TruthXchange

TruthXchange

  • Joined: June 19, 2023
  • Articles: 588

Enticing unsteady souls into darkness: when ‘mutual listening’ opens the door to false doctrine

Anglican Bishops at the 1998 Lambeth Conference committed themselves and their churches, through Resolution I.10, ”to listen to the experience of homosexual persons”. At the time it was made clear by bishops of the Global South that any programme of ‘listening’ was to help persons experiencing a homosexual orientation to live in conformity to the churches quoted understanding that homosexual practice was ‘incompatible with Scripture’. It is clear that those participating in the ‘listening process’ are expected to suspend all critical faculties; the aim is to arrive at some understanding of the other persons ‘world and thought’ and an empathy with the person. Listening is a vital part of communication and genuine and vital Christian community. However, the New Testament is clear that there are times when we should not listen to another; when even admitting a person’s presence into our home would mean we ‘share in their wicked work’.

Read MoreEnticing unsteady souls into darkness: when ‘mutual listening’ opens the door to false doctrine

IO 81: Cheating Disorder

The human race shares the divine essence expressed in the founding myths. Since joining evil and good brought reality into existence, human manipulation of good and evil will produce the final earthly utopia. Alas, this relativizing of good and evil turns the real chaos of an objectively troubled conscience into a virtual state of One-ist "guiltless bliss." However, creation is the result of God speaking forth His own good will, unforced by any external power, with things carefully distinguished, each after its kind, and then calling the results of His work "good." Evil has no part in His creating activity.

Read MoreIO 81: Cheating Disorder

One-ism in Culture

Do you watch celebrity culture? Do you want to wear what they wear? Do you want to drink the beer, champagne, or soda they drink? If we don’t worship celebrity we often worship ourselves. How often do you check your facebook page? How often to you check your Twitter account? How often do you check your email? We are immersed culturally in self worship and celebrity worship, which are the very most popular forms of One-ism. Pastor Mark Driscoll discusses examples of these forms of idolatry and their implications and effects on culture through the lens of One-ism. If you work with youth, teens and young adults, you know that all of these are becoming more and more serious issues.

Read MoreOne-ism in Culture

Being the Church When Empires Fall

In the face of redefining marriage to now include couples of the same sex, it seems unlikely that we will be able to arrest the ongoing erosion of marriage, when over the course of the last fifty years we have been systematically dismantling the very protections that have brought us to this point. The current moral consensus simply does not appear to support a return to more modest public policies regarding marriage and the natural family and the church is largely compromised. Despite the present futility, I do believe we should always strive-while we still can-to pass legislative measures that promote the well being of individuals and society.

Read MoreBeing the Church When Empires Fall

IO 80: Out of Left Field, a Perfect Storm

Left field is now center-stage. Leading Republicans recently ensured that gay marriage became state law in New York. The sexually abnormal is the new normal, and our children’s future defies description. A worldview tsunami, made of the wildest waves of human fantasy, is bearing down on Western culture, which, shorn of its biblical moorings, will be carried helpless into a nightmare destruction of biblical values.

Read MoreIO 80: Out of Left Field, a Perfect Storm

IO 79: Worldview Gridlock

At truthXchange we are sometimes accused of being reductionistic by limiting all worldview options to only two: One-ism or Two-ism. I admit that this approach could seem overly simple, but the Bible is finally very simple. There are not 365 different ways to relate to the world. According to the apostle Paul there are only two. He says with clarity and simplicity in Romans 1:25 that you either worship creation (One-ism) or you worship the Creator (Two-ism). Support for this approach comes from odd places.

Read MoreIO 79: Worldview Gridlock

Dr. Jones Explains the Gnostic Gospel

Dr. Peter Jones spoke at the Ligonier Ministries 2010 West Coast Conference, themed, “A Christless Christianity.” He explained that Americans are incurably “spiritual,” but this spirituality expresses itself in ways that are incompatible with biblical Christianity. It expresses itself in ways that are essentially Gnostic. The American church has not been immune to the influence of this American Gnosticism. In this video, Dr. Jones compares this private, mystical, and inward religious mentality with the corporate, doctrinal, and visible faith of orthodox Christianity. In a second video, he joined a panel with Michael Horton and R.C. Sproul to answer questions about the church.

Read MoreDr. Jones Explains the Gnostic Gospel

Evangelical Author: “Heterosexuality is an Abomination.”

Cover of "The End of Sexual Identity" by Jenell Williams ParisAccording to Messiah College professor, Jenell Williams Paris, “Heterosexuality…is an abomination.” As an “abomination” Paris means the false classification of persons as merely homosexual or heterosexual, a practice she feels gives a person identity only on the basis of sexual choices or desires, rather than on their status as creatures made in God's image and loved by God. This inflammatory statement is doubtless meant for maximum effect, since the Bible declares male on male sex as “an abomination” (Lev 20:13). One is led to ask how an evangelical Christian scholar, published by a Christian publishing house (IVP) justifies such a shocking formulation.

Review of Jenell Williams Paris, The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011).

Read MoreEvangelical Author: “Heterosexuality is an Abomination.”

IO 78: Pachamama Wants Your Children

Two years ago, President Evo Morales, of Incan/Aymaran descent, claimed the rights to all three branches of government, and his goons were eliminating opponents in the dead of night. At the time, I was teaching pastors in Cochabamba, Bolivia and so witnessed the rise of indigenous paganism as a political force. In January 2011, Morales introduced legislation that grants legal rights to the Earth and provides an ombudsman to hear nature's complaints as voiced by the all-knowing high priests of deep ecology, who claim to be spiritually in touch with Nature! The worship of Pachamama, the fertility Goddess of Nature, is now a fundamental element in the law code of Bolivia, and Morales (in his commitment to Pachamama and to the ancient Incan religion of Bolivia) is supported by a shadow cabinet of shamans…

Read MoreIO 78: Pachamama Wants Your Children

IO 77: One-ism and Two-ism Goes To Oxford

In March, One-ism and Two-ism made its way to Oxford in my suitcase. After the chaos of London traffic, I breathed in the beauty of Oxford in the Spring: Medieval and Elizabethan colleges, surrounded by twenty-foot-high walls; soaring chapels; stunning wood-paneled dining halls; perfectly mown grass quadrangles that produce a sense of scholarly solidity and peace; and, on High Street, high-fashion boutiques designed with exquisite modern taste. Some may consider “One-ism and Two-ism” to be simplistic, but they are only terms that reflect the same stark choice the apostle Paul describes: worship of the Creator or of the creation.

Read MoreIO 77: One-ism and Two-ism Goes To Oxford

Confronting Neopaganism in the Culture and the Church

Contrary to the expectations of sociologists, secularism has been in decline for forty years. What created this unexpected situation? Philosopher David Harvey believes he knows: "The moral crisis of our time is a crisis of Enlightenment thought." And the "assumptions of secular humanism” have been undermined by Postmodernism as it deconstructs every reasonable, objective grounds on which reason used to stand. Such deconstruction raises a serious question: where does Postmodernism lead our culture? Many now believe that grounds for existence can only be found in the irrational, in the age-old metanarrative of pantheistic One-ism. Christians initially treated the NEw Age as the latest, more or less harmless religious sect, which would go the way of the hula hoop. Instead, these changin' times have, in one generation, radically transformed how popular culture thinks about sexuality, the family, gender roles, marriage, abortion, pornography, American history, the dating of history, the names of national holidays, the use of the Constitution, free speech, globalism, education, environmentalism, psychology and religious unity. How did we get to this moment of One-ist triumph?

Read MoreConfronting Neopaganism in the Culture and the Church

Book Review by Peter Barnes of “One or Two”

Peter Jones, the director of truthXchange, has written a most incisive treatment and application of Romans 1. He considers, with good reason, that the two hottest issues today are Christian uniqueness and homosexuality. When we reject the revelation that God has given to all mankind, our theology is distorted (Rom.1:18-21), then our spirituality or worship (Rom.1:22-23), and finally our behaviour, especially our sexuality (Rom.1:24, 26-32). This does not make for pleasant reading, but it is no time for Christians to make-believe that all is well.

Review of Peter Jones, One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference (Escondido: Main Entry Editions, 2010). Published with permission.

Read MoreBook Review by Peter Barnes of “One or Two”

IO 75: Verbal Warming

We are not surprised to hear that political freedom in the world has declined for a fifth straight year, especially in the Middle East and in North Africa. But loss of freedom in the West does surprise us. Freedom has shrunk partly because of silencing "hate speech." Is the "climate of hate" warming or cooling here at home? No matter what the world says and no matter what consequences await us, we must speak the name and truth of Jesus for all to hear.

Read MoreIO 75: Verbal Warming