Shanktified!

The personal thoughts, opinions and typos of Ron Shank

Faith

Hippo Eats Dwarf (I secretly wanted it to be true)

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So I get this email today titled “Hippo Eats Dwarf!” and the attached “news clipping” so it has to be true, right?  Wrong.

First the evidence.

Hippo Eats Dwarf

 

Looks legit. However, it just feels like a hoax. They sent the trampoline off to be tested?? Better ask ma-Google.

Well, not only is it a hoax, it’s the title of a book about hoaxes.

Oh well. I’m glad the little guy never died. I’m also glad this wasn’t a YouTube video. But, as cruel as a death as it might have been, I secretly wanted it to be true.  I’ve always said, when my time comes, I hope it’s part of an amazing story — like being swallowed whole by a hippo.  How do you want to die?  What do you think happens when you do? Let me know in the comments.

 

 

The Attitude of a Calvinist

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I’ve been tossed into 2 (or maybe 3) conversations this week alone about Calvinism, God’s sovereignty and other closely related subjects. It’s so difficult to have this conversation in a few minutes when it took me months to come to the point I am now.  But in dealing with any objections, I am reminded of these quotes from Charles Simeon:

Many there are who cannot see these truths [the doctrines of God’s sovereignty], who yet are in a state truly pleasing to God; yea many, at whose feet the best of us may be glad to be found in heaven. It is a great evil, when these doctrines are made a ground of separation one from another, and when the advocates of different systems anathematize each other. . . . In reference to truths which are involved in so much obscurity as those which relate to the sovereignty of God mutual kindness and concession are far better than vehement argumentation and uncharitable discussion (Horae Homileticae, Vol. 15, p. 357).

And look at this transcript of his conversation with John Wesley.

Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?

Yes, I do indeed.

And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

Yes, solely through Christ.

But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?

No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?

No.

What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother’s arms?

Yes, altogether.

And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree. (Moule, 79f)   (Source: Brothers, We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library.)

So You Got a Message from an Angel?

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J. Lee Grady gives some good advice for folks ready to proclaim the message they got from “an angel of light”:

When I look at what the New Testament teaches us about angels, and specifically what the book of Acts shows us about them, here’s what I find:

  • Angels who looked like men told the early disciples that Jesus would return one day (see Acts 1:11)
  • Angels are actively working behind the scenes to minister to the saints, especially to offer protection (see Acts 12:7-11)
  • In one case an angel directed Philip where to preach (see Acts 8:26)
  • Angels sometimes appeared in visions to give instructions, as one did for Cornelius (see Acts 10:3,7,22)
  • An angel came to Paul to strengthen him and to assure him that he would preach to Caesar (see Acts 27:23-24).

If we look at Paul’s epistles, we find only a few references to angels—and most are actually warnings to the early church about a wrong emphasis on angels:

  • Paul warned the Galatians that false angels can bring deception (see Gal. 1:8)
  • Paul warned the Corinthians about “angels of light” that are messengers of Satan (see 2 Cor. 11:14)
  • Paul warned the Colossians about misguided people who worship angels and deceive people with their emphasis on mystical experiences that are rooted in their hyperinflated egos (see Col. 2:18).

Continue reading “Fire In My Bones”.

The Fall of Todd Bentley

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J. Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma magazine, wrote this (and more)…

Though America needs true revival, any leaders who wholeheartedly endorsed Bentley promoted heresy rather than revival, according to Grady.

“Godly leaders are supposed to protect the sheep from heresy,” he wrote, “not spoon feed deception to them. Only God knows how far this poison traveled from Lakeland to take root elsewhere. May God forgive us for allowing His Word to be so flippantly contaminated.”

Charisma publisher Stephen Strang also took aim in a column at Bentley and those who supported him. Strang said the charismatic leaders to whom Bentley submitted himself in an accountability relationship — John Arnott, Ché Ahn and Bill Johnson — “should have seen it coming.” He listed several indications that Bentley’s ministry was not of God.

“Anyone who is in services 4 to 6 hours a day, 7 days a week for weeks on end is bound to have some type of breakdown,” Strang wrote. “Anyone who covers himself with tattoos while in the ministry raises questions about his stability.

“Anyone who talks about the ‘Angel of the Healing Revival’ that ministered to A.A. Allen and William Branham must have overlooked the fact that Allen and Branham both were discredited with moral shortcomings. Anyone who baptizes people in the name of the Father, the Son ‘and BAM’ is playing lightly with the Holy Spirit and is bordering on blasphemy.”

More of this must read is at Townhall.com

Is Barak Obama a Christian?

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Dr. Gary Cass (Christian Anti-Defamation Commission) wrote a great article detailing why Obama’s faith is not Christian.

In a recent article about Obama’s faith, Newsweek reports that Obama reiterated his position that he is a “Christian” who rejects the idea that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Obama throws Christ under his campaign bus as he denies Christ is the only Savior of the World.

“It is a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ, but I am also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on Earth,” Newsweeks reports that Obama said. “I’ve said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell. My particular set of beliefs may not be perfectly consistent with the beliefs of other Christians.”

Obama rightly understands his faith is questionable and not Christian. That’s why he says his faith raises questions. But his faith is not only inconsistent with other Christians, it is inconsistent with Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Why would you say you are a Christian then denounce the teachings of Christ and the founders of the Christian Church? While it is very troubling to consider that anyone, especially a family member, might be in Hell, what really matters is what God has revealed, not what Obama wants to be true.

Below are a few examples from the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles that prove salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone.

Click here for those examples and the rest of the article.