Category: Spiritual Discernment
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
—Jesus, John 17:3, NASB
For demonstrating solidarity with Muslims by wearing a head scarf and stating that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, a Wheaton College professor was recently placed on administrative leave by that evangelical Christian institution. This incident again raises issues about the compatibility of Christianity and Islam. With Pope Francis, Christians are stating both religions worship the same God, and that between the deities the Bible and Koran reveal there’s no essential difference (Or for that matter, with the God of Judaism either.). The reasoning promoting sameness might go something like this:
Judaism is monotheistic;
Christianity is monotheistic;
Islam is monotheistic;
Therefore, all three religions worship the same God.
But before dealing with the question as to whether Muslims and Christians worship the “same” God, some preliminary points need to be made regarding the issue.
Love
Both Jesus and Paul ordered that Christians are to love, pray for and do good to all people, neighbors and enemies (Luke 10:27). Click here to continue reading
An interaction with issues raised by a Roman Catholic film.
For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you’.
—Jesus, Matthew 17:20b
Little Boy: Believe the Impossible, produced by Metanoia films (the biblical word metanoia means to change one’s mind or repentance, or perhaps in this instance, beyond the mind), tells the story of a young boy, Pepper Flynt Busbee, upon whom psychokinetic power was bestowed to work miracles of faith, even shake mountains. Despite being bullied by other kids, the “little boy” believed the impossible. By believing in the power of faith without doubting he was not only able to perform supernatural feats that astonished the townspeople, but also bring his father and best friend, James Busbee, back from the battlefields and perils of World War II. Click here to continue reading
A Review and Commentary
Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future (Lake Mary, FL: Front Line—Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Club, 2011). 254 pages + Notes. In the Front Matter, it is stated: “What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.” (Emphasis added)
By applying words of judgment spoken and written to ancient Judah (circa 732 BC) by the prophet Isaiah (i.e., Isaiah 9:10-11), Jonathan Cahn creates a prophetic picture in The Harbinger—one the author admits to be part fiction and part fact—of God’s looming judgment over the United States of America (i.e., harbingers being signals of what is to come). As Jehovah judged His chosen nation in the ancient world for their iniquitous ways (Israel and Judah), so God has begun to pour out His wrath upon His chosen nation in the modern world (the United States). Click here to continue reading
A Serial Book Review & Theological Interaction: Part 5
Review of Chapter 4: Recovering Our Spiritual Inheritance by Bill Johnson [1]
“God is glorified by not speaking in plain language to you. He’s glorified by speaking in parables, symbols and dark sayings.” (TPOH, 31)
–Bill Johnson
Though this chapter does not fit The Physics of Heaven’s exploration of the ways quantum science can energize the Christian faith (i.e., tap into Pentecostal power by harnessing the universe’s quantum “sounds, vibrations, or frequencies”), the authors decided to include Bill Johnson’s teaching “on recovering our spiritual inheritance . . . because there are whole realms of insights that belong to the people of God we’ve failed to explore and, therefore, haven’t been leaving as a legacy for future generations.” (TPOH, 29) If today’s indifferent Church fails to move forward by reclaiming “lost ‘God truths’,” “a vacuum forms that the enemy fills” and “future generations of Christians” will loose the inheritance this generation should have left to them. Click here to continue reading
A Serial Book Review & Theological Interaction: Part 4
Review of Chapter 3: Vibrating in Harmony With God by Bob Jones [1]
“Both men and women are being given authority of badges and there are six things they have ‘blank checks’ to do: healing, holy confiscation, prayer, petitioning, teaching, and ushering in prosperity.”
—Bob Jones (TPOH, 22)
Introduction
Authors Judy Franklin and Ellyn Davis have constructed this chapter from material garnered from interviews with Bob Jones (1930-2014), one of the Kansas City Prophets who, in association with the Olathe Worship Center of Kansas City’s Metro Vineyard Fellowship, rose to prophetic prominence during the 1980s. It is this reviewer’s intent to critique the prophetic words and thoughts of Bob Jones (not to be confused with the Bob Jones of Bob Jones University) as they appear in this chapter of The Physics of Heaven. During a lifetime of ministry, first within the Vineyard Movement and later independently, Bob Jones is credited to have been one of the most visionary of the Kansas City Prophets. Click here to continue reading
A Serial Book Review & Theological Interaction: Part 3
Review of Chapter 2: Extracting the Precious From the Worthless by Ellyn Davis [1]
“Therefore, thus says the Lord, / ‘If you return, then I will restore you— / Before Me you will stand; /And if you extract the precious from the worthless, / You will become My spokesman. / They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them’.” Emphasis added, Jeremiah 15:19 [2]
Introduction
Seeking
In their searching for spiritual truth, Ellyn Davis proposes that Christians engage New Age Religion (NAR) to seek for and take back truths which originally belonged to citizens of the Kingdom of God. (TPOH, 15) In that counterfeits prove the existence of the genuine, Davis, a former hippie from the 60s, has decided to commence a search for truth amidst a spirituality of lies. Click here to continue reading
The “Conversion” of a Skeptic?
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Jesus, John 14:1-4, KJV
Recently, Newsweek magazine flaunted a cover title HEAVEN IS REAL, with the subtitle, A Doctor’s Experience of the Afterlife. [1] The experiencer of Heaven is Dr. Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who has taught at, among other academic institutions, Harvard Medical School. In other words, he’s familiar with the intricacies and workings of the human brain. As a scientist, Alexander confesses he did not believe in near-death (NDE) or out-of-the-body (OBE) experiences for he “believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-the-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death,” but when he experienced one, his worldview shifted. Click here to continue reading
A Biblical & Theological Rejection of Wm. Paul Young’s
book, “Lies We Believe About God” (Eighth in a series.)
“Therefore, beloved . . . regard the patience of our Lord as salvation . . . just as also our beloved brother Paul . . . wrote to you, as also in all his letters . . . which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
—The Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:14-16, NASB)
A Review of the Book’s Chapters (continued)
A Catena (My Commentary on Young’s Catena: Part 3)
The “World” and “Everyone” Passages (23-28)
The “World” Passages
23. John 1:29 (NASB, emphasis Young’s): “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John the Baptist’s recognition of Jesus occurs at the beginning of His public ministry. “Behold the Lamb (amnos) of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John proclaims. Click here to continue reading