The Spirit Of Christmas Present

"Good Spirit,' he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it:' Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life.'

The kind hand trembled.'

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone.'

In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.

Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate aye reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost."

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens; Stave 4: The Last of the Spirits Pages 10-11

Orwell And Huxley Revisited

"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another — slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Word. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, “people are controlled by inflicting pain.” in Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

A Biblical Critique Of The New Apostolic Reformation

           There is a global movement taking place within Christendom known as the New Apostolic Reformation, which maintains that God restored the offices of prophet and apostle so as to fix the problems of humanity. The ideological founder of this group is the charismatic theologian C. Peter Wagner. It is maintained that a consequence of the fall was that man lost his dominion over creation, and that Christ came not only to pay for our sins but also enable Christians to regain possession of the world. The hundreds of unaffiliated, self-governing churches and organizations which comprise this movement have been for a few decades striving to acquire or secure control over every sphere of business, culture, and politics. Members of the New Apostolic Reformation claim that God is giving new revelations to so-called prophets and apostles to aid in the process of establishing the universal sovereignty of the church. 

           The New Apostolic Reformation is purportedly working to bring the kingdom of God to earth. It is also responsible for a large proportion of the church growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It has even infiltrated denominations, with the Assemblies of God in Australia being a prime example. In summary, the mission of various "apostolic networks" extends far beyond the preaching of the gospel and making disciples. Succinctly stated, it is claimed that Jesus Christ instituted a "five-fold ministry," which is a neo-charismatic belief that all five offices mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-15 remain operative in contemporary Christianity.

           When considering the passage from Ephesians, it is important to note that the Apostle Paul wrote in the past tense. This is a reference to the apostles and prophets who were alive during the first century. The passage of Scripture being discussed is not suggesting a continuation of the two offices. It is not saying that God is giving or will assign apostles and prophets. They were a part of the church's foundation, with Christ being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20; 3:5). The apostles and prophets delivered to us divine revelation. Moreover, Scripture speaks of the performance of miracles in the past tense (2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:3-4). The apostles and prophets are still edifying believers through their writings, which are self-sufficient (2 Timothy 3:15-17). God has now spoken to believers through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John the Baptist (Luke 16:16). Hundreds of cults throughout history have made identical claims of receiving divine messages from God.

           Nobody today can rightly claim to be an apostle, as is evidenced by looking at the qualifications necessary for one to obtain such an office. In order to qualify as an apostle, a person would have to be a direct eyewitness to the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:21-23; 1 Corinthians 9:1). In order to qualify as an apostle, a person would have been personally instructed by Christ (Luke 24:45; John 14:26; 16:13-14; Acts 1:2). Paul said he was the last appointed apostle (1 Corinthians 15:8). Therefore, this criterion is impossible to fulfill in modern times. Nobody wields the same authority today. Unlike the ministry of Christ and the twelve apostles, there are no verifiable miraculous accounts giving credence to the self-proclaimed apostles and prophets of this movement. Also, the prophetic utterances given are always vague, subject to reinterpretation. Those who believe in the restoration of the five-fold ministry tend to teach that the so-called prophets and apostles deserve unquestioning acceptance, which is inconsistent with scriptural principles (Acts 17:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Galatians 1:8-9). 

           Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 18:21-22 lay out guidelines as to how to examine self-proclaimed prophets:

             1.) If an utterance does not come to pass, then the person who gave it is a false prophet. Even if someone can perform miracles, that does not necessarily mean he is approved by God. If a person's predictions come true only sometimes, then that also makes him a false prophet. People with a God-given message are always proven correct.
             2.) If an utterance contradicts divine revelation, then the person who gave it has not been sent by God. In the context of Deuteronomy, we are given the example of pagans trying to sway Jews away from the worship of Yahweh to the gods of neighboring countries.
             3.) The moral character of the person giving an utterance must be consistent with office of profession. A prophet must have no deceit in his heart.
             4.) The message of false prophets exalts self, rather than God.

          Surely, this is a problem for the so-called prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation. There are literally no well-documented prophecies and miracles that these people can show us to demonstrate the validity of their ministries. Further, if the Bible is already complete revelation from God, then why would we need prophets and apostles in the first place?

           Furthermore, the notion of the church bringing the kingdom of God into this world expressly contradicts biblical teaching. Jesus emphatically stated that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). The Kingdom of God is not a worldly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom (Luke 17:20-21). His kingdom is not based on diplomatic relations. His kingdom does not require the approval of sinners. It is the Holy Spirit that stimulates conversion of the human heart. Our mission as Christians is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). What the church needs to be preaching is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That is the good news of salvation. We must entrust ourselves entirely to the power of God. Our undivided attention belongs to Him. We need not heed to subjective New Age occultism, but the objective standard of Scripture. The New Apostolic Reformation is a significant source of aberrant doctrine. To make matters even worse, this movement has its own horrendously corrupt Passion Translation.

Logical Thinking Is Hindered

"When your mind has been so seared by acceptance of evil that you condone amputation of healthy body parts, it's not surprising that your ability to think logically is hindered. If you start with the premise that radical mutilation of the body is an acceptable practice ... you shouldn't be surprised to find it applied in ways that are different, yet equally disturbing."

Joe Carter, "The Diabolic Logic of Transableism", The Gospel Coalition, 6/5/15.

Answering The Mormon Claim Of Total Apostasy

• Introduction: 

          -Mormonism is a religious cult that was founded by Joseph Smith in the woods of Palmyra, New York, in the year 1821. He claimed that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him to establish a completely new church. In other words, he had visions that gave him allegedly new scriptures and revelations to restore the church back to the original teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

          -Smith claimed that the "Angel Moroni" gave him some golden "Nephi Plates" so that he could translate them into English. This religious text is known as the Book of Mormon. The three other religious texts used by the Mormons are the King James Version, Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants. The underlying assumption of Mormonism is that the entire Christian church and the Bible have been totally corrupted and lost.

• Examining Claims Of Total Apostasy In Light Of Biblical Teaching:

          -Jesus Christ specifically taught that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). Paul said that God would be eternally glorified in Christ and His saints (Ephesians 3:21). If the Mormon Church is correct, then God must be a liar. He has always preserved His faithful remnant, but that is not the followers of Joseph Smith. 

          -While the apostles spoke of the coming of false teachers, they nowhere spoke of a total apostasy. It is one thing to say that the church became unrecognizably dirty throughout history, but it is another to claim that the church essentially disappeared from the face of the earth.
          -His Word endures forever unlike the things of man (Isaiah 40:8; Proverbs 30:5-6; 1 Peter 1:23-25). The Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). The Word of God has not been lost, corrupted, or forgotten. Divine providence rules out that possibility. 

          -Those who present strange doctrine are to be deemed heretics (1 Timothy 1:3-4; 2 John 9-11), of which the Mormons teach several science fiction sounding ideas. Angelic visions are not an acceptable method of drawing attention to oneself (Colossians 2:18).

          -The Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:8-9 wrote a categorical condemnation of any different gospels that could arise during his lifetime or in the future after his death. He even issued an anathema to angels who could theoretically arrive to preach differently from the doctrine originally delivered by the apostles. 

          -So, even granting that Joseph Smith had an encounter with the Angel Moroni, Mormonism is a false religion because it preaches a different message of salvation. According to Paul, another gospel is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-7). The gospel never needed to be restored because it was never lost to begin with.

• Examining Claims Of Total Apostasy In Light Of History:

          -When did the Christian church go into the state of total apostasy? If this happened, one should be able to chronicle the steps at which it took place and how it happened. One should be able to refer to established facts, writings, history, etc. However, this has never been done successfully by Joseph Smith or Mormon apologists.  

          -The New Testament is supported by thousands of different manuscripts and manuscript fragments. Further, the creed summarizing the gospel message that the Apostle Paul recounted in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 has been dated back to the first century. The teachings of Jesus and the apostles has not been lost or altered, disproving the claims of Mormonism.
          -Why would Mormons use the Bible at all, since they maintain that the whole of Christianity was lost sometime after the first century and the canon was assembled by an allegedly apostate church? Which parts of the Bible have been corrupted?

A Micro-Refutation Of Mormonism

• Discussion:

          -Joseph Smith claimed to have received divine revelation from God to establish a new sect that possesses the fullness of lost truth. This encounter has been described as a face to face dialogue between a so-called prophet, God the Father, and God the Son. Consider the words spoken by God to Moses during the journey to the Promised Land:

          "And he said, Please, show me Your glory. Then He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But He said, You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live. And the Lord said, Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:18-23, emphasis added)

           No man in his present condition can look into the fullness of God's glory and survive. God cannot be looked at by the eyes of a sinful mortal. Moreover, the New Testament tells us that no man alive on this earth has seen God the Father:

          "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." (John 1:18)

          "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:12)

          The mere fact that Joseph Smith came out of the woods of Palmyra, New York, testifies to the falseness of his claims. He certainly would not have been able to walk and talk in his flesh. Thus, he is a liar and a deceiver. Scripture is clear that no man alive on this earth has ever seen God in the fullness of His glory. Joseph Smith received no divine revelation.

Is The Watchtower Society Correct In Asserting That Jesus Was Created?

        Following is an excerpt from a Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Publication on creation and the nature of Christ:

        "God created Jesus before creating Adam. In fact, God created Jesus and then used him to make everything else, including the angels."

        According to the Old Testament, no created entities worked alongside God in the process of creation. He created all things by Himself:

        "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself." (Isaiah 44:24)

        God is here said to not have had any assistance from any part of the created order in laying out the universe. He is both the cause and agent of creation.

        "Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?" (Malachi 2:10)

        The true Creator is presented as standing out from the false gods of this world. It would be wise for the people of God to not violate the terms of the covenant they entered into with Him.

        If Jesus Christ is not God, then He played no role whatsoever in creating the universe. However, He is not a created being, but the second person of the triune God. He is the creator of everything (Colossians 1:16). He is holding all things together by the power of His word. There are multiple lines of biblical evidence showing that Jesus is God in the flesh.

        Consider, for example, the messianic prophecy of Zechariah 12:10. God spoke of Himself as being "pierced" through the prophet. In the New Testament, Christ was "pierced" in the side while on the cross (John 19:36-37). Revelation 1:7 also alludes to the text from Zechariah. Isaiah 53:5 also prophetically speaks of the Messiah being pierced. An immaterial God cannot be pierced, except if He takes on human flesh. What is very telling is this excerpt from Watchtower literature:

        "From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah's people those, who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude...They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such 'Bible reading,' they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom's clergy were teaching 100 years ago." (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1981)

A Problem For Roman Catholic Mariology

          The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin, which is known as her immaculate conception. It also teaches that she was a perpetual virgin, meaning that she never consummated her marriage. However, an inescapable dilemma arises in the process of embracing both dogmas. Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in regard to physical intimacy within marriage:

       "But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." (1 Corinthians 7:2-5)

         If Mary refused to have marital relations with her husband Joseph, then she would have been guilty of sin. In order to remain theologically consistent, a Catholic would either have to reject the notion of her remaining a virgin for her entire life or her sinlessness. Both cannot be true at the same time.

The Repulsiveness Of Eugenics

Voices haunt the pages of every book. This particular book, however, speaks for the never-born, for those whose questions have never been heard—for those who never existed.

Throughout the first six decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of Americans and untold numbers of others were not permitted to continue their families by reproducing. Selected because of their ancestry, national origin, race or religion, they were forcibly sterilized, wrongly committed to mental institutions where they died in great numbers, prohibited from marrying, and sometimes even unmarried by state bureaucrats. In America, this battle to wipe out whole ethnic groups was fought not by armies with guns nor by hate sects at the margins. Rather, this pernicious white-gloved war was prosecuted by esteemed professors, elite universities, wealthy industrialists and government officials colluding in a racist, pseudoscientific movement called eugenics. The purpose: create a superior Nordic race.

To perpetuate the campaign, widespread academic fraud combined with almost unlimited corporate philanthropy to establish the biological rationales for persecution. Employing a hazy amalgam of guesswork, gossip, falsified information and polysyllabic academic arrogance, the eugenics movement slowly constructed a national bureaucratic and juridical infrastructure to cleanse America of its “unfit.” Specious intelligence tests, colloquially known as IQ tests, were invented to justify incarceration of a group labeled “feebleminded.” Often the so-called feebleminded were just shy, too good-natured to be taken seriously, or simply spoke the wrong language or were the wrong color. Mandatory sterilization laws were enacted in some twenty-seven states to prevent targeted individuals from reproducing more of their kind. Marriage prohibition laws proliferated throughout the country to stop race mixing. Collusive litigation was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sanctified eugenics and its tactics.

The goal was to immediately sterilize fourteen million people in the United States and millions more worldwide—the “lower tenth”—and then continuously eradicate the remaining lowest tenth until only a pure Nordic super race remained. Ultimately, some 60,000 Americans were coercively sterilized and the total is probably much higher. No one knows how many marriages were thwarted by state felony statutes. Although much of the persecution was simply racism, ethnic hatred and academic elitism, eugenics wore the mantle of respectable science to mask its true character.

The victims of eugenics were poor urban dwellers and rural “white trash” from New England to California, immigrants from across Europe, Blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Native Americans, epileptics, alcoholics, petty criminals, the mentally ill and anyone else who did not resemble the blond and blue-eyed Nordic ideal the eugenics movement glorified. Eugenics contaminated many otherwise worthy social, medical and educational causes from the birth control movement to the development of psychology to urban sanitation. Psychologists persecuted their patients. Teachers stigmatized their students. Charitable associations clamored to send those in need of help to lethal chambers they hoped would be constructed. Immigration assistance bureaus connived to send the most needy to sterilization mills. Leaders of the ophthalmology profession conducted a long and chilling political campaign to round up and coercively sterilize every relative of every American with a vision problem. All of this churned throughout America years before the Third Reich rose in Germany.

Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race

Is Your Sin Beyond The Forgiveness Of God?

        There are Christians who feel burdened and disheartened in their journey of faith as a result of previous shortcomings in their lives. There are those who feel guilty on a constant basis for sins committed in the past, seemingly unable to find comfort in the forgiveness that God provides. There are people who feel hopeless, utterly beyond the point of redemption. Further, the reality that we cannot change our past can be a difficult one to accept. That haunts the minds of certain people. It is also a basic fact of life that all decisions we make have consequences. However, this does not mean that all hope for us is lost. We must take responsibility for bad choices made rather than make excuses to justify them or shift the blame on to other people or things.

        We do have the present moment in life. We can work to change our future, especially eternity, with God's help and by His grace. No transgression is beyond the power of His forgiveness. The salvation that He gives is complete, and without cost. We must trust God at His Word. Our foundational problem is sin, which is rebellion against the God who created us. It cannot simply be pushed aside or ignored. Sinners must either receive forgiveness from God or face divine judgment. That is the reason Christ came to offer Himself up as an atonement sacrifice. He paid an infinite ransom on our behalf, thereby enabling our redemption. This act in itself demonstrates the unfathomable depths of God's love for us. Consider the words of King David in the Psalms:

         "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:8-14)

         Those words came from a man who was guilty of adultery and murder. To be "slow to anger" means to not speedily express wrath. God gives people time to repent of sin. When God is said to "abound in love," it means His love exists in great quantity and makes itself known in action. If God did not have compassion for sinners, then He would not have spared the Israelites who repeatedly turned against Him. He would have destroyed David the instant that he sinned, and had every right to do so. God would simply not pardon our iniquity. He is not under obligation to save us. Nobody is deserving of His salvation. The mercy of God has no limits. 

          Jesus Christ came to earth so that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness could live life more abundantly (John 10:10). The kind of life that we experience in Him is a higher quality of life. It is spiritual life that God gives. It is not a matter of having millions of dollars in the bank or living in a mansion. Countless believers throughout history, the apostles included, did not have access to earthly comforts or luxuries. We must turn not to ourselves, but to God who resurrects the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9). If one is still struggling with how God could possibly forgive his sins after reading all this, then he needs to consider the notorious example of the Apostle Paul:

         "I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:12-16)

         If Paul, who even had the people of God sentenced to death, could be saved, then so can anybody else who calls upon His name. If God can forgive two murderers (i.e. King David and the Apostle Paul), then He certainly has the power to forgive more. There is no such thing as a cut off point for the mercies of God, except physical death. As long as there is life, there hope remains. It was that same man who uttered these refreshing words:

         "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

         If this kind of a description of the love of God does not suffice to remove doubt, then nothing else will. It is safe to say that such a person has no faith. The Apostle Paul exhausted the words of his vocabulary in an effort to try even in the smallest sense to convey for readers of his letter the nature of God's love for sinners. It does not get any clearer than this.