Rob Bell's interview

The great conspiracy: but is it true?

It's very usual for atheists and the like to charge Christianity as a man-made religion. They say the apostles invented our faith to gain power, either political or monetary. They just ignore that nothing like that is true. They never gained any power whatsoever. Actually, almost all of them died horrible deaths.

The cartoon below is a great analogy of what could had happened if this “conspiracy theory” were true. And is also really funny.

Enjoy it.

3 Simple Rules For Listening to a Sermon

By J.C. RYLE QUOTES

It is not enough that we go to Church and hear sermons. We may do so for fifty years, and be nothing better, but rather worse. “Take heed,” says our Lord, “how you hear.” Would any one know how to hear properly? Then let them lay to heart three simple rules.

1) We must hear with FAITH, believing implicitly that every word of God is true, and shall stand. The word in old time did not profit the Jews, since it was “not mixed with faith in those who heard it” (Heb. 4:2).

2) We must hear with REVERENCE, remembering constantly that the Bible is the book of God. This was the habit of the Thessalonians. They received Paul’s message, “not as the word of men, but the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

3) We must bear with PRAYER, praying for God’s blessing before the sermon is preached, praying for God’s blessing again when the sermon is over. Here lies the grand defect of the hearing of many. They ask no blessing, and so they have none. The sermon passes through their minds like water through a leaky vessel, and leaves nothing behind.

Summary:

Let us bear these rules in mind every Sunday morning, before we go to hear the Word of God preached. Let us not rush into God’s presence careless, reckless, and unprepared, as if it mattered not in what way such work was done. Let us carry with us faith, reverence, and prayer. If these three are our companions, we will hear with profit, and return with praise.

J.C. Ryle

Hell's Best Kept Secret

The Way of the Master has a huge influence in our ministry here in Brazil.
We want to share with you the foundational teaching from this ministry that had changed the way we do evangelism. Hope it'll help you too.


Living waters- Hell's best kept secret from Michael Helders on Vimeo.

Rob Bell meets Robbed Hell

Rob Bell has finally come out and is showing his true colors: he is a five points universalist (if there is such a five points for it. I'm just using some reference from Calvinism). He video and book “Love Wins” is going viral through the web and the church.

Some guys made a very funny video about it.

I'm posting bellow the two videos. First the Rob Bell one and after that Robbed Hell.

Have fun.

This little idol?

Winslow, "The Sympathy of Christ"  To affirm, as the Scriptures of truth positively do, that mankind is originally and totally depraved, is but to portray it with every feature of its pristine nobleness, purity, and excellence utterly spoiled! Mankind has become the living embodiment, the acting impersonation, the very incarnation of fallen SELF love; SELF love in the form of complete SELFishness. The original Center of the soul forsaken, man had become a center to himSELF. The God He worshiped, was the deification of SELF. The religion He professed, was the adoration of SELF. The powers He cultivated were consecrated to SELF. His whole existence was one act of service and devotion to SELF. The Divine Center abandoned, He knew no other god, acknowledged no other sufficiency, recognized no other end than himSELF. Every faculty and thought, every affection and action, was made to contribute to the cloud of incense which rose as in one dense column before this little idol, SELF.  SELF the first; SELF the last; SELF all in all! And is it not so now? SELF, in some shape, is still the Deity of the natural man! SELFishness is still the universal sin of our nature, exhibited in one or more of its thousand modifications, its endless forms. All are in pursuit either of wealth, or ambition, or pleasure, or honor, or gratification under the 'law of SELFishness'. SELF is the only recognized principle and rule of action which regulates the conduct of the great majority of our depraved species. The indictment is heavy, the picture is dark, the sin is awful, we admit; but it is borne out by daily observation and frequent experience, and by the faithful, unerring Word of God, "All men seek their own." What, we ask, is all this.... this SELF exaltism? this egotism? this envy and jealousy? this attempt to supplant others in esteem, influence, and power? this prodigality and love of worldly show? this eager chase of wealth? this covetousness and penuriousness? this love of ease and sloth? this niggardly dole of charity? this cruel, heartless, grinding oppression? this growing sensuality and crime? What, we ask, is all this, and a thousand times more, but the one appalling, cancerous sin of SELFishness existing in the very heart of depravity, and sending its fatal poison along all the fibers of human society? By Grace Gems

Richard Dawkins bad debate

I was watching Richard Dawkins debate with Wendy Wright. Man, I felt so bad for him. It was really embarrassing. Dawkins is well known for been a bad philosopher and a bad debater, but he could do a better job than he did. He went to ask her where did she study science! What does that have to do with it? If you study science here your believes are true. If you studied there, than is not true. Bad reasoning.

Dawkins believe that science is the only way to know the true. But that statement is not a scientific one, it's a philosophical one. And he totally ignore that science works on paradigm. Sometimes it's a true paradigm, sometimes it's a false one. Science depends a lot on other fields of knowledge in order to find out if the current paradigm is true. The ether story is a good example.

So, if you too want to fell bad for Dawkins, just watch the debate below.

Breaking News: missing link found!

Fresh News from the Evolutionary Myth!!!!!

I'm proud to announce they finally found the Missing Link between man and monkey. Or man and gorilla. Something like it...
Smart ape.



The whole thing reminds me of another missing link I met in the Amazon... Sir Godfrey! He almost got the part of King Kong on Peter Jackson's version in New Zealand.

Apologetics 315

One of the greatest websites on the Internet with tons of resources on apologetics is Apologetics 3:15. A lot of what I learn on line comes from the huge amount of links your can get there. The best of apologetics on line is posted daily and every Friday you can check a Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links.

I highly recommend your visit to their site if you want to learn more about apologetics.

The all-new Emergent Candy

Mix it together and sell it!

Thanks to Sacred Sandwich

Anti-intellectualism in the Church

I want to share two text from the book I was reading "Smart Faith: Loving Your God with All Your Mind"
. After the text there is something else I want to share.

We now live in a Christian culture so deeply committed to a nonintellectual way of understanding Christian faith that this perspective is now imbedded within us at a subconscious level. You didn't misread. Our underlying ideas about Christianity affect how we think church should be, what a good sermon is, what is worth giving our money to, how we should raise our families, where we go to college, what we should study, and a host of other topics in our lives. But if our faith is central to how we live and what we believe is flawed, then how we live out our Christianity will be filled with flaws as well. Our modern understanding of Christianity in this area is inconsistent with the Bible and with most of Christian history.

for those who lack courage, anti-intellectualism has created a context in which we often come off as shallow, defensive, and reactionary instead of thoughtful, confident, and articulate. At school, at work, and sometimes at home, even identifying yourself as a Christian is often considered the same as wearing a sign that says, "Village Idiot."The way intellectuals in our country react to our claims of faith is enough to send us running for cover in shame. But if we develop our minds, we'll find ourselves boldly and intelligently taking on the challenge.

We've been talking a lot on our blog (in Portuguese) about the anti-intellectualism in the church. The church that gave birth to so many great theologians, philosophers, scientists, artists, writers and many others watch passively the decline and ridicule of its members on the public arena.

And the world sees it. Faith today is equal to irrationality and even worst, many inside our faith agrees with this. Many of us actually foster it. They don't want to think about their faith. They don't want to search because they are afraid they might give up their faith. But if we have a faith that cannot be carefully investigated, what we have is not a biblical faith, but just a wishful thinking. Faith has a evidential foundation.

The opposite of faith is disbelief. The opposite of rational is irrational.

A few days ago we were watching a cartoon show that showed Christians in a very pejorative way. Christians were throwing on the fire books that could represent some sort of danger to the faith. Among those books were Charles Darwin's “Origin of the Species”, Stephen Hawking's “A Brief History of Time” and also a book tittled “Logic for first graders”. Despite the obvious exaggeration in the show, in a sense this is how the world sees us. The intellectuals are the atheists, to whom the poor Christian is deadly scared. Instead of been seen on the same path of great Christian thinkers of the past, we're seen as little naive lambs of mega preachers, mega temple builders, mega money collectors.

This situation is not good at all. But there is a light at the end. And little by little this light is reaching (timidly, I should say) the church. In the last 30 years a great wave of Christian philosophers has been getting to the academics and are generating a vigorous body of literature very useful for the Christian faith. Among those we can list J. P. Moreland, Alvin Platinga, Gary Habermas and lately William Lane Craig. Norman Geisler, Greg Koukl and others are leading a movement for a rational defense of our faith and are forcing many atheists to retreat from some of their arguments. It'll take a while for this movement to grow bigger, specially here in Brazil. But we're working for it, because every Christian should “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” 1 Peter 3:15. In other words, apologetics is for every Christian. Everyone.

William Lane Craig once invited the famous atheist Richard Dawkins for a debate, since Dr. Craig would be in Europe. That happened a couple of years ago. Dawkins' answer was very informative. He said he was not interested in debating someone who was not famous or was not a least a bishop (or equivalent) in any other religion. Dawkins said he didn't know who William Lane Craig was and that, while this debate would do great for Dr. Craig resume, I would do nothing for his own.

In face of this, two option arise: if Dawkins really didn't know how Dr. Craig was, nothing of Dawkins sayings about the existence of God could be taken seriously, since it proofs he didn't make his homework on the subject. He didn't research the subject properly. If he did, he would have reached Dr. Craig's works on the existence of God.

But if he knows who Dr. Craig is, he made a maneuver to avoid a confrontation with Dr. Craig, since he knows he would be beaten like a child just like Christopher Hitchens was beaten in a debate (Does God Exist?) at Biola University in 2009.

Christianity is a path of faith. But also a intellectual path. And the Christian that is not exercising his intellect, that is not exercising his God given brain is living in a sort of sub-Christianity, failing to fulfill what the Scriptures tell us:

“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength... ”. 

Marc 12:28-30

Evolution: a sinking ship

Darwinian evolution with its blind watchmaker thesis makes me think of a great battleship on the ocean of reality. Its sides are heavily armored with philosophical barriers to criticism, and its decks are stacked with big rhetorical guns ready to intimidate any would-be attackers. In appearance, it is as impregnable as the Soviet Union seemed to be only a few years ago. But the ship has sprung a leak, and the more perceptive of the ship's officers have begun to sense that all the ship's firepower cannot save it if the leak is not plugged. There will be heroic efforts to save the ship, of course, and some plausible rescuers will invite the officers to take refuge in electronic lifeboats equipped with high-tech gear like autocatalytic sets and computer models of self-organizing systems. The spectacle will be fascinating, and the battle will go on for a long time. But in the end reality will win.

Phillip E. Johnson – Darwin on Trial