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"If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!" (John 8:31-32,36)

Moral Relevance – The Rabbit Trail to Dissipation

September 14, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

“The great business of Satan at the present time is to seek to deceive the people of God with things that seem to be in accordance with His mind, but which are really deceitful imitations…Let the precious truth of the indwelling and gifts of the Holy Spirit be declared, and Satan will follow with false gifts and another spirit, leading even earnest souls into the wildest fanaticism. Let the truth of the new birth be insisted upon, and the devil will raise up teachers after his own heart to tell men that being born again means simply ‘rising out of the self-life into the spiritual, reaching out after the higher ideals, seeking to make that which is highest, noblest and best of ourselves; thus saving ourselves by character.’ This is a sample of the teaching heard in many a supposedly orthodox pulpits at the present time.” (H. A. Ironside, Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, p. 182, 187, 1920)

In a promotional statement from the pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, we are told, “In his new book, The Power of I Am, Joel Osteen shares the secret to changing your future. Osteen encourages readers to think positively and improve their lives by speaking the promises of God. Filled with practical advice and encouragement, The Power of I Am shows readers how they can redirect the course of their lives through the words they say. When you speak the right ‘I am’s,’ you’re inviting the goodness of God. I am victorious. I am blessed. I am talented. I am anointed. Your words have creative power. With your words you can bless your future!”

The greatest myth ever propagated by religionists of any flavor for centuries has been the simple statement that one can get to God for success and blessing by lifting themselves up by their own bootstraps and endeavoring to live a good life in relation to others.

You might ask, “What is moral relativism? Well, it’s a mindset and lifestyle that says, “My sense of morality is whatever I think it to be according to whatever is happening around me. My morality depends on my present circumstances in relation to everything and everyone around me. It may change from time to time, depending on how our culture changes.”

At one time in America, morality was based on the Ten Commandments found in the Judeo-Christian religion. Those commandments express the moral character of the God of Jews and Christians. Devout Jews are rigid in their efforts to keep the Law God has placed upon them in Scripture. Christians are faced with the words of Jesus Christ, who said, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Christ’s commandments expanded the Ten Commandments to a deeper moral responsibility, imposed upon those who would profess belief in Him. Added to the moral degradation observed in our current culture, we now have a form of moral relativism that insists on tolerance and inclusivism. To be considered acceptable we must abandon the exclusivism of Biblical morality.

It really doesn’t matter what you think as an autonomous individual. Believe whatever you want. One is a bigot who says a candidate for high federal office should have to refrain from using what was once termed “filthy language” and boasts of a lifestyle based on the moral depravity embraced by many starting in the 60s and 70s. And what’s worse is that many in the Evangelical World care not what a presidential candidate’s lifestyle and past are. Isn’t morality relative to the times in which we live? Is there really anything wrong with wanting to have our ears tickled, accumulating for ourselves teachers in accordance with our own desires; and what’s wrong with turning away our ears from the truth, and turning aside to myths? Isn’t this the way we should all do things in this age of myths?

We American evangelicals and biblical fundamentalists had better wake up and smell the roses. I fear we are satisfied in smelling what is normally put under the roses and are willing to accept the judgment God is sending us through our devolving culture and ungodly leaders.

The time has come for believers to get into their closets and onto their knees. It’s time we believers speak out, lifting the Biblical standard of righteousness. Our nation is sliding into dissipation and ruin.

Belief, Christian Witness, Culture, Emergent Church, Evangelical Church Tagged: culture, Evangelical Church, theology, witnessing

The Missing Element

February 21, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Old Testament is old. It was not written to us in the 21st Century. It is not relevant to our culture and time. The person who says that is ignorant of what the Old Testament Scriptures reveal about the depravity of man and the holiness and eternal purposes of the God of the Universe.

To say that the laws, principles, moral and spiritual standards God gave the Jewish people have no relevance to our time and culture is to exhibit gross ignorance of both Judaism and Christianity. It is an absurdity. God said to Jeremiah,

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant…You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:9b-12)

Jeremiah, like other select individuals, was called by God to deliver His message to His people – both those of faith and those of unbelief. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they were rendered infallible in speaking and writing. Evangelicalism in America today appears to have lost its prophetic voice. The New Testament declares to the Church,

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church…therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.” (I Corinthians 14:1, 3-4, 39)

Today, as never before, the Church needs those who have been called by God to prophesy to the Church. I’m not talking about professed biblical scholars who foolishly set dates for the rapture of the Invisible Church. The gift of prophecy, as Paul stated, is for the “edification, exhortation and consolation” of the Church – the body of Christ. It is not a ministry to unbelievers. Its focus should be to call the people of God back to God and away from its absorption of our pop culture in worship and practice.

The Old Testament Prophets didn’t simply speak God’s opinion on the nation of Israel. They spoke God’s revealed word of discernment and judgment. They boldly proclaimed,

“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water…My people are foolish, they know Me not. They are stupid children. And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 2:13, 4:22)

How long do you think an emergent church leader would last if he preached like that? The Old Testament Prophets spoke God’s judgment upon His people, the Jews. And in doing so they condemned the heathen around them with whom they had compromised and made alliances. They even prophesied that God would use those pagan nations to punish His chosen people.

Ancient Israel and Judah had forsaken the authoritative rule of the God of their fathers. They had amalgamated themselves with the worship of pagan deities and had sunk to the immoral practices of their heathen neighbors. Today’s emergent church, in many ways, has been invaded by the American pop culture. Emergent churches sought “new measures” for attracting the unsaved and opened their arms to our culture’s ways of marketing. In making alliances with the practices and psychology of our pop culture, the Evangelical Church has become as popular as any social organization. In doing so the traditions, creeds, theology of our Protestant forbearers have been abandoned for a message suited to satisfy the “tickling ears” of the masses. Traditional forms of worship were cast aside for new, emergent forms of liturgy. What’s missing in our Starbuck generation of relationship-building evangelical churches? What’s conspicuously absent is intestinal fortitude for pastors to preach the whole counsel of God. The gift of prophecy both in the Old Testament and the New Testament Church was and is to boldly proclaim the valid implications and applications of authoritative Scripture, whether church attendees like it or not. Until we see that on a broad scale our nation will continue to devolve in ways never resembling the greater generations of our past.

The Old Testament scriptures contain vital history, theological wisdom, divine promises, and unchanging judgments of God upon the sin of His people and those who know Him not. To ignore its truthful teachings is to incur the judgments the Prophets proclaimed. They are as relevant and applicable today as when they were first spoken. Not written to us, they are for our generation and generations to come. And what’s more,

“When He ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8-12)

Where do you hear the voice of God’s prophets for this era of doom and death?

Beryl's Blog, Christian Vocation, Christian Witness, Church, Culture, Emergent Church, Evangelical Church, Mission, Spiritual Truth, Truth Tagged: culture, Evangelical Church, Judgement, mission, Spiritual Truth

God’s Relation To The Unregenerate World

February 15, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”(Romans 1:18 NASV)

Where is God? He is where He has always been, creator of and ruler over His creation.

God’s wrath is an exercise of his justice and abhorrence of man’s rebellion. God’s wrath hangs like Cicero’s Sword of Damocles over every man and woman walking on the face of this earth. Our lives hang by less than horsehair. Indeed, the very breath of God suspends them.

But why is God so angry and wrathful, you ask. Was the Psalmist correct when he said, “God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11)

 Romans chapter 1 gives us the reasons why God sits in wrathful judgment over mankind.

Mankind suppresses the knowledge God has given regarding Himself. “That which is known about God is evident with them for God made it evident to them.” (v. 19).

  1. Mankind has deliberately failed to honor God as the God of the universe. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God.” (v. 21)
  2. Mankind fails to “give thanks to God” for who He is. (v. 21)
  3. Mankind has become “futile in their speculations; and their foolish heart was darkened.” (v. 21)
  4. Mankind professes to be wise, but “they became fools.” (v. 22)
  5. Mankind is idolatrous. “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” (v. 23)
  6. Mankind is enslaved physiologically and psychologically by the lusts of their thoroughly depraved nature. (v. 24)
  7. Mankind has elevated the philosophy of humanism denying theism. (v. 25)
  8. Mankind has turned to the acceptance and practice of the LGBT lifestyle. (vs. 26-27)
  9. Mankind has been self-subjected to every form of evil, contrary to the laws and nature of the righteous, holy nature of the Creator. (vs. 28-31).
  10. Mankind practices and gives approval to the evil actions of other men. (v. 32)
  11. Mankind ridicules any idea of future judgment by God. (v. 32)

There are a dozen divinely revealed reasons why God’s relation to man puts man in danger of eternal damnation in hell. [Read more…]

Belief, Christianity, Condemnation, Eternity, Evil, forgiveness Tagged: culture, faith, Holy Spirit, regeneration, salvation, sovereignty, Spiritual Truth

Things That Go “Thump” in the Night – Part 2

May 2, 2016 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

Continued from Part 1

6. Robbing God in a world of plenty:

We are told that less than 6 percent of today’s churchgoers tithe, that is, give at least one tenth of their gross income to the Church. We explain away God’s question and answer in Malachi:

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” (Malachi 3:8-9)

We no longer build beautiful churches in which to worship. We build what looks like a warehouse or a lecture hall. Why? It’s quite simple: our churches are filled with thieves – professing Christians who fail to give what belongs to God – His tithe. Our church attendees think they can tip God and get away with it. We allow ourselves to join our highly commercialized and pleasure seeking culture and get smothered in either things or debt. Then we convince ourselves that we cannot “afford” to tithe. And the “devourer” – Satan – laughs at our affluency, lust for things, and failure to please God by giving Him tithes and offerings. As a result, we miss the message of God through Malachi:

“I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of Hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for your will be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:11-12)

[Read more…]

Belief, Christian Vocation, Christian Witness, Culture, Devotion, Evangelical Church Tagged: culture, doctrine, Evangelical Church, revival, Spiritual Truth, witnessing

Sick and Angry

October 18, 2015 by Beryl Smith 1 Comment

“ Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.”
(Eph. 4:25-27)

Can any right thinking individual not feel sick, when they see our nation devolving in corruption and immorality? Politicians lie to get votes. Businessmen lie and cheat to make deals. Our public educational system is engulfed by secular humanism. The onslaught of Islamic militants appears to succeed in their godless jihad around the world. Our nation seems to be satisfied to forsake its opportunity to provide leadership in the world; and political apathy seems to be a cancer eating at our national foundations. But is the thing that bothers me the most?

It appears to me that the main reason why this nation is crumbling is that the Evangelical Church has surrendered in the spiritual battle and has given the devil, Satan and his minions, free reign to destroy this nation. And I place the blame squarely on the spiritual leadership in the Evangelical Church. Preachers won’t preach against the holocaust of abortion – some of their members have joined the abortion industry that has resulted in the murder of over 60 million of our unborn children. [Read more…]

Abortion, Christianity, Church, Culture, Evangelical Church, Judgement, Separation Tagged: abortion, culture, Evangelical Church, Judgement, persecution, separation, sin

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Beryl Smith

AvatarBeryl has a great love for studying the Bible and Christian theology. Beryl is a 12th generation descendant of Ralph Blaisdell, an English Puritan who came to America from Bristol, England in August, 1635 on the sailing ship “The Angel Gabriel.”
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