.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
Gamaliel's Desk
Friday, March 19, 2004
 
Issues Facing Pharisees Today (cont.)

This week I am continuing my offer of the most important sermons I have ever preached. You may order these in DVD, VHS and CD ROM format. This series of messages with over 900 minutes of my finest preach will help every Bible-believe Pharisee today be well informed on issues of the most vital importance. The remaining titles in the series are:


NEW EVANGELICALISM AND ITS DANGER TO THE LORD'S CHURCHES

This is my most important sermon dealing with the topic of the New Evangelicalism. In this 2-hour message you will get all the proof you need for why everyone else is doing it wrong. Some complain that I preach this entire message blasting heretics and exposing their false gospel but never once preach the True Gospel myself. These mindless critics are ignorant of the fact that my message is to those who are already saved, who know the gospel - not the lost. Why would I waste time telling the Gospel to those who already believe it? It is not the intent of my preaching to evangelize the lost myself, but to inform God's People as to why everyone else is doing it wrong.

Many of my fellow Pharisee brethren have said this is the best and most practical presentation they have seen on this subject. New Evangelicalism stands on a shaky middle ground between fundamental Bible-believing Christians and the wider apostasy of mainline, liberal Protestant denominations. This presentation traces the history of New Evangelicalism by examining the faulty philosophies of the men who have promoted it: Billy Graham, John Harold Ockenga, Harold Lindsell, John R. W. Stott, Max Lucado, Charles Stanley, Warren Wiersbe, Chuck Swindoll, Chuck Colson, Luis Palau, Franklin Graham, C. Peter Wagner, Bill McCartney, Bill Bright, Stephen Olford, Jack Van Impe, Joseph Stowell, and other soft-headed liberals. I also expose the schools which have passed this philosophy on to a generation of unsuspecting, gullible preachers and missionaries: Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary; Westminster College, Gordon-Conwell, Biola, and others.

I also examine the vital questions of is God pleased with preachers who:
• refuse to separate from evil?
• refuse to name the names of false teachers?
• refuse to preach the negative things of the Bible?
• have earned the praise and acclamation of the world and its institutions?
• are willing to unite with those who preach a "different gospel' than the one which can save a soul?
This presentation gives clear, Bible answers to the many questions raised by New Evangelicalism, so that Christians can arm themselves against this dangerous and unbiblical philosophy and help them ease the guilt they feel for not sharing the Gospel themselves. If everyone else is doing it wrong, then we need to make sure we don't join their error by doing it wrong as well. The less we share of the Gospel ourselves, the less likely we are to make the same mistakes.

PHARISEE FUNDAMENTALISTS WHO DEFENDED THE KING JAMES BIBLE

Some recent publications have made the claim that Pharisees of old did not defend the King James Bible and have argued that the defense of the KJV is of recent origin. This high-quality one-hour message, refutes this claim altogether. It provides clear historical proof that Pharisees have ALWAYS defended the King James Bible as a sacred text from the earliest days of the 20th Century.

WHY WE HOLD TO THE KING JAMES BIBLE

The defenders of the King James Bible in general are being charged with being divisive and ignorant. It is the point of this two-and-a-half hour sermon to show that it is really those heretics who undermine reliance on the King James Bible as the Inspired Word of God who are being divisive and ignorant, not us. This high-quality video presents five of the most important reasons why we are convinced that English-speaking people need to hold to the King James Bible in spite of the onslaught of the modern versions. The main points of the message are:

1. THE KJV IS BASED ON THE PRESERVED GREEK NEW TESTAMENT.
In our estimation, the first and foremost reason why we need to hold to the KJV is that it is based on the right Greek New Testament, whereas the modern versions are based upon a corrupted Greek New Testament that was fashioned in the 19th century out of unbelieving, humanistic principles. In this video presentation we help the viewer understand this matter by examining Four Periods of Church History:
• The Apostolic period, which was the era of the giving of the Bible
• The 2nd and 3rd centuries, which was the era of the corruption of the Bible
• The Dark Ages, which was the era of the persecution against the Bible
• The Reformation, which was the era of the printing of the Bible. We show that throughout this long period up to the late 1800s, God's people had confidence in the preserved scriptures.
2. THE MODERN VERSIONS ARE BASED ON THE CORRUPT THEORIES OF MODERN TEXTUAL CRITICISM.
The modern Greek New Testament was founded upon the principle that the Scriptures were not divinely preserved by God but were corrupted. According to modern textual criticism, a corruption of the New Testament somehow became the Bible of God's people around the 3rd century and it was that corruption that was spread throughout the world and used by God's people for 15 and more centuries until the end of the 1800s, when (allegedly) the pure New Testament was finally recovered through the theories of textual criticism. We give three reasons for rejecting modern textual criticism even though this view falls right in line with our "Four Periods of Church History" mentioned above.
3. THE KJV IS DOCTRINALLY SUPERIOR TO THE MODERN VERSIONS.
This video presentation explodes the popular myth that no doctrine is affected by the various versions by careful proof-texting and selecting only those scriptures that support my point while ignoring those which don't.
4. THE MODERN VERSIONS ARE BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF DECEPTION.
We see that the translators were instructed not to change the text, yet they secretly replaced the Greek Received Text with the Westcott-Hort Greek text created by the principles of modern textual criticism. How we discovered this secret is never explained.
5. THE KJV HAS AN UNMATCHED HERITAGE.
We look at the Tyndale Bible that became the foundation of the King James Bible and try not to contradict ourselves in explaining why the KJB is superior to Tyndale's even though it is built on his foundation.


THE ERRORS OF MODERN TEXTUAL CRITICISM

It is impossible to find the Word of God apart from faith; yet, modern textual criticism is founded not upon faith in God's promises but upon the cleverness of human scholarship. This, in itself, is a great error. We prove this error through judicious use of the cleverness of human scholarship on our own part.

SOUND CHRISTIAN MUSIC vs. CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC

This presentation examines the overt worldliness in lifestyle, appearance, and methods of the Contemporary Christian Music industry. Aside from exposing the worldly lifestyles of modern contemporary Christian I ask some vital questions:
• Should Christians rock?
• Is Contemporary Christian Music a good way to entice the world into the church?
• Where should we draw the line in Christian music?
• How does worldly music enter Bible-believing churches?
• What are the dangers of this new music?
• Isn't it legalistic to have specific standards for music?

For Bible answers to these and many other important questions on the issue of music, we highly recommend this video. This will be especially enlightening for those who can't figure out where the Bible addresses this issue even though it was written nearly 20 centuries ago.

Gamaliel/rjp

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

James 4:1-2 (NIV)


Friday, March 12, 2004
 
Issues Facing Pharisees Today

In an effort to expand our e-ministry into the modern age, I have decided to embrace technology and make my most important sermons available on DVD, VHS and CD ROM. You can order the entire collection comprising over 900 minutes of the finest Pharisee fire-and-brimstone philosophy available. With the spirit of compromise and worldliness holding our churches in thrall, it is vitally important that you order this pack of 5 DVDs, 12 VHS tapes or 7 CD ROM discs containing audio and PowerPoint outlines of my 9 most important sermons. Here is a brief selection of some of the most important titles:


BIBLICAL SEPARATION AND ITS NEGLECT AMONG PHARISEES

The outline of this 120 minute sermon is:
• Separation: What sets Spiritual Christians apart from Carnal Christians and the rest of the world
• The Basis of Separation: The power of having and "us vs. them" mentality
• The Method of Separation or "Why Ostracism is Still a Good Idea"
• The Reason for Separation: Establishing why we are better Christians than everyone else
• The Attitude of Separation: Why nothing spiritual is ever accomplished without the power to judge and condemn others.
There are a great many examples throughout the sermon on why we need to be separate in such things as staying away from Christian bookstores, contemporary Christian radio stations, non-Pharisee mission activities and modern Christian scholarship.

THE CALVINISM DEBATE: MAKING MINCEMEAT OF THE OTHER SIDE

This 45-minute feature focuses on why we need to have this debate. It is vitally important for us to take a stand on our historic position with regard to our understanding of the mind of God. We must be able to articulate a position that dots all of the appropriate i's and crosses all the relevant t's in such a way that we are acceptable to our peers. It is vitally important that we not frame our arguments in a way that deviates one inch from our Pharisee tradition. I also explain at great length the benefits of spending time talking about evangelism, witnessing and sharing the faith without actually going out and doing any of those things.

DANGERS IN CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORES

Sadly and strangely, one of the great spiritual dangers facing Bible-believing churches today is the unscriptural material that lines the shelves of the typical Christian bookstore. This video message carefully exposes several of these dangerous philosophies that permeate the average Christian bookstore. An expose of dangerous authors to avoid includes such names as Robert Schuller, Kay Arthur, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, John Maxwell, Philip Yancey, Jim Cymbala, Max Lucado, Elisabeth Elliot, Jerry Bridges, Jack Hayford, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, James Dobson, and C.S. Lewis. Since none of these wild-eyed radicals are True Pharisees, we need to avoid reading anything they have written. And just to prove I am a good Pharisee myself, all of my research is taken from the dust jackets of the books, the opinions of Pharisees who have read the books and my own personal prejudices and biases based on e-mails I have received from others.

DANGERS OF CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP MUSIC (Part 1 of a 2-part series on music)

I have put in more research on this series of messages than anything I have ever done, including the subject of eschatology. I have read about 30 books on the subject of contemporary praise, and I analyzed about 500 of the popular contemporary praise albums even though listening to all this garbage caused excruciating pain, severe hallucinations and an infection with a spirit that wanted to make me "joyful" in spite of my judgmental, condemning attitude at the moment. Through the years I have studied contemporary praise at large ecumenical conferences where I have attended with press credentials because I did not one anyone to think for a moment that I was a participant in such godless mayhem. I have attended services at congregations that are influential in the Contemporary Christian Worship movement, including Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, Bill Hybels' Willowcreek Community Church near Chicago, the Anaheim Vineyard Church, lately pastored by John Wimber, Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida (where Michael W. Smith recorded his largest-selling worship album), and other congregations that are influential in this movement. Here are the main warnings I divulge in this sermon:
• Contemporary Christian Worship is built upon the false philosophy that music is neutral. Everyone knows that any music that is melodic, has a beat and uses non-spiritual instruments only excites the flesh and not the spirit.
• Contemporary Christian Worship is largely a rock & roll feeling-fest. It does not convey timeless doctrinal truth or inspire platonic, intellectual, non-emotional worship.
• Contemporary Christian Worship is not separated from the world. In fact it is so comfortable in the world that a number of musical groups and songs are being played on secular stations. This is clearly a sign of compromise with the world; not evangelism as they claim.
• Contemporary Christian Worship is one of the most insidious means of promoting the ecumenical movement. As we know, Pharisees cannot be associated in the least with any false denomination or we succumb to the spirit of compromise and violate the tenets of Biblical Separation by listening to this drivel.
• Contemporary Christian Worship goes hand in hand with a worldly philosophy of Christianity and a gradual lowering of all standards. It mixes worldliness and Christianity in such a way as to negate the message of purity and holiness necessary for maintaining our pious attitudes. It teaches that we are all equally loved by God and undermines the idea that of all God's children, he does have favorites - us Pharisees.
• Contemporary Christian Worship is confused about true biblical worship. It seeks to introduce elements of emotion and feeling when true worship is all about the intellect and the mind. Anything that appeals to emotion is strictly forbidden in true worship. We learn in the book of John chapter 4 that God is Truth and they that worship him must worship him in Truth. They seem to think that they must include the "Spirit" when worshipping God, which is far from what the Bible teaches.

THE DANGERS OF SOUTHERN GOSPEL MUSIC

This is part 2 of my extensively researched multi-media video presentation on contemporary worship music. It is a professionally produced documentary with a multiplicity of photographs and other visual and audio aids mixed into the presentation to illustrate the message. It is necessary to clear up misconceptions about Southern Gospel Music for a number of reasons.
• Southern Gospel is big business today and is very influential in Bible-believing churches, not only in the South, but also throughout the country, Canada and elsewhere.
• Many like Bill Gaither and other prominent names, are rapidly adopting the "music is neutral" philosophy of the Contemporary Christian Music world. In fact, any walls that once existed to separate Southern Gospel from the Christian rock world are rapidly being torn down.
• Commercial Southern gospel today is now nothing more than one of the branches of the larger CCM tree.
In this presentation I relate the history of Southern Gospel music from the quartets in the early 1900s and its spiritual foundations. I then go on to describe the evolution of the music toward commercialism and entertainment, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s and explain why Christianity should never be a financially viable enterprise. I describe how Southern Gospel quartets adopted the sexy dance music of the early 1900s, adopting the rhythms from ragtime, jazz, western swing, honky tonk, boogie woogie, and the blues. I never explain why this is wrong because it should be self-evident that anything done in bars and nightclubs should never be done in church. I distinguish between the two streams of Southern Gospel - a conservative (Spiritual) stream and a contemporary (Carnal) stream and explain how to tell the difference. I also explain how Southern Gospel (the carnal version) laid the foundation of rock music in the 1950s and show how many early rock & rollers got their start singing in churches. We explain why this is proof that the church is worldly instead of being evidence for how Christian art can have an impact on the world. We describe the vast influence that Bill Gaither, his minions and imitators have wielded on the Southern Gospel field since the 1980s. We document his rapid transition into the contemporary pop sounds and expose his ecumenical philosophy and show how this unscriptural philosophy is permeating Southern Gospel. I conclude with 10 practical suggestions on "Avoiding the Siren Sound of Southern Gospel Music."

(To Be Continued next week…)

Gamaliel/rjp

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:23-24 (NIV)


Powered by Blogger