What Popery Is At It’s Center

A quote by C.H. Spurgeon, The Sword and the Trowel:

“Well may the people of Italy rejoice over the fall of this incubus of the ages! If anyone would satisfy himself of what Popery is at its centre; what it does where it has had its fullest sway, let him make a little tour, as we have lately done, into the mountains in the vicinity of Rome, and see in a country extremely beautiful by nature, what is the condition of an extremely industrious population. In the rock towns of the Alban, Sabine, and Volscian hills, you find a swarming throng of men, women, and children, asses, pigs, and hens, all grovelling in inconceivable filth, squalor, and poverty. Filth in the streets, in the houses, everywhere; fleas, fever, and smallpox, and the densest ignorance darkening minds of singular natural cleverness. A people brilliant in intellect, totally uneducated, and steeped in the grossest superstition.
 “These dens of dirt, disease, and, till lately, of brigandage, are the evidences of a thousand years of priestly government! They, and the country around them, are chiefly the property of the great princely and ducal families which sprang out of the papal nepotism of Rome, and have by successive popes, their founders, been loaded with the wealth of the nation. The pope-originated aristocratic families live in Rome, in their great palaces, amidst every luxury and splendour, surrounded by the finest works of art, and leave their tenants and dependents without any attention from them. Some steward or middleman screws the last soldo from them for rent; and when crops fail, as they did last year from drought, lifts not a finger to alleviate their misery.
 “And the Papal Government, too—a government pretendedly based on the direct ordination of Him who went about doing good—what has it done for them? Nothing but debauch their minds with idle ceremonies and unscriptural dogmas, lying legends, priests, monks, and beggary! The whole land is a land of beggars, made so by inculcated notions of a spurious charity. Every countrywoman, many men, and every child, boy or girl, are literally beggars—beggars importunate, unappeasable, irrepressible! What a condition of mind for a naturally noble and capable people to be reduced to by—a religion!
 “And is this the religion which so many of our educated countrymen and countrywomen, and still more signally the clergy, are so anxious to give us in exchange for the freedom and intelligence of Protestantism? What a stupid blunder, to say the least of it!” (bold mine for emphasis)

~~~~~~~

Its still going on until this very day! Not the poverty surrounding the Vatican, I hope, but the desire of the Protestant and Evangelical clergy to join hands with the Mystery Babylon Harlot. The only difference is that the intelligence of Protestantism is waning due to compromising with the paganism of the Roman Catholic Church and with the world…

WHEN “JUDGE NOT” IS NOT BIBLICAL

FTA: First, it is important to understand Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” The untaught love to throw this little sound bite around as if it were an all-sufficient Bible argument to end all criticism or judgment. When it is used against public preaching and teaching, you know you have met another religious novice. The only reason most can remember it is because it is only seven words long. Do they really think these seven words overthrow the rest of the Bible?

This rule must be understood in its context and in light of the rest of Scripture. For example, just five verses later, Jesus Himself told us to judge some men as dogs and pigs and keep the truth from them (Matt 7:6). Wow! Judge not, huh? For example, Jesus told us to judge righteous judgment (John 7:24). And the whole context of the statement itself, the Sermon on the Mount, is His condemning judgment of the Pharisee’s religion from start to finish (Matt 5:20; 7:28-29).

Read more here: Why do You Judge Others?

I’m a Cheerful Legalist!

(P)eople throw this cheap term with a flexible definition around to slur those who believe there is only one way to worship God. By that definition, we are cheerfully legalists! We know that God accepted Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s. We know Jesus said that worship must be in spirit and truth to be acceptable (John 4:23-24). Since truth does not allow for a variety of ideas, Jesus taught there was only one way to worship God. And Paul must have been the greatest legalist of all time, for he cursed any angel or man who preached anything differently than he preached (Gal 1:6-9). Yes, we are legalists in this sense.

We do not believe a sincere heart covers for disobeying the word of God. David had a sincere heart moving the Ark of the Covenant, but God killed a man for it not being moved the right way. Moses had 40 years of faithful service as Israel’s leader, but God kept him from the land of Canaan for striking a rock for water instead of speaking to it. We see these examples in Scripture, and we choose to esteem every precept of God and hate every false way (Ps 119:128). Why not come be such legalists with us?

Read more here.

Seduced by the Religious Attractions of Paganism

God is jealous. He saved you from serving the devil to be His very own bride. He expects total adoration and perfect obedience. Religious holy days are one of the devil’s and world’s favorite ways to seduce you into spiritual adultery, where you will ignorantly make love with pagan idolatry and the devil, often in the name of Christianity. When God sees this adultery, He turns to be your enemy (Jas 4:4).

God is jealous. He knew religious customs of other nations were attractive, so He warned His people strictly to reject all of them. He would not accept any pagan religious traditions, even if done to Him (Deut 12:1-4,29-31). He demands perfect obedience, without turning to the right or the left, without adding or taking away (Deut 5:32; 12:32). He expects you to come out and be separate (II Cor 6:14-18).

Read more here: Holidays

Satan’s Churches Unite

Friendship of the World is Enmity with God

Christians Losing Discernment

What an interesting article! I did not know that there can be no such thing as Christian Rock music. This article, What’s Wrong With Christian Rock?, will explain why. When it comes to Christian music I stumble alot with discernment. Its tough, but its so very important to do it and after reading this article, I understand the importance more than ever.

Here’s an excerpt:

To give an example of thinking of those who listen to “heavy metal,” I had a few email exchanges with a young man who emailed me asking why it was wrong for him to listen to Christian metal. He believed that he was helping people to be saved by Jesus Christ because he was relating to them with that music, and he used 1 Cor 9 as a reference to back up his claim (something his youth pastor probably taught him).

For though I be free from all [men], yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you].
-1 Corinthians 9:19-22

With this verse, the young man wrote to me, “Paul said that you have to become what you must to relate to people to enable them to be saved.

I asked him a question to gauge who I was talking to, and whether or not he studied the Word of God to have a proper understand of what Paul was writing in 1 Corinthians, “Let’s assume your interpretation of this scripture for a moment. Does that mean if I want to reach pagans, I must start practicing witchcraft, and God approves of me practicing witchcraft?” (admin note: this sounds like those who say they celebrate X Mass, even knowing its pagan/papist roots, to spread the Gospel)

He responded, “If you consider the gospel put into a secular band to be witchcraft then yes and I’d also say God approves of that. I don’t know about you but I can’t see sin in that.
(Read “Halloween: Are Christians Lovers of Death?” here at creationliberty.com for more details about the sin of witchcraft)

If Phil is saved (I don’t know him well enough to know if he is or isn’t), he obviously has no discernment of Scripture because even though witchcraft is labeled as abomination unto God, this young man believes that using sin will preach the Gospel. As I have written before in many articles, we cannot pick out one section of a verse and make an entire doctrine out of it when there are other correlating verses we must take into consideration to establish a proper interpretation of Scripture. We don’t become alcoholics to save drunkards, we don’t become slothful to save the lazy, and we don’t become witches to save pagans because we don’t use our liberty in Christ to satisfy our flesh. (bold mine)

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
-Galatians 5:13

A guy named Mike also wrote me with a similar argument, saying, “1 Cor 9:20 has been taken out of context many times, true. But if it doesn’t mean adapting who we are to the customs of those around you in order to win souls what does it mean?

For example, money is not evil, but the love of money is evil. The Bible condemns the obsession over material things. Money does not have a conscience; good can be done with money, and evil can be done with money. The Bible tells us that one day, money is going to be converted into a system where the mark of the beast will be involved (Rev 13:17, and that is a spawn of Satan. When Satanism gets into our currency, what does the Bible say to do? DO NOT TAKE THAT MARK under any circumstance. (Rev 14:11) Will you be able to use money (buy/sell) if you don’t take the mark? Nope. God is showing us that when money goes Satanic, you should not have anything to do with it, and God takes it so seriously, that Revelation 14 describes people going directly to hell for taking that mark.

Likewise, music is not evil, but the obsession with music is evil. Music does not have a conscience; good can be done with music, and evil can be done with music. But when Satanism is poured into music, should we (as born-again Christians) turn around and use that music for God’s glory? Be careful how you answer that question, because to say ‘yes’ is the same as saying, “I will take the mark of the beast and use it for God’s glory.” There is a line God draws on what we do, but Christians today tend to take a lackluster approach to the devices of Satan.

I’m not saying a Christian isn’t saved because he/she listens to rock/metal music, but I am saying that many use that music to replace studying the Word of God, and what you listen to WILL affect your mind and heart. Many are addicted to the music, and in unrighteous fashion, end up using God’s Word as a justification for their carnal addiction. The young men who emailed me have spent so much time listening to the teaching of Christian rock, they have lost sight of what the Word of God teaches us. Though there may be Christians who listen to that type of music, it can destroy their discernment, and Satan will take advantage of them.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
-2 Corinthians 2:11

Here is that article again: What’s Wrong With Christian Rock?

Sojourning in Fear