Godly Discernment vs Hypocritical Judging

Possessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12 (NASB) 

Christian apologetics and discernment are very serious things. It is very easy to incorporate the ways of the world into method and focus in this. When this happens then attacks on professing Christians come from an impure motive. This then causes the ones making the accusations to use slander, speaking evil against their target falsely. They revile the Christian, persecuting him and his ministry using innuendo. They have no real evidence that their accusations are true. Guilt by association is their bludgeon and their usage is meant to deceive many into believing their false report. How are…

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The wonderful gift from God

Possessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB) 

It wasn’t that long ago that I received a warning email from a friend that a firestorm had been started within the internet discernment blogs about what some were calling the “damnable heresy of Lordship Salvation.” I and many of my good friends responded with sound Biblical doctrine to the assault and I don’t think the enemy’s attack accomplished much of anything other than getting some of us to dig deeper into God’s Word then prayerfully respond in the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s people were…

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NAR Leader Uses the Term NAR: Says NAR Will Converge with Evangelical Churches (i.e. NAR Isn’t a Conspiracy Theory)

ChurchWatch Central

Chris Rice, author of ‘Is Not Satire’ blog, alerts us to this gentleman, Joseph Mattera, ‘an internationally known author, futurist, interpreter of culture and activist/theologian whose mission is to influence leaders who influence nations’ – and leader of US Coalition of Apostolic Leaders. In this article Mattera confirms the existence of the ‘so-called NAR’.

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Chris writes:

Apostle Joseph Mattera leader of US Coalition of Apostolic Leaders just used the term NAR in an article he wrote. Not only did he use the term, he also said NAR is going to converge with evangelical bible confessing denominations, and apostles will replace pastors as leaders.

I believe that the present embrace of the five-fold ministry of the evangelical pastors in the USA is going to bring a convergence between the charismatic, independent apostolic networks, evangelical networks, and ultimately even evangelical bible confessing denominations.

Why is this important? First, because many people (Me…

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All Glory to the Groom

Unfathomable Grace

Exactly who are we seeking to glorify? How good are we at serving friends without needing them or others to know that which we have done? Are we OK with anonymity or with people not noticing our love for God, our labors for man, and our contributions for God’s kingdom? Are we happy to take the second chair? Do we need the focus, limelight, or praise of people? Are we concerned about someone plagiarizing our material, using it for God’s glory, and then getting some credit for our work? Would we still do our ministry deeds if no one noticed? Do we ever love being incognito? Will we give money when no one knows what our right hand is doing? And when all our ministry works are said and done, do we find people making a big deal about us, or do we find them forgetting us out of fascination for…

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Podcast Interview with Robert Bowman Jr. “The Word-Faith Controversy: A Fair Critique”.

ChurchWatch Central

Steve Kozar from the ‘Messed Up Church’ blog over at Pirate Christian Media, does an excellent interview with  Christian author & apologist, Robert M. Bowman Jr. about his book “The Word-Faith Controversy.”

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In this podcast Steve talks to Christian author & apologist, Robert M. Bowman Jr. about his book “The Word-Faith Controversy.” Does the Word of Faith movement really have its origins in the New Thought movement, or is there a more accurate way to understand this gigantic movement?

Bowman clears up some misunderstandings and over-simplifications that other Christian discernment ministries have perpetuated, based on incomplete research. If you are trying to understand the New Apostolic Reformation, you need to hear this podcast.

Listen to the podcast here: http://www.piratechristian.com/messedupchurch/2018/4/podcast-interview-with-robert-bowman-jr-the-word-faith-controversy-a-fair-critique

The Word of Faith Cornucopia of False Doctrine

The Institute for Religious Research

Source: Steve Kozar, Messed Up Church blog, Pirate Christian Media, http://www.piratechristian.com/messedupchurch/2018/4/podcast-interview-with-robert-bowman-jr-the-word-faith-controversy-a-fair-critique Published April 18, 2018. (Accessed April 19, 2018.)

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Redemption and depravity

Possessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15 (NASB) 

The Gospel is explained very well in the New Testament. The role of the Church in the World from the time of Christ’s Ascension until His return is very well defined for us there as well (to go and make disciples from all the earth, teaching them to observe all that He taught…) This Great Commission is not to ‘be the Gospel’ nor is it to ‘redeem the earth’ nor is it to ‘make the world a better place.’ No, it is to go and tell the Good News that we have a mediator of a new covenant and…

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A Few Observations on the #Exvangelical Movement — Zwinglius Redivivus

Having had fairly extensive discussions with members of this movement over a period of months, both on twitter, facebook, and privately via email I have observed the following: The movement is right to distrust ‘Evangelicalism’. Evangelicalism, as a term, has been emptied of all meaning and by rights everyone who adheres to an understanding of […]

via A Few Observations on the #Exvangelical Movement — Zwinglius Redivivus

Needed Words that are needed Hard to Hear

Unfathomable Grace

The most urgent need of the Christian is to experience unceasing communion with God. His or her most urgent need is to learn to pray and to do so without ceasing.

That being said, the most urgent need of the Christian community — the local church — is to glorify and enjoy God by becoming a “House of Prayer.”

Therefore it follows that the most urgent need of ministers, elders, shepherds, and leaders is to practice, teach, and encourage God’s children to pray.

Sure, biblical education, systematic theology, church history, personal purity, leadership development, spiritual gift discernment, stewardship, personal evangelism, corporate fellowship, mercy ministry, global missions and many other practices are vital, but all of these activities are to be practiced by worshipers engaged in prayerful communion with God.

Preaching without prayer is just the giving of a good speech.

Theological study without prayer becomes the mere puffing up of…

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Brethren: Guard Yourselves From Deception – It is Everywhere!

Absolute Truth from the Word of God

As believers in Christ, having the Holy Spirit indwelling us; we should be able to discern spiritual matters.  Why is it then that so many of the church are easily deceived?  Later on in this piece, I will speak of the need for brothers and sisters in Christ to learn to discern the News presented to us as truth, but is not.

Spiritual Discernment

A case in point:  I met a woman who is a friend of my sister’s and the woman is a believer.  She talks about the Lord a lot, and about His Word. She attends a Baptist church near her home, and my sister has even gone to church with her.

One day she texted me that she was so excited because the women from church were beginning a study from a book written by Beth Moore.  I stared at the text for a minute and thought…

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These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life

Possessing the Treasure

by Mike Ratliff

1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 2 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν. 3 αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν, καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν. 4 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον· καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. 1 John 5:1-4 (NA28)

1 All who believe that Jesus is the Christ, born of God, and all who love the Father loves the one born of him. 2 In this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and we obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his…

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[UPDATE] Brian Houston: “Jesus became you, so that you could become Him…”

ChurchWatch Central

Recently, we wrote that it was only a matter of time before Brian of Hillsong espoused the NAR heresy stating that we are gods, publicizing his latest comments from a sermon titled, ‘The Power of Weakness’.

Brian Houston: “Jesus became you, so that you could become Him…”

To this date, Brian Houston and Hillsong have made no official statement explaining these satanic and cult-like statements. However, the YouTube video of the sermon in the above link was conveniently pulled. Now you cannot find the sermon on the official Hillsong podcast.

So if you want to listen to the sermon, you can still listen to the sermon podcast on the Hillsong UK website or here:

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Email all comments and questions to c3churchwatch@hotmail.com

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Returning to Rome: How Mystical “Contemplative Spirituality” is Drawing Evangelicals Into the Cult of Catholicism

Absolute Truth from the Word of God

My research on a pastor who insists that our God and Allah are one and the same, made me curious as to what other errant teachings might also abound in the Evangelical churches. Suddenly, I realized that I was seeing only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:30 (KJV)

It seems that the Emergent Church which teaches Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) has slithered its way into our Evangelical churches. The proper spirituality of the Christian, being sola Scriptura, is being replaced by Spiritual Mysticism, which can be traced back to the Roman Catholic church.

When preachers lose sight of their need to depend on and teach from the Word of God alone, their lofty and contrived ideas land them on a slippery slope which eventually leads to total apostasy.

What is Contemplative Spirituality?

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Why Francis Schaeffer Matters:The Role of the Church in Cultural Transformation – Part 9

Veritas et Lux

Francis Schaeffer believes that the church has a heavy responsibility to promote community.  He holds that the first step in comprehending Christian community is understanding the individuals who make up the community.  The reason: The individual is important to God.  He adds, “I am convinced that in the twentieth century people all over the world will not listen if we have the right doctrine, the right polity, but are not exhibiting community” (The Church At The End Of The Twentieth Century, 64).

He stresses “existential living in the community.”  The horizontal relationships must all be rooted in the vertical, namely, a relationship with God.  He holds that the primary responsibility is developing community within the church.  He does not minimize the importance of reaching out to the lost but contends the community of the faithful must come first.

We Must Practice Purity

Schaeffer expresses his passion for maintaining…

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Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Responsibility of the Church in Post-Modern Culture – Part 8

Veritas et Lux

Francis Schaeffer has an extremely high view of the church and great expectations as any Christian should.  He details some solemn responsibilities that the church of Jesus Christ must consider.

We Must Adhere to the New Testament Boundaries for the Local Church

Schaeffer’s primary assertion is that Scripture mandates eight specific norms for the New Testament church (The Church At The End Of The Twentieth Century, 51-60).  The first norm: Local congregations are to exist and should be made up of Christians.   Schaeffer would have clearly opposed the so-called seeker sensitive movement that is so prevalent in the church today.  While he believed that the church ought to evangelize the lost, he would have had real problems with the present day fascination of catering to the non-believer.

Second, Dr. Schaeffer believed these congregations ought to meet in a special way on the first day of the week.  He…

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Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Church in Culture – Part 7

Veritas et Lux

The Church in Modern Culture

Francis Schaeffer’s view of the church in modern culture is multifaceted yet cuts straight to the point.  He does not mince words or play clever evangelical games.  He believes one major problem with Christians is that they see things in bits and pieces.  They have failed to see that modern man’s despair has come to fruition because of a shift in worldview.  He contends that Christians should begin to think in terms of the big picture.  They should have a view of spiritual reality that is authentic and covers all areas of life.  Indeed, the Lordship of Christ covers all life and all life equally.

The Church in Postmodern Culture: Marks of Postmodernism

It is interesting to note that Dr. Schaeffer may have been the first to write in-depth about post-Christian culture.  It is important to understand Schaeffer’s view on culture in order to understand…

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Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: His Approach to Apologetics – Part 6

Veritas et Lux

Christian Apologetics: Two Purposes

Francis Schaeffer’s holds a rather basic view concerning apologetics.  He explains there are two purposes of Christian apologetics.  “The first is defense.  The second is to communicate Christianity in a way that any given generation can understand” (The God Who Is There, 151).

Schaeffer begins his approach to apologetics by pointing out that every non-regenerate person enters the discussion with a set of presuppositions.  Some have taken the time to analyze their presuppositions.  Most have not.  But each non-regenerate person is caught in the horns of a dilemma because it is impossible to be consistent in logic or practice.  This holds true along the whole spectrum of people.  Every person whether a University student, housewife, businessman or disgruntled teenager is stuck and boxed in by the logic of his or her presuppositions.  Thus, Schaeffer writes, “You are facing a man in tension, and it…

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Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: Epistemology – Part 5

Veritas et Lux

The Importance of Presuppositions

Dr. Schaeffer’s epistemology is integral to his approach to apologetics and may be described simply as follows: First, one must understand that pagan thought endorses a belief in the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system.  Propositional and verbal revelation is nonsense in this scheme.  Christian epistemology stands in stark contrast to the non-Christian worldview.  The presupposition of Christianity begins with the God who is there.  God is the infinite-personal Being who has made man in His image.  God made man a verbalizer in the area of propositions in his horizontal communications with other men.  Thus God communicates to us on the basis of verbalizations and propositions by means of the written Word of God (He Is There And He Is Not Silent, 326-327).

Thus the Christian epistemological system brings three things together in a unified whole; the unified field of knowledge that…

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Hollywood Ignores Christian Films, Success

Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America

Hollywood loves money, and the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. But faith-based films typically do extremely well at the box office and they don’t seem to care. It doesn’t add up. What does Hollywood love more than money? Mockery, perversity, and rebellion perhaps?

If you haven’t seen the new movie, I Can Only Imagine based on the #1 song by Christian band MercyMe, make sure you bring enough Kleenex. It’s a true story of forgiveness and redemption, and one memorable line from the movie’s main character is:

“My dad was a monster, and I saw God transform him.”

It took Bart Millard ten minutes to write the song “I Can Only Imagine,” but as Amy Grant said at the time, “It didn’t take you ten minutes, Bart; it took a lifetime.”

Many people can relate to life’s ups and downs; in some…

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Still Using Snopes To Fact Check? PLEASE Just Say Nope to Snopes!

Absolute Truth from the Word of God

****This is a reprint of an article I wrote over a year ago.  I will probably be put in FB jail again – the first time I shared this I was in jail after just 3 shares!  

It horrifies me when Conservative Christians come to me and say “I fact checked this on Snopes and they said it’s not true.”

Just say NOPE to SNOPES!  

This left leaning outfit, run by an ultra liberal couple is definitely not the place for Conservatives to go for verification of facts. May I just say that if you want to be lied to, then Snopes is for you!  Talk about Fake News – Snopes is the place where left wing fake news is verified and news stories from Conservative sites are vilified.

Where is the discernment?

Actually, it is just as shocking to me when Conservatives are duped by rag websites…

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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry – normalizing mysticism.

ChurchWatch Central

With thanks to Rick Becker from ‘Famine In The Land’  – his latest article. Another excellent resource to help our readers understand the dangers of attending the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.

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Rick writes:

The Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry School Planting website has published an article entitled “Pastoring People With Unique Spiritual Giftings.”  Their article reveals their progressive slide into mysticism and Gnosticism, and reaffirms the need to expose this school for what it is.  Some have compared it to Hogwarts, the school of Wizardry from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.  Bethel itself has been labelled a cult by others.  What is certain, is that Bethel church and their School of Supernatural Ministry are deceiving thousands of people all around the world.  In this post, we examine an article published on the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry School Planting website.

Bill Johnson has groomed his underlings to take risks beyond…

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