Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Harold Camping Debates Dr. James White (Part Two)

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MP3 Available Here

DR. JAMES R. WHITE, author of "Dangerous Airwaves: Harold Camping Refuted & Christ's Church Defended", and HAROLD CAMPING, founder & president of FAMILY RADIO, will DEBATE: "HAS THE CHURCH AGE ENDED?"

From Dr James White:

We just confirmed that Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28th and 29th, I will be debating Harold Camping on the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program on the topic of Camping's teaching that the church has ceased to exist. As some of you may know, Harold Camping has been teaching for years now that the church age has ended; that no one can get saved in the church any longer; that true believers should flee the churches, etc. I wrote my book Dangerous Airwaves in response to Camping's teachings on this topic. Well, Chris Arnzen has once again found a way to make a debate happen that nobody thought could ever happen. So, for two days next week we will debate this topic. I will defend the biblical position that Christ's church remains His bride and that Christians are to be faithful in their service to Christ through her, and that Harold Camping's wild-eyed gymnastics with the text, his use of allegory and numerology, etc., is a gross abuse of inspired Scripture. Make no mistake about it: this will end up being a debate over how you handle the Bible and allow God to speak. As I said in response to Camping years ago in Dangerous Airwaves
:

The grammatical-historical method of interpretation is a means of guaranteeing that we are hearing what the text says, not what we wantthe text to say. This is a vitally important point, especially when it comes to the Scriptures. When reading secular texts we are not nearly as tempted to insert a foreign meaning into the words of the author, since it is rare that such a text would be given sufficient importance to warrant the effort. We naturallyapply sound rules of interpretation to such documents since we are not at all threatened by theresults. But when it comes to the text of the Bible, much more is at stake. But if we are consistent in our beliefs, and truly want to hear what the Scriptures are saying and not what we want them to say or feel they should say, we need to have a means of reading the text that does not allow us to slipour own thoughts into the text under the guise of interpretation. The Bible needs to say the same thing in each language, in each culture, in each context, or it cannot be the means of communicating the truth to us that Christians believe it to be. The grammatical-historical method allows us to be both honest and consistent with the text of the Bible.

The fundamental reason we must reject allegorical interpretation of the biblical text is really quite simple: it is unverifiable. That is, there is no possible way to determine that the results of using allegorical methodology have anything whatsoever to do with the actual meaning of the text. One man's allegorical understanding can have no compelling force upon the thinking of another, for that person may well seesomething completely different in the text. Since the means provided by human language to communicate meaning are by-passed in the allegorical method, there are no "safety nets" to keep one from wandering off into the most fanciful of "interpretations" of the text. Hence, the person who says "the allegorical meaning of this text is such and so" cannot claim the actual authority of the text for his interpretation, for the actual source of the interpretation is not the text itself but the mind of the interpreter. This is why we say there can be no compelling force to one's allegorical interpretation, for it is merely personal, and if anyone else accepts it, it is because they choose to trust the allegorical interpreter rather than the text itself. Allegorical interpretations can have no more authority than the one proclaiming them.

When applied to the biblical text this methodology is devastating. The authority of the text is destroyed. No allegorical interpreter can honestly say, "The Word of God says," for in reality, the Word of God has been replaced with the more or less fancifulthoughts of the interpreter himself. The Christian doctrine of inspiration sets the Christian Scriptures apart from all other claimed divine revelations in that Christians believe the Scriptures are God-breathed. This means the written word communicates to us infallibly the very speaking of God in a miraculously personal manner (Matthew 22:31). The authority of the Word is not based upon the interpreter but upon the inspired text itself. The message of the written Word is the same through the course oftime. Without this affirmation, the Word becomes a purely subjective document, incapable of communicating divine truth with certainty.

This point cannot be over-emphasized. Allegorical interpretation destroys biblical authority. It replaces the divine message with the imaginations of the interpreter, and as such opens the door wide for every kind of abuse of the text. False teachers, seeking to draw away disciples after themselves (Acts 20:30), utilize such means to release themselves from the unchanging standards of Gods Word and insert, under the guise of thus sayeth the Lord, their own pet doctrines and teachings. The Christian who is untaught and unstable, a novice in the Word, can easily be taken in by such a teacher who exudes confidence and often hides the false teachings behind a veneer of self-professed orthodoxy. So when we defend proper exegetical methodology, we are not merely arguing about tangential issues, we are, in reality, defending the very authority of the Word, and its ability to speak with clarity and force to each generation and in every place.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Harold Camping Debates Dr. James White (Part One)

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MP3 Available Here

DR. JAMES R. WHITE, author of "Dangerous Airwaves: Harold Camping Refuted & Christ's Church Defended", and HAROLD CAMPING, founder & president of FAMILY RADIO, will DEBATE: "HAS THE CHURCH AGE ENDED?"

From Dr James White:

We just confirmed that Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28th and 29th, I will be debating Harold Camping on the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program on the topic of Camping's teaching that the church has ceased to exist. As some of you may know, Harold Camping has been teaching for years now that the church age has ended; that no one can get saved in the church any longer; that true believers should flee the churches, etc. I wrote my book Dangerous Airwaves in response to Camping's teachings on this topic. Well, Chris Arnzen has once again found a way to make a debate happen that nobody thought could ever happen. So, for two days next week we will debate this topic. I will defend the biblical position that Christ's church remains His bride and that Christians are to be faithful in their service to Christ through her, and that Harold Camping's wild-eyed gymnastics with the text, his use of allegory and numerology, etc., is a gross abuse of inspired Scripture. Make no mistake about it: this will end up being a debate over how you handle the Bible and allow God to speak. As I said in response to Camping years ago in Dangerous Airwaves:

The grammatical-historical method of interpretation is a means of guaranteeing that we are hearing what the text says, not what we wantthe text to say. This is a vitally important point, especially when it comes to the Scriptures. When reading secular texts we are not nearly as tempted to insert a foreign meaning into the words of the author, since it is rare that such a text would be given sufficient importance to warrant the effort. We naturallyapply sound rules of interpretation to such documents since we are not at all threatened by theresults. But when it comes to the text of the Bible, much more is at stake. But if we are consistent in our beliefs, and truly want to hear what the Scriptures are saying and not what we want them to say or feel they should say, we need to have a means of reading the text that does not allow us to slipour own thoughts into the text under the guise of interpretation. The Bible needs to say the same thing in each language, in each culture, in each context, or it cannot be the means of communicating the truth to us that Christians believe it to be. The grammatical-historical method allows us to be both honest and consistent with the text of the Bible.

The fundamental reason we must reject allegorical interpretation of the biblical text is really quite simple: it is unverifiable. That is, there is no possible way to determine that the results of using allegorical methodology have anything whatsoever to do with the actual meaning of the text. One man's allegorical understanding can have no compelling force upon the thinking of another, for that person may well seesomething completely different in the text. Since the means provided by human language to communicate meaning are by-passed in the allegorical method, there are no "safety nets" to keep one from wandering off into the most fanciful of "interpretations" of the text. Hence, the person who says "the allegorical meaning of this text is such and so" cannot claim the actual authority of the text for his interpretation, for the actual source of the interpretation is not the text itself but the mind of the interpreter. This is why we say there can be no compelling force to one's allegorical interpretation, for it is merely personal, and if anyone else accepts it, it is because they choose to trust the allegorical interpreter rather than the text itself. Allegorical interpretations can have no more authority than the one proclaiming them.

When applied to the biblical text this methodology is devastating. The authority of the text is destroyed. No allegorical interpreter can honestly say, "The Word of God says," for in reality, the Word of God has been replaced with the more or less fancifulthoughts of the interpreter himself. The Christian doctrine of inspiration sets the Christian Scriptures apart from all other claimed divine revelations in that Christians believe the Scriptures are God-breathed. This means the written word communicates to us infallibly the very speaking of God in a miraculously personal manner (Matthew 22:31). The authority of the Word is not based upon the interpreter but upon the inspired text itself. The message of the written Word is the same through the course oftime. Without this affirmation, the Word becomes a purely subjective document, incapable of communicating divine truth with certainty.

This point cannot be over-emphasized. Allegorical interpretation destroys biblical authority. It replaces the divine message with the imaginations of the interpreter, and as such opens the door wide for every kind of abuse of the text. False teachers, seeking to draw away disciples after themselves (Acts 20:30), utilize such means to release themselves from the unchanging standards of Gods Word and insert, under the guise of thus sayeth the Lord, their own pet doctrines and teachings. The Christian who is untaught and unstable, a novice in the Word, can easily be taken in by such a teacher who exudes confidence and often hides the false teachings behind a veneer of self-professed orthodoxy. So when we defend proper exegetical methodology, we are not merely arguing about tangential issues, we are, in reality, defending the very authority of the Word, and its ability to speak with clarity and force to each generation and in every place.

Upcoming ISI Show: Harold Camping Debates Dr. James White, July 28 & 29

UPDATE: Due to the overwhelming response to this two-day radio/Internet debate please help us take the burden off of WNYG's servers by listening to the program on the Dividing Line link available at http://www.aomin.org/!



From Dr James White:

We just confirmed that next Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28th and 29th, I will be debating Harold Camping on the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program on the topic of Camping's teaching that the church has ceased to exist. As some of you may know, Harold Camping has been teaching for years now that the church age has ended; that no one can get saved in the church any longer; that true believers should flee the churches, etc. I wrote my book Dangerous Airwaves in response to Camping's teachings on this topic. Well, Chris Arnzen has once again found a way to make a debate happen that nobody thought could ever happen. So, for two days next week we will debate this topic. I will defend the biblical position that Christ's church remains His bride and that Christians are to be faithful in their service to Christ through her, and that Harold Camping's wild-eyed gymnastics with the text, his use of allegory and numerology, etc., is a gross abuse of inspired Scripture. Make no mistake about it: this will end up being a debate over how you handle the Bible and allow God to speak. As I said in response to Camping years ago in Dangerous Airwaves:

The grammatical-historical method of interpretation is a means of guaranteeing that we are hearing what the text says, not what we wantthe text to say. This is a vitally important point, especially when it comes to the Scriptures. When reading secular texts we are not nearly as tempted to insert a foreign meaning into the words of the author, since it is rare that such a text would be given sufficient importance to warrant the effort. We naturallyapply sound rules of interpretation to such documents since we are not at all threatened by theresults. But when it comes to the text of the Bible, much more is at stake. But if we are consistent in our beliefs, and truly want to hear what the Scriptures are saying and not what we want them to say or feel they should say, we need to have a means of reading the text that does not allow us to slipour own thoughts into the text under the guise of interpretation. The Bible needs to say the same thing in each language, in each culture, in each context, or it cannot be the means of communicating the truth to us that Christians believe it to be. The grammatical-historical method allows us to be both honest and consistent with the text of the Bible.

The fundamental reason we must reject allegorical interpretation of the biblical text is really quite simple: it is unverifiable. That is, there is no possible way to determine that the results of using allegorical methodology have anything whatsoever to do with the actual meaning of the text. One man's allegorical understanding can have no compelling force upon the thinking of another, for that person may well seesomething completely different in the text. Since the means provided by human language to communicate meaning are by-passed in the allegorical method, there are no "safety nets" to keep one from wandering off into the most fanciful of "interpretations" of the text. Hence, the person who says "the allegorical meaning of this text is such and so" cannot claim the actual authority of the text for his interpretation, for the actual source of the interpretation is not the text itself but the mind of the interpreter. This is why we say there can be no compelling force to one's allegorical interpretation, for it is merely personal, and if anyone else accepts it, it is because they choose to trust the allegorical interpreter rather than the text itself. Allegorical interpretations can have no more authority than the one proclaiming them.

When applied to the biblical text this methodology is devastating. The authority of the text is destroyed. No allegorical interpreter can honestly say, "The Word of God says," for in reality, the Word of God has been replaced with the more or less fancifulthoughts of the interpreter himself. The Christian doctrine of inspiration sets the Christian Scriptures apart from all other claimed divine revelations in that Christians believe the Scriptures are God-breathed. This means the written word communicates to us infallibly the very speaking of God in a miraculously personal manner (Matthew 22:31). The authority of the Word is not based upon the interpreter but upon the inspired text itself. The message of the written Word is the same through the course oftime. Without this affirmation, the Word becomes a purely subjective document, incapable of communicating divine truth with certainty.


This point cannot be over-emphasized. Allegorical interpretation destroys biblical authority. It replaces the divine message with the imaginations of the interpreter, and as such opens the door wide for every kind of abuse of the text. False teachers, seeking to draw away disciples after themselves (Acts 20:30), utilize such means to release themselves from the unchanging standards of Gods Word and insert, under the guise of thus sayeth the Lord, their own pet doctrines and teachings. The Christian who is untaught and unstable, a novice in the Word, can easily be taken in by such a teacher who exudes confidence and often hides the false teachings behind a veneer of self-professed orthodoxy. So when we defend proper exegetical methodology, we are not merely arguing about tangential issues, we are, in reality, defending the very authority of the Word, and its ability to speak with clarity and force to each generation and in every place.

Monday, July 27, 2009

David Di Sabatino: Fallen Angel, The Outlaw Larry Norman

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MP3 Available Here


Canadian documentary filmmaker David Di Sabatino wil discuss his second movie, Fallen Angel, The Outlaw Larry Norman.

If you could combine the onstage magnetism of Mick Jagger, the lyrical brilliance of Bob Dylan and the personal fragility of Brian Wilson, you would only have begun to scratch of the surface of Larry Norman. FALLEN ANGEL: The OUTLAW LARRY NORMAN recounts the rise of the father of Christian rock music as the rock 'n' roll Billy Graham' of the 1970s through to the height of success as the visionary behind Solid Rock Records before a personal meltdown and subsequent fall from grace exiled him to the margins of the Christian subculture he helped create.

A study in polar contrasts, Larry Norman's story presents the viewer with a complex character grappling with the price of genius, the struggle made all the more difficult because Norman chose to make his mark within a religious subculture struggling to define its place within the world. Too religious for the rock 'n' rollers but too rock 'n' roll for the religious crowd, Larry Norman is the perpetual outsider, ultimately imploding under the weight of trying to fuse his position as the musical voice of the Jesus movement with his desire for '70s rock superstar status. Is he the misunderstood musical prophet of the Christian world? Is he an outlaw conning the faithful? Larry Norman is a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.

Told mainly from the perspective of those who worked with him and loved him during the height of his success, feel the power of the music he created as refracted through the inconsistencies of the life he led. Experience the forgiveness offered by those most hurt and witness a glimmer of grace against the backdrop of moral failure. Fallen Angel is a rock n' roll epic of biblical proportions.

Fallen Angel is the second documentary by Canadian documentary filmmaker David Di Sabatino. His first release Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher garnered an Emmy nomination and has been played on PBS-affiliate KQED in San Francisco since 2006.

Fallen Angel tells the story of Christian rock 'n' roll icon Larry Norman from his early days as the lead singer of a popular San Jose-based band named People through his emergence as a "Jesus Music" icon in the early 1970s. The movie centers on his establishment of Solid Rock Records in the mid-1970s and culminates with his death in early 2008.


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

ERIC C. REDMOND: SOVEREIGN GRACE & THE BLACK CHURCH

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MP3 Available Here


ERIC C. REDMOND, author, sought-after theologically Reformed conference speaker and founding pastor of Reformation Alive Baptist Church in Temple Hills, MD, a new church plant in the suburbs of Washington, DC, will address the theme: "SOVEREIGN GRACE & THE BLACK CHURCH".

Pastor Redmond served as the Second Vice-President of the
Southern Baptist Convention from 2007 to 2008, and has served as the Theology Editor for "NAAF Outlook: Newsletter of the African American Fellowship of the SBC". He has also served on the Trustee Board of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary . He is a gifted expository preacher and teacher of God's Word. A graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary , his passion is to see lives transformed by growing in love and understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Redmond’s ministry emphasis lies in expositional preaching and teaching of the Scriptures, development of godly male leadership, and the cultivation of Biblical community within the local church. He has a burden to encourage academic theological studies at research levels among young African-American church leaders, and to see the rearing and sending of African-Americans into international missions work.

Pastor Redmond's book, "
Where Are All The Brothers?: Straight Answers to Men's Questions About the Church", is one of Pastor Redmond's attempts to help strong men give Christ a second look by addressing some of their modern day concerns. He also contributed to "Glory Road: The Journeys of 10 African-Americans into Reformed Christianity".

Currently, Pastor Redmond also serves as an Assistant Professor of Bible & Theology at
Washington Bible College in Lanham MD . He feels a burden to reach all generations for Christ, so that a generation yet unborn might be raised up to know and love God. On his blog, "A Man from Issachar", Pastor Redmond again attempts to point his readers to Christ through an examination of current events.

Pastor Redmond and his wife Pam will have been very happily married for 18 years this July. They have five children – Charis (17), Chloe (15), Candace (11), Calvin (9), and Codell (8) – and they reside in Lanham, Maryland. The heart of the Redmond’s ministry partnership is strengthening families.

A controversial and refreshingly honest article by Pastor Redmond that is highly recommended, "Living Soli Deo Gloria Under Obama",
may be read here.

Pastor Redmond was also one of eight featured speakers at a special event of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals: "
The Sovereignty of God Conference", held this past June in Haledon, New Jersey.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Pastor's Roundtable (Encore Presentation)

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MP3 Available Here





Featuring:





Pastor Jim Capo, Massapequa Church of God, Massapequa, Long Island, NY

Pastor Al Stein Pastor of the Neighborhood Assembly of God church, Bellmore, NY,

Drew Eenigenburg, Interim Pastor at West Sayville Reformed Bible Church (URCNA) on Long Island.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

DAVID SITTON: BRINGING THE GOSPEL TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD OF CHRIST (Encore Presentation)

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MP3 Available Here

DAVID SITTON, President of To Every Tribe Ministries , will address the theme: "BRINGING THE GOSPEL TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD OF CHRIST".

The vision of To Every Tribe Ministries is to bring the gospel to those hard-to-get-to places where the name of Jesus has never been heard so God will be worshiped by every tribe, and tongue.

In January, 1977, our guest David Sitton arrived at The School of World Evangelism in College Station, Texas.

Within weeks, David encountered a radical pioneer missionary to Papua New Guinea, Joe Cannon. Joe was on a mission; He was looking for young missionaries to join him on the unreached front lines of New Guinea.

Sauntering into the classroom with bows, arrows, spears, and bird feather head dresses jutting out from his hands and the Melanesian Pidgin language spouting out of his mouth. Joe was tall, lanky and loud. He bounced when he walked and was quick to laugh at his own (corny) jokes. He was eager to give the students a little taste of New Guinea culture and language. Joe proceeded to give a passionate plea that some of the students would turn their attention to the unreached, interior tribes of Papua New Guinea.

Between classes, one afternoon, Joe cornered David with a text and a question.

The text was Romans 15:20.
“I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, ‘Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

The question was personal and to the point! “Brother, there are whole tribes of people in New Guinea that have never, ever heard the name of Jesus. Some of them are cannibals and headhunters; some of them have bones through their noses and wear grass skirts. Many of them are wild and reckless and dangerous people. But they need the gospel of Christ!”

“Come with me, brother. I will teach you. I can mentor you. There are not many who will go with me into the jungles and rugged mountains to find them. Come with me, brother. Let’s go get some of them for Jesus.”

David’s life was set on a course for mission from that moment.

Eight months later, just one week after his 20th birthday, David left for Papua New Guinea – October 3, 1977. He departed Corpus Christi with a suitcase, a bible, and a surfboard!

Several of the early tribes David encountered did indeed practice cannibalism and were entrenched in violent tribal warfare. Even so, Joe and David (and a few others) endured much hardship to get the gospel established among these remote mountain tribes. Churches still remain in most of these places today.

In 1979, David returned to Texas. God was gracious and quick with his answer to David’s prayer for a wife! Within months he met, courted and married (June 27, 1980) Tommi Anne Moses from Harlingen, Texas. Theirs was the first wedding ever performed at the Chapel By The Sea on South Padre Island.

Over the next decade, David and Tommi worked together to make disciples and plant churches in remote regions of the highlands and swamplands of Papua New Guinea. A government problem with visa renewals in 1990 prevented the Sittons from returning to PNG to live.

From 1990 -1993, David served as director of The Institute of Tribal Studies, a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission located in Pasadena, CA. In 1993, David and Tommi relocated to the South Texas town of Los Fresnos, strategically situated just fifteen minutes from the Mexican border.

34 churches have been established through this ministry since 1977.

These days, David continues church-planting and leadership training in Papua New Guinea through regular short-term ministry trips and travels extensively speaking at many churches and mission conferences around the world. A prominent theme in his preaching is that fame of Jesus’ Name will be brought to the remaining unreached peoples through the persecution and frequent martyrdom of those that carry the gospel message.

David and Tommi founded To Every Tribe Ministries where he currently serves as president. They also founded The Center for Pioneer Church Planting, which began in January, 2006. This missionary training program is dedicated to recruiting, training and launching pioneer church planters into the far-flung regions where Christ is still unknown.

Moreover, Tommi is a precious helpmate to David. All who know Tommi recognize her sacrificial service to the To Every Tribe community and her invaluable encouragement and assistance in nearly every aspect of the ministry.

Monday, July 13, 2009

DAVID CHANSKI: CHURCH DISCIPLINE (Encore Presentation)

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MP3 Available Here

DAVID CHANSKI, successor of Albert N. Martin at Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, NJ will address the theme: "CHURCH DISCIPLINE".

When he graduated from Trinity Ministerial Academy, Pastor David Chanski moved from the northern New Jersey area. Since 1989, he has served the Lord as Pastor of the Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now, nearly 20 years after his departure, Pastor Chanski, with his wife and two of his children, has returned to Trinity Baptist Church to serve as one of their elders.

Trinity Baptist Church of Montville may be the most well known Reformed Baptist congregation on the globe. The church first organized in March 1967. They embrace the great biblical doctrines of the Protestant Reformation, sometimes referred to as the doctrines of grace and most fully expressed in the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

Their purpose as a church is "to glorify the God of the Scriptures in promoting His worship, evangelizing sinners, edifying saints, planting and strengthening churches, and showing benevolence to the needy. We are committed to the proclamation of God's perfect Law and the glorious Gospel of His grace throughout the world, and to the defense of the 'faith which was once for all delivered to the saints'."

Friday, July 10, 2009

The Pastor's Roundtable

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MP3 Available Here





Featuring:





Pastor Jim Capo, Massapequa Church of God, Massapequa, Long Island, NY

Pastor Al Stein Pastor of the Neighborhood Assembly of God church, Bellmore, NY,

Drew Eenigenburg, Interim Pastor at West Sayville Reformed Bible Church (URCNA) on Long Island.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Deborah Howard: A CHRISTIAN NURSE REFLECTS ON FINDING GOD's PURPOSE IN OUR SUFFERING (Encore Presentation)

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MP3 Available Here

Deborah Howard, RN, CHPN (Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse), and author of "WHERE IS GOD IN ALL OF THIS", will address the theme: "A CHRISTIAN NURSE REFLECTS ON FINDING GOD's PURPOSE IN OUR SUFFERING".

Deborah and her husband, Theron, live near Little Rock, Arkansas, where she divides her time between writing, lecturing and working as a hospice nurse. She has worked in various nursing fields. However, it was when she found hospice care that she discovered her nursing passion. She views her work with hospice as a personal ministry that has given her great satisfaction. "Many people tell me they don't see how I could love this particular field of nursing," she says, "but I tell them it is a most rewarding profession. At the end of every day, I go home knowing, with absolute certainty, that I've made a significant difference in someone's life." Deborah is a versatile musician and an avid tennis player and tennis official. She enjoys the arts, reading, decorating, gardening, movies, word games, cooking and spending time with friends and family. She is a member of the Bible Church of Little Rock and treasures her time in the study of God's word, both corporately and personally.

Today our guest Deborah Howard takes a biblical look at the ways God uses suffering to mold us as He intends us to be. We should see our sufferings through a spiritual lens and respond in godly ways.

Her book "Where is God in All of this" offers 15 reasons why God brings suffering our way. Being a hospice nurse, Deborah has not written her book from a ‘safe’ theoretical perspective. You can reach Deborah at her web site:
http://www.deborahhoward.net/.

Friday, July 3, 2009

JUSTIN PETERS: A CALL FOR DISCERNMENT: A Biblical Critique of the WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT (Encore Presentation)

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MP3 Available Here


JUSTIN PETERS, an ordained Baptist minister, evangelist & conference speaker, will address the theme: "A CALL FOR DISCERNMENT: A Biblical Critique of the WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT."

Justin Peters is a staff evangelist at
First Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi . Justin created Justin Peters Ministries to fulfill God's call on his life of full-time ministry.

The influence of two loving Christian parents coupled with the challenges of Cerebral Palsy led Justin to begin inquiring about salvation at an early age. Shortly after a visit with his then pastor, Dr. John G. McCall, God graciously saved Justin at age seven. God's call on Justin's life to vocational ministry came in November 1995 while attending
Mississippi State University .

Throughout his years as a student at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Justin studied at great depth the Word of Faith movement. The thesis he wrote for his Master’s of Theology (Th.M.) degree is entitled "An Examination and Critique of the Life, Ministry and Theology of Healing evangelist Benny Hinn".

In addition to his academic research, Justin also has attended numerous Benny Hinn crusades and has been witness first hand to the harm, both physical and spiritual, that the Word of Faith movement inflicts upon so many. As a teenager, Justin himself attended faith-healing services in hopes of being delivered from his Cerebral Palsy. Though the potential was there to shake his faith in the Lord, in the long run, these experiences had the opposite effect. Says Justin:

"Some have made the charge against me that I am just bitter about not being healed. I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. Next to my salvation, my Cerebral Palsy is one of the greatest gifts (an imperfect word to be sure) God has ever allowed me to have. He has used it to keep me dependent upon Him and through it has shown me His 'sufficient grace' and “strength made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

In 2004, Justin was featured as an expert witness for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary on Benny Hinn entitled "
Do You Believe In Miracles?".

In 2006 Justin was interviewed for the documentary entitled "Suffer the Children" produced by Trevor Glass. This documentary shows the profound harm, both physical and spiritual, that the Prosperity gospel inflicts upon so many.

In addition to expository preaching, another aspect of Justin's ministry is the three session seminar which he has developed entitled "A CALL FOR DISCERNMENT: A BIBLICAL CRITIQUE OF THE WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT". This seminar is a fair, comprehensive, biblical critique of the modern Word of Faith movement. Word of Faith theology (WoF) dominates Christian satellite and cable television and is making alarming inroads into our Baptist churches. This seminar contains dozens of audio and video clips (primarily the latter) of various WoF leaders such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Jessie Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, etc. incorporated into a PowerPoint format. This format allows people to see and hear for themselves what these individuals are actually teaching. Everything then is, in turn, balanced with Scripture.

This seminar is being conducted at
CENTEREACH BIBLE CHURCH on Long Island June 19-21, 2009. PASTOR SCOTT KRANIAK of Centereach Bible Church is co-hosting today's broadcast.
Iron Sharpens Iron 30 Day Archive

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend"- Proverbs 27:17