I am currently reading a very good book by Pastor Steven Lawson called, "Foundations of Grace: A Long Line of Godly Men." In the preface of the book, lies a quote by Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, which at first glance comes across as quite shocking, and seems like an embellished attempt to push a pet doctrine, but as I get deeper into the book, and more importantly, as I search the various passages within the Scriptures that Steven Lawson expounds upon, the more I find myself agreeing with Mr. Warfield's statement.

"The world should realize with increased clearness that Evangelicalism stands or falls with Calvinism."

Steve Lawson rightly defends this assertion by proclaiming that, "the lofty truths of divine sovereignty provide the greatest and grandest view of God...for without the theological teachings of Reformed truth concerning God's sovereignty in man's salvation, the church is weakened and made vulnerable, soon to begin an inevitable decline into baser beliefs, whether she realizes it or not." Lawson continues by saying, "Once yielding the high ground of Calvinism, a self-absorbed church puts its full weight onto the slippery slope of Arminianism, resulting in a loss of its foundational stability. Tragically, however, the descent rarely stops there. Historically, man-centered doctrine has served only as a catalyst for an even greater fall. Rappelling down the slippery slopes of Arminianism, one is soon to find the church sinking deeper and deeper into a murky quagmire of heretical ideas. Such a descent inevitably gives way to liberalism, the utter rejection of the absolute authority of Scripture. From liberalism--given enough time--the church always plunges yet lower into ecumenism, that deadly philosophy that embraces all religions as having some part of the truth. Continuing this downward spiral, the church plummets into universalism, the damning belief that all men eventually will be saved. Yet worse, universalism gives way to agnosticism, a degenerate view that one cannot even know whether there is a God. Finally, the church falls into the deepest abyss--the hellish flames of atheism, the belief that there is no God."

I know a lot of people who would disagree with these statements, a lot of people. One major problem, and I believe the biggest reason why so many people would be opposed to the above sentiments is that the word "Calvinism" means so many different things to so many different people. Calvinism is such a loaded word; everyone has their own ideas and notions about what Calvinism is or what it supposedly espouses. Along with that, you find just as many people having varying opinions on what "hyper-Calvinism" truly is. For that very reason, I think it is best to steer away from those types of terms and badges that carry so much baggage, and really just deal with what the Scriptures have to say, because seriously, that is what it is all about. What has God really revealed to us in His Word?

Over the next few blogs I am hoping to take a closer look at the true Biblical teachings of God's sovereign grace, His predestination and election of sinners, man's total depravity, man's role in salvation (if any), God's love for the world, and anything else contained in the Scriptures related to what we typically label as "Calvinism" or "Arminianism" so that we can see clearly what God has truly told us concerning these things.

Rick Warren recently appeared on the Fox channel's Hannity and Colmes show to peddle his new book, "The Purpose of Christmas." Unfortunately Mr. Warren took this great opportunity on a nationally syndicated show, in which millions will see him, NOT to proclaim the true Gospel of Christ by which men can be saved...NO, instead this world famous, super celebrated and highly esteemed false teacher pushed the extremely popular, hippy-buddy-magical genie Jesus who is so often taught throughout America's Churches.

This false Jesus overlooks everyone's sin, and would never dream of men actually admitting their guilt and being remorseful to the point of repentance over their transgressions, because that way of thinking is so negative. Rather than all that "fire and brimstone" stuff, he’s all about love and wanting you to be happy no matter what. I mean, after all, Joel Osteen teaches that Jesus died to save you from a life of mediocrity and exists to give you an abundant life…in the material and financial sense, of course.

Furthermore, this pathetically weak and lonely false Jesus is so starved for fallen humanities love and affection that he stands outside the proverbial door of your heart knocking, waiting, and begging, like a cold and hungry puppy hoping that one day you will let him in. Deceivers like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen would have you believe that this Jesus’ main agenda is to do all our bidding and to answer every one of our trivial, selfish and materialistic prayers with an astounding 'YES'.

Rick Warren's Jesus does not even demand any sort of exclusivity of man's affections, because Rick's Jesus is willing to be put on some sort of probationary period, so that people can test him to see if he lives up to all the hype. I guess under those kind of circumstances, Rick's Jesus better start coughing up the goods real quick like, if he knows whats good for him, or he just might find himself thrown right back outside the heart's door, forced to go back to his knocking and waiting.

Is this the real Gospel? Does any of this resemble what the Scriptures really say? Is that the biblical Jesus? Does any of this accurately describe the true Christ? How is it that America as a whole has bought into these obvious heretical lies, and exchanged the Almighty God for this puny pitiful idol?

Matthew 16:24-25
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

The true Gospel is harsh, abrasive, and utterly offensive, because the true Jesus, found within the Bible, does not proclaim a message of self-fulfillment but demands from His disciples absolute and total self-denial. Why do you think that Jesus' own family, friends and neighbors tried to throw Him off of a cliff after delivering his first sermon? Or why did they attempt to stone Jesus on several occasion? Seriously, why do you think Jesus was ultimately crucified? If men like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are correct, the crucifixion of Jesus doesn’t even make sense, because who on earth would kill such a fun loving guy, whose sole purpose is to make everyone happy and give them all their hearts desire? If Jesus were going around, as those deceivers would have you believe, giving fluffy, feel good messages in which people's self-esteems were being boosted, then why on earth was He murdered?

John 3:18-20
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Jesus was killed because He proclaimed a message that the world hated, and the world hates His messages because He exposed their true nature…that of radical depravity. Many people try to deny the inherent sin nature of man, and even within the Church itself, false teachers claim that we are not wretches, even removing that word from the old hymns, and they attempt to claim that our hearts are not desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) but those lies contradict the Scriptures. God's Word is unapologetically clear about the utter sinfulness of man and that only God alone is good...if this were not true, and we are not inherently evil and increasingly worthless, then Christ died a needless death. But the fact of the matter is that man's heart is evil from youth (Gen 8:21) and that man is totally incapable of doing good (Rom 3:12) and because of our spiritually bankrupt state, we are in desperate need of a Savior, because without the sacrifice of Christ we face the wages of our sin, which of course is death and the eternal punishment of a fiery hell.

Acts 4:12
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Furthermore, the Gospel is hated because of it's exclusive nature, in which it clearly states that many will travel the broad road leading to hell, and only a few will enter the narrow gate leading to heaven. Yet, men like Joel Osteen deny this, and they also deny that Jesus is the "only way", thus implying that Christ lied when He said that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6)." Mr. Osteen, I am guessing, in an attempt to be seen as “loving,” claims that he has seen Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Mormons all love God in their own way and he says that he just can’t imagine God rejecting that. Not only does Joel's teaching make Jesus' death and resurrection totally worthless since, according to him, you can believe whatever you want and still enter the narrow gate of the Kingdom of God, but Joel once again denies the truth of the Scriptures. I guess I am curious why Joel is even a professing Christian or a "Preacher" for that matter, since truth to him is merely relative.

I will continue the various reasons why the true Jesus along with the true Gospel message is hated in the next few blogs...although I will probably have a blog or two inbetween.

e have become too familiar with God. I mean this in the sense that we as a nation and as a people no longer fear Him, as we ought to. From Christian tool sets sanctified with etched Bible verses on them, to fish-shaped breath mints, we have merchandised and trivialized His "image" to the point of nausea. We dare plaster His holy Name or a symbol associated with the Lord of lords on some piece of worthless junk and ignorantly think that we have not kindled His anger toward us? Do we honestly think He is pleased by such irreverence and idolatry...

Jeremiah 5:22
"Do you not fear Me?" declares the LORD, "Do you not tremble in My presence?"

Verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book written by the Prophets of old, warning the nation of Israel of the infinitely real dangers of treating the Lord our God with anything but fear and trembling, which we too in the Church age have recorded for our instruction so that we are also without excuse. Our lack of fear goes beyond the limitless amount of Jesus junk being peddled across our land, to the very words we speak about God in which we humanize Him, making the same mistake as those who think that the Most High can look favorably on sin like one of us. The earth is but a footstool to Him, yet we treat Him with such contempt.

Not only do we show a lack of respect toward God, but also we degrade those great men of faith He has chosen to raise up. This lack of respect shown to God's people is preached from pulpits by men who find humor in the sin of Noah's drunkenness, or laugh at the symbol of sin given by God to Ezekiel. Our land revels and parties in common costumes mocking the Patriarchs, in which the original sin...the fall of man is laughed at and scorned. Christian comedians...is there really such a thing in God's eyes?

O' yes, I take myself far too seriously, I should lighten up. After all, Jeremiah was referred to as the laughing Proph...oh wait no, it was the lamenting Prophet. Well then...Jesus, He was a man of joy...no wait, He was a man of sorrows. I do admit that Proverbs says that there is a time to laugh...but is that time now? Is that time in this day and age? A day in which God Himself in all His holiness is treated as nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. As I have said over and over, and I will say it again, turn back to the Word of God.

Stop giving your money to those who speak lies in the name of Christ. Turn away from those who teach His Word falsely. The Church is not ours to run as we see fit, but it is Christ's, He is the Head, He is the chief Shepherd, and He has clearly and specifically laid out in His Word the orderly way it should be run. We have become adulteresses, forsaking God, the fountain of living waters, to hew for ourselves broken cisterns that hold no water. We as a people do not have the dread of the Lord God of hosts within us but have pursued the Baals. Exchanging the blessed Trinity for an idol consisting of a black woman, an Asian woman, along with a large nosed Middle Eastern man (A Shack reference for all you out there scratching your heads). This is not a time to laugh or a time to party. This is a time for serious men to man up and preach a serious message to a people who are lost and stampeding down the broad road of destruction. Warn them fervently as Paul did the Ephesians with many tears. Turn them back from their wicked ways and lament the fact that we have stood by and said nothing as it has gotten as bad as it is.

Jeremiah 5:29-31
"Shall I not punish these people?" declares the LORD, "On a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself? An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?"