Idolatry: From Start To Finish

God Delivers His People From Idolatry

by J. Virgil Dunbar

Before God sent His Son into the world to be the Saviour, He prepared a people who would not make images of Him. God revealed Jesus to this prepared people so that they could tell the world about Him. Why did God wait two thousand years until the time when His chosen people would not make images of His Son? Because for many centuries the world’s people made images of what they thought God was like. Soon there were many concepts of God. False images of God corrupted mankind. (See Romans 1:22-32.)

How did God prepare a people who would not make false images of Him? God’s battle with idolatry is an important theme of the Bible and of church history.

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The ‘inaccuracies’ in Chuck Swindoll’s ‘amazingly accurate’ Passion Movie

Charles [Chuck] Swindoll is President of Dallas Theological seminary. In his ‘Insight for Living’ letter dated 23 February 2004 [the copy I have was issued by his UK office in Bath] he ‘sings the praises’ of Mel Gibson’s movie ‘The Passion of The Christ’. Amongst the many accolades he heaps on the movie is this one – ‘Amazingly accurate’. Later in the letter he writes ‘We saw a vivid portrayal of what Jesus endured from the garden to the grave. And we saw how and where the tortuous treatment took place…Why would anyone submit to such mistreatment?…Unable to get that out of my mind and realising the importance for everyone who sees the film of having that question answered, I decided to sit down and put together a book…I deliberately kept it short (only eight chapters)…By going back to an earlier and more thorough work I’d written ‘The Darkness and The Dawn’ I was able to recreate some of the details of Jesus’ passion, as set forth in the gospel accounts. The truth of these events, seen vividly in the film and explained clearly in the book, will fill you with wonder’. So, all in all, Mr Swindoll conveys a clear impression of a vividly accurate film portrayal of what happened to the Lord ‘from the garden to the grave’.

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The Problem With ‘The Passion’

In Deuteronomy 4: 12 we read “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice”. Later in verses 15-16 and 23-24 we read “Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, male or female…Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God”.

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The Menace of the Religious Movie

by A.W. Tozer  (1897-1963)

When God gave to Moses the blueprint of the Tabernacle He was careful to include every detail; then, lest Moses should get the notion that he could improve on the original plan, God warned him solemnly, “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shown thee in the mount.” God, not Moses, was the architect. To decide the plan was the prerogative of the Deity. No one dare alter it so much as a hairbreadth.

The New Testament Church also is built after a pattern. Not the doctrines only but the methods are divinely given. The doctrines are expressly stated in so many words. Some of the methods followed by the early New Testament Church had been given by direct command; others were used by God’s specific approval, having obviously been commanded the apostles by the Spirit. The point is that when the New Testament canon was closed the blueprint for the age was complete. God has added nothing since that time.

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“The Passion of Christ”: Outreach For Antichrist

by Shaun Willcock

As the movie, The Passion of the Christ, spans the globe, filling theaters, filling the hearts and minds of millions with deception, and filling Mel Gibson’s pockets with filthy lucre, it is necessary for the watchmen on the walls of Zion to speak up, loudly and clearly, to stand against the tide of popular opinion and condemn this movie in the strongest possible terms.

Utter spiritual blindness lies upon the “Evangelical” world today. Such total blindness, that many churches have reserved the entire movie theatre for themselves, and some have even held services in the movie theatre after the movie was screened!

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Estimating the Passion of the Christ

by Robert M. Zins

ISA 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

With these words Isaiah, the Prophet of Israel, predicts the sufferings of the Messiah of Israel. With these words Isaiah predicts the Atonement of Jesus Christ the Son of God and Son of Man. With these words Isaiah predicts the death of death in the death of Jesus Christ the glorious savior of mankind and bearer of the penalty due to the sins of His people.

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‘Evangelical Catholic’ suggestions for Belfast ‘Passion Café’ rejected

Several years ago as part of an attempt to maximize the publicity-potential of the deceptive and ecumenical ‘gospel’ charade known as ‘Power to Change’, a café was manned for about 7 months in the centre of Belfast by, I have no doubt, some well-intentioned but sadly misguided professing believers.

This group are currently planning, in their terms, to ‘ride the wave’ of the publicity that will be generated by the screening in Belfast of the Mel Gibson movie ‘The Passion of The Christ’ by manning a ‘Café Passionate’ close to where the movie will be screened. What was somewhat disturbing, about what may well be promoted as an ‘evangelical’ initiative, was that important aspects of the format were initially ‘checked out’ in a hope that Roman Catholic involvement would be both possible and encouraged.

One of the committee for the café submitted documents and planned training procedures to Eugene Boyle of the so-called Evangelical Catholic Initiative to see if he could identify any problems from a Roman Catholic perspective that would hinder Roman Catholic involvement. Eugene Boyle’s reply makes very interesting reading – here are some extracts –

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News From The Front – March 2004

Dear praying friends,

Another year is well under way and as I write this letter many topics have already been addressed and my faithful Internet webmaster has been working overtime in posting a wide range of articles to the ministry web site. Many of these articles do appear in NEWS FROM THE FRONT or as enclosures as in this case with ‘Earning The Right’ by Willie Cowan. I would ask for specific prayer for the ministry web site that the Lord will continue to use it to warn, inform and help people. Just this morning I received an email, which said,

‘I am glad to see you have a very active ministry. It is good for us in the USA to realise we did not invent evangelism. It seems you have a VERY full and diverse ministry. I hope if you are ever on the west coast you will give me fair warning. I live near Seattle. God bless your work. It is the work of evangelists and faithful Christians that showed me the Jesus in the Scripture after years of being in bondage to Watchtower teachings and thought. Today was my first day of teaching Sunday School and I feel so blessed that I escaped from where I was to find Jesus and now am able to share that with others in diverse ways. I hope you will keep my mum JD in your prayers; she is still a Jehovah’s Witness. In Christ’s love C

It is both encouraging and yet humbling to receive messages such as this – please pray for C in her service for the Master and pray also for the salvation of her mum JD.

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Mel Gibson’s Movie – ‘The Passion’ Some thoughts

In the run up to the release of this movie by Mel Gibson – ‘The Passion’ – I have received a number of inquiries asking for my views on it and to date I have not prepared an in-depth reply but in the wake of this very helpful article by Richard Bennett and Virgil Dunbar I would just like to quote a few extracts from some of the replies I sent to the inquiries I received –

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The abuse by ALF McCREARY

On a number of occasions I have challenged the publicly expressed views of ALF McCREARY who is the religious affairs correspondent of the Belfast Telegraph. By his own public admission he is an ordained Elder within the Irish Presbyterian Church although how in conscience he can maintain that in view of the regular conflict between the views expressed in his writings and the truths contained in his Supreme and Subordinate Standards of faith, namely The Bible and The Westminster Confession of Faith is to say the least ‘baffling’.

At this time of the year the 21 Presbyteries of the Irish Presbyterian Church vote to elect a new Moderator who then takes up his year of office in June each year. Last year was a very close vote with 11 Presbyteries voting for Rev Ivan McKay and 10 Presbyteries voting for Rev Ken Newell. Rev McKay would be identified with the ‘evangelical and non-ecumenical’ strand within Irish Presbyterianism whereas Rev Newell would be in the forefront of the ‘liberal and ecumenical’ strand.

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