Church Revival Movement » Reform

Apostasy at the end of time

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:08:24 +0000

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. “(1 John 2:19).

Jesus once said before He come again at the end of time, there will be apostasy. Way before it, apostasy already come in Rome in 6th century, John said that word “they” are people who were force to be christian cause Rome has declare Christian become the only legal religion. Thus when there are another religion coming, they were easily change their believe. These case also occur in present day, how many of us claim that we’re Christian, but never go to church or even don’t have time to pray. Beware of it, we might become person which Matthew already said in the bible (Matthew 7:21-23).

Apostasy will kept on coming until the time is come, it has came, and will kept on coming, these is the time to us who called our self as Christian to fight it. We have to hold on sovereignty of God like Calvinism once said:
Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Preseverance of the Saints.

Apostasy comes from Greek, from the word parapipto, which is meant point of no return. We could conclude this word as blasphemy against the holy spirit, which is unforgiven sin. From those word meant that we could not judge persons whether he’s categorized in apostasy or not, in these case only God knows it, only Him could take a look his real heart.

The question is how not to get into it (apostasy)? then the answer is simple, start it to became salt light. America in prophecy, its time for us to pray to Jesus our savior. Pray for it.

Returning to the Blessed Bible

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:40:07 +0000

Some 350 years ago, our faithful Reformed forefathers in Scotland took hold of the covenant of grace in their National Covenant, by this means fulfilling their duty and privilege as Christ’s witnessing church in the British Isles. Thus was born the Second, or Covenanted Reformation of religion in those Isles, sustained and greatly furthered by the swearing of the Solemn League and Covenant five years later. The latter “covenanted uniformity of religion” undergirded the work of the famous Westminster Assembly, and bound the covenanting churches and nations to the adoption and implementation of that Assembly’s work (the Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, Directory for Public Worship, and Form of Church-Government). Sadly, of these churches and nations Scotland was most faithful to pay her vows, and only for a brief time. In 1650, a deadly, Church-dividing blow was dealt by the majority of backsliding civil and ecclesiastical leaders in their support of the “Public Resolutions.” England and Ireland had already broken their sacred bond. The next four decades were times of bitter and often unrelenting trial for the faithful, protesting remnant (which included such men as Samuel Rutherford, Archibald Johnston of Warriston, James Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, John Brown of Wamphray, Robert M,Ward, William Guthrie, Donald Cargill, Richard Cameron, and James Renwick), who themselves by God’s grace were unrelenting in their testimony against the covenant-breaking Resolutioners and the defections in Church and State. Though the merciless persecution by the civil and ecclesiastical tyrants ended with the Reformation-denying Revolution settlement of 1688, the blessed but short-lived Covenanted Reformation has been, and continues to be, opposed by many, ignored by or unknown to others, and embraced and loved by only a faithful few, who, like their fathers (and unlike the RPCNA today) truly wear the name, “Covenanter.”
There have been many in the last three centuries who have gloriously praised the work of the Westminster Assembly, yet there has been at best only an incomplete adherence to the Assembly’s doctrine and practice. Many factors have contributed to this, of which the foremost must certainly be our wretched failure to receive the love of the truth. Consequently, our righteous God has given the people and nations professing His name over to a profound blindness, in keeping with His fearful threatenings in the Scriptures (2 Thess. 2:10-12; Rom. 1:28; etc.). This “judicial blindness” has led to an increased preaching, publishing, and practicing of numerous errors condemned by our forefathers as Popish on the one hand, and schismatic and Independent on the other, in so-called “Protestant,” “Reformed,” and “Presbyterian” churches. Richard Bacon exemplifies this dreadful dynamic in our day.
As we see, then, our quarrel goes back over three hundred years – and really, back to the dawn of the human race. Our contending is for nothing less than the Crown Rights – the comprehensive Crown Rights – of the blessed promised Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, which are denied, trampled, and usurped on all sides. The Serpent and his seed throughout the millennia have unceasingly sought and fought to strip the Lamb of God of his due honor and glory in Church and State. The Lamb and his followers have continually met them in battle, being made strong through his Spirit and Word, and through his might “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). By such faithful contendings, God has graciously granted two major Reformations in days past: we stand desperately in need of a third. There is great cause for rejoicing in Zion, however, for an increasing number of God’s people are beginning to be awakened, and to return to the blessed biblical attainments of the Covenanted Reformation. We are hopeful that the prayers of the faithful Covenanters of old are being answered: that the rediscovery of their precious principles and practices are nothing less than a prologue to the third reformation and the worldwide overthrow of Antichrist.

Reform Movement Tries Out Mega-Church

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:08:33 +0000

San Diego – In a darkened room at the San Diego Convention Center last week, nearly 1,000 people clapped, sang and danced to evening prayers, with the words projected on two large screens against a bucolic backdrop of mountain vistas and rolling streams.

Featuring a five-piece band and a charismatic, storytelling leader, the evening service could have been held at any of the growing number of mega-churches in America.
But the service was in Hebrew, the prayers were lifted from the new Mishkan T’filah siddur and the participants were delegates to the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial convention, December 12-16.
Ideas borrowed from evangelical mega-churches were in abundance at the five-day biennial, a trend championed by Ron Wolfson, co-founder of Synagogue 3000, which is a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to synagogue revitalization.
For more than a decade, Wolfson has been studying the success of Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and has developed a close bond with its pastor, Rick Warren, who spoke to the biennial.
“Where do you think we got the idea?” Wolfson said of the service.
In the 19th century, the architects of Reform Judaism, seeking a more enlightened, rational and modern style of worship, borrowed heavily from their Protestant neighbors. They held weekly services Sunday, cloaked rabbis in long black robes and worshipped in a high-cathedral style.
While the movement today is increasingly embracing Jewish traditions it once shunned, Reform leaders insist they must remain open to innovation. And again they are finding inspiration in Christian churches, the most successful of which hold boisterous music-driven services, expertly utilize new technologies and offer a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
“If the mega-churches can do it, maybe it’ll work for us,” said one member of Holy Blossom Temple, a large Reform congregation in Toronto. “I’m open to anything. As long as Jews are praying, I’m happy.”
The Reform movement has an estimated 1.5 million members spread over nearly 900 congregations, several of which boast membership rolls running into the thousands. Less trumpeted, however, is the movement’s struggle to retain its members. Congregations frequently report a precipitous decline in membership after a child’s bar mitzvah, when both the child and the family often drop out of synagogue life.
“The most pressing challenge for congregations is attracting and retaining members,” Peter Weidhorn, the incoming chairman of the URJ’s board of trustees, told the biennial Sunday.
Weidhorn cited a recent study showing that the movement’s congregations are not as welcoming as many Reform Jews believe them to be.
Participants throughout the biennial were encouraged repeatedly to be more welcoming of newcomers to their communities in a manner that has become a hallmark of the mega-church phenomenon.
At Saddleback, first-timers are directed to park their cars in a designated area, where they are greeted by ushers and escorted to their seats. Several Reform congregational leaders said they have already replaced synagogue ushers with “greeters” who perform a similar function.
At an evening plenary session December 13, Warren, author of the best-seller “The Purpose Driven Life,” discussed how he grew Saddleback so large that he expects 42,000 worshippers to attend his 14 Christmas services next week.
“One of the keys to building your congregations is just to be nice to people,” Warren told the audience. “Smile. People have a longing for belonging.”
Beyond being friendly, Reform rabbis are also looking to new technologies, such as video screens, to enhance the prayer experience.
Rabbi Billy Dreskin, a congregational rabbi in White Plains, N.Y., and the leader of the biennial’s first mega-church-style service, is considered a movement pioneer in this area. His workshop on the use of technology in worship drew 200 participants.
“It’s about to take off,” Dreskin said of the new worship style. “People want vibrancy in their worship, and the vibrancy can come aurally and the vibrancy can come visually.”

To be Reformed?

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:14:03 +0000

The setting was perfect. The atmosphere was just right. This was the ideal time and place. We were in the car on the way to Synod. With all the issues and challenges that lay immediately before us, what better opportunity to discuss what it means to be Reformed!

There were three of us travelling together. My colleague, Alastair McEwen, is of soundly Irish Reformed Presbyterian stock and was raised on the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Then there was Ian Daw, a senior student at the RTC, who had come to the Reformed faith the long way – through his own personal search and pilgrimage. Finally there was yours truly, a member of the RCA almost from day one. In spite of our different backgrounds and experiences we all considered ourselves (and one another!) to be Reformed. Why?

That question, as I recall, kept our conversation going from Albury to well past Goulburn. In other words, it took up quite a slice of the journey from Geelong to Blacktown. It was a stimulating and valuable conversation, not least because we managed to reach a consensus. We shared our conclusions with the Synod. Perhaps now is a good time to test them on a wider audience.

Like a good sermon, our conversation can be summed up under three points:

Scripture and Confessions

Firstly, we agreed that to be Reformed is to believe the Bible as historically interpreted in the Confessions (the Three Forms of Unity / Westminster standards). A Reformed Church is therefore a confessional, Bible-believing church. Hence a Reformed Christian is a confessional, Bible-believing Christian.

This position commits us to a high view of Scripture. We receive it as the infallible and fully inspired Word of God. We will bow to no higher authority. Historically this has meant that we do not elevate church tradition to the level of Scripture – as the Roman Catholic Church has done. But neither do we canonise our own experience, no matter how spectacular or supernatural it may be. Church tradition and personal experience have no independent status and are always subservient to the teaching of the Bible.

But why link our commitment to Scripture and adherence to the Confessions? Are the latter not merely human documents written hundreds of years ago? True, they are old. They have stood the test of time. And yes, they are human documents. They claim neither divine inspiration, nor divine infalliblity. So why have them? Is there any great merit to being a confessional church? Yes, there is. You can be church with integrity. It’s not everyone believing his own thing or interpreting the Bible however he pleases. In our postmodern age of rampant individualism and absolute relativism a confessional position is a strength not to be underestimated. Some time ago I was in a doctrinal discussion group that included a Catholic priest. After the meeting he asked me what our church believed. So I gave him a copy of the Psalter Hymnal which contained our confessions and credal statements. When he returned it a few weeks later, his comment surprised me: “I appreciate knowing where you stand. With most Protestants nowadays you never can tell.”

Having a confessional commitment to Scripture gives us deep historical and theological roots. That’s a tremendous asset as we enter the next millennium. But it also brings its challenges. To retain your integrity you need to keep checking new developments in the church against the Confessions. You also need to keep checking your Confessions against Scripture. That can be hard work. Think of all that the Synods have had to wrestle with in such areas as Women in Office or Word and Spirit. It is not easy to be a confessional church, but it is the way of integrity. It is also the only way if we are to walk the road together.

World-and-Life View

Secondly, to be Reformed is to have a Christian world-and-life view. Because God is sovereign He is Lord of all of life. Hence we seek to live all of life to the glory of God. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (I Cor.10:31). This is a far-reaching command which Reformed people have generally taken quite seriously. When it comes to an acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ over all of life, perhaps nobody has put it better than Abraham Kuyper: “There is not one square inch in the entire universe of which Christ cannot say, ’This is Mine!’”

A Christian world-and-life view has, however, proved to be notoriously difficult to work out in practice. Even so, impressive attempts have been made. In the Netherlands Herman Dooyeweerd developed Kuyper’s concept of “sphere sovereignty” to a fine point. He sought to bring all the spheres of learning into a coherent Christian philosophy. His work became widely influential, especially in North America in the sixties and seventies. Then there was Francis Schaeffer’s ministry among students and seekers at L’Abri, Switzerland. Time magazine once hailed him as “a missionary to intellectuals”. He and his team at L’Abri became prolific writers on such issues as modern philosophy, ecology, Eastern religions, music and the arts. Another movement that grew up on Reformed soil, this time in the U.S., was Theonomy or Christian Reconstructionism. Under the inspiration of such leading lights as J. Rousas Rushdoony, Greg Bahnsen and Gary North it sought to apply biblical principles (mainly from the Old Testament) in the areas of politics and economics.

These examples show that it is in our Reformed blood to seek to work out what it means to acknowledge Christ’s Lordship in all of life. Sadly, each of these movements is now past its prime. Dooyeweerd’s followers could not escape the persistent criticisms of those who questioned the biblical basis of his philosophy. After Schaeffer’s death in 1984 the L’Abri movement has continued to live on, but without his leadership it has lost some of its earlier focus. Theonomy has become a fragmented movement, and other Reformed Christians have seriously questioned the principles it uses to apply the Old Testament to contemporary issues.

With the wisdom of hindsight it would be easy for us to be dismissive of these thinkers. What we need to acknowledge is that here were scholars of extraordinary acumen who were willing to apply their Christian minds to the issues that confronted us in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. What we need ever so desperately are Reformed thinkers of ability who will address the issues of the nineties and beyond. The recent RCA Synod is therefore to be commended for having put in motion Reformation Forum 2000. The goal of this Forum is “to promote the teaching of the Lordship of Christ over all spheres of life amongst our own people, amongst other Christians and as a statement to society” (Art.36:2). Politics, economics, medicine, business, the media and sport are all items on the agenda that has been proposed.

Revival and Mission

Thirdly, to be Reformed means to be vitally interested in revival and mission.

Again the RCA Synod last August saw this as a significant aspect of its work. Moreover, the Synod was prepared to put its money where its mouth is. On the synodical budget the single largest item of expenditure was missions – at 30%. The second highest item was theological education which stands at 20%. Even in my position on the faculty of the RTC I would have to agree with that priority!

Truly Reformed churches have always expressed a strong commitment in this area. Some of the great movements of God in the twentieth century had their origins in Reformed missions. Dutch missionaries went to Indonesia, American Presbyterians to Korea. The Reformed Churches of South Africa did much to evangelise the sub-Saharan lands of their continent. In our own small way we are a part of this much larger picture. The Tuits are serving in the Philippines, the Zylstras among the Aboriginal people in Maclean. As I write, Kevin and Machi Rietveld are preparing to go to the Solomon Islands and Shirley de Boer to Senegal.

Hand in hand with this missions emphasis goes a concern for revival. Although this word has suffered abuse in recent years, there is nothing unreformed about revival! Again and again throughout the history of the church God has poured out His Spirit to bring times of refreshing. In 1996 the RTC’s journal Vox Reformata devoted a bumper issue to the theme of revival. A guest contributor submitted an article that drew its inspiration largely from the revival that occurred in his native South Wales in 1904. One of the spiritual descendants of that movement was perhaps the greatest Reformed preacher this century, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Throughout his long ministry he maintained a healthy hunger for revival.

Sometimes I wonder whether such a hunger still characterises our churches. Perhaps we have seen too many aberrations. Perhaps we have grown tired. We need to be challenged again. Are you praying for revival? Sometimes I ask myself why so few students have come to be trained for the ministry in recent years. Let me tell you honestly. I think it is because of the spiritual malaise and apathy currently plaguing our churches. The Lord is beginning to turn that around. The RCA Synod in Blacktown and the recent Youth Convention are each a case in point. But we still need revival. As the old chorus goes, “The dew drops around us are falling, but for the showers we plead.”
* * *

So as Reformed churches stand poised to enter the next millennium what should they look like? Allow me to summarize.
1. They will be squarely based on Scripture as historically interpreted. As they look to the future they will have their roots firmly planted in the past.
2. They will have a relevant world-and-life view from which they dare to address the issues of the day.
3. They will be fervently praying for revival as well as actively involved in mission both at home and abroad.
In our conversation in the car, as we sped through the arid countryside of NSW, we came to one more conclusion. It was as sobering as the landscape through which we were passing: Most churches get only two out of three right. Churches that are into revival and mission are usually not known for a strong world-and-life view. Those with a well developed world-and-life view are generally not known for their enthusiasm for revival and mission etc. etc.

At the end of our journey a pleasant surprise awaited us. The Synod seriously addressed all three areas. If all of this translates into action at the local level, then to be a Reformed Christian will be as challenging and uncomfortable as ever. At the same time, if this remains the direction of our churches for the 21st century, we can truly expect the rich blessing of God!

Baptists Back to the Gospel

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:50:15 +0000

A young evangelical preacher known for his no-frills sermons didn’t go soft when it came to rebuking pastors who are preaching something other than the Gospel and those who are pretending to be godly.

“I, unfortunately, with a great deal of sorrow have walked away from the idea that all of you are men and women of the Word,” Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, told a group of Southern Baptist pastors Monday. “I’ve just come to find that a lot of you are really good at clichés and really bad at tying in the Word.”
Chandler, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer, was in Orlando, Fla., as one of several well-known speakers during the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference.
A pastors event is held every year just ahead of the denomination’s annual meeting to encourage and refresh those who lead congregations in the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
Though Southern Baptists overall are recognized for being conservative evangelicals, Chandler took the group back to the core of their faith – the Gospel. After all, someone can grow up in the church, go to Vacation Bible School every summer and participate in all the programs and still not understand the Gospel, he indicated.
Chandler has found some pastors to be preaching the Gospel as a means of justification but failing to teach the Gospel as a means of sanctification. That results in churches primarily focused on evangelism and having “no care in the world for the depths of spirituality and understanding the nature and character of God.”
Though active in bringing people to Christ, churches are not deepening and strengthening believers.
Consequently, many people end up leaving the church or becoming “dechurched,” he lamented.
Also, by leaving out the sanctification part, many pastors start to preach “Christian therapeutic moralistic deism,” a term he borrowed from author Christian Smith. In other words, they preach, “This is how a Christian behaves, this is how you don’t behave,” though they might not use that exact language.
But that’s basically setting believers up to fall short when trying to obey all the laws, the young pastor noted. In fact, Scripture spells out that no one can follow all the laws.
“If you’ve preached a lot of moralistic deism and haven’t trained your people in what the Gospel is, then you will find them doing a slew of different things to try to mortify their sin and grow in godliness, most of which do not work and have no power,” Chandler stated.
“When you say … ‘this is how you modify your behavior,’ you’ve doomed your people to a cycle of silliness that will last for the rest of their lives. [It will] end in them never really loving God fully and trying to mortify their flesh by weapons of their flesh and in the end only flesh wins.”
In his brief but piercing talk, Chandler went on to address the pastors’ own behaviors.
For those who do not understand the Gospel, they end up in a cycle of secret sin, trying to clean themselves up until they’re “externally passing the test” – whether it’s by reading popular devotionals or drinking from coffee cups that have trite verses printed on them (verses that are taken out of context, Chandler noted).
Addressing the Southern Baptist crowd bluntly about indwelling sins, Chandler stated, “Some of you think you have your sin controlled. I’m not stupid. Some of you are addicted to pornography. Some of you are flirting with women in your church, men in your church.
“I’m not naive. I’ve been around for 15-16 years now. Some of you are not the godly men and women you’re pretending to be right now. Your hearts are dark.”
“If God loves you, He’s going to expose you … and ruin your world for the sake of your heart,” he stated frankly. “Or maybe in God’s passive wrath, He’ll let you continue to be an idiot and you’ll join that terrified group of men and women in Mathew chapter seven who say ‘didn’t we do this?’ and have Jesus respond with ‘what does that have to do with me?’”
Chandler challenged the group to remember and understand the Gospel message.
“We’re prone to … forget the fact that my right standing in front of God has nothing to do with me. NOTHING!” he exclaimed.
“I have done nothing morally,” he continued. “My only hope, my only plea, my only confidence is in the blood of Jesus Christ.”
When Christians understand this, they will go to God, rather than from Him, and allow His mercy to lead them into further repentance, he said.
“[This] is a mark of Christian maturity,” he noted.
“I stand before you … as a perfect, spotless son of God by no act of my own but by an act on the cross,” the Village pastor added. “This is how we combat sin and grow in maturity – [through] an understanding of what the Gospel is.”
The Pastors’ Conference was held June 13-14 and attended by thousands of pastors. It precedes the SBC annual meeting, which begins Wednesday at the Orange County Convention Center.