Those that deny ‘penal substitution’ are “the enemies of the cross of Christ”

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Over recent years there has been a steady build up of opposition to and outright rejection of what some term as ‘the theory’ of ‘penal substitution’. Amongst the definitions for ‘theory’ is one that reads – ‘a conjectural view or idea’. When it comes then to understanding what was happening on “the cross of Christ” for the faithful Christian the doctrine of ‘penal substitution’ is not a matter of ‘conjecture’ but it is the factual and glorious heartbeat that sustains God’s gift of “eternal life” [Romans 6:23]. ‘Penal substitution’ is a factual divine truth that leaps from the pages of the Bible and to deny otherwise is quite simply to set oneself up as an ‘enemy of the cross of Christ’.

To begin with I want to quote a few lines from my own personal testimony that for years has been posted to our ministry web site –

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Mr Obama, will you be stopping for tea, if you visit Pakistan?

Since his inauguration as President of the United States of America, Barack Obama has made serious efforts to ingratiate himself even further with groups that would be very antagonistic towards Christian attitudes that are based on the teachings of Holy Scripture. Two such groups would be the‘pro-abortion’ lobby and the ‘gay marriage’ lobby.

In relation to ‘abortion’ the article on this link http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=96454 documents the distressing details of the first 100 days of Mr Obama being in The White House.

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In Cairo President Obama betrayed Jesus Christ when he claimed to be a Christian

On Radio Ulster’s ‘Sunday Sequence’ programme on Sunday morning, 7^th June 2009, there was an item analysing the speech delivered by President Barack Obama at Cairo University on the previous Thursday, 4^th June 2009. What was interesting was that the guests who were interviewed by presenter, William Crawley basically represented Jewish and Palestinian opinion – there was no Christian analytical input into the programme. As a result the programme focussed very much on the possible political ramifications of the speech for the Middle East area and Israel in particular. I want in this article to look at some of the spiritual ramifications of this speech, particularly as they impact upon the line in the speech when Barack Obama declared, “I am a Christian”. To do this I’m going to pose some questions, then look at some specific extracts of this speech by Mr Obama, this self-proclaimed “Christian”, comment upon these extracts and show how such comments do represent a betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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News From The Front – June 2009

Dear praying friends,

I mentioned in my last newsletter how the BBC was ‘singing the praises’ of Charles Darwin and his [still] theory of Evolution. I happened to catch coverage of a March debate in the House of Lords the aim of which was also to extol the praises and merits of Darwin and Evolution. One Lord Harries of Pentregarth, the former Anglican Bishop of Oxford, took the opportunity to magnify the supposed scientific basis of Evolution in contrast to those misguided Christians who still believe in Creation as outlined in God’s Word. Back in my June 2002 newsletter I quoted the following about this then Bishop – Dr Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford said on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day ‘It is therefore quite extraordinary that 140 years later, after so much evidence has accumulated, a school in Gateshead is opposing evolutionary theory on alleged biblical grounds. Do some people really think that the worldwide scientific community is engaged in a massive conspiracy to hoodwink the rest of us’? The reality is that he is being used by a certain malevolent source to hoodwink people. Paul refers to him and his ilk in 2nd Corinthians 11:13-14 “such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”. Evolution has also been a ‘godsend’ to outright atheists – see page 3. Meantime let us all, as we are given opportunity, take our stand for our Creator God.

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Mark Driscoll’s deviant teachings and MANDATE 2010

On 16th January 2009 I posted an article to our website entitled ‘Mark Driscoll’s approach to preaching’ and it can be viewed on this link

Mark Driscoll’s approach to preaching

It had not been my intention to return so soon to this topic but as it has been announced on Mark Driscoll’s church website that he has been lined up as the guest speaker for the 2010 MANDATE (men’s) conference in Belfast from 13th-15th November 2010.

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‘Synagogues of Satan’?

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Green Belt 2008: Spring Harvest 2009: Summer Madness 2009

Whilst 3 different ‘Christian’ festivals are listed in the title to this article, the article itself will for the most part concentrate on the upcoming Spring Harvest 2009 festival scheduled for 4^th – 19^th April 2009. I will be focussing on the ramifications of their willingness to include a certain individual amongst their invited speakers and this ‘invited speaker’ is actually the common thread linking in the other 2 ‘Christian’ festivals, Green Belt 2008 and Summer Madness 2009 to this article.

Before proceeding any further I want to give some insight into the main heading for this article – ‘Synagogues of Satan’? The Lord Himself used this expression when He wrote to the Church in Smyrna. He was referring to a group of people in that area who clearly claimed to be God’s people but He said of them that they were “the synagogue of Satan” [Revelation 2:9]. They were a group that rejected both the Divine Person and the Redeeming Work of Jesus Christ.

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Phil Johnson speaks on ‘Suitable language for the pulpit’

In the recently posted article ‘Mark Driscoll’s deviant teachings and MANDATE 2010’ I finished it by including a quote from a talk given by Phil Johnson at the ‘Shepherd’s Conference’ that was held earlier this month at Pastor John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church where Phil serves as an elder.

The subject matter of this talk is very relevant to the plans for the annual men-only MANDATE 2010 conference to be held in Belfast because of the choice of speaker – Mark Driscoll from Seattle.

Phil Johnson’s talk can be listened to by going to this link and clicking on mp3

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopupvideo.asp?SID=328091910172

I commend this message to all as Phil Johnson seeks to inject some Biblical sanity and sanitisation into the very high calling from God of preaching His Word in the pulpit.

Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 11th March 2009

Todd Bentley remarries and re-launches

Last year as a ministry we spent much time and energy reporting on and exposing the fraudulent so called ‘Miracle Healing Crusades’ conducted by Todd Bentley in Lakeland in Florida and I don’t plan to revisit those God-dishonouring events in this article – a search of our website and those of other faithful watchmen ministries will yield all the information necessary to discover the devilish nature of events in Lakeland. The ‘Miracle Healing Crusade’ came to a shuddering halt when it was discovered that Todd Bentley had ‘entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff’ – at least that’s how the board of Mr Bentley’s then ‘Fresh Fire Ministries’ initially put out the story – subsequent revelations showed how very wide of the mark this first statement was.

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News From The Front – March 2009

Dear praying friends,

For most of the past year large swathes of the world have been engulfed by what has come to be known as the ‘credit crunch’. Supposedly prosperous nations in Asia, Australasia, Western Europe, the British Isles and North America have been brought financially to their knees. Some of these in times past would have been viewed as bastions of Christianity but they have been found to be not only virtually financially bankrupt but also to be spiritually bankrupt. In Deuteronomy 8:19-20 God issued a warning to His people as they were making their way to the Promised Land – “And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish…because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God”. The finances of many nations have been destroyed by corruption in high places – and so it has also been with their spiritual resources – they too have been corrupted. Much of this newsletter brings to light some sources of such present-day and popular corruption. May God be pleased to give His people discernment to preserve and prosper a faithful spiritual heritage amongst the nations that will bring true glory to Him, for that surely is one genuine biblical purpose that God has for His redeemed people.

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Churchill and Islam

For a secular newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph published quite a remarkable article in its edition of Friday 20th February 2009. This link will take you to the article

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/why-we-need-a-new-churchill-to-stand-against-islamic-extremists-14197276.html

and there you can also read various comments submitted by readers of the article.

I am also now going to reproduce the text of the article just in case for any reason at a future date it might be removed from the newspaper’s website.

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