Worldview Evangelism

Don Carson analysed the sermon of Paul as recorded in Acts 17 where Paul addresses the members of the Areopagus. Looking at the passage of this address he does not go directly telling them about Christ but first laid a platform of basic knowledge and worldview. Then he built upon that recognising the people were religious and identified areas of common interest and belief before revealing to them Christ the Messiah.

1. He established that God is the creator.
2. He insisted that God is completely sovereign over everything and cannot be limited by man, cannot be contained in a temple or building.
3. He is self existent and everything else is dependent upon Him and does not need us.
4. Man is totally dependent upon God.
5. The origin of all mankind is from one man and that sin and death is the inherited problem.
6. Such creation of the world and man was perfect but is now flawed due to sin and the fall.
7. God is knowable and has revealed Himself to man and can have a personal relationship with us.
8. Identifies the sin of idolatry and the bad news of man and his own sin.
9. Outlined creation to the fall to the present and to the future coming judgment.

Once he has this groundwork set of where man is in relation to God - a biblical worldview - then he can proceed to telling them about Christ and affirming the resurrection of Christ.

For a good and extended commentary see this link to article (H.T. - Justin Taylor) and also to a major essay on same here.

(Source information from Telling the Truth - Evangelizing Postmoderns C.2000.)

Christian Taliban in Oz?

The recent Four Corners episode/documentary/expose on the Exclusive Brethen within Australia showed ex-members of the controlling sect telling their own stories of expulsion from the sect for not complying with their over zealous superior men.

This sect controls its members and rules out their watching any television, technology, radio and books and keeps their members separate from all outside.

Is it not ironic that they have their own website?

From the history of the sect led by power hungry and money hungry men there were reports by these victims of not only illegal activity but also the flagrant disobedience of Family Court rulings in relation to custody and access.

WARREN MCALPIN, EX-MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: "We are a higher court" is what they believe, and they refuse to obey the courts and refuse to obey the orders that were set down that I should have access.

They are not allowed to vote but they still try and influence political parties by some underhanded methods.

One responder to the Four Corners open forum regarded them as dangerous and compared them to a Christian Taliban enforcing their extreme views and rules upon its members.

They have their own exclusive schools and most members of the sects are employed by fellow members so if one decides to escape this sect be prepared to lose your job, lose your family, lose your friends and be shunned by them.

However, it was surprising that of the ex-members interviewed they retain a strong faith in God and have not abandoned Him when they have been abandoned themselves by those who purported to be God's people.

How is that people can get sucked into these types of sects? How gullible are they?

SELWYN WALLACE, EX-MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: These people claim to represent Christianity in its purest form, but you look at the history stretching back 30 or 40 years, and it's just carnage - broken families, broken lives. Children that don't know their parents. Brothers and sisters that haven't seen each other for 20, 30 years, and it's all over the world. And that's one reason why I'm speaking today. The carnage must stop. And if we don't speak out, the wheels of pain will just keep turning.

"I have never come across a more deceitful explanation of involvement in the political system than I have seen with the Exclusive Brethren," Senator Milne said.

Cardinal Pell, the Pope and Islam

Australian Catholic Cardinal George Pell has recently spoken out in support of the comments of the Pope that caused a lot of sabre rattling amongst aggreived members of the world Islamic community. The Islamic response to the comments go to show that the comments were valid and he also said "the pontiff did nothing wrong in making the speech, and says he does not rule out a link between Islam and violence."

Australia's Cardinal George Pell weighed into the debate, suggesting that violent responses to the Pope's September 12 lecture demonstrate the link "for the Islamists" between religion and violence.
The Koran: It is self-evident that some Koranic verses encourage violence. Consider for example a verse which implies that fighting is "good for you": "Fighting is prescribed upon you, and you dislike it. But it may happen that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you. And Allah knows and you know not." (2:216)

On the other hand, it is equally clear that there are peaceful verses as well, including the famous "no compulsion in religion" (2:256).

The New Testament takes a completely different approach.

Throughout the New Testament there is a systematic rejection of religious violence. The key to this is Jesus' message that his kingdom was spiritual and not political. Jesus explicitly and repeatedly condemns the use of force to achieve his goals: "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." (Matthew 26:52)

As Jesus goes to the cross, he renounces force, even at the cost of his own life: "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." (John 18:36) The Sermon on the Mount elaborates several aspects of Jesus' non-violent ethic.

Retribution was no longer acceptable (Matthew 5:38), enemies were to be loved, not hated (Matthew 5:43), the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and Jesus' disciples should rejoice when they are persecuted (Matthew 5:10).

While Benedict's comments on Islam and holy war may not have been "politically correct," said former Vatican diplomat John-Peter Pham, "today much of our dialogue is fruitless because we feel constrained from saying what we really think."

The source of the Islamic anger was a speech last week in which the pontiff cited a Medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

While the pope later said he was "deeply sorry" over the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions, top churchmen rushed to his defense.

"The violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict's main fears," said Australian Cardinal George Pell.

"They showed the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence," Pell said Monday.

Carindal Pell has not shrunk away from the media nor from contentious or potentially volatile comments and has previously been outspoken (5 May 2006) in relation to the connection between violence and reactions of muslims.

Having read the sacred text, Cardinal Pell then sets out what he discovered.The Koran, he says, is riddled with invocations to violence.
There are so many of these, he says, that after about 50, or 60, or 70 pages, he stopped taking notes.
He goes on to say that considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited.
And he points to the difficulty that scholars and commentators face when analysing the Koran, such as receiving death threats and violence when questioning the divine origin of the holy book.

Dr Pell said while he was grateful for the contributions of moderate Muslims, "evil acts done falsely in the name of Islam around the world need to be addressed, not swept under the carpet".

Dr Pell has repeatedly said Islam is more warlike than Christianity.

In June this year he told the National Catholic Reporter in the US: "It's difficult to find periods of tolerance in Islam."

Funeral for nun

The nun, Sister Leonella Sgorbati, who was murdered along with a bodyguard was remembered on Thursday in Kenya.

Amid speculation that the death of Sister Leonella Sgorbati might have been a result of anger at Pope Benedict's recent remarks on Islam, the pontiff sent a message urging mourners "not to be prisoners of religious or ethnic hatred" but to "take an example" from the nun's life.

"The [Somali] people love us, they want us. We know the risks, but we will go back soon to continue our work," Sister Gianna Irene Peano said during the funeral at a packed Catholic church in Nairobi.

She was then was buried in a graveyard at a village in the hills north of Nairobi, Kenya.

Is this your purpose in life?

The Moral High Ground

Further to this post re that now famous exposition and investigation from Zombie time there is now a removal of hi-res image from the International Red Cross website - all this in an attempt to keep the moral high ground. With thanks to lgf.

War Crimes

It is now just over a month since the cessation of official hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah and now Amnesty International has finally come out and commented on a bit of balance.

They initially condemned Israel with some selective investigative journalism but now have found out that Hizbullah launched almost 4000 rockets into northern Israel.

Photo courtesy and ©Amnesty International

Amnesty International's briefing includes evidence of:

* Hizbullah's firing of some 900 inherently inaccurate Katyusha rockets into urban areas in northern Israel in clear violation of the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets under international law;
* Hizbullah's use of modified Katyusha rockets packed with metal ball bearings, designed to inflict maximum death and injury; one such rocket killing eight railway workers;
* Statements from Hasan Nasrallah and other senior Hizbullah leaders that the group intended to target civilians as a form of reprisal, violating the prohibition on direct attacks on civilians as well as the prohibition on reprisals against the civilian population;
* The flight of civilians from northern Israel and the existence of shelters preventing a higher death toll than the 43 civilian fatalities recorded.

Directing attacks at civilians or civilian objects is a violation of international humanitarian law, and doing so with intent constitutes a war crime.

"The scale of Hizbullah's attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used, and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians, make it all too clear that Hizbullah violated the laws of war," said Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan, "In the conflict between Hizbullah and Israel, the suffering of civilians on both sides has been repeatedly ignored with those responsible escaping all accountability. Justice is urgently needed if respect for the rules of war is ever to be taken seriously -- and that means accountability for the perpetrators of war crimes and reparations for the victims,"

Pope and Peace

This incident is proof that Islam in no way resembles the out of context comments made recently by the Pope. The European Commission called for Pope Benedict's remarks not be "deliberately taken out of context".

Islam is a religion of peace and peace lovers so the natural response from such a peace loving religion is -

The killing came less than two days after a hardline Mogadishu cleric urged Muslims to "hunt down" and kill those who insult Islam following the pope's controversial remarks about the religion last week.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement, posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al Qaeda and other militant groups.

Bedri Hashi, an information officer for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), said the killing may have been an attempt by enemies of the Islamists to hurt their image, "I believe this attack was orchestrated by people who want to discredit the Islamic Courts,"

But then going on the history of the ICU this is all so totally believable.

11 More Things

I resemble that remark!

11 More Things That Will Make Everyone Dislike You
and Shipwreck Your Faith

1. When you share something and people think it is strange and don’t like it, call it conviction. When someone shares something you think is strange and don’t like, call it discernment.

2. Assume that someone’s lust/gluttony/cursing problem is worse than your unlovingness/unkindness/just generally being a jerk. God is willing to overlook your sin because you hand out tracts, the good kind.

3. If something bad is happening to someone else assume it is because of sin. If something bad is happening in your life assume it is spiritual attack or persecution.

4. If you ever disagree with anything someone says, make sure to write off the 90% of good stuff they are saying. After all, a little leaven leavens the whole loaf. I don’t care if their book did point out a bunch of stuff I needed to hear.

5. Use the word heretic all the time. Don’t worry about whether it is true or appropriate. People need to know you are serious. Get really mad at people that call you one.

6. Establish a million extra-biblical rules. Make sure that everyone serves Jesus out of fear and “responsibility” and never cheerfully with grateful heart. You may be robbing people of their joy, but they can suck it up.

7. Preach the Bible as completely inspired and authoritative, but make sure to never talk about the verses that people “abuse”. Verses like “my burden is easy, my yoke is light” and “learn from Me because I am gentle and humble of heart” turn people into slackers. Don’t even get me started on Jer. 29:11.

8. Always believe the person that speaks the loudest and with the most certainty about their views. Become this person.

9. Always preach about the sins your not involved in. That way you can be really ungracious about it and not feel like a total hypocrite.

10. Preach a standard even you can’t keep. Preaching a standard twice as hard as you actually want people to keep will produce the results you’re looking for. People typically compromise and will only come halfway. Don’t worry about the condemnation they feel for the other half.

11. Never let people see you aren’t as spiritual as you portray. Don’t let on that you are feeling sad/depressed/struggling with sin. This could cause people to stop esteeming what you have to say. You can suck it up and hold it together until Jesus comes.

Thanks to Michael.

de Jesus de Fake

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda (or more commonly referred to as Jesus Christ Man) is making a name for himself (and lots of money at the same time) and has big plans ".. for the role he believes he is destined to play on the world's stage. 'I will be president of the biggest government that this earth has experienced,' promised de Jesus."

Maybe he will achieve this because his followers believe all other religions must be destroyed from Catholics, to Baptists and Jehovahs Witnesses.

You thought you've heard it all - well listen to this guy! (here or below)




And thousands of gullible people just keep on falling for it. Well I don't and Rick Ross certainly hasn't.

Check this out and this for more of a background and a bit of history about this cult leader who first thought he was Paul, then the Other and now Jesus - a bit of an identity crisis.

Minister or Fleecer

As reported in the Telegraph on the 8 September 2006 Tony Craggs, church minister and thief of Charlesworth Congregational Church, Derbyshire was sentenced to 240 hours of community service after fleecing some his flock. Not since the days of Robin Hood has Nottingham Court seen such a bounder. Vulnerable and trusting people he was supposed to care for and pastor became his victims. It seems he was more interested in lining his own pockets. When the police searched his computer they came upon a file reading "A good conman takes a bit of the truth and lot of the lies and binds them together to pull the wool over the eyes of the ignorant."

Are there more 'pastors' out there doing the same thing albeit perhaps with a bit more subtlety?
(Like refusing to provide audited financial statements)

When will people be more discerning?

Maybe the metaphor of a pastor being a shepherd for his flock is because they are as dumb as sheep?

Purpose of the Bible

The editor in chief of Modern Reformation magazine, Michael Horton, wrote an article 'What are we looking for in the Bible' in 1996.

Ten years on it seems that a lot of people have ignored what he said. A lot of people today still view the Bible as a tool or guide or like a written life coach or a self improvement instruction manual especially when there are such books published like 'Your Best Life Now' by Joel Osteen.

However, is not the Bible so much deeper and more important than that? It is the revelation of the Grace of God in Christ.

"To preach the Bible as "the handbook for life," or as the answer to every question, rather than as the revelation of Christ, is to turn the Bible into an entirely different book. This is how the Pharisees approached Scripture, however, as we can see clearly from the questions they asked Jesus, all of them amounting to something akin to Trivial Pursuits: "What happens if a person divorces and remarries?" "Why do your disciples pick grain on the Sabbath?" "Who sinned--this man or his parents--that he was born blind?" For the Pharisees, the Scriptures were a source of trivia for life's dilemmas. To be sure, Scripture provides God-centered and divinely-revealed wisdom for life, but if this were its primary objective, Christianity would be a religion of self-improvement by following examples and exhortations, not a religion of the Cross."

Biblical Discernment

Dr Mac Brunson who is the pastor of FBC Jacksonville recently talked about the lack of discernment amongst and within the church and how we should re-identify this need and re-instate Biblical discernment.

He focused on three major points:

1. We have forgotten discernment because we have depreciated doctrine for shallow emotionalism. Neglect of theology results in loss of discernment.

2. We have forgotten discernment because we have abandoned the absolutes of God’s word for the approval of the world...the church has turned loose of what we should be holding on to (the absolutes of God’s Word) and is holding on to what we should be turning loose (the approval of the world).

3. We forget discernment when we become infatuated with influence and preoccupied with prestige. In our culture, we have confused image with substance. We have confused reputation with character. Many people in ministry are just looking for a crowd, but that was never the heartbeat of Jesus.

Blab it and Grab it

Time Magazine reports on the growing trend amongst churches (predominantly of the pentecostal persuasion) of the Prosperity Gospel. Commonly known as the Name and Claim it, Health and Wealth Gospel or the more colloquial Blab it and Grab it. These are some of the megachurches not only in the United States but also in Australia amongst the network of the Assemblies of God with the most notable being Hillsong and affiliated churches who also endorse such doctrine (You need more money authored by Hillsong pastor Brian Houston)

Prominent purveyors of this Prosperity Gospel or Prosperity Lite as it is now becoming known are the well known televangelists such as Hinn, Osteen, Meyer, Dollar et al who regularly travel the world in well paying speaking engagements promoting such doctrines.

"Who would want to get in on something where you're miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven?" asks Joyce Meyer, a popular television preacher and author often lumped in the Prosperity Lite camp. "I believe God wants to give us nice things."

However one does not have to sell out to this Lite Gospel to have a megachurch. Dr John MacArthur has a large church in Sun Valley, California and is totally opposed to such money hungry doctrines and preachers.

More important than numbers, programs, and structures, however, is the foundation for the spiritual life of Grace Community Church that has been built. This foundation includes sound doctrine, spiritual leadership, and active service. We are convinced that God's legacy of faithfulness to us will continue in the future if we remain faithful to Him and His Word.

The promotion of such 'doctrine' or 'theology' as Health/Wealth is dangerous as it is a step back towards aethism.

As Rev David Cook puts it very plainly - "[That]is the tragedy of Pentecostalism that people do not have a biblical contentment with their current experience of Christ and go looking for more and when the answer is given to them and they don’t find it there they think there’s nothing in this Christianity and they leave the faith and that is the great tragedy. We need to call on our brothers and sisters who are in Christ to get back to the Word because that’s where certainty alone is to be found."

Walking under water - only once

This Scottish tabloid newspaper seems to be the only source of this story of a man you would normally descirbe as having lost any perception of reality. So coming from a tabloid it must be believeable.

A PRIEST has died after trying to demonstrate how Jesus walked on water.

Evangelist preacher Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle.

But he drowned after walking out to sea from a beach in the capital Libreville in Gabon, west Africa.

One eyewitness said: "He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus.

"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat.

"He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."

So it naturally begs the question what was he thinking?

Why did he attempt such foolishness in the first place and try to trick his congregation into thinking he was more than just a mortal stupid man?

When he got half way in or even up to his shoulders in water why did he not realize that he was not walking on the water but in it and getting deeper?

Maybe this was his nomination for the Darwin Awards?

No coercion in Islam Take 2

The publicity surrounding her arrest - enhanced by widely distributed images of Leslie modelling clothes and lingerie, then accelerated by pictures of her in a burqa - and release after serving three months in jail, made Leslie a celebrity victim. Glaring holes in her claims are now apparent. According to Leslie, almost everyone involved is to blame, except herself. She said she was an innocent victim: "In life I have made many mistakes, you know? But this isn't one of them."

Ms Leslie, who was criticised for wearing traditional Muslim dress during her trial, said she never intended to offend the Islamic community.

"I am a Muslim and I do understand the significance of wearing the burqa," she said.

"I should have thought more carefully about wearing it in that situation and I apologise for any offence I have caused, it was an extreme situation."

Ms Leslie said she chose to wear the burqa because it was a "sign of public privacy and modesty".

Ms Leslie was back at work (modeling) recently and still no sign of the hijab.

So what happened to the conversion to Islam?

Surely there are many similarities between the two Fox journalists' gun point conversion to Islam only instead of a gun it was the fear of gaol time and exposure to other inmates.
Is this any different?

The coercion by force to Islam for gaining freedom rears its ugly head yet again. Get Religion has a good take on this and where the actual idea came from - Rev. Canon Andrew White an Anglican leader at the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East - shame, shame, shame.

Vale Crocodile Hunter

Sadness and grief grips a nation of admirers of a man who was so unashamed of himself and his passion for nature and wildlife. He will be missed by many but none more so than his wife and children.

Why is it that The Guardian in the UK would think to illicit any sort of a comment from Greer? What were they thinking? Don't they know any other ex-pats? Why would anyone pay her for any of the stupid, fallacious, dribbling piffle coming out of her vacant excuse of a cranium.

As a lot of commenters to her story have already stated

Shame on you Germaine, you have done a great disservice to his memory but a greater one to yourself. You were much more appealing when you were irrelevant, now you are just pathetic. Your article is so plainly uneducated, self indulgent and at best it is an off putting piece of tabloid gutter journalismGermaine Greer, what have you ever done for Australia except whinge, moan and complain about it on an international stage, and make us feel embarassed to share your nationality?

I'm far more proud to be Australian because of Steve Irwin, than because of Germaine Greer.

[I] fully agree with [..]and ..condemn the bitter and malicious article by Greer as reprehensible. She's completely wrong, it's a potty and twisted article from a woman who doesn't know the difference between a stunning bloke and a hippo- why on earth was she comissioned that article atall- no wait, she put herself forward. The silly bag's (apparently!) degenerated from 'opportunistic feminism' into slanging a gorgeous man she just plain can't have (even if the complete darling of a bloke has just died) and instead of demoting his work as intended, she shows up her own as worthless.

Greer seems so intent on bashing Irwin that she deludes herself into presupposing facts that aren't even in evidence. The best case of self-delusion is when Greer herself imagines what Irwin MIGHT have said (about the sting killing a horse) and then says "Yes, Steve, but a stingray...". Hang on - Greer is crucifying Irwin for something she herself has supposed him to say!

Patrick Barkham and Jono Coleman both had a much pleasing take at reportage of a great man as did Mark Bristow in his official obituary.

Wonder Lost

Ravi Zacharias has such a great way of explaining things :-

The older you get, the more it takes to fill your heart with wonder, and only God is big enough to do that...How do you find that wonder?..It is not in argument, nor is it in mere dogma. It is not even found in the church. There is a clue to meaning in our experience - that clue is in relationships. The centrepiece of history, ..is Christ Himself, and you will find unending wonder in a relationship with Him...The answer to the search for wonder is in a relationship with Christ. Jesus Christ went beyond fantasy: He pointed to the Truth.

No coercion in Islam

Back in 2003 Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf continually aims to update and adapt his religion. A cleric in the liberal Sufic (Muslim mystical) tradition, and co-founder with Faiz Khan of the American Sufic Muslim Association (ASMA) which was designed to foster an American expression of Islam based on tolerance and religious harmony within a pluralistic society.

Now we can have authoritarianism or totalitarianism in any context and in any belief system. And we have had in our history totalitarian expressions of Islamic rule. We've also had pluralistic expressions of Islamic rule. So totalitarianism is not a function of religion or theology, it's a function of human attitude and psychology. And what unfortunately exists in a number of Muslim countries today is a totalitarian regime.


What we need is a pluralistic regime. And that's perfectly consistent with Islam. And I would argue that a pluralistic idea is in fact what the Koran commands. Because God says in the Koran, 'there shall be no coercion in religion’. Had God willed he would have made you all believing in one faith tradition.
But this is part of the divine plan.

But now to more recent news showing how there is absolutely no coercion of religion within Islam.

Centanni described how the pair had been dragged from their car at gunpoint in Gaza City two weeks ago. They were blindfolded and had their hands tightly bound behind their backs. "That was just the beginning of our torment," he said
"Then they forced us to convert to Islam at gunpoint," said Centanni. "I have the highest respect for Islam and learned a lot of very good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had guns and we didn't know what the hell was going on."

A video with his fellow camerman was made and distributed prefaced by the notice that they were not forced into this alleged conversion to Islam.

Steve Centanni, 60, an American correspondent, and his freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, a New Zealander, were later released and dropped off by Palestinian security forces at a hotel in Gaza City. They were then driven to Israel.

They are obviously very pleased to be out of the clutches of their religion enforcing captors.

"I’m a little emotional because this is overwhelming, but I’m fine,” Centanni said. “I’m so happy to be freed.”

Suffice to say that the video produced under gun threat is the truth of the whole matter and that these kidnappers are following Islamic commands. So obviously they don't think that a gun threat is coercion. If not coercion - what is it?