Not long ago during some research for a piece I was working on, I found myself on a blog that was most definitely not a friendly place for anyone who holds that God’s Truth is absolute and we can know it by studying His Word. The search that landed me there had to do with [...]

Over at Midwest Christian Outreach Ron Henzel, Christian apologist and Senior Researcher at MCO, has an edifying post concerning the cardinal Christian doctrine of the vicarious penal substitutionary atonement of Christ on the Cross: 
Christian worship services around the world regularly echo with the declaration of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin [...]

A nebulous “gospel” of good deeds with a hopeful ”get out of Hell free” card and/or an evangelical purgatory.
*Cue Gary Wright*
Dream Weaver, I believe you can get me through the night;
Dream Weaver, I believe we can reach the morning light.
Fly me high through the starry skies;
Maybe to an astral plane.
Cross the highways of fantasy…

The Apostle Paul did indeed bear the marks of persecution on his body. He had been found to be worthy to suffer shame for the name as had Peter and John (Acts 5:17-42). Paul had been stoned, beaten, imprisoned, run out of town, and would die as a martyr. Why were they persecuted so? They [...]

A succinct teaching by pastor Randall Easter on a subject, which is now becoming an issue even within mainstream evangelicalism.

Are we to accept the profession of faith from everyone who claims to be a Christian? This is a hot button issue in our time. I know of several people who once fellowshipped here who no longer do because they are convinced that it is wrong to rebuke and contend with those who profess faith [...]

See also: The Rape of Solomon’s Song; Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

So says “Rev.” Mary Ann Schoettly, “I am a priest”; whether the pope, or God Himself, likes it or not:

NJ woman ordained as a priest in controversial ceremony

HT: A Little Leaven

God has had it on His heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent His love is, and also how terrible His wrath is. Sometimes earthly rulers have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them… But the great [...]

Chris Rosebrough, captain of internet based Pirate Christian Radio and host of the Fighting for the Faith Radio program announced on Monday that Joel Osteen is the winner of the “Worst Easter Sermon Award” for 2009.
“Every Christmas Christians whine and complain about secular and atheistic efforts designed to take Christ out of Christmas yet more [...]

We use that word “truth” quite a bit here on this blog. Truth is not relative. It is absolute. Of course, when I speak of truth this way I am referring to God’s truth, not man-made truth. What a wonderful thing it is that God gave His people His revealed truth in a form that [...]

It would be difficult to even imagine this deep a superstition but here it is. Just read the article, maybe St. Joseph could help you sell your house.

It would certainly appear that the influence of Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster continues spreading within mainstream evangelicalism, and even within Calvinism. Apprising Ministries shares some thoughts in this piece.

With an able assist from John MacArthur and a few others, in this piece you’ll be given the necessary backdrop against which to understand that in his rejection of this cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith Bell does indeed adhere to, and advocate, an experience-oriented approach to the Bible.

Think the divisive and aggressive “Christian” homosexual lobby isn’t having effect within evangelicalism; CRN suggests you think again. Following is an outreach from a church aligned with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. At Grace Unfolding: Sisters Friends-Together we’re told:
SisterFriends Together is an outreach ministry of Grace Unfolding Ministries, and we exist to provide a safe [...]

One of the worst things that has happened for the Church was the removal of official persecution by the Romans after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Prior to that, Christians were always just one step away from possible persecution and death. The Protestant Reformation was at its height during that [...]

I have been writing for quite some time and am now polishing up my article on New Evangelical Calvinism or the “New Calvinism”, after receiving constructive feedback from my friend and fellow CRN contributor Stephen Macasil.
Anyway, I thought I would post my belated response to Tim Challies’ horrible posts attacking watchblogs. For those who have [...]

Again, in this article Apprising Ministries asks two key questions concerning Rob Bell, an icon of Emergence Christianity. The first would be:  Why does Bell want to keep introducing people of dubious spiritual character into mainstream evangelicalism?
And the second one is: Why is it leading voices of the Emerging Church such as Bell, his friend Peter Rollins, and Brian McLaren [...]

Here are the Mosaic Dancers and their performance of an interpretive dance based on 1 Kings 11:7-8 from the recently convened Catalyst West “ministry” conference.
Mosaic Dancers – EPIC from j tru on Vimeo.

If Adele Sakler of Queermergent, the lesbian “Christ-follower” who is co-leader of the Richmond Emergent Cohort is any indication, Apprising Ministries thinks the answer is negative. In this short piece we have further discussion of an issue likely to be a defining one within the visible Christian church in this generation.

Apprising Ministries shares some thoughts in this short piece.

There is a dread disease present in the visible Church in our day. The disease is the result of conformity to the current culture in which it is a crime to tell the truth to those who may resent it. It is a crime because a minority has determined that the worst thing that can [...]

Apprising Ministries has the details.

As mentioned previously, there has been some talk about online discernment ministries (ODMs) being considered by some as part of a pernicious cult of ODMs.
Once again pastor John Chisham does us a service by bringing us what a forebear, an ADM, has said in this piece.

The following from Chad Holtz, pastor of Marrow’s Chapel United Methodist church, is a textbook example of the why the rejection of sola Scriptura by much of the evangelical community, coupled with the emerging church bending over to see God in “the other” (religions), will prove fatal spiritually if not immediately counteracted:
I would say Jesus came proclaiming not [...]