Pester Brat's Saint and Sinner Hypocrisy Blog

A quote that will really make you think, from the writer of the great hymn "Amazing Grace" John Newton... "And I am afraid there are calvinists, who, while they account it a proof of their humility that they are willing in words to debase the creature, and to give all the glory of salvation to the Lord, yet know not what manner of spirit they are of....Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man can have the heart of a pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace." -John Newton

I have been sharing about the importance of being a member of a good doctrinally sound bible believing church for the last week or so. A few days ago, someone in one of the e-mail discussion lists I'm in brought up an issue that made me think about another important part of going to a good church, it being the number one priority in determining where we live. Should the issue of a local church determining where a person lives issue only apply to full time pastors? If we see how important of the local church is, because Christ is the Head, the importance of speaking the truth and whole counsel of God in love, worshipping in spirit and truth, accountability and church discipline, believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper, definite and particular atonement, God centered instead of man centered, etc., etc. etc., shouldn't where a person lives be determined by there being this type of church in reasonable driving distance first? Unfortunetly, what I have seen and heard for t...

Awesome prayer by the late brother AW Tozer. Lord give me a heart like this servant of your's!!! The Prayer of a Minor Prophet "O Lord, I have heard Thy voice and was afraid. Thou hast called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. Thou art about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, my Lord, Thou hast stooped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man taketh this honor upon himself save he that is called of God as was Aaron. Thou has ordained me Thy messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected Thee, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant. My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine, but Thine. Thou hast said, 'I knew thee - I ordained thee - I sanctified thee,' and Thou hast also said, 'Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and...

The Protestant Protest by: John MacArthur The Reformation doctrine of justification by faith is, and has always been, the number one target of the enemy's attack. It provides the foundation of the bridge that reconciles God and man-without that key doctrine, Christianity falls. But the doctrine the Reformers so painstakingly clarified, even spilled blood over, has become so muddled today that many Protestants barely recognize it. Sadly, there are some who react against a clear presentation of justification, calling it nothing more than useless hair-splitting. Some evangelical reactions to Protestant doctrine are even more severe. Recently, popular talk-show host, Marty Minto, was fired by evangelical station management for discussions he was having on his daily radio program. His crime? In response to callers, he was applying a traditional Protestant perspective to the teachings of John Paul II and the Roman Catholic Church. Many evangelicals, ignorant and unconcerned of their Prot...

The Ten Commandmentsof Evangelical Co-Belligerenceby Steve Camp 1. Thou shalt keep all family values/moral causes continually before you 2. Thou shalt not let the Word of God, doctrine, theology, truth, or the gospel of Jesus Christ keep you from “standing together” with anyone to reach our goal of impacting our culture by returning it back to moral traditional family values through legislation, judicial process, and co-belligerent partnerships 3. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day and keep it political; rename it by changing it from the Lord's Day to "Justice Sunday" (substitute worship services with political rallies and make sure you feature non-Christians for a wide tolerant religious ideological appeal) 4. Thou shalt not take the name of family value/moral causes in vain; but use every social cultural political co-belligerent means necessary to strong arm politicians to win the day 5. Thou shalt honor thy senator and thy congressman as long as they stand for what we...

The Doctrine of Regenerationby Isaac Ambrose First, the necessity of it; "Except a man be new born, he can never be saved" -JOHN 3:3. It is our Savior's speech, and he avers it with a double asseveration, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee." Again, GOD the Father thus counsels not only Nicodemus, but all the Jews of the old church, saying, " Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" Ezek. 18:31. Notwithstanding all their privileges, yet here is one thing necessary, that must crown all the rest; they must have a new heart, and a new spirit, that is, they must be new born, or there is no way but death. Nor is this doctrine without reason or ground. For, man is first unholy, and therefore most unfit to enter into heaven; " without holiness no man shall see GOD," Heb. 12: 14. And what is man before he is new born? If we look upon his soul, we may see it deformed with sin, defiled with lust, outraged with pass...

So after reading my initial post, some may be thinking 'so I suppose you think your church is the only good church?' On the contrary, that is not the case at all. And I'm not asking like the radio lay- minister so called on Family Radio, that everyone should leave the churches because God has forsaken each and every local church. But I do believe that only a fraction of the churches are good solid God-glorifying churches. So which ones are they? These are churches that are God glorifying, Christ honoring, bible centered churches. Churches that are God centered as opposed to being man centered. Churches that believe in the authority and sufficiency of the word of God for God's people. Churches that proclaim the 'whole counsel of God' including as Peter said about the Scriptures Paul penned, some things hard to understand, but exposing the word of God to please God, not proclaim feel-good, self help, watered down messages to please man. Churches that do not compro...

I removed his name to protect his privacy. As one of my responses says, more could be said about the manuscript issue. The KJV is one of the best translations out there. But is not a perfect translation, and it is not the [only] translation that preserves the word of God. Questions and comments welcome.....Bret Bret ...OK to keep sending the verses, just please quote mine from the KJV. If you want some interesting reading and study, take a look at a book by Gail Riplinger called "New Age Bible Versions". Dear { }: Good to 'hear' from you brother. I'm thankful to the Lord that things are better for you. Indeed we need to keep our eyes on Christ, and look forward to that day when we will be with Him for all eternity and see Him face to face. I don't know that I'll have time to send out the Scriptures in KJV as well, but you are the second person that requested them in the KJV, so I'll keep that in mind. I appreciate the recommendation of Gail Riplin...

One of the several things I am working on for our church and website, is a chart of sorts showing one kinds of churches are acceptable, good, and excellent. I know many will consider this arrorgantly bold, but it is something I think needs to be done in this hodgepodge of so-called Christian Churches. There is always be exceptions to this list of churches to avoid, in even some of the liberal denominations. If you have any comments, please respond or e-mail. This is not an extensive or exhaustive list. More may come later. Feel free to add to the list if you can already think of some that I didn't. This is NOT in any particular order. Soli Deo Gloria... 1- Very Bad; 2- Bad; 3- So-So 1. Roman Catholic Churches-1 2. Episcopol Churches-2 3. Anglican Churches-2 4. Methodist Churches-2 5. Evangelical Lutheran Church of America-1 6. International/Boston Church of Christ-1 7. Assemblies of God-2 8. Church of God-2 9. Oneness Pentacostals-1 10. Word Faith Movement-1 11. Jehovah's Witne...

An acquaintance of mine, that is leading abible study about 50 miles north of me in hopes that it will become a church plant if the Lord wills, lost his grown daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter in a traffic accident. It was one of those raod rage accidents and the other driver was going over 100 miles an hour. His name is Steven Woods, please pray for he and his wife during this time. May God be glorifies and Steven shared with me that His grace has been abundant during this time. He also said that as a result of recently studying the attributes of God including His sovereignty, it helped keep things in context. Steve also asked that we pray that the Lord may be pleased to use this time to soften hearts so the gospel may be received. Praise the Lord, that can happen to any of us at any time. Perhaps some of the readers of this Blog have gone through this type of trial. I have 2 daughters not at home with us, one in Birmingham Alabama, and one in south Florida. We are no better tha...

Of course I'm being a tad sarcastic. That was the name of an article I say on my ISP Screen today. The real question is, can Pope John Paul II be made a saint by Pope Benedict or anyone else. And an even better question is, was Pope John Paul II a saint while he was alive? The answer to both of these questions in this text box is no. How can I say that? Am I wrongfully judging the Pope? Or are my assertions based in the infallible, inerrant word of God? The word of God says that anyone who is trusting in the Person and Finished Work of Christ with a repentant faith is a saint. The greek word for saint is the same or similar to the same word used for "holy" and "sanctified." A person cannot become a saint after they die, let alone be made a saint by another person, whether he is the so-called Pope or not. And as has been mentioned numerous times by numerous Christians in numerous articles, based on John Paul II's on comments, he was not saved and a saint bec...

The New Downgrade? Twelve Dangers of Evangelical Co-Belligerence by Steve Camp CLICK HERE to visit AudienceONE Ministries "The church is being redefined before our very eyes. Soon it will be just a faint memory of what God had truly designed it to be; like an old faded picture on a wall." -Author Unknown In John 18:36 our Lord says these surprising words in answer to an inquisition by Pontius Pilate, “…If my kingdom were of this world, my disciples would be fighting…” These words cut straight to the heart of the matter before us today. Clearly, the Lord’s kingdom is not of this world. Jesus did not come as a social revolutionary to clean up the culture from lascivious delinquents; or as a religious zealot to overthrow the Sanhedrin; or even as a political agitator to dethrone the Emperor. His kingdom is eternal; it is not of this world. What we do here on earth now, we will do in glory in unbroken fellowship for all eternity—give Him unceasing praise and adoration as King of...

Today I received a very good e-mail from a dear pastor friend of mine. I must admit, I must have been in a lull or something regarding our paedobaptist friends and those of them that adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). I guess I assumed that many of our paedobaptist friends did not believe certain parts of the WCF that would amount in presumtive regeneration/grace. For example here it says: VI. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinancy the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time." So I need to find out how many of my presbyterian brothers and sisters believe that baptizing infants does more than put them in the covenant family until they show that they are not of the elect and save...

Well, we started the week off great as we gathered together to worship the Lord. There were quite a few members and attenders out today, but with it being Mother's Day and an Air Force community, many could have been traveling today. The Lord was pleased to bless us in spite of us once again. Saturday afternoon, as I relaxed after working at my job outside of the church, I watched the movie The Alamo. I am terrible when it comes to our country's history. I don't know if I just forgot alot of it, or if it is because I was a rebellious teenager during highschool and goofed off too much. I also realize that "Hollywood" has a tendency to change things sometimes to achieve "entertainment value" or because they are trying to re-write history and remove many of the biblical principles that existed. Anyway, while I didn't like the movie as much as The Patriot about the Revolutionary War, I was still intrigued by the stand that was taken at the Alamo in San A...