4 November 2015

Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 0:00

This news item was posted in Presbyterians Week category.

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Prayer Requested for Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeff Bost

[2] New Christian Observer Articles for November 2015

[3] New Translation Available: John Wallis’s Brief and Easy Explanation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

[4] Tim Keller: Redefining Sin and Justifying Love for the Pop Culture

[5] Tim Keller’s Infatuation with Catholic Authors and Practices

[6] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell

[7] The Thinning Blue Line

[8] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining

[9] The Religion of Peace

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[1] Prayer Requested for Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeff Bost

ARPTalk Editor the Rev. Dr. Chuck Wilson sent the following message to his readers on 2 November 2015:

Dear Readers of ARPTalk,

I have been asked to relay to you the sad news that Jeff Bost, the Pastor of Young Memorial Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Anderson, South Carolina, announced Sunday to his congregation that he has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic and liver cancer. I know you will join me in prayer for Jeff, his family, and the Young Memorial congregation.

An informational account has been set up at www.caringbridge.org. Jeff is listed as Dr. Jeff Bost. Follow the prompting.

Eric Skaar, Stated Clerk of Second Presbytery, in his e-mail to Second Presbytery wrote: “If you can encourage Jeff, please do. He is particularly desirous of speaking with people who have experienced cancer.”

Looking to the One who is the Great Physician,

Chuck Wilson

+ ARPTalk Blog, 864-882-6337, wilson6114@bellsouth.net

+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 1 Cleveland Street Suite 110, Greenville, South Carolina, 29601, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729

[2] New Christian Observer Articles for November 2015

New Christian Observer articles for November 2015 include:

— Catholic and Protestant – by Christian Observer Contributing Editor David Brand – The real meaning and usage throughout church history of the term “catholic;”

— The Educational Trojan Horse of the New World Order – by Christian Observer Contributing Editor Dr. Joe Renfro – The New World Order’s use of the public schools to teach children a humanist, socialist, and statist worldview;

Plus, links to the daily devotionals of Christian Observer Contributing Editor T.M. Moore on the Fellowship of Albee website.

+ Christian Observer, Post Office Box 1371, Lexington, Virginia 24450, christianobserver@christianobserver.org

+ The Fellowship of Albee, Contact Page

[3] New Translation Available: John Wallis’s Brief and Easy Explanation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

http://beforgiven.info/translations

John Wallis, the author of the Explanation, was one of the scribes of the Westminster Assembly and is more broadly known as a pioneer in mathematics. The Explanation met with great approval by the Assembly and was printed in 1648. Wallis’s Explanation contains the original text of the Shorter Catechism, including questions, answers, and Bible proof texts. For each Catechism question and answer, Wallis inserted a series of additional questions, each of which has a “Yes” or “No” answer. In the spirit of Wallis’s original work, this present translation of Wallis’s Explanation uses the main questions and answers from the editor’s translation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and simply inserts translations of Wallis’s new questions and answers into the modern Catechism text between the question and the long answer of the Catechism.

+ Beforgiven.info, Contact Page

[4] Tim Keller: Redefining Sin and Justifying Love for the Pop Culture

The following is excerpted from “Redefining Sin” by E.S. Williams, www.newcalvinist.com

“In his book Every Good Endeavour (2012), Tim Keller, founder of The Gospel Coalition and prominent New Calvinist, expresses his disappointment that Christians are not more involved with popular culture. He writes: ‘Christians’ reaction to popular culture in the last eighty years has been some form of disengagement. … Why this disengagement with our culture? One reason is a ‘thin’ or legalistic view of sin, where sin is seen as a series of discrete acts of noncompliance with God’s regulations. You pursue Christian growth largely by seeking environments where you are less likely to do these sinful actions. …This view of sin comports with a lack of understanding of the thoroughness and richness of Christ’s gracious work for us. … If we have a thin view of sin, we will feel safe if we remove from our view anything that could tempt us to commit actions of overt sexual immorality, profanity, dishonesty, or violence’ (Keller, Every Good Endeavor, pp. 192, 193). … He says that Christians, who hold such a view of sin, are ‘legalists’ who withdraw from the popular culture of the world in order to avoid situations that could tempt them to commit ‘thin sins’, like overt acts of sexual immorality, profanity, dishonesty, or violence. … Here we should note the biblical definition of sin. The Bible describes sin as breaking God’s law (1 John 3:4). It is also defined as rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7), which separates the sinner from God (Isaiah 59.2). Sin is an offense to God’s holy character, and all sin is primarily sin against God. … Keller’s assessment is completely wrong, for it is those who hold what he calls a ‘thin view’ of sin who have been convicted of their sin and rebellion against God’s holy law and understand that their only hope of salvation is God’s grace revealed in the Cross of Christ. Hence their prayer: ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy Cross I cling’. Born again Christians, who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and stand in God’s grace for their salvation, are those who delight in God’s moral law and seek to obey it with all their heart, and do all they can to comply with what Keller calls ‘God’s regulations’. [This is the true grace of God, Titus 2:11-15.] … Keller’s ‘thick view’ of sin encourages Christians to engage with worldly culture … But Scripture makes no distinction between thick and thin sin. It teaches that sin comes from the lusts and desires of the human heart that is desperately wicked (James 1:14-15). Keller’s classification of sin into thin and thick is entirely without scriptural authority and purely a figment of his foolish imagination; it is profoundly heretical, for it presents a false and misleading view of sin that downplays the wickedness of disobedience to God’s moral law, suggesting that Christians should engage with the world in order to overcome what Keller calls ‘the compulsive drive of their heart to produce idols’. … Scripture warns that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). Christians must not conform to the pattern of the world (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 5:11; 1 John 2:15-17). … God commands his people to be separate from the things of the world (2 Corinthians 6:17).”

+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org

+ The Gospel Coalition, 2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, Illinois 60015, contact@thegospelcoalition.org

+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org

[5] Tim Keller’s Infatuation with Catholic Authors and Practices

Many of America’s most popular “evangelical” preachers are infatuated with Catholicism, as we have frequently documented. Consider Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer megachurch in New York City, head of the Redeemer City to City church planting network, and co-founder with D.A. Carson of The Gospel Coalition (council members include John Piper, Alistar Begg, Mark Dever, Moody Church pastor Erwin Lutzer, and Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Al Mohler). Keller has a huge influence by his writings via books and blogs, his books reaching the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list even in an apostate age. His love for Catholicism is evident in his book The Reason for God (2012), in which he quotes and refers to Catholic theologians and philosophers frequently, passionately, and non-critically. He includes Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox within his definition of true Christians. Referring to the Apostles, Nicene, Chalcedonian, and Athanasian creeds, he says, “For our purposes, I’ll define Christianity as the body of believers who assent to these great ecumenical creeds” (p. 117). In The Reason for God, Keller quotes Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, Catholic writer Mary Flannery O’Conner, Catholic mystic Simone Weil, Polish Catholic poet Czeslaw Milosz, and Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose doctrine Keller calls “orthodox” (p. 66). He also quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge, J.R.R. Tolkien, and G.K. Chesterton. Not one of these people hold to the one true gospel of grace alone without works. All of them trust in baptism and Rome’s sacraments for salvation. Not surprisingly, Keller promotes Catholic contemplative prayer. In 2009, his church taught “The Way of the Monk,” encouraging Catholic monastic practices such as lectio divinia, centering prayer, “silence,” the “prayer rope,” and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. In his lecture series What Is Meditation? Keller promotes the contemplative prayer techniques of four Catholic “saints”: Loyola, Francis de Sales, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila. He says, “The best things that have been written are by Catholics during the Counter Reformation. Great stuff!” This lecture series was promoted on The Gospel Coalition website.

+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org

+ The Gospel Coalition, 2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, Illinois 60015, contact@thegospelcoalition.org

+ Presbyterian Church in America, 1700 North Brown Road, Suite 105, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043, 678-825-1000, Fax: 678-825-1001, ac@pcanet.org

[6] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell

— U.S. House of representatives Speaker Paul Ryan: To Be Honest, We Can’t Defund Planned Parenthood

— U.S. Department of Education Orders Illinois School District to Allow Boy to Shower with Girls

— U.K. Prison Worker Barred from Participating in Chapel Services for Quoting Scripture About Homosexuality

— Bernie Sanders Says the Death Penalty is “Murder,” But He’s Fine with Killing Babies in Abortions

— We’re Burning Babies

— Obama Administration Threatens to Sue Texas for De-Funding Planned Parenthood after Selling Baby Parts

— Woman Who Killed Her Baby Has Conviction Overturned: Court Says Six-Day-Old Baby Isn’t a Person

— Planned Parenthood Doc Selling Baby’s Eyeballs Should be Investigated, Pro-Life Group Says