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rized by John MacArthur is an old edition of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments of these latter and perilous days (1563), the book which first printed the story of William Tyndale, translator of the English Bible and mar-tyred in 1536. Tyndale’s enemy, Thomas More, complained of him that he was ‘both nowhere and everywhere’: ‘nowhere’ because few knew his actual location; …
What was the first epoch of danger thrust upon the church?
The first and most prominent epoch of danger thrust upon the church began in the fourth century—sacramentalism . This began with the development of the Holy Roman Empire and Constantine, which blossomed into the Roman Cath-olic system of salvation by ritual. The church became a surrogate Christ—that is, people were connected to the church and to the system rather than to Christ through a personal relationship with Him. Sacramentalism became the enemy of the true gospel, the enemy of grace and faith, and led to the persecution and exe-cution of true believers. It was not until the Reformation in the sixteenth century that sacramentalism began to weaken.
What was the second epoch of danger?
Not long after the Reformation came the second epoch of danger— rationalism . As people came out of the Reformation and entered the Renais-sance and Industrial Revolution, they broke away from the monolithic institu-tion of Roman Catholicism and got their own identity back and began to think for themselves. They began to discover, invent, and develop things and feel their freedom. They began to worship their own minds, and human reason became god. Thomas Paine wrote The Age of Rea-son, in which he debunked the Bible and armed that the human mind is god, and the Bible became a slave to rational-ism . Rationalists assaulted Scripture and denied its miracles, its inspiration, the deity of Christ, and the gospel of grace—all in the name of scholarship and human reason.
What was the fifth epoch?
Ecumenism was the fifth dangerous epoch, and it erupted during the 1950s. Everyone was talking about unity and setting aside dogma to prevent divisions over doctrinal issues. This produced sentimentalism, and along came a new hermeneutic for interpreting Scripture called “the Jesus Ethic.” Jesus was defined as a nice guy who would have never said anything harsh, so the proponents of ecumenism took judgment and retribu-tion out of the Bible. Evil was tolerated and doctrine was disdained, which led to a lack of discernment.
What is the eighth epoch of the Church?
Mysticism was the eighth epoch, developing in the 1990s and permitting people to believe in whatever they wanted. Concurrently, pragmatism allowed peo-ple to define ministry. The church was said to exist to serve people. A minister determined his plan of ministry by dis-tributing a survey to find out what peo-ple wanted. Truth became the servant of what works. Expository preaching was viewed as a pony-express method of deliv-ery in a computer age to a lot of folks who did not want it in the first place. The key to effective ministry was said to be image or style rather than content.
What does John MacArthur teach us?
In the process, John teaches us much needed lessons in biblical discernment.
Who is John MacArthur?
John MacArthur is the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and president of the Master’s College and Seminary. He can be heard on the Grace to You radio program, which broadcasts daily around the world on nearly 2,000 stations in English and Spanish.
What does Colton tell his father about Jesus?
. .”) But Colton immediately changes the subject, and no further explanation is ever given. The only hint we get about what is in Colton’s mind comes more than twenty pages later, when he tells his father that Jesus “shoots down power” from heaven while Todd Burpo is preaching.
When was Heaven for Real published?
Introduction 15 An article in the New York Times Magazine chronicled the book’s success: “Heaven Is for Real” was published in late 2010, became a word-ofmouth best seller and has spent 59 (nonconsecutive) weeks as the No. 1 nonfiction paperback on The New York Times’s best-seller list.
Is Heavenly Hash 25 a Christian book?
There have been others as well, and together they have established afterlife travel journals as a whole new. Heavenly Hash 25 genre in Christian publishing —a genre that is selling like hotcakes, or Amish fiction, for that.1. Actually, books like those have been a staple in secular publishing since the 1970s .
Do the authors of these stories agree with one another?
After all, they are claiming a superior understanding of the afterlife—gained not from Scripture but from visions, phantasms, out-of-body travel, and other occult means. They don’t always agree with one another in the key details, however.
What does MacArthur believe?
Despite his personal acquaintances with many godly Charismatics ( 15, 291 ), MacArthur sincerely believes that Charismatics hold to dan- gerous, and perhaps even heretical doctrines ( 43, 292). His charges are familiar to anyone knowledgeable with the Fundamentalist-Charismatic debate.
Does MacArthur's error invalidate the Lord's Supper?
First, MacArthur needs to be reminded that errors in practice do not invalidate the practice. Charismatic abuses of the gifts do not nullify them any more than Catholic error concerning the Lord's Supper invalidates the Supper.
What is the first chapter of MacArthur's criticism of the Charismatics?
MacArthur aims his criticisms at the foundations of Charismatic/Pen- tecostal theology. As can be expected, MacArthur fires the first volley at the role of religious experience (chapter 1). MacArthur contends that Charismatics have exalted personal experience over the more valid au- thority, biblical revelation.
What is the second criticism of Charismatics?
His second main criticism of Charismatics lies in their failure to believe that the power gifts ended with the death of the Apostles (chapters 2, 5, 9 ). Like other Cessationists, MacArthur believes that God has stopped giving further revelation and healing.
What does MacArthur's book attack?
His book primarily attacks the activities of many popular and fringe ministers, programs, and books. By not rejoining against Charismatic theologians, MacArthur has, in effect, attacked a straw-man of his own making.
Do Pentecostals do a disservice to the cause of Christ?
Pentecostals do a disservice to the cause of Christ when they neglect to call their brethren aside to account for their position (Gal. 2:1 lff). The embarrassments in recent years should underscore the need for Pentecostals to judge themselves before God. Otherwise God will permit the world to judge.