, etc. So we do not deny that the natural man is capable of doing and willing things which are in themselves good. This is an effect of God's 'common grace'––that is, the work of the Holy Spirit in restraining men from sin and in leading them to do good, which extends to all men. Such grace is necessary to prevent the world from sinking into a condition as evil as hell itself; yet it is not the same as saving grace, and the good which results is despite the sinners' corrupt nature.

These good deeds are not acceptable to God, because they are without the only motive with which God is pleased––love to God and humble faith in Christ.[69] When the Pharisaical Jews kept every outward commandment of the Law, they were doing that with which God is indeed pleased, in itself––but he was not pleased with them, because every act was marred by the sinful and unsuspected enmity of their hearts.[70] Their best deeds were as filthy rags in the sight of our Holy God.[71] Prayer is pleasing and honoring to God; yet he will not hear the prayer of the wicked.[72] The unsaved man may do good works in order to obtain reputation; or to justify himself before God or man; or to quieten his conscience and silence the pangs of conviction of sin; or from the working of the common grace of God in him: he will never do good works to glorify God, from a grateful, penitent heart, for it is against his corrupt nature. Can an evil tree bring forth good fruit?[73]

"The commands of Scripture imply ability"

This inference hardly deserves refutation, but simply denial. The sphere of moral ability is quite different from that of natural ability. The commands of Scripture imply moral responsibility or duty; and in no way does 'I ought' imply 'I can'.

If man's inability to obey the commands of the Law were natural or physical, he would indeed lack responsibility, and there would be no point in commanding him to do that of which he is absolutely incapable. But 'as the inability of the sinner to repent and believe, to love God and to lead a holy life, does not arise from the limitation of his nature as a creature (as is the case with idiots or brutes); nor from the want of the requisite faculties or capacity, but simply from the corruption of our nature, it follows that it does not exonerate him from the obligation to be and to do all that God requires' (C. Hodge). A sinful nature imposes a moral inability as inflexible as prison bars, yet the sinner is responsible to do that which his own fallen nature renders impossible. If it were not so, a man would become less and less responsible as he became more and more sinful––an absurd conclusion which would make the punishment of Satan quite unjust.

It is worth adding that there is a point in commanding sinners to obey, even though they cannot do so. For through the Law comes discovery of sin in all its sinfulness.[74] The sinner who realizes his condition, his guilt under the Law, may be driven by the Holy Spirit to Christ for refuge. It is just as when Christ called 'Lazarus, come forth!': Lazarus was dead; he could not obey; yet in that instant he was quickened by the power of God, and came forth.[75]

A closely related argument is that responsibility for sin implies that one could have avoided sinning. The answer is again very simple: responsibility for sin implies that one ought not to have sinned. When the unregenerate man sins, he does so freely, as a free agent, and in accordance with his own wishes; and it is this which makes him responsible. It is true that his action is doubly necessary––necessary as all events are, because foreordained of God; and necessary because of the corruption of his enslaved nature––but moral necessity in no way limits responsibility.

46. 1Cor. 15:21-22; Rom. 5.12-21

47. Is 1:5-6

48. Mt. 15:19; Jer. 17:9

49. Eph. 4:17-18; Rom. 1:28

50. Jn. 5:40

51. Tit. 1:15

52. Dan. 9:9-11 Rom. 1:29-32

53. Rom. 8:8

54. Ps. 51:5; Rom. 3:9-20; Jn. 8:34

55. Gen. 2:17; Eph. 2:1

56. Ezek. 21:24

57. James. 1:14; Eph. 2:2-3; Mt. 15:19

58. Gen. 5:12

59. Rom. 9:19-20; Is. 45:9

60. Job 14:4

61. Acts 17:50

62. Rom. 5:12-21

63. Acts 12

64. Jn. 11

65. Jn. 9

66. Gal. 5:10

67. Rev. 14: 10-11; Mt. 24:51; 25:41; 3:12; Rev. 21:8

68. Rom. 2:812; Jn. 6:44

69. Heb. 11:6

70. Jer. 17:9

71. Is. 64:6

72. Prov. 28:9

73. Lk. 6:43-45

74. Rom. 7:13

75. Jn. 11:43-44

The pressure cooker bombs that were used in the Boston Marathon attacks have been a staple of al-Qaida for years — and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has known about their use by terrorists since at least 2004.

“The pressurized cooker is the most effective method,” said an article in the first issue of al-Qaida’s magazine, Inspire, published in July 2010.

The English-language magazine is published online, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

“Glue shrapnel to the inside of the pressurized cooker then fill the cooker with inflammable material,” the article said. A small light bulb can be used as a detonator, according to the al-Qaida article.

The report continued: “Place the device in a crowded area. Camouflage the device with something that would not hinder the shrapnel such as cardboard.”

“You need to also include shrapnel,” the article said, according to the Free Beacon. “The best shrapnel are the spherical shaped ones.”

Also, “sniffing dogs are not trained to recognize them as bomb-making ingredients,” the article said.

“In one or two days the bomb could be ready to kill at least 10 people,” the article said. “In a month you may make a bigger and more lethal bomb that could kill tens of people.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers said that pieces of black nylon and fragments of ball bearings and nails were recovered, the Associated Press reports, and that authorities believed the bombs were placed in dark-colored backpacks or bags.

A source close to the investigation told the AP that the bombs were made in 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one containing shards of metal and ball bearings, the other packed with nails — and both stuffed into duffel bags.

The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that investigators recovered a circuit board that they believed was used to detonate the bombs.

The explosives, placed on the ground within 100 feet of each other, were detonated about 12 seconds apart, the Globe reports.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has been on notice about pressure cooker bombs since 2004 — six years before the al-Qaida article was published, The Washington Post reports.

According to an internal DHS memo published on Tuesday in the Post, the bombs were described as “a technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps.”
The memo then outlines many of the details disclosed in the al-Qaida article:

“Typically, these bombs are made by placing TNT or other explosives in a pressure cooker and attaching a blasting cap at the top of the pressure cooker. The size of the blast depends on the size of the pressure cooker and the amount of explosive placed inside.

“Pressure cooker bombs are made with readily available materials and can be as simple or as complex as the builder decides,” the DHS memo continued. “These types of devices can be initiated using simple electronic components including, but not limited to, digital watches, garage door openers, cell phones or pagers.

“Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack,” the 2010 report said.

The 2004 DHS memo mentioned plots that had been foiled in France and Jammu, India, the Post reports.

In 2006, seven pressure cooker bombs killed more than 200 people in the Mumbai train attacks in India, according to the Post.

1) The Bible not only rejects but condemns astrology. Isaiah 47:12-15 should be read carefully. The concluding words of warning regarding the person committed to astrology and related occult practices make clear that confusion is the inevitable lot of such a person and tragic, eternal loss the final price.

2) The supposition that the wisemen (magi), who found the young Christ as the result of astrological pursuits, somehow supports the practice of astrology by reason of their inclusion in the Bible story, is a groundless one. They only evidence how God meets earnest hearts where they are, and if they honestly are searching for Him, He'll see that they get there. But please notice: the whole story in Matthew 2 notes that (a) it took the revelation of the Word of God to finalize their quest and (b) their quest wasn't final until they found the Son of God.

3) The danger of astrology is beyond a simple, superstitious misuse of time. Plying the trade of occult practices is to traffic with the demonic. the "uncanny" concurrence of events, people contacts and trivia in a person's life, seeming to confirm the forecast of their horoscope, is the direct result of demonic manipulation of people and circumstances. It isn't the result of some cosmic influence radiating from the stars, but a hellish one emanating from satan himself, having found but one more way to seal, to kill and to destroy sheep-like humans (John 10).

4) Presumably, everyone reading these words knows the difference between astrology and astronomy: the former is a metaphysical or occult practice; the latter an objective pursuit of physical science. There is nothing wrong with the study of astronomy: Indeed, there is great inspiration in studying any aspect of God's creation. In this realm, the acid test is the willingness of the student to acknowledge God's handiwork and to overcome the idolatrous systems of human pride which chalk galaxies off to a deity named Chance (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-32).

5) Finally, knowledgeable Bible students are aware of the fact and the reason that the name of some star groups occur in the Bible (ex: Job 9:9; 38:31, 32; Amos 5:8). These references to constellations are not astrological, but are didactic—that is they are a means of teaching. It is a fact that before the ancient Babylonian systems of astrology came into vogue, the godly patriarchs linked the spiritual lessons of God's promised redemption in the minds of their children by using the canvas of the skies (and in a day when pen and paper were unknown).

Astrology is the study of the celestial bodies such as sun, moon, earth and the planets and their positions and movements around certain events in life. An astrologist draws an horoscope, which is called a natal chart, of a person from the time of their birth. This horoscope will foretell all events in a person’s life. According to an astrologist one’s life is established according to the celestial bodies and their positions at the time of our birth. They believe that one’s whole life is already defined by the position of these bodies and that every event in one’s life is already established and can thus be predicted. They define future events that will happen in one’s life according to this theory.

In Astrology the celestial bodies are seven corresponding to the planets Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus and the Sun and the Moon of course. The seven days of the week were created in honor to one of these celestial bodies. Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Mars),Wednesday (Mercury),Thursday (Jupiter), Friday (Venus), Saturday (Saturn), Sunday (Sun). Each month also has a symbol of the Zodiac. These Zodiac signs are needed to draw a horoscope .These signs and their position at the time of an event in a person’s life are believed essential to know to outcome and the events of a person’s life. Furthermore you need to know that there are several kinds of astrology. We have the natal chart which is the study of a person’s birth, judicial astrology defines one’s destiny, but also the destiny of nations, medical astrology diagnoses illnesses and so on.

Astrology was used by the Babylonians and from Babylon it spread over to Greece in the fourth century BC and from Greece it spread to the rest of the world. From there it spread to the Romans who loved everything that had to do with astrology and the occult. Later on, further down the centuries, astrology was practiced alongside alchemy. People believed that by combining these two esoteric practices, they would obtain the ultimate sublime knowledge which is also called the secret knowledge.

Of course people who dabbed in this field gained knowledge, but they never gained the secret knowledge they were looking for. You see, this knowledge is the property of Satan and he will never give his knowledge away. Not completely that is, he gives it in parts and pieces but you will never obtain the whole knowledge that pertains to this secret knowledge. In the middle ages for example, people tried to obtain the knowledge of turning metal into gold. The search for this knowledge was performed right down the ages. Kings and other nobles were in constant need of money for they spent it lavishly, not only on their own lusts but on wars as well. They were therefore in constant need of funds. Almost every respectable house employed an Alchemist who searched for this knowledge. Needless to say, they never found it.

The Bible strictly forbids us to participate in anything that has to do with the occult:

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” (Deut.18:10-12)

“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.” (Lev. 20:27)

Every participation in any area of Astrology may put you under a curse of God because you are directly disobeying His commandments. You also need to be aware that if you draw a horoscope or if you read your horoscope on a daily basis, just as many self-professing Christians do, you are opening the door to allow demonic activity within your life. Let me give you an example of my own life. I grew up in South America and my mother loved to go to witches, fortunetellers and shamans. Their predictions and the knowledge these people possessed (mainly about events that happened in the past) amazed me and arose my curiosity. Thus the next time my mother visited such a person I went along and had my horoscope drawn. The events that happened in my past were almost correct but nothing they predicted for my future was or has been.

In time, and always after visiting these people, it seemed like if I was being chased by bad luck. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Now I know that I was cursed, but at that time I had no idea. In fact I was deceived, as some Christians are, into believing that God allows the occult because He wants us to know all things. That is wrong. God will only disclose that knowledge and those future events in your life which He chooses to and in His time. To obtain knowledge outside God’s will is not only dangerous but disastrous. Thanks to my involvement with these things I became demon possessed. This demon was very strong and it controlled my entire life. Deliverance was not easy believe me. I hope I have drawn a clear picture about the dangers of the occult.

Nowadays many people fall prey to the occult because it is being sold in a mild and attractive package. But you need to know that once you are drawn into it, there will be serious consequences, even if you are a Christian.Many Christians think that they are protected by the blood of Jesus and therefore they can participate in these things without any harm. That is most certainly not true!
[Related Article: The Grace of God]

One very big danger of participating in these things is that once you are involved in fortune-telling, for example, you will go further down the path of destruction. Next time you will visit a shaman who will give you all kinds of mixtures and drinks to drink and place within the house. This only opens the doors to more demonic activity in your life, and not only your life, but your family's as well.

I remember my mother burning a green candle because a shaman told her that in doing so it would bring good luck. Well, let me tell you that after these practices all kinds of manifestations started to happen within the house. Not everyone of us saw them,my mother for example did not, but I saw them. My mother was already blinded to the truth and she was the doorway for demonic manifestation in the house and sad to say in our lives. At one point, after she had placed some mixtures in our room for peace and the like, the light switch started to turn on and off for no apparent reason. We children even felt a hand touching our faces. We often dared not sleep in our own beds and we decided to sleep all three of us in one bed. We were that scared.