The
saint of God's exhilaration while engaging the forces of Hell in
spiritual warfare, standing relentlessly for Truth in the face of Hell's
most vociferous, pernicious lies, and taking hard blows from Truth's
most malicious enemies, is an exhilaration that infinitely exceeds the
rush of a football team against a receiver, the scramble of a basketball
team for a goal, or the passing of a baseball over a fence.
The Early Church cast out devils, raised the dead, rebuked sicknesses
and diseases, and preached amidst a great froth of controversy while
being opposed and threatened from every direction. Yet they rejoiced to
suffer for the cause of Christ, and defied every attempt to silence them
in their crusade for Truth, righteousness and holiness.
Any
man or woman who is fanatical about flesh-and-blood sports, while
disinterested in great Biblical, doctrinal and spiritual controversies
has been blinded and anesthetized by carnality, and does not realize
that Satan has effectively derailed them from their divine purpose.
Jesus came to seek and save them who are lost, and destroy the works of
the devil. The Church must take up His Sword, the Word of God, and
engage His adversaries in His name. We are called to be soldiers in the
army of the Lord. It should be our great joy to fight His battles.
Little David took great delight in taking down Goliath, "the
uncircumcised Philistine" who was the iconic adversary of God's people.
There are plenty of giants now standing in the battlefield railing
against God and His people. "Is there not a cause?" Go. Fight. Win. In
Jesus' name.
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the
affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a
soldier," 2 Timothy 2:3-4.
- - -
For thousands of pages of FREE Bible Studies on every subject, including PROPHECIES about the last days, visit kenraggio.com now!
Ken Raggio's BLOG.
Showing posts with label Church Christian Bible values doctrines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church Christian Bible values doctrines. Show all posts
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
The Way Church Used To Be
I remember when people came to Church, not expecting a high-powered concert, but a hard-core sermon from the Word of God. The service was dominated by a full hour of strong, fearless Bible preaching. Worldly, carnal people were convicted of their sinful ways and went to an altar to make tearful consecrations to quit their sins and do the will of God.
Christians didn't smoke, drink, dance, cuss, dip, carouse, go to ball games or theaters. They did not wear revealing clothes. They carried Bibles, read them, marked them and made notes in them. They prayed, went to prayer meetings, Bible studies, and Church fellowships. They visited the sick, the shut-ins, the jails, and the nursing homes.
Nowadays, tears and repentance are non-existent in most Churches. In their place is Harlem-dancing and rock-star worship. They scream and chant wildly about their sports teams, they rave about the latest block-buster movies, they know every hit song by every wicked entertainer on the scene. They wear as few clothes as the law will allow, they drink alcoholic beverages, use four-letter profanities with impunity, and commit sexual sins that would have given former generations a heart attack. And they still call themselves Christians.
"Ichabod" - meaning "the glory of the Lord is departed," is written over the door. Sin is welcomed and never condemned. The promises of God are offered recklessly without covenant like free ice cream and candy. The grace of God is trampled under foot. The longsuffering of God has been pushed to the breaking point, and judgment is right around the corner.
Unless Christianity quickly falls on its face in brutal confession of its sins, and in most humble repentance and turning from its wicked ways, the wrath of God will soon be poured out with nothing withheld.
God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up," James 4:8-10.
- - -
For thousands of pages of FREE Bible Studies on every subject, including PROPHECIES about the last days, visit kenraggio.com now!
Christians didn't smoke, drink, dance, cuss, dip, carouse, go to ball games or theaters. They did not wear revealing clothes. They carried Bibles, read them, marked them and made notes in them. They prayed, went to prayer meetings, Bible studies, and Church fellowships. They visited the sick, the shut-ins, the jails, and the nursing homes.
Nowadays, tears and repentance are non-existent in most Churches. In their place is Harlem-dancing and rock-star worship. They scream and chant wildly about their sports teams, they rave about the latest block-buster movies, they know every hit song by every wicked entertainer on the scene. They wear as few clothes as the law will allow, they drink alcoholic beverages, use four-letter profanities with impunity, and commit sexual sins that would have given former generations a heart attack. And they still call themselves Christians.
"Ichabod" - meaning "the glory of the Lord is departed," is written over the door. Sin is welcomed and never condemned. The promises of God are offered recklessly without covenant like free ice cream and candy. The grace of God is trampled under foot. The longsuffering of God has been pushed to the breaking point, and judgment is right around the corner.
Unless Christianity quickly falls on its face in brutal confession of its sins, and in most humble repentance and turning from its wicked ways, the wrath of God will soon be poured out with nothing withheld.
God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up," James 4:8-10.
- - -
For thousands of pages of FREE Bible Studies on every subject, including PROPHECIES about the last days, visit kenraggio.com now!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
My "Problem" Is That I Take The Bible Too Seriously
I am not the only preacher on earth who clearly sees that Christianity is going to Hell in a hand basket. I am watching Christianity completely re-define itself, and the changes are illegitimate, pernicious and out-of-context of the holy scriptures. The new Christianity has an entirely new vocabulary of neo-Christian ideals, but in very large part, without Biblical precedent. A huge component of modern Christianity is derived from success-prosperity, positive-thinking, self-actualization, and humanist roots - NOT the Bible. Only a very few Bible verses are being interspersed, and mostly with a diabolical twist.
It is DEEPLY DISTURBING to see "liberal-progressive"-minded men pastoring many of the largest and most visible Churches, and dominating the Christian media. They are not men of God, but teachers of very unbiblical doctrines which are leading multitudes of unsuspecting followers headlong into Hell. In many cases, the new Christians arrogantly condemn traditional and historical Christian values, as if theirs is the first generation to "do it right."
I am not a novice, and my observations are not unstudied or impulsive. I began preaching in 1966, and have preached in Churches of just about every fundamental evangelical denomination and persuasion (dozens of denominations). I am now a dyed-in-the-wool Pentecostal of the old school. I have ministered for more than 40 years in just about every kind of venue - from small country Churches to big city Churches, singing and preaching to crowds in crusades, conferences, camp meetings or concerts in civic centers, coliseums, hotel ballrooms, auditoriums, jails, maximum security prisons, etc., on radio and television, and in forty states and six countries, in a thousand different settings.
For more than fifteen years, now, I have had a significant presence on the Internet, and have communicated by email with tens of thousands of my Bible-study subscribers in at least 215 nations.
Because of the enormous amount of personal feedback that I receive every single day from my Internet ministry, I have a pretty good feel for what is going on in religion around the world.
I have never seen anything worse than what I see nowadays.
Go to Facebook, if you want, and click around on the personal favorites of professing Christians. Take note of the Favorite Movies, Favorite Music, Favorite Celebrities, Favorite TV Shows of professing Christians. Look at their favorite link, "Let's have a Jesus Revival!" right next to their "True Blood" favorite.
It is utterly shocking and appalling to see the liberal, amoral, anything-goes, "I'm OK, You're OK," psyche of multitudes who call themselves Christians. BIBLICAL Christianity has almost no influence whatsoever on the minds of this generation.
If you call yourself a Christian, yet entertain yourself nightly with the likes of HBO, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, et al, you are totally deceiving yourself.
If Jesus dared to take a whip and scourge and drive the dove-sellers out of the Holy Temple, I have no doubt whatsoever that He would throw a chair right through the television screen today.
You are not offended by those things? You laugh and roll in the floor while they hurl the vilest obscenities and profanities at Churches, Christians, preachers, marriage, the Bible, and GOD HIMSELF???!!! You should be ashamed of yourself.
You should throw the chair through the television yourself! Instead, you call the cable franchise and order more channels and more pay-per-view, thereby paying the bills of these God-haters.
The only thing worse than the utter degeneracy of modern Christians is the degeneracy of the Pastors of these Christians.
They are wolves in sheep clothing.
Jesus warned: "
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," Matthew 10:16.
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves," Matthew 7:15.
"I send you forth as lambs among wolves," Luke 10:3.
Paul said, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock," Acts 20:29.
Sometimes, the wolves are in the pulpit. Sometimes, the wolves are in the pew. Whoever they are, they are malignant and toxic. Be on your best guard.
They are evil men (or women). They are seducers. They make merchandise of you. They laugh into their shirt-sleeves at your naivety and gullibility. They know in their hearts that they are as carnal and worldly and lustful as you are, and yet they are passing themselves off as your spiritual mentors, and making a handsome living while they lead you to Hell. The blind leading the blind.
No wonder that multitudes of teenagers are abandoning Christianity. No wonder that children have no idea who Jesus is, or what the Gospel is all about. No wonder that Justin Bieber can pass himself off as a Christian. Who really cares? The Devil himself could probably muster a 49% approval rating if a poll asked if the Devil is a Christian.
The "problem" with me is that I take the Bible way too seriously.
I believe every verse in the Bible. I believe every thing it says. I don't use fourteen different versions of the Bible trying to find a version that doesn't say what I don't want to hear. I read the 400-year-old, tried and proven King James Version that tells me everything I need to know about God, in the King's English. And I will never buy the false claims that there is a better, more accurate English version out there, because there is not.
The Bible tells me that God called the children of Israel, and told them, "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have SEVERED YOU from other people, that ye should be mine," Leviticus 20:26.
If you will take about two minutes to consider everything you can quickly remember about the nation of Israel, you will realize that for the past 3500 years, Israel has been hated by the world because God placed an exclusive claim on them and called them to be different from all the other nations of the earth.
But God did a similar thing with the Church - and with every Christian.
God had told Israel, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you," Leviticus 20:7-8.
Peter said that the SAME ORDER stands for the New Testament Church!
"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy," 1 Peter 1:15-16.
Unless and until you get a grip on what it means for a Christian to "come out" and "be separate" from the world, the flesh, and the devil, you really don't have the first clue about what being a Christian really is.
It is time for everybody to take the Bible seriously. Very seriously. That book is going to judge you in the end. So, are you going to sit and watch another flesh-exalting episode of 'American Idol,' while your Bible sits unopened, unstudied, unknown, unbelieved and unlived for another week?
- - -
For thousands of pages of FREE Bible Studies on every subject, including PROPHECIES about the last days, visit kenraggio.com now!
It is DEEPLY DISTURBING to see "liberal-progressive"-minded men pastoring many of the largest and most visible Churches, and dominating the Christian media. They are not men of God, but teachers of very unbiblical doctrines which are leading multitudes of unsuspecting followers headlong into Hell. In many cases, the new Christians arrogantly condemn traditional and historical Christian values, as if theirs is the first generation to "do it right."
I am not a novice, and my observations are not unstudied or impulsive. I began preaching in 1966, and have preached in Churches of just about every fundamental evangelical denomination and persuasion (dozens of denominations). I am now a dyed-in-the-wool Pentecostal of the old school. I have ministered for more than 40 years in just about every kind of venue - from small country Churches to big city Churches, singing and preaching to crowds in crusades, conferences, camp meetings or concerts in civic centers, coliseums, hotel ballrooms, auditoriums, jails, maximum security prisons, etc., on radio and television, and in forty states and six countries, in a thousand different settings.
For more than fifteen years, now, I have had a significant presence on the Internet, and have communicated by email with tens of thousands of my Bible-study subscribers in at least 215 nations.
Because of the enormous amount of personal feedback that I receive every single day from my Internet ministry, I have a pretty good feel for what is going on in religion around the world.
I have never seen anything worse than what I see nowadays.
Go to Facebook, if you want, and click around on the personal favorites of professing Christians. Take note of the Favorite Movies, Favorite Music, Favorite Celebrities, Favorite TV Shows of professing Christians. Look at their favorite link, "Let's have a Jesus Revival!" right next to their "True Blood" favorite.
It is utterly shocking and appalling to see the liberal, amoral, anything-goes, "I'm OK, You're OK," psyche of multitudes who call themselves Christians. BIBLICAL Christianity has almost no influence whatsoever on the minds of this generation.
If you call yourself a Christian, yet entertain yourself nightly with the likes of HBO, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, et al, you are totally deceiving yourself.
If Jesus dared to take a whip and scourge and drive the dove-sellers out of the Holy Temple, I have no doubt whatsoever that He would throw a chair right through the television screen today.
You are not offended by those things? You laugh and roll in the floor while they hurl the vilest obscenities and profanities at Churches, Christians, preachers, marriage, the Bible, and GOD HIMSELF???!!! You should be ashamed of yourself.
You should throw the chair through the television yourself! Instead, you call the cable franchise and order more channels and more pay-per-view, thereby paying the bills of these God-haters.
The only thing worse than the utter degeneracy of modern Christians is the degeneracy of the Pastors of these Christians.
They are wolves in sheep clothing.
Jesus warned: "
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," Matthew 10:16."Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves," Matthew 7:15.
"I send you forth as lambs among wolves," Luke 10:3.
Paul said, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock," Acts 20:29.
Sometimes, the wolves are in the pulpit. Sometimes, the wolves are in the pew. Whoever they are, they are malignant and toxic. Be on your best guard.
They are evil men (or women). They are seducers. They make merchandise of you. They laugh into their shirt-sleeves at your naivety and gullibility. They know in their hearts that they are as carnal and worldly and lustful as you are, and yet they are passing themselves off as your spiritual mentors, and making a handsome living while they lead you to Hell. The blind leading the blind.
No wonder that multitudes of teenagers are abandoning Christianity. No wonder that children have no idea who Jesus is, or what the Gospel is all about. No wonder that Justin Bieber can pass himself off as a Christian. Who really cares? The Devil himself could probably muster a 49% approval rating if a poll asked if the Devil is a Christian.
The "problem" with me is that I take the Bible way too seriously.
I believe every verse in the Bible. I believe every thing it says. I don't use fourteen different versions of the Bible trying to find a version that doesn't say what I don't want to hear. I read the 400-year-old, tried and proven King James Version that tells me everything I need to know about God, in the King's English. And I will never buy the false claims that there is a better, more accurate English version out there, because there is not.
The Bible tells me that God called the children of Israel, and told them, "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have SEVERED YOU from other people, that ye should be mine," Leviticus 20:26.
If you will take about two minutes to consider everything you can quickly remember about the nation of Israel, you will realize that for the past 3500 years, Israel has been hated by the world because God placed an exclusive claim on them and called them to be different from all the other nations of the earth.
But God did a similar thing with the Church - and with every Christian.
God had told Israel, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you," Leviticus 20:7-8.
Peter said that the SAME ORDER stands for the New Testament Church!
"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy," 1 Peter 1:15-16.
Unless and until you get a grip on what it means for a Christian to "come out" and "be separate" from the world, the flesh, and the devil, you really don't have the first clue about what being a Christian really is.
It is time for everybody to take the Bible seriously. Very seriously. That book is going to judge you in the end. So, are you going to sit and watch another flesh-exalting episode of 'American Idol,' while your Bible sits unopened, unstudied, unknown, unbelieved and unlived for another week?
- - -
For thousands of pages of FREE Bible Studies on every subject, including PROPHECIES about the last days, visit kenraggio.com now!
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