Is The Church of Today Killing Christianity Part 3 Just What Bible Are They Reading? Christ The KING Presbyterian Ministries, Rev Paul Wallace
Paul Wallace
Ordained Pastor, Both Conventional & Social Media Ministries, Fire Department Chaplain, Maintenance Worker 1, Certified Safety Professional, Proven Governmental Leader, True Team Builder, You will love all of this resume
Is The Church of Today Killing Christianity
Part 3
Just What Bible Are They Reading?
This lesson is a tough one to write, but having attended four Funeral/Memorial Services in July of 2021, my Wife and I were exposed to some of the most Bazar “teaching” from I guess the Bible, but is actually from the misguided, and sad and lazy influence of extra religious understanding.
If 67% of the Bible talks of our failure of to comply with the law of GOD (Perfectly as demanded) even in the least, why on earth are we still teaching self-improvement, and allowing these speakers to get away with the Self-Righteous diatribe that destroyed the Synagogue and now Church as they stray toward the Religions of the World, all doomed by the reality of our Total Depravity, and desperate need of a Savior found ONLY in Jesus Christ.
This lesson is not to get you to leave your Church, and as the prayer at the end suggest, only Pray that the HOLY SPIRIT open our ears and eyes to paying such poor teaching with the courtesy of walking out on the speaker mid-sentence, instead of pretending they are trained “Biblical Expert”.
Let’s run to worship ???
Call To Worship
1st Chronicles 16:8-12
?8 Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.
?9 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Speak of all His wonders.
?10 Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad.
?11 Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.
?12 Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done, His marvels and the judgments from His mouth,
Processional
Holy GOD We Praise YOUR Name
First Plymouth Church Lincoln, Nebraska
Passing of the Peace of Christ
May The Peace Of Christ Be With You
Response By All: And Also With You
First Reading
Genesis 3:11-19 & 12:1-7
11 ? And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"
?12 The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."
?13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
?14 ? The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;
?15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
?16 ? To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."
?17 ? Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
?18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
?19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
?Genesis 12:1 ? Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;
?2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
?3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
?4 ? So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
?5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
?6 ? Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.
?7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
This Is The Word Of The LORD
Response By All: Thanks Be To GOD
Hymn
This Is My FATHER’S World
The LORD’S Prayer & Apostles Creed
Matthew 6:9 ? And Jesus said "In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
?10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
?11 Give us this day our daily bread.
?12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
?13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
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Christian What Do You Believe?
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The Holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.
The Doxology
Praise GOD From Whom All Blessings Flow: Tune All Creatures of Our God and King
Second Reading
John 6:37-46 & 10:24-37
37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
?38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
?39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
?40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
?41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven."
?42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?"
?43 Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves.
?44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
?45 "It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
?46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
John 10:24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."
?25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me.
?26 "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
?27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
?28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
?29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
?30 "I and the Father are one."
?31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
?32 Jesus answered them, "I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?"
?33 The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God."
?34 Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'?
?35 "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
?36 do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
?37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
The Holy Gospel Of Our LORD Jesus Christ
Response By All: All Glory To YOU LORD Christ
Is The Church of Today Killing Christianity
Part 3
Just What Bible Are They Reading?
This Series had been shelved due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the need for Christian connection and Charity during the past year, but attending more Memorial Services in a month then one normally attends throughout a year, and witnessing what passed as Christian Charity, Love, and Christ Assurance has forced a return to our sadly appropriate theme.
You see I wonder, and sadly have become convinced that the trouble with Church attendance has totally NOTHING to do with the Government, nor the Secularizing of the Congregant, But indeed inside the walls of the Church.
As we will walk through some of the highlights of two “Reformed” Protestant Funeral/Memorial Services, none of which provide these families of those who passed and had indeed professed Jesus Christ as Savior any assurance of their immediate presence with the LORD.
2Co 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Upon review of each, one wonders why either Religious Club has Congregants at all, though they do appeal to the self-Righteous.
So, let’s start our walk together.
The Disjointed Lesson
First acknowledgement for this point is credited to dr. Lamerson, and my Wife Robin, who the LORD used to allow me by the awakening of the HOLY SPIRIT, to actually listen to the talks being given.
You see, Dr. Lamerson warned us about the typical 3 point being actually Disjointed and in reality, 3 completely different Sermons.
Next upon getting caught reading a passage to answer a question given to me in the Sunday School lesson I just taught, something I would do subconsciously for, well I actually I really can’t remember a Sermon he spoke. So, Robin simple, but bluntly asked “what are you doing???” I admitted exactly what I was doing, and she simply said, “If I have to listen to this crap, so do you!”
Well, when my ears had been unstopped, the Pastor, and his weekly message was indeed horrifying, and far from the true Scriptural narrative, but instead the mistaken Religious Narrative of us needing to improve ourselves that denies one of the ordination questions Reformed Pastors MUST honestly answer, but I fear memorize, Total Depravity (we will explain that in a second).
I have used the example of what Dr. Lamerson, and my Wife Robin said previously, and will continue to use them as I fear, from our Coast-to-Coast and NOT Small sampling of Reformed Churches, we as a Church in the USA are dull of hearing, as well as Pastors ill equipped to be truly messengers of the Bible.
So now let’s focus on the Speech at the Funeral of a loved one that was literally the exact same speech given, 4 years previous when a male family member passed away, all that changed was insert Female’s name, and obituary, and Female’s Church related story.
But the speech Was the very same message, that included a very confusing Scales analogy, that brings us back to our Total Depravity point that this gentleman had to defend to become a Pastor in ALL of the Evangelical Presbyterian Denominations.
Our point is NOT minor, as the minute we even suggest scales, does exactly two possible things:
One, breads the thought of somehow balancing the scales,
Second, It quickly Loses the audience as they subconsciously understand the impossibility of scales more than the speaker.
Now let’s explain the impossibility of using scales as an example, and why this speaker obviously is not as Reformed Presbyterian as He Pretends.
A Reformed Presbyterian Pastor MUST answer and defend the following, and swear before GOD that from their heart this what they believe, John Calvin’s TULIP.
TULIP simply spells out what we truly believe the Bible Cover to Cover is telling us.
Total Depravity, means exactly what is says, that there is NO Righteousness in us, and as we are Dead in our Trespass and Sins are incapable of correctly live, improving and accepting Christ of our own will, as our own will is Totally against GOD, and predisposed to fully sin.
Unconditional Election, is a foundational necessity as it opens the eyes to the true Scriptural narrative of the FATHER Alone preordaining Salvation for one equally damnable Sinner, while doing rightly to the other.
In the What is the difference between Jacob & Esau, the true difference is NOTHING, as the Jacob I Loved, Esau I hated narrative of the Bible, was only due to the LORD Loving one Sinner and doing rightly to Esau.
Limited Atonement, We can understand the last part of our explanation of The LORD Saving Jacob and Not Esau, by the fact that though our LORD Jesus Blood and Sacrifice could very well have saved All of the Word, it reminds us that the Will of the FATHER is to not cast all of the World into Hell, as we deserve, but instead to apply Christ atonement to those HE preordained.
Irresistible Call, This truth explains that NO one called by the HOLY SPIRIT can resist, that simply means that when the HOLY SPIRIT awakens our Dead Souls, we truly and for the first time begin as a Baby to live a Life that Models Jesus Christ. As an infant we grow more and more into a Christ like life, though we are still imperfect, and sin, we still as Paul tells us now aware of our war with Sin, and that Victory alone is given to us in Jesus Christ alone.
Perseverance Of The Saints, This is perhaps the most abused of the points in Calvin’s TULIP, as it means YOU CANNOT Lose your Salvation, and you can’t LOSE what You NEVER gained of your own efforts.
The Simple fact, and it actually destroys the Arminianist view of the Bible as backed up by Jesus “All that the FATHER Gives ME, I will NEVER Lose”, and John 15:16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
Paul’s Eph 2:1 ? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Both scream to us we were incapable of saving and choosing for ourselves since we were first really Dead, and as such had NO natural ability to accept the Jesus Christ Period!!!!!!
So, the Perseverance of the Saints IS GUARUNTEED Not by us but by the TRIUNE GOD Alone, and Praise Be to HIM, and sorry to our Baptist Friends WE Cannot Lose what the LORD Guaranteed!
So, I am not exaggerating when a Speaker gets up and uses Scales as an example as Scales in comparison to Jesus Christ doom everyone us to Hell, so when an Idiot uses such examples He looses not only the audience, but also dooms His point to utter failure.
So yes, indeed we ask the question, “What Bible Are The Indeed Reading????” as it is not the Holy Scripture!!!!
Before we go to our second point please allow me to vent, as each of the Pastors we have tried to listen to, have sworn before Almighty GOD, that they believe in full the TULIP understanding of the Biblical Narrative, and yet, Preach the exact opposite weekly in their third application point.
I also want to point out that this person’s henchman and again a person who swore to TULIP, read over a dying member, not Psalm 23, but Psalm 139, that then talks about GOD’S Enemies as if we somehow have become HIS Friend of our doing!
A worthless text to read in full over a dying woman!
This brings us seamlessly to the second point.
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The Three Theologian Cover Fire
This point truly is a curse on the training Pastors get from their Seminaries, and if this hurts even mine too bad as it has been a fact since the Late Mrs. Elsbeth Ferrier in 1984 told me that Westminster Seminary (I will not mention the City) needs to be prayed for as 3/4 of the training they get is Business and not the Bible.
Well, She was NOT wrong then, and now, and not limited to Westminster, as I got to experience myself at the Seminary I attended, that for the most part I would recommend, and yet I would only recommend it if you have been teaching the Bible for the Past 20 years as the LORD would have given you a Biblical Foundation that would protect you from the Seminary Culture, that is MORE the Professors and their friends from Seminaries all over the World, Stroking each other’s latest Book by assigning them as necessary reading, as it really becomes the Book of the Month Club.
The Bible get a survey of each Testament, plus the Letter to the Romans, and a couple of other Bible books but NOT a full focus on the 66 Books of the Bible telling bluntly one story.
We then get trained in the “Three Point Sermon”, the very technique Dr. Lamerson warned over 90% of the time devolves into three disjointed and separate sermons.
Perhaps the most damaging of the technique, is the need to quote three theologians, instead of three biblical sources, in example three parts of the Bible.
This was fully on display in the lazy repeat the “Pastor” of more than 30yrs used in the complete REPEAT of the Speech He represented at both of my Parents Funerals.
You see, since it was the same crappy disjointed message, my Wife and I waited for the Quotes from Charles Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis and Joni Erickson Tada, I could not remember the second and Begged my Wife’s forgiveness as I asked Her to relive that nightmare of these messages.
This, if we are honest IS the Sermon technique you are listening to Each week, and yet it is NOT, Biblical and healthy as it relies too much on extra Biblical narrative, when the Bible, the most exciting and Loving Book EVER written is quite sufficient.
A tiny sidebar and sadly as we witnessed this in our travels in across the Country quite true.
As you see, I get a weekly email from Sermon Central, and in one of those emails it told we Pastors, “We Owe It To Our Congregations To Steal Our Sermons, As Our Busy Schedule Makes It Impossible To Produce Quality Work Week To Week”, and yes this is a direct quote. This Coupled with the Bible Software that Seminaries insist we purchase as a helpful tool, it cost $Thousands of Dollars and loads your Library with Thousands of Resources, also gives sermon suggestions that we have witnessed as more than a suggestion.
We witnessed from California, to Texas, to New Jersey, each Church doing a Series on the Gospel of Mark, and had to conclude this is NOT by accident, and very sad, as it seems the Church is being mislead by consultants, that claim expertise to build strong clubs, are indeed destroying the Church.
It also proves, that we have promoted and ordained puppets and ill equipped and yes by the very Seminaries that were supposed to trained them, actually helped crippled them to bring their own message.
Now back to the point, the Three Theologians are used as the shiny Silver watch meant to convince you that the person behind (The Curtain) Pulpit actually knows or even believes what He or She is saying.
It is indeed Cover Fire for the Crap they are presenting, (Yes I have said this too before)
Now to our final point, and this HOLY SPIRIT please open our eyes, is Key.
No Assurance
The Third point or as we are miss taught, the Application, is actually suppose to be the Assurance of the fruits of a Changed Life in Jesus Christ, by the In Dwelling and instruction of the HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF.
So instead of telling us how we are to improve ourselves by living a better life, praying more, and living a GODLIER Life, but instead, how the HOLY SPIRIT has leads us more and more to be Christ Like of HIS doing and NOT ours, but indeed bearing the very Fruit the HOLY SPIRIT alone can cultivate and bring to maturity in us.
You will notice in the weekly address you are enduring the lack of FULL Assurance in Jesus Christ in the message, but instead the guilt trip of how “We must improve ourselves” a task that the Bible SCREAMS in ALL 66 Books is Impossible, and once awaken by the HOLY SPIRIT, indeed drives us to our knees begging for pardon and salvation in Jesus Christ alone.
I will leave us with a final and sad narrative from our Arminianist and yes Baptist friends understanding of the Bible, which for the record is the same Self-Righteous, Self-Saving Law abiding that lead the Synagogue, and Roman Church Astray, and through the Baptist “Reformed” group the Presbyterian Church too.
You see from their misguided Credobaptism (Profession of Faith) view that suggest one can accept Jesus Christ on His or Her own, and thus need to be Baptized upon their profession of faith, to the possible loss of salvation, and the need to obey the law of their own free will, all as if the dead can actually do any of this of our own.
They blast the Pedobaptist (Infant)view, falsely claiming that infant Baptism is somehow suggesting they are saved by Baptism, that in fact is NOT the Presbyterian view, but only some Denomination’s view.
You see the beautiful picture of Pedobaptism (infant) show us, just as the infant is helpless in preventing their own Baptism, so are we Praise Be to GOD, Helpless in the HOLY SPIRIT awakening our Dead Souls to a Life in Jesus Christ alone.
It is the fundamental difference between true faith and false religious teaching.
It also helps us to understand why a man of Christ was badgered over and over about whether He had accepted Jesus Christ or not by these Self-Righteous Arminianist as perhaps He did not “seal His salvation in Adult Immersive Baptism”, as well as living the life these Self-Righteous people thought he should, but in fact this Gentleman who was spoken poorly at His remembrance was assured in Jesus Christ of His homegoing, while these two still judge and struggle with salvation as they somehow earned it.
The exercise closes with a Prayer that the HOLY SPIRIT will open our eyes and ears to the True teaching of the Bible and the amazing work of Jesus Christ, His unconditional Love for us, the Awakening of Our Dead Souls through the HOLY SPIRIT, and All by the Will of the FATHER alone!
So yes indeed, Just what Bible are they reading, as it certainly is NOT the Holy WORD of GOD.
In Christ alone
Paul ??
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The LORD’S Table
1Co 11:23 ? For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
?24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
?25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
?26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
Hymn
Just As I am
London Tabernacle
The LORD’S Benediction
Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
?21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Let Us Go Forth As Those Who Love, And Proclaim Our Risen Savior Jesus Christ
Response By All: Thanks Be To God, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, AMEN!!
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Recessional
Crown HIM with Many Crowns
Our Friends at St. Bartholomew’s NYC