Donatists Alive and Well

According to CNN, the Catholic church in Brazil has apparently forgotten a hard earned lesson of orthodoxy - Donatism.

I covered this heresy over a year ago. Donatus believed that the effectiveness of sacraments was tied to the individuals performing them. The orthodox position is that it is God who is effective for everything in our lives.

Apparently, some things get forgotten after 1700 years:

"It said couples married by Santos must now seek a 'legitimate priest' to renew their vows."

Heresy Challenge

I am thankful to have both EWTN (Catholic) and TBN (evangelical) available on TV. It gives me a chance to find something edifying on TV.

Of course, it also requires a lot of discernment.

Sometimes, I like to play a little game I call "The Heresy Challenge".

The rules are kind of fast and loose. Is it based on which teaching is most contradictory to the Bible? or closest? Is the winner doing better or worse? Which makes it a lot of fun!

Yesterday, I turned on TBN at 7 pm (Way of the Master, season 3, oh yea!). Sadly, they were having a fundraiser...

They were using a passage from Kings (I forget where), to say that if you sent in $1000, God would give you whatever you want!

Ok, so, I figured, "we have a winner!" Then flipped it over...

On EWTN, a man was calmly explaining "this is why it is possible for you to lose your salvation"...

AHHHH!!

How does that guy sleep at night, knowing that in the morning he might not be saved, only to have a heart attack during breakfast and go directly to Hell. Wow.

Hard to pick a winner...

New Books

I have been selected to receive books for review by Thomas Nelson! I am looking forward to my first book!

This will be very good, as I am running out of solid books at the library (although, there is a near limitless supply of heretics and apostates!).

Gospel in Two

Continuing the exploration of compact transmissions of the Gospel...

For a two word Gospel, I would say: "Repent! Trust!"

Again, this is straight from the Bible (Mark 1:15):

"And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."

The Greek word translated "believe" is πιστευετε (pisteuo). This is better translated "trust".

It is when we turn from sin and turn to God (repent) and trust in the atoning death of Jesus that we are saved.

The Tricks of Satan

Last episode, we saw that when Satan quotes the Bible, he often twists the meaning, or leaves out bits.

This should not surprise us, as Peter says:

"they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:16b)

The Greek word translated "wrest" is στρεβλουσιν (strebloo). It has the notion of "turning" or "twisting", as of one being tortured on a rack.

This is an incredible metaphor! It says that people will "torture" God's Word until it gives the false confession they are seeking. We see this today, in the modern prosperity Gospel, among others.

The end of the verse tells us what to make of this. The end result of twisting Scripture is destruction.

Gospel in One

It has been very helpful for me to formalize and continually reprocess the Gospel message. This allows me to rapidly respond to questions people have, and to give a quick and concise message for any situation.

It this spirit, I am going to consider Gospel messages in limited formats. For example, what would you say given a limit of, say, one word!

This one is actually easy, because I pull it straight from the Bible:

"Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn [yourselves] from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations." (Ezekiel 14:6)

"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2, that's John the Baptist)

"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)

Vision

I looked up, Behold! A mountain of skulls. Each skull was small, just one inch cube (about 2 cm).

The pile increased by eight hundred thousand per year, for one generation (twenty years).

The pile was a pyramid, square at the base - the length, width and height were equal.

800,000 x 20 x 2^3 = 1/3 b^3 = 726.85 cm

The pyramid was almost sixteen cubits along each side (almost twenty-four feet), and the same high.