As massive crowds gather outside the Staples Center in L.A. to commemorate the tragic life of a man, is there anything we can learn from Michael Jackson’s death? This short video gives 10 things we can learn from his death.

ABC News has a somewhat encouraging article today on how Christian films like “Fireproof” are making an impact. As long as films clearly portray the Gospel, they can be a powerful medium for truth in the midst of our dark culture. The danger is when big companies try to cash in on the interest in Christian films, they start cranking out “faith-based” films that either water down or distort the biblical message. Hopefully, those who are making biblically sound films like “Fireproof” won’t be seduced by the big studios and alter their message.

Here is an interesting article regarding one group’s push to have Christian Zionists clear up their position on evangelism. A disturbing number of groups that claim Christian support for Israel seem willing to abandon the Gospel in exchange for high powered liasons. I wholeheartedly concur with those who want to keep Christ and the Gospel at the heart of any “friend of Israel” campaign. Real love for the Jewish people should include love for their eternal souls, not just their nation.

P.S. I received a thoughtful response to this post from a pastor who has been involved in ministry to the Jews. I want to clarify that I am not saying that relationship building is wrong, as long as we are upfront about who we are as believers. I’m also not saying that the proper response to meeting a Jew (or anyone else for that matter) is to immediately thrust a New Testament at them and decry their rejection of the Messiah. Witless witnesses can be a source of great damage to the Gospel. But ignoring the Gospel and the fact that we are Christians, first and foremost, and behave as just financial and political support for the Jewish/Israeli cause, is to betray Christ. Some Zionists groups have even spoken of a “dual covenant”, whereby Jews will be saved anyway, without Christ. That is dangerous and heretical. This is why the organization in the article above is calling on Zionist groups to make their positions on the Gospel plain. That is a good thing.

Apprising Ministries with some addtional comments in a short piece that quotes the earlier Slice post Evangelism Hijacked by Closet Theological Liberals.

Peter Jones has written an good piece about the new evangelism that is Jesus and Gospel-free. This is the supposed gospel of men like Rick Warren who are really just 2009 versions of the old social gospel heretics of a century ago. Rick’s P.E.A.C.E.  plan is a prime example of what Dr. Jones talks about in this article.

The truth is, evangelicals are mostly historically and theologically ignorant. If you asked the average Rick Warren fan who Harry Emerson Fosdick was they wouldn’t have a clue. Why are we not aware of the heresies and false teachings of even just a century ago? How do we expect to keep from making the same mistakes of the past if we don’t even know what those sinful mistakes were?

It was long ago time for those who truly love the Lord to run from these false churches like Saddleback. They do not represent the Gospel, but another msesage altogether. These are counterfeit churches that lead millions astray.

There are so many today who sneer at a straightforward presentation of the Gospel. We are to hold the hands of the unsaved, they say. We are to find common ground with them, We are to share the Bible as narrative, not as God’s authoritative Word. We need to use the pop culture, i.e. rock songs, movies and TV shows, to make a connection with the lost. That is how the thinking goes in our sad times.

Last night at 9:15pm, my husband and I had just said good-bye to a houseful of guests, and I was in recovery mode from all the wonderful excitement that had filled our home. I sat down, exhausted, and the phone next to me rang. There was a woman on the other end of the line with an Asian accent.

“I’m looking for Ingrid,” she said.

“Yes,” I replied, thinking that telemarketers had stooped to a new low by calling on Christmas Day.

“I’m sure you remember me, this is Joo Ming in Singapore!”

Twenty years. The last time I had seen her and talked with her was 20 years ago,  Christmas, 1988. Our relationship began eight years before that when I was 14. I had learned about an organization that connected girls in America with pen pals in other parts of the world. Eager to start to make some interesting friends, I soon had pen pals in England, Greece and Malaysia, where the group had connected with me a girl of the same age named Joo Ming. She was Chinese, but her family had moved to Malaysia. What I didn’t realize at the time was how God would use that relationship to further His Kingdom.

In 1988, after 8 years of writing back and forth, Joo Ming wrote to tell me she was coming to America. She was on her way to Canada to a University, and wanted to know if she could spend three days with me. She arrived and it was exciting to at last meet the spunky, funny and charming girl I had written to for so long. Because I had two small children to care for at the time, my parents invited Joo Ming over to their home nearby for meals to help lift the load. They enjoyed getting to know her as well. I didn’t know that the contact my friend had with my parents would change her life.

Last night on the phone we chatted about our personal lives and then she asked, “How are your parents? Are they still involved in that work they were doing in Christian radio?”

I told her they were and then, not knowing her beliefs, I said, “The world is in desperate need of the Gospel.”

“I know,” she answered. “It’s because of your parents that I accepted Christ as my Savior!”

I nearly fell out of my chair. I knew that she was from a Buddhist background from when I had written to her all those years ago.

“Your father, ” she continued, “talked to me one day when I was at your parents’ home. He drew the word sin on a piece of paper, and he showed how the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, covers our sin. All my life I had wrestled with how it was that sin could just be no more. I had had contact with Christians in Malaysia and they would talk about sin and God’s forgiveness. How could sin be taken away from us, just like that? As a Buddhist I could not explain that. Your dad drew a cross and told me about how Jesus Christ paid the price for those sins and covered them with His blood. It was like a light switch went on in my head that day.”

I listened, amazed, as she continued.

“Then your mother took me out to lunch, I even remember what we ate that day, and she answered more questions, like how it was that good people, including my family, could still be lost and going to hell. More answers finally became clear to me. That short, three-day visit to Milwaukee, is the reason I know Christ! Ingrid, God chose me to be your pen pal, I can see that looking back. After I left Milwaukee and went to Canada, God continued to place Christians in my life who taught me more and more.”

Joo Ming now lives in Singapore, and she is letting her light shine there on the other side of the world. I tell you this not to boast in anything my family accomplished, but in the power of simply sharing, as Mom and Dad did, the message of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that each and every one of us deserves hell. But God, in His compassion, sent His only Son to pay the penalty for our sins and that we, through faith, can be right with Him.

I felt something else last night as my friend spoke on the phone. I felt a longing and sadness that I myself hadn’t been a stronger witness. Overwhelmed at the time as a young mother and hostess, I was consumed with the details of what our guest would eat and where she would sleep and how we could entertain her while she was our visitor. My parents cut right to the heart of things and were able to see to my friend’s deepest need.

Friends, don’t ever doubt the potential of those moments spent with someone who is without Christ. God uses our humble efforts to bring new souls into His Kingdom. All praise and glory goes to His name. I wanted to share this Christmas gift our family received last night. Praise the Lord.

Beth Moore’s short radio commentary today talks about the real wrath of God that will come on the earth against unbelievers. Towards the end of her commentary she states that she does not think that using warnings about the wrath of God is the best way to witness. She feels that the love of God and what God “brings to our lives” in our failures, etc. is a better way to share Christ. I’d be interested to know what Slice readers make of her commentary. Should the wrath of God be mentioned in witnessing to the lost?

Over the years, I have heard testimonies where people have said they were moved at the kindness of the Lord. Others have been shaken to the core by being confronted with the reality of God’s wrath against sin. I do not see how you can recognize the depth of the kindness of the Lord, however, without realizing what exactly we deserve as sinners in the hands of a holy God. I don’t see how we can share good news without talking about the horror of the bad news of sin and its consequences. As men like Paul Washer have repeatedly pointed out, the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” evangelism has produced several generations of false converts who simply add God’s love on to their already inflated egos and carry on as before. I feel that in times like these, the full orbed Gospel needs to be presented. Yes, God is loving and showed that love in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we have been saved FROM something—eternal damnation and fiery destruction because of his holy hatred for sin. I don’t believe you can present one without the other. In my view, the effeminized gospel of “love only” that Beth Moore suggests for witnessing shares only half the story.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSjXnbOWgQ0&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1485987101&ref=profile[/youtube]

I’ve been away for Slice for a while and appreciate so much the ongoing teamwork here with Lane Chaplin, Ken Silva and others who contribute valuable links, articles and videos for readers while I am away. I wanted to write a few thoughts about Halloween. John MacArthur’s ministry has a good article on Christians and Halloween that was really balanced in its approach. It may shock some, but our family does give out candy to neighborhood children who stop by. Most of them come with their parents, and it’s one of the rare chances to get to actually see neighbors face to face these days. Halloween has become a children’s candy holiday to most Americans, and while I in no way support gore or the celebration of death and witchcraft, giving out candy to the little neighbor children dressed as ladybugs and Sponge Bob is hardly a celebration of the Prince of Darkness. Tonight we’ll hand out some little orange tracts with the candy, but will enjoy seeing the excited children ringing the bell. Last year, I opened the door to find a beautiful Cinderella and a Snow White, ages 2 and 3, on my doorstep. It’s not every day you can say that.

Contact with neighbors today is so rare. Many mothers are gone during the day to work, and are overscheduled after work with children’s activities. I wish there were more times when neighbors could stop and chat a moment and get to know each other. We have two sets of new neighbors across the street who have young children, and I hope to meet them tonight. How can we be witnesses for Christ in our neighborhoods if we don’t even know the names of those living just a few yards away?

To those who feel that any participation is compromise, I would suggest that this is one of those issues that each family needs to settle for themselves according to their own consciences. The same with Easter celebrations. I have heard some Christians inveigh against the American tradition of giving out chocolate bunnies and having colored egg hunts. Some will point out, with great heat, that the origins of the holiday date back to ancient times and Ishtar worship. I like to meet that claim with the observation that the days of our week are named after pagan gods or the planets. Monday meant “Day of the Moon, Tuesday was named after the Norse God “Tyr”, Wednesday after the Germanic god, “Woden”, Thursday was “Thor’s Day” after the norse god of thunder, Friday after Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, Saturday was named after the Roman god Saturn, and Sunday, after “Day of the Sun”. If we are going to purge our lives of anything with remotely pagan roots, the days of the week will have to be renamed by conscientious Christians. Ishtar was yet another pagan idol that represented a failed and now forgotten religion. Just think, a day intended to celebrate a pagan goddess turned into a day to celebrate the ultimate triumph of Christ on the cross and His empty tomb. That’s why we ring the church bells, cue the trumpets and break out the chocolate on Resurrection morning. Christ has risen and He has triumphed over sin, death and the devil. Ishtar worship is left on the ash heap of history in the blinding light of the resurrected Christ!

Halloween may be a pretext for black masses and wiccan festivals held by the light of the moon by a fringe few. The majority will see it as an excuse for excessive candy consumption and playing dress-up. I see nothing wrong with showing Christian neighborliness and using the opportunity to pass along a gospel tract with the candy.

A new reality show is hitting UK television. You can read more about it here. It’s interesting that they talk about people being converted to Christianity, looking deeper into the Christian religion, but little mention of the person of Christ. Evangelism is not converting people to a different religious viewpoint. It’s a relationship with a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are the chances these participants will hear a true biblical Gospel on the show?

Some time ago I witnessed to a group of teens on the streets of England, and they had no idea of what sin is, what repentance is, who Jesus is, or what the Gospel is. Yet when I explained, they replied “Oh don’t worry we met some American missionaries yesterday who we repeated a prayer with and so we know we’re going to Heaven.”

Is it any wonder, as Paul Washer says, there are Christians in the Third World who pray that God will stop the American missionaries from coming over.

“It was seven years before Carey baptised his first convert in India; it was seven years before Judson won his first disciple in Burma; Morrison toiled seven years before the Chinaman was brought to Christ; Moffat declares that he waited seven years to see the first evident moving of the Holy Spirit upon his Bechuanas of Africa; Henry Richards wrought seven years on the Congo before the first convert was gained at Banza Manteka” -A J Gordon, The Holy Spirit in Missions.

So why do evangelists today ask “Would you like to pray and ask Jesus into your heart now, it will only take three minutes?” (in fact I’ve heard some say 30 seconds).

Did all those men who were mightily used by God have it wrong, or are many today preaching another Gospel?

HT: Puritan Fellowship.

CrossTV

CrossTV

One thing I always carry with me are Gospel Sermon CD’s to give to people who I meet throughout the day. Giving out CD’s with good Gospel sermons on is a great way to reach those who are perishing. They’re relatively cheap to produce and a Gospel message much longer than a Gospel tract (I use them too), is easier for the receiver to hear.

People tend to keep hold of CD’s, even if they don’t listen to them straight away. There have also been many times like for instance a workman will be doing a quick job, and I have given him a CD, and explained what it is and they have replied “thanks, I’ll listen to it in the car on my drive home.”

You can give Gospel Sermon CD’s to the post lady, gas meter readers, and door-to-door sales men. At Christmas, why not give a card with a Gospel sermon CD inside, to everyone in your street , and post one to your friends and relatives.

They’re also easy to carry and great to give away to the person on the counter at the petrol station, local shop, bank etc, and are wonderful to give to someone after you have had a witnessing conversation in the street. 

Here are a few of the Gospel sermons I put on the CD’s I give out:

1. Gospel Sermon, Have You Looked on Jehovah Pierced?-Kevin Williams -30 min

2. Paul Washer preaches the Gospel at his mother’s funeral – 19 min.

3. No Condemnation For Those In Christ Jesus-Tim Conway -51 min

First Baptist of Boynton Beach

Calvinism is good Biblical teaching. Hyper-Calvinism is heresy. Calvinism says the Gospel call is for everyone and so we are to preach the Gospel to every creature, but Hyper-Calvinism says ‘God’s going to do what He’s going to do, so it doesn’t matter’.

Now it doesn’t really matter what we say, what we do reveals what we really believe. As James said “faith without works is dead.”

You may have the Doctrines of Grace nailed down on paper, and be able to quote Scripture after Scripture, and debate others on Calvinism, but do your works match up to, or deny what you say you believe?

If you say you are a Calvinist and yet you haven’t bothered to share your faith with your neighbours, family, friends, workmates, then all your talk of Calvinism is just empty talk. It’s a belief on a notepad, but not in the heart. If that’s you my friend, then it doesn’t matter what you say because by practice you are a hyper-calvinist.

The second common form of hyper-calvinism today is from those who preach the Gospel to all, yet their invitation to believe on Christ is so vague, limited, and void of pleading, that it is barely a gospel at all. These people carefully construct language so to avoid any notion that Salvation is definitely available for whom they are preaching to, just in case they are non-elect.

What if someone told you that your every thought from the day you were born had been recorded and will be shown tonight on nationwide TV? And not only that, but a website will flash across the screen during the program, directing all of your friends and family to where they can watch all of your thoughts about them. How many people would be angry with you? Everyone? Would you be angry with yourself?

Your thought life reveals the real, unrestrained you. Most people think they’re good enough to get to Heaven and God won’t send them to Hell, but God has seen every one of our wicked thoughts and actions. He has seen every time you’ve broken His commandments, lusting over someone you’re not married to, lying and stealing (no matter how little); He knows every time you’ve carved a false idol of God in your mind, a corrupt god of your own imagination who will turn a blind eye to your sin. He has heard every time you’ve used His Holy Name in vain, using the name of the One who gave you life in place of a curse word. You wouldn’t do that with Hitler’s name, but you do it with God’s name! The “Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain,” (Exodus 20:7) and “every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36)

Be honest with yourself: when you face God on Judgment Day – keeping in mind that He’s seen your every wicked thought and action – will He find you innocent or guilty? If God gives you what you deserve, should He send you to Heaven or Hell? God has written His moral law on your heart so you are “without excuse” (Romans 1:18-32); you know it is wrong to lie, to steal, to lust, and to curse because God gave you a conscience to know right from wrong. Your own conscience demands justice!

Read the full tract HERE.

Note: Lake Road Chapel have made this Gospel tract available in printed form. See Here.
Contact Lake Road Chapel (email) for the printed version of this tract.  

Sandy Simpson answers this question and points out that who “Jesus” is makes all the difference. Word of Faith teachers talk about “Jesus” constantly. Like the Mormons, their followers very much believe in a Jesus. It is not the Jesus of Scripture, however. Those who are unaware of the foundational teachings of the Word of Faith movement that deny basic biblical doctrine about Christ, think that everything is fine. They preach about Jesus, right? In bringing the real Gospel to these people, you have to begin by clarifying who Jesus is according to the Bible, and exposing the false Jesus of men like Jesse Duplantis, Mike Murdock, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and so forth. You can’t go into a setting to evangelize the followers of these Word-Faith teachers without clarifying the biblical doctrine of Christ, his eternal existence, the fact that he is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Failing to do this only adds to the confusion and causes a dangerous mixture of truth and error.

Dear Brother and Sister:

You and I both love our Savior, and because we have been forgiven much, we share a passion to see lost souls saved from Hell. It is the highest honor and greatest duty of the Christian to proclaim the saving Gospel. That has been my passion for thirty years.

Because of my profound concern that souls are saved for the glory of God, I have spoken in nearly a thousand churches, not from one particular denomination, but from almost every denomination. I believe this has happened because I believe our churches are filled with false converts because we have moved away from biblical evangelism. The fields are white for the harvest, and those fields are frequently inside of evangelical churches of all denominations.

I have never turned down any request to speak because I thought that the church’s doctrine was unbiblical. In fact, they are the invitations I have gladly accepted because I know that false conversions are the fruit of their heretical doctrines. Unsaved people sit in pews in the millions in this country because they have never heard the biblical gospel–and I have to say with Paul, “How will they hear without a preacher?”

What I have been doing for all these years has been below the radar screen of public scrutiny, until recently. Suddenly the spotlights are on and I am targeted (and fired at) as one that is endorsing false doctrine.

I am not and have never been a prosperity preacher. I think it is a great error to say that Jesus was rich, etc., or to come to Him for wealth. I preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for the sin of the world. That is the heart and soul of my preaching and teaching.

May I implore you, dear friend–what would you do? Imagine you were invited to speak at an event or church where false teaching has created false converts. You know that a thousand people will hear a true Gospel presentation from your lips. Would you turn down the invitation?

I know that not everyone agrees with me on this issue. Please, consider my ministry, and my heart. I know we can disagree on this issue and still love one another, can’t we?

And so, I will continue to preach open air to anyone who will listen, to preach at atheist conventions if I am invited, and to preach to those who are deceived by false doctrine. That may mean that my so-called reputation will be marred, and that I will feel the pain of what is commonly called “friendly fire.” I simply wanted you to understand my heart. Thank you for considering this.

Ray Comfort

My response:

I thank Ray for letting us know his position on this. First off, there is no acrimony here at all. Here are my concerns. He is going to this Word of Faith conference to share the Gospel, clearly, but I asked him in writing whether he would also be warning those present that they are sitting under wolves as teachers. He did not answer the question. It’s essential to share the way to Christ, but if he does not accompany this message with warnings about the counterfeit Word of Faith “Christ”, who is not co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, (a resurrection of the Arian heresy) he is leaving these people under the tutorship of heretics. How can the message of the Gospel not be accompanied by a warning about false gospels that these men are presenting and have presented for decades? I wholeheartedly agree that these people need the Gospel, but they also need proper discipleship which they will never get from those who are claiming that we are all little gods and that Jesus came to restore our “god-ness”, that God wants us rich and healthy and happy and that Jesus handled lots and lots of money while here on earth, and so should we.

These people are owed the knowledge that they have been and are being misled, not just the knowledge of how to have eternal life through Jesus Christ. These people are also taught about Jesus, but it’s a false Jesus. When Ravi Zacharias preached at the Mormon Tabernacle at the Evening of Friendship several years ago, this was the heart of my concern. His preaching was true, all of it. But he never hit upon the crucial issue upon which Mormons and Christians differ—the false Mormon Jesus. Ravi was using the term Jesus without ever defining his terms. That’s where the battle was hottest and he avoided it completely, leaving the Mormons present believing that Ravi’s Jesus, and their Jesus was the same one. Followers of Word of Faith heretics follow a Jesus, but it’s a Jesus concocted by the weird blending of Arianism, mind science and occult metaphysics, not the Jesus Christ of the Scriptures. This is what these attendees at this conference also need to know, or they will stay right where they are, imbibing spiritual poison. That’s why the Apostle Paul said that after one or two admonitions, a heretic should be rejected in the church. Their poison spreads. He also said that those who preach a false gospel should be accursed. I still do not see a biblical precedent for attending their conferences, even for evangelistic purposes.

I am Ray’s friend and I have been supportive of the Way of the Master for a long time. I continue to pray for wisdom for all of us in these times that we will represent the Lord faithfully.