Romans 1.19

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

Remembering that our last verse told us the wrath of God was revealed against unrighteousness; and that the wrath of God is the judicial punishment of God – not the violent anger of God, then we can see in this verse WHY God is punishing sin.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them – and them here is referring to the people who are ungodly and unrighteous.

God is right to punish the ungodly and the unrighteous, because what may be known of God is manifest in them.

What does this mean?

It means this: every person knows there is a God. Every person knows that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, all-loving being that created them and created the universe.

That is what the Bible teaches. That is why it is correct for God to punish sin, because everyone who sins knows that they have sinned, knows that they have done something wrong.

This “knower” is called the conscience, and it is a great Trojan horse when you are evangelising someone.

It is part of their mind, part of their inner being and it knows there is a God. It knows that God is good and it knows that they have not always kept the standards of this God. Athiest, Hindu, Muslim, JW, whatever – every human has this conscience, this knower.

When you evangelise, ask people if they think they are a good person – if they say no, then ask why. If they say yes, ask them why. Ask them if they know any of God’s commandments and if they have ever broken any of them.

Awaken the conscience inside the person and evangelise them there. You won’t win over someone with an intellectual argument unless you awaken their conscience. As soon as it is awakened, it will start to deal with the person. Let them know what Jesus has done for them on the cross and that Jesus has redeemed them from all sin.

The Bible says in John 16.13 that the Holy Spirit convinces us of sin because we do not believe in Jesus. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, by the way, not to convince us of lying or stealing or adultery, but to convince and convict us of not relying on Jesus, not putting our faith in Jesus, not relating to Jesus, not trusting Him and His goodness.

Now when you have shown someone what Jesus did for them, and maybe illustrated it with an example or two from your life, then the Holy Spirit has material to work with.

That person walks off, but the Holy Spirit walks with them… you cannot escape the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit will work at convincing the person that they have failed to trust Jesus. They have to accept redemption from Jesus.

Most Christians seem to think the Holy Spirit goes around saying “sin, sin, sin, repent, you sinned, you are useless, you missed it again, you failed.” No – the Holy Spirit goes around saying “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, trust Jesus, put your faith in Jesus, Jesus has rescued you, Jesus has set you free.”

Same applies for us as Christians – it is not the Holy Spirit that is harping on about your sins. He harps on about Jesus and His redemptive power!

So, next time you share your faith realize that the person you are talking to, deep down, knows that there is a God. And that if you clearly show them Christ crucified and explain why (see Galatians 3.1), then the Holy Spirit can convince them of this truth and their spirit will bear witness to the Holy Spirit and they will be born again.

Glory and freedom,
Benjamin

Romans 1.18

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

This is a very serious verse and one that needs considerable contemplation by all Christians. Let’s first of all define the phrase “wrath of God”. The Greek word is orge (pronounced or-gay) and it can mean violent emotions or it can mean punishment.

Most commentaries I read seem to lean towards defining orge in this verse as violent emotions. This goes back to the Calvinist idea that God is angry with the world. I even read one commentary that said that God hates sinners – that if you sin, God hates you until you repent.

I believe whole heartedly that this idea of “sinners in the hand of an angry God” is a false one. We are not sinners in the hands of an angry God, and we were never sinners in the hands of an angry God! We were sinners, but God was not angry. Now, as Christians, we are not sinners any more: we are righteous saints in the hands of a loving Father.

The preacher of “sinners in the hands of an angry God” first transcribed sermon was about how God will not save anyone who comes to Him in sincere faith, as God can do what He likes and God will only save who He wants to save! People in his church were so depressed by his preaching that some of them committed suicide, including his own uncle. He then said that it was God that made them kill themselves! If I thought that unless I was specially chosen by God there was no way I could be redeemed from sin, no matter how much I wanted to be, I think I would be suicidal too! It is utterly Biblically incorrect to say that we are sinners in the hands of an angry God, yet many Christians use this era of Christianity as their benchmark of living Christianity and ignore the book of Acts!

Let’s look at this topic of the wrath of God across the wider Biblical teaching of God and then let’s look at this within the context of Romans 1 and unpick what this verse means. I believe it means that the legal punishment of God is revealed, not God’s emotional anger.

Firstly, let me say that the Bible is clear that God is pure and righteous and holy. Godliness is about being pure and acting right and living holy. I am not for sin – sin is a killer: sin will keep you enslaved and take you places where death can attack and destroy you. However, the sin problem has been dealt with. Sin will never affect your relationship and intimacy with God.

You see when God created Adam and Eve and when they first sinned, God did not punish them. Pain in childbirth, having to work and sweat to make the world produce, difficulty in relationships, being dead spiritually and eventually dying physically were not placed on Adam and Eve by God – they were just the natural consequences of kicking God out of your life and your planet. God gave Adam and Eve planet Earth and they booted God out of it – no wonder the planet is in a mess! No wonder marriages are in a mess – they booted God out of marriage! No wonder child-rearing and producing a living are such hard work – they booted God out of these things!

God wasn’t punishing them, they were just dealing with the natural consequences of their actions. If you live a promiscuous lifestyle and catch a sexually transmitted disease, God didn’t put that on you – it is simply the natural consequence of you actions. If you eat 5000+ calories a day, and you have a heart attack – God didn’t do it. If you drink and drive and crash your car, God didn’t do it. If you sin and end up in hell because you never accepted the redemptive work of Christ at Calvary, God didn’t send you to hell – it is simply the consequence of your actions.

God found Adam and Eve and clothed them with the skin of an animal. God brought death into an animal, so that Adam and Eve could live. That is not the actions of someone who is “violently emotional and angry”. You don’t make a sacrifice for someone you hate.

Now, God continually showed love and affection to the human race. Cain murdered his brother and God marked him. The mark of Cain wasn’t judgment it was mercy: it said that you couldn’t punish Cain. It was protection. You don’t protect a murderer if you are violently emotional and angry.

However, people took the love and mercy of God and the goodness of God for granted. The world became more and more wicked, and people such as Lamech said essentially if Cain could murder and God still loved him, I will go and murder who I like. The goodness of God leads to repentance (Romans 2.4) but not if we take it for granted.

So God had to develop a system of laws. He had to wipe out everyone in a flood. But God did it as a discipline and a punishment for sin – not out of a temper. He is our Father – if a father disciplines and punishes a son, that is fine. If my son was rude or stole something, I would punish them in some appropriate way. But, if I did it out of violent anger (which I have on occasion lost my temper at my children and had to repent of it) then you would say that this was bad parenting. How much more is God a good Father?

He flooded the world because He was the judge of the world, not because He violently hated mankind. Someone in a violent emotional state would not have led Noah to build an ark and waited 100 years to discipline humanity, spending that time calling them to repent with a powerfully anointed preacher. Violently angry people do not wait 100 years pleading with people to change!

He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because He had to stop their wickedness spreading. Violently angry people don’t wait until people escape before destroying a city – God did.

You see this idea of God being violently angry and needing to be placated is actually a pagan idea, not a Christian one. The truth is that sin does need a punishment, a death, but God is the one providing the lamb that takes away the sin of the world, not the one looking for it. We are the ones looking for it, and we found it at Calvary – the love of God in a human, giving up His life for us. That is the nature of God.

God must punish sin. The wages of sin is death, and if you die in sin you will go to hell. Sin cannot enter heaven. God’s justice demands that sin is punished. But the love of God triumphs over sin through Calvary. Mercy has triumphed over justice.

This is what this verse is talking about, not a God in heaven looking at people enjoying getting them and blasting them and being violently angry at them. It is a God who knows that sin must be punished and needs to deal with that so that He doesn’t have to punish sin. God doesn’t want anyone going to hell, God doesn’t want anyone sick, anyone suffering, God loves people! Your ungodliness must be punished, your unrighteousness has to be punished! But Jesus was punished so you don’t have to be!

The context of Romans 1.18 is the gospel. The whole reason we need the good news of Jesus is the wrath of God. Not the capricious anger of God, but the punishment of God. God must punish every sin you have ever committed, every impure thought you have ever had. But far from being violently angry with you, God loves you so much that He gave up His only Son to die your death, to bear your iniquity, to take the punishment for your sin – so you could have eternal life, so you could be righteous and pure and so you could have a relationship with God! Selah!

You deserved hell, Jesus went there so you don’t have to. You deserved death, but you are going to live forever if you accept by faith that Jesus took your place. This is the good news. The wrath of God is what makes the good news good news. If there is no wrath of God, then the gospel is meaningless. If sin did not warrant death, then the gospel is useless.

But let that realization of a clear punishment for sin lead you to say that God is an angry God – He is a God who only has thoughts to prosper you not to harm you. Angry people cannot think like that. God is angry – but not at humans, He is angry at injustice, He is angry at ignorance, He is angry that the devil keeps tripping people up and lying to them and making them think that He hates them. He is angry at anything that stops you and Him enjoying fellowship and friendship. But He is not angry at you.

Look at Isaiah 54.7-8:

8In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
9For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

God compares His never being wroth (angry) with us again like the promise that He will never flood the earth again. They are as important to Him. Every Christian knows that God will never flood the world again like He did. You need to know as well and as deeply in your spirit that God will NEVER be wroth with you. Ever.

Next time you see a rainbow, thank God that He is not and will never be angry with you. The wrath of God was entirely poured out on Jesus, the entire punishment for the sin of the world was laid entirely on Him.

That is good news!

Romans 1.17

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Three books of the New Testament quote Habukkuk 2.4, the just shall live by faith. Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. Romans tells us what the just are, Galatians tells us how to live, and Hebrews explains what faith is. It is clear that the just shall live by faith are the single most important six words in the whole Bible.

Six words all one syllable long and they have changed the world. Without those six words, we would be living in hell on earth right now. It is those words that took the gospel to the world in Paul’s generation and established a church that changed the world, that released us from the world of legalism and wickedness.

Then when the church had fallen for the lies of the devil and was bound in politics, in powerless legalism and useless tradition, these six words grabbed the heart of Martin Luther and brought revival to a generation that is still flooding the church today. Without the Reformation, there would be no Methodists, no Pentecostals, no charismatics and no Word of Faith! These six words have changed your life!

Now it is time for these six words to change your life on a personal level. You are the just. Now the word just is a totally redundant word in the Bible. The word righteous means exactly the same thing. The righteous shall live by faith. You are righteous because of what Jesus has done.

This is what Paul is saying: the gospel is the power of God for salvation because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

Righteousness is no longer something we have to achieve by works, it is something we have to receive by faith.

The gospel is this: Jesus Christ lived a perfectly righteous life. He then offered that righteous life up as an offering for you, taking your sin so you could be made righteous (2 Cor. 5.21). The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were made righteous. The righteous are bold, the righteous abound in blessings, the righteous enjoy fullness of joy, the righteous pray and their prayers are answered and heard by the Lord. And you are righteous the moment you put your faith in the gospel!

The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The Greek says ek pistis eis pistis, which is best translated out of faith into faith.

The gospel reveals the righteousness of God out of faith into faith. What does this mean?

A lot of people have a lot of theories, but my opinion is this: the righteousness of God comes out of the faith of God and into our faith.

God believed that we would be righteousness, and His faith sent Jesus into our world, living a righteous perfect life and offering that life as a sacrifice. Then as we believe the gospel, the righteousness goes into our faith. The moment we believe the gospel righteousness goes into our faith and transforms our spirit. We are transformed so remarkably and totally the only correct term is that we are born again.

To be born again means the same as to be made righteous. We were spiritually dead and spiritually sinful. Then we are born again to spiritual life and spiritual righteousness.

Before Jesus walked the earth, there was no one righteous, no not one.

Then, out of faith the righteousness of God moved from heaven into earth through the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life, a righteous life, and offered that life up for us on a cross, becoming sin so we could become righteous.

Then, when anyone at all puts their faith in Jesus Christ that righteousness comes into that faith and transforms that person so that they are born again as a righteous man.

Wow! Now you are righteous, how do you live? You live by the same faith that made you righteous.

Stop living by works. Stop living by circumstances. Stop living by experience. Stop living by gifting. Live by faith. Live by the Word of God and confidence that Jesus Christ has redeemed you.

If sickness comes into your body, don’t live by sickness. Live by faith in your redemption by Christ. Live well.

If you are bound by sin, don’t live by experience and how you lived today. Live by faith – faith in the fact that Jesus became that sin and you became righteous with His righteousness.

If you are in debt, don’t live by debt. Live by faith that Jesus became poor so you could be rich.

You are the righteous – so live by faith.

Deliver Us From Schadenfreude (Steve Cornell)

Deliver us from Schadenfreude

By Steve Cornell
http://www.thinkpoint.wordpress.com

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the depth of human depravity. I am not referring to murder and other widely recognized evils. What I am thinking about is a deeper evil that appears in every culture and class of people. In fact, often it is more prevalent among the refined and so-called enlightened people. Even more disturbingly is how much it can be found in ostensibly religious people. My concern is captured well by the German term Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude: (shäd’n-froi’də) a compound German word (lit. “damage-joy) that refers to malicious joy in the misfortunes of others. From “schaden”– damage, harm, injury + “freude”– joy.

Shadenfreude is marketable. What kind of news sells most? Bad news, right? And when bad things happen to people (or when they suffer the consequences of the bad things they do), there are plenty of others willing to gloat over them. When your life is public and you enjoy some measure of success or accolade, sadly there will always be people who want to see bad things happen to you. Sometimes they even slander you or spread rumors and lies to feed this desire to enjoy your downfall. Shadenfreude is everywhere and every heart must resist it.

Why are we tempted to find satisfaction in the misfortune of others? Does it make us feel better about ourselves? Does it redirect the light from our own sins?
This is one of the deepest evidences of how evil our hearts can be and it is more universal than most admit. It is found in the delight one takes in hearing bad news about another person. The pleasure one finds in hearing about the downfall of another is often subtle and sometimes covered with a hypocritical veneer of concern. If outright gloating over another is bad; it is far worse to appear publically sympathetic while privately gloating.

Some speak about the failures of others with sneering smugness; others act publically concerned while privately feeding a sense of moral superiority or even delight. Both responses come from deeply depraved hearts-no matter how much they feign religious or spiritual concern. Have you ever shared a misfortune with another person and felt like he took a little humor or pleasure from your circumstances?

This is what the Germans call schadenfreude (i. e. enjoyment obtained from the trouble of others). A close cousin to this is envy. People who find pleasure in the misfortune of others also tend to be inwardly displeased at the good fortune of others. Here we find two evils that feed off each other: Envy and Schadenfreude.

One writer suggested that these behaviors reflect, “human antagonism in one of its basest and most unheroic forms.”  “Wherever we find envy,” he wrote, “we find the wreckage of human and Christian community. Envious people backbite. They deliver congratulations with a smile that, in another light, might be taken for a sneer” (Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be).

“The envier gossips. He saves up bad news about others and passes it around like an appetizer at happy hour. The envier grumbles. He murmurs. He complains that all the wrong people are getting ahead. Spite, bitterness, discord which undoes all friendships, accusation, malignity-all these things flow from envy and together turn friendship and good fellowship into a rancorous shambles” (Ibid., Plantinga).
Whatever the motive for gloating, we are told to resist it. “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice” (Proverbs 24:17). Remember that, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30). Alternatively, true love, “…does not delight in evil” (I Corinthians 13:5-6).

Perhaps the person easiest to gloat over is an enemy. When those who hurt us suffer, it’s tempting to enjoy their pain. But Jesus taught his followers to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Is this easy to practice? No. But remember that God loved us when we were his enemies. “…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:8,10). Ask God to fill your heart with His love so that it will not be poisoned with schadenfreude and envy.

Steve Cornell
Senior Pastor
Millersville Bible Church
58 West Frederick Street
Millersville, PA. 17551
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Romans 1.16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

This is one of my favourite verses ever. Everyone should memorize this verse in my opinion, it is so powerful. It is life changing truth.

Paul starts by saying “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ”.

The Greek word for ashamed is the word epaischynomai which means guilty, disgraced and embarassed. How do we feel about the good news of Jesus Christ? Are we disgraced by it? Does it embarass us?

I think it often does embarass us. I am not talking about not sharing the gospel and being afraid to share the gospel – you should never be afraid to tell people the good news. I think that the gospel embarasses us as Christians because it is a message of entire grace and no merit.

The gospel (Gk. euaggelion) is the good news of Christ. It is the truth that we don’t have to be spiritually dead, we don’t have to be sick, we don’t have to be poor, we don’t have to be rejected because of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

I think Christians are embarassed of the gospel because it is so unbelievable – as Andrew Wommack calls it, it is the “too good to be true news”. So what we do is add a little to the gospel to make it more acceptable and less embarassing: you have to go to church for it to work, you have to be a good person, you have to change, you have to pray for this long. None of this is the gospel – the gospel is that we are redeemed, we are righteous, we are healthy, we are wealthy because of Jesus Christ and because of His goodness and His brilliance.

Stop being embarassed of the gospel. Tell people the truth: Jesus Christ has done it all. Jesus has paid the price for every sin you have ever committed, ever will commit, and you are free in Him if you believe in Him. You are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

This gospel – this news that it is all Jesus and not our works, not our righteousness, not our attitudes, but His redemptive work on the cross – this gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

This is the most important truth you can ever, ever receive: the power of God is in the good news that Jesus has completely paid the price for us.

The power of God is not in fasting. The power of God is not in prayer. The power of God is certainly not in binding demons and screaming in tongues for hours. The power of God is not in our holiness. The power of God is not in special people – charismatic superstars.

The power of God is in the gospel – the good news that Jesus paid the price.

If you know someone who needs healing, you don’t need to pray and fast. You don’t need to bind the devil, you don’t need to drag them to a crusade.

You need to tell them the good news. You need to tell them the truth that Jesus Christ has completely paid the price for their healing. The power of God is in the good news.

Don’t be embarassed about the good news. Tell people they can be healed – not because of their merit, but because of Jesus. Tell people they can be wealthy because of Jesus – not because of their background or any other reason. Tell people that they can be righteous because of Jesus – not due to their actions, their prayer life, their anything! It is all Jesus.

The power is only in what Jesus has done. It is not anywhere else. If we don’t tell people boldly that Jesus has done it all, then we will not see the power of God.

This is why the church at large does not see the power of God. Galatians 3 says that we see miracles because of grace and faith, not works of the law. We have made miracles subject to our holiness, to our goodness. We have told people that they need to clean up their lives to see the goodness of God, to see healings, to see wealth, to see salvation, to be righteous.

It is all untrue – in fact, Paul calls it witchcraft in Galatians 3. It is witchcraft to say that you need to do something to be saved other than believe in Christ and His redemptive work.

Get out of witchcraft, and get into the gospel. Stop being embarassed about the gospel and tell people boldly that Jesus has done it all. Then you will see the power of God – you will see people born again, people healed, people released from poverty, from shame, from rejection. You will see people who used to hold their heads down low lift them high, their entire faces will change as the gospel renews their mind.

Stop trying to find the power of God where it is not. Stop being embarassed that Jesus has done it all and you have done nothing, are nothing and deserve nothing without Him! Admit it – you are nothing without Christ. You can do nothing without Christ. You deserve nothing without Christ.

Christ has done it all – paid the total price so we, and the world, can be righteous, can be saved, can be accepted, can be loved, can be redeemed, can be joyous, can be healed, can be happy, can work miracles, can enjoy life in abundance. It is all HIM!

All we have to do to enjoy salvation (which in the Greek means healing, peace and prosperity) is believe. That is the greatest truth in the Bible. It is the most wonderful truth in the universe. That is the most important truth you can ever realize.

Two Powerful Messages On the Holy Spirit

http://treeoflifelondon.weebly.com/holy-spirit-month-september-2009.html

I have just uploaded a message called The Vocal Gifts, which is really about the heartbeat of being a prophetic church and part of my passion for building a prophetic church in the heart of London and Essex.

I have in addition uploaded today’s message called The Holy Spirit On Our Side, which is a powerful key in how to hear God more clearly, silence the devil and minister in the prophetic in a more accurate and powerful manner.

Enjoy!

Nothing But a Corpse (Ray Comfort)

Nothing But a Corpse –Ray Comfort

“A recent discovery showed that self replicating RNA strands could come from elements found during the conditions of early Earth. Besides isn’t the belief of creationists, such as yourself, that God created man (life) out of dust (non-life)? Doesn’t this also mean that life was created from non-life?” BeamStalk

Man had no life until God breathed it into him. He was nothing but a corpse until the life of God entered his inanimate body: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). All living things have their source in God, Who is the eternal fountain of life.

The Gospel of John says that Jesus Christ (called “the Word”) was “in the beginning with God” when life on earth began, and that “all things were made by Him” (see John 1:1-4). Then it says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (see John 1:14). If you look at the opening verses of Genesis you will see “And God said…” (Genesis 1:1-3). It was the spoken word that brought creation into being.

Then this “Word” that created all thing became flesh, and the Bible says “in Him was life” (John 1:4). This is why Jesus said strange things about His words. He said, “My words are spirit, they are life (see John 6:63, italics added). He claimed to be the very source of life itself:

“I am the way the truth and THE life” (John 14:6).
“I am the resurrection and THE life” (John 11:25).
“I have come that they might have life…” (John 10:10).
“I am the bread of Life…” (John 6:35).

The Apostle Paul said, “Christ who is our life…” (see Colossians 3:4).

Look at what the Bible says of who (or what) Jesus of Nazareth was:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested us;)” (1 John 1:1-2). See also John 5:26.

So when someone “receives Christ,” they aren’t receiving some dead religion or some sort of a intellectual belief. They are actually receiving the very source of life itself. That’s why Scripture says, “He that has the Son has life” (1 John 5:12). Do you have the life of Christ within you (see Colossians 1;27), or are you still “dead in your trespasses and sins”?

“Indisputable” Evidence for Evolution

“If you’re looking for real proof of evolution, go to http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2008/06/02/a_new_step_in_evolution.php/ Let’s see you refute THAT…I highly doubt that this will be featured as a blog entry, because I know that you will once again be unable to stand up against the indisputable evidence for evolution, and will choose to ignore this post. If you do, however, choose to feature this as a blog post, I would like to congratulate you on your courage, and happily invite you to your demise.” L Hazzal

This is an in context quote from the above site giving indisputable evidence for evolution:

“One of the most important experiments in evolution is going on right now in a laboratory in Michigan State University. A dozen flasks full of E. coli are sloshing around on a gently rocking table. The bacteria in those flasks has been evolving since 1988–for over 44,000 generations. And because they’ve been so carefully observed all that time, they’ve revealed some important lessons about how evolution works. The experiment was launched by MSU biologist Richard Lenski….Based on what scientists already knew about evolution, Lenski expected that the bacteria would experience natural selection in their new environment. In each generation, some of the microbes would mutate. Most of the mutations would be harmful, killing the bacteria or making them grow more slowly. Others would be beneficial allowing them to breed faster in their new environment. They would gradually dominate the population, only to be replaced when a new mutation arose to produce an even fitter sort of microbe.”

These are still bacteria. Nothing has changed. There has been no “evolution” at all. This experiment has nothing to do with Darwinian evolution. If you are a believer in this stuff, please rethink where you are placing your faith. It is a tragedy beyond words when any human being rejects the gospel because he believes that evolution has irrefutable evidence. It doesn’t have any at all. All the “evidence” is as flimsy as this bacteria. Don’t take anything at face value. Question it. Probe it. And make sure you probe your own presuppositions that have been shaped by a godless worldview.
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By Ray Comfort

Email: email@livingwaters.com

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Religion is a Convenient Scapegoat for the Atheist (Chuck Missler)

Religion is often blamed for the miseries of the world. An “Imagine No Religion” billboard has just gone up in St. Louis, and most people get the point even if they disagree with it. If it were not for religion, after all, there would have been no Spanish Inquisition, no Taliban, no World Trade Center bombing, no human sacrifices to various and sundry gods. Religious wars would be conspicuously absent from world history and nobody would follow cult leaders in sipping down toxic Kool-Aid. Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion spends the first page of the Preface going through the evils that have been done in the name of religion. Yet, while atheists love to blame zealous believers for the world’s sufferings, they have missed the true problem. Yes, much earthly evil has been done in the name of one deity or another, but religion isn’t the real problem. The real problem is …. human nature.

Religion is a convenient scapegoat for the atheist, who wants to justify himself in a world of believers. The atheist has a serious problem in blaming the evils of the world on religion, though. For every complaint against religious people, there are plenty of complaints to be made against the faithless.

Have people been slaughtered in the name of religion? Certainly. Yet, the Crusades are a drop in the bucket compared to the massive death toll caused by atheistic regimes. The leaders of the French Revolution shoved God out of their social justice crusade, and the result was a blood bath. Stalin is responsible for the deaths of at least 20 million of his own people, and Mao Zedong’s death toll runs upwards of 40-70 million. From Pol Pot in Cambodia to the Kims in North Korea, governments freed of “religion” – those utopias of atheistic communism – have murdered millions upon millions of people. People of various religions continue to fight all around the world, but, anti-God governments streamline human death. Any time people get starry-eyed about imagining “no religion too” they need a little history lesson.

The problem isn’t religion or even lack thereof. The problem is humanity. Human beings have this propensity for violence and greed, for self aggrandizement and selfish laziness. We struggle – and sometimes succeed – to overcome these things, but they are there inside us. As Paul writes in Romans 7:21-24:

“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

We all have that destructive sin nature inside us by birth. It’s there, and we spend our lives fighting it. If we were naturally good, it would be easy to be good and kind, generous and patient. If we were naturally good, it would be a heavy effort to be rotten. But, we find that we are just the opposite, always struggling to do what is right and constantly falling into that corruption that most people want so desperately to avoid.

Even the atheist wants to avoid the corruption, as far as his own conscience dictates. Atheists have consciences too, after all. Paul writes:

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;” (Rom 2:14-15).

Atheists and humanists are quite capable of morality and moral decision making. Yet, in rejecting the True God, atheists and humanists make themselves their own gods, and because they have no greater yardstick to measure by, it often happens that they reject one evil only to turn around and embrace something far worse. The poor in France had good reason for anger against the spoiled aristocracy and opulent church in the late 18th century. But, having only man’s reasoning to depend on, and hearts full of vengeance, thousands of innocent people were murdered. The atheist has nobody but himself and the local legal system to help him do the good he wants to do, and that can lead easily into gross error. Humankind has excellent thinking ability, but we can easily use that brainpower to justify doing the evil we want to do rather than the good we should.

Yet, the atheist is not too far off when he looks at the religions of the world and feels massively unimpressed. Religion is not the salvation of the world. Religion can be useful in that it provides a framework in which to live, and gives people rules of right and wrong outside themselves. Yet, religion itself cannot change the human heart or free humans of their natural destructive tendencies. In fact, some religious sects actually promote violence and destruction.

Paul didn’t find the answer to his dilemma in religion. He found the answer in the person of Jesus Christ. He found his answer in the Spirit of God, working in human lives to cleanse and free and make new. And the Spirit of God is real, and He is powerful, and He continues to change millions of lives today. If more atheists were truly aware of the reality of God’s Spirit to heal and to transform, Richard Dawkins would sell fewer books.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal 5:16,22-25).

Life on this planet is hard, and Jesus never promised us anything different. He said we would have many troubles in this world, but he also said he had overcome the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. If we are filled with the Spirit, walking hand-in-hand with our King and Savior, His light is going to shine out of us to the lost and the dying. And if, in the midst of our own struggles and suffering, the reality of Christ is alive and well in us, anybody who is watching will see the difference between the truth and the false religions that have caused so much grief through the years. If people can see Christ in us, they won’t want to imagine a world without him.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor. 4:6-10).

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By Chuck Missler

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Romans 1.15

So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

I want to show you this verse in a couple of other translations before I dig into it:

So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. (NLT)

So, for my part, I am willing and eagerly ready to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome. (AMP)

Paul was eager to go to Rome to preach the wonderful, happy, good news. He was also ready to go.

If you read the KJV it says Paul was “ready”, if you read the NLT you find Paul was “eager”. The Amplified does what it does best and amplifies the word to “willing and eagerly ready”.

The word used here is the same word used by Jesus when He says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In fact, I think in Mark’s gospel it is translated “the spirit is ready” in the KJV.

Paul was willing and ready to preach the gospel. Are you?

I believe that Paul was willing because he was ready. Being ready makes you willing. No one is willing to do something they are not prepared to do.

I believe that because Paul knew the gospel so well, knew its wonderful power and wonderful benefits and knew he could preach and present it powerfully with signs and wonders following – that is why Paul was so eager and willing to preach. What you are prepared to do, you are enthusiastic to do.

If you start praying for boldness, start praying for open doors to preach the gospel, start studying the books of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews (the three books Paul wrote explaining and defending and outlining the gospel) and start realizing what the wonderful news of our redemption actually is.

I guarantee that as you start getting ready to preach the gospel, you will start being willing. You will start getting excited to preach the gospel, start getting passionate about going and telling people in the street, in your work – even in your church (because not everyone in church knows!) – the good news.

Many people try and pray for willingness. “Oh God, give us a passion for souls.” “Oh God, make me love the lost…”

That is not a prayer God can or will ever answer. God is not going to give you emotional pain to motivate you to do something! That is not the nature of our Father. We are willing to do what we are ready to do.

If you want a passion for evangelism, get ready to evangelise! Study the gospel, study common objections and find Scriptures to counter those objections.

If you want a passion for worship, don’t beg God to force you to worship Him – God is not a forcer, rather get your Bible out and study the concept of worship. You will soon be singing praises to God.

If you want to be willing to give millions into the gospel, get ready. Find out what the Bible says about giving and receiving. Understand what the tithe is and how it functions. Soon enough you will be giving what you have and shouting with joy. You will start a life of financial fruitfulness that will change the world.

If you want a passion for the Word, study it, get into it, get ready to understand it.

What you are ready to do, you will be eager and willing to do.
What you are not ready to do, you will not be eager and willing to do.

So – don’t beg God to make you willing, but get ready, get ready, get ready!

Glory and freedom,
Benjamin

Lawyer: clarify needed from clarity regulator (from http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090908/lawyer-clarity-needed-from-charity-regulator/)

Lawyer: clarity needed
from charity regulator

Tuesday, 8 September 2009

The body responsible for regulating charities is claiming more authority than the law allows, says a legal expert.

Recent guidance from the Charity Commission has prompted concerns about the way various groups, including Christian organisations, will have their charitable status assessed.

But the 2006 Charities Act did not change the definition of a charity or the need to demonstrate public benefit, says Nicola Evans, Senior Associate at Bircham Dyson Bell.

Instead of making this clear, she argues, the Commission’s new guidance has created confusion about what groups will have to do to be recognised as charities.

Writing in Third Sector Magazine she says the Commission is also claiming too much authority for assessing charities on their benefit to the public.

“The Commission states that its assessment decisions are final and not subject to appeal”, Nicola Evans points out.

“The assessment reports require action by trustees, but fail to identify the authority for this requirement.”

She says: “Trustees are left in confusion, unsure whether they should spend charity funds trying to pass the regulator’s test and unclear what would be sufficient to do so.”

When the Commission issued a draft version of its new guidance for religious charities, there were fears that groups engaged in evangelism and other Christian activities could face problems in claiming charitable status.

Many of the most worrying points were removed from the final version of the guidance, but some concerns remain.

Last month the Commission said the Church Mission Society had passed its charitable status test, confirming that evangelistic activity conveys public benefit.