Showing posts with label BRYAN FISCHER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BRYAN FISCHER. Show all posts

Friday, January 27, 2017

How Seeker-Friendly Churches Hurt America - BRYAN FISCHER AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION

The church needs to speak the plain truth. (David/Flickr/CC)

How Seeker-Friendly Churches Hurt America

BRYAN FISCHER/AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION   charisma news
Many churches in America, sadly including many mega-churches, pride themselves on being "seeker-friendly," by which they mean they are not judgmental and mean like those angry fundamentalists. Carrie Underwood famously supports same-sex marriage and attends a church whose pastor has so blurred the edges on the issue of homosexuality that his parishioners are likely confused about whether God is concerned about the issue at all. 
Such seeker-friendly churches typically try to appeal to the unchurched by giving short shrift to the hard sayings in the Scriptures and the firm, fixed, and unalterable moral standards found there. This is because they fear seekers will find them too harsh, too difficult and too out of phase with contemporary culture. Because such controversial truths might run seekers off, it's best to avoid them entirely and talk endlessly and exclusively about how nice, kind and understanding God is. 
And so, as G.K. Chesterton observed, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." 
Now there is nothing wrong with being friendly toward those who are seeking the truth. Of course, we want to have open hearts to all, and patiently explain the truths of Christianity to all who have a sincere desire to find out more about God. But patiently explaining the hard truths of Scripture to seekers is much different than avoiding them altogether or so twisting them that they are explained away. 
It's one thing for a man to be a friend of sinners, but it's another for him to be such a friend of sinners that he becomes an enemy of God by betraying His Word. Such a "friend" of sinners may only be paving their way to a Christless eternity. 
Now seeker-friendly churches assure us they will eventually get around to introducing fresh converts to the edgier truths of Scripture. But my question has always been, "When?" When exactly will you do this? Will it be in a main service where the bulk of seekers are? Or will it be in a small, little-publicized setting which minimizes the risk of too many people hearing it, as if these were truths that are too embarrassing for civilized society? Or will it happen at all? 
Jesus was the most seeker-friendly evangelist who ever walked the earth. His whole mission was to "seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10b). And yet there were times when His teaching was so hard for the average seeker to stomach that the crowds began deserting Him in droves. 
When He began urging His followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood and declared that He alone was "the bread which came down from heaven" (John 6:58), they did not respond by saying "Where can I sign up?" "When they heard this, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? ... From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him" (John 6:6066). 
Things got so bad that Jesus even wondered about the Twelve. "Do you also want to go away?" (John 6:67). Peter's response suggests they were thinking about it, but finally resolved to stay. "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). 
This, of course, is not to say we should be disagreeable or deliberately try to run people off. But it is to say that fidelity to the Word is more important than church growth. 
When Paul met with the Ephesian elders, he reminded them twice that he had declared to them the full revelation of God, even those parts that were hard for him to preach and hard for them to hear. "I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable ... I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:2027, ESV). 
The fact that Paul said twice he did not shrink back indicates that he had to think about it and was tempted to do it. There was risk of blow-back involved, and Paul was as human as anyone else. He had to make a deliberate decision to take a deep breath and teach things he knew would be controversial, even to leaders in the church of Christ, let alone to outsiders and to seekers. 
The word translated "shrink" (Greek hupostello) literally means to "withhold under or out of sight." Yeah, it's there, and we have to keep it in stock, but we're going to keep it under the counter where nobody will see it and we're gonna hope we don't have to bring it out and actually show it to anyone. 
But Paul steeled himself to teach not only the pleasant things of God's counsel but its difficult and challenging parts, too. Why? Because the hard parts are "profitable," just like the fun parts. Truth-hungry people benefit from hearing them and conversely are deprived of something important and valuable by not hearing them. 
There are many, many "hard sayings" in the Word of God, beginning, of course, with the quite exclusive declaration of Scripture that Christ and Christ alone is the way to God and eternal life. But that's just for openers. 
There is the plain assertion that the world did not evolve but that God created it in six 24-hour days around 6,000 years ago. The plain truth that homosexual behavior is not OK but deviates from God's design for sexual conduct and brings God's judgment on any society that embraces it. The plain truth that marriage is exclusively the union of a man and a woman and that any other arrangement is counterfeit and should never be embraced in culture or in law. The plain truth that man is not naturally good, as the world wants us to believe, but born with a propensity to sin. 
The plain truth that there are two and only two genders, not 58 as Facebook wants us to believe. The plain truth that men and women are not interchangeable but have distinctly different roles to play in marriage, family and the church. (You want a hard saying? I give you, "I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man" [1 Timothy 2:12a]. How many sermons have you heard on that, unless it's to explain it all away?) 
The plain truth that homosexual behavior will keep a man out of the kingdom of God as surely as any other sin. The plain truth that unrepentant sin in a believer's life at some point must meet up with church discipline, as Jesus himself taught us (see Matt. 18:15-20). 
The cost to American culture from this kind of weakness and timidity is enormous. As Martin Luther King Jr. observed, the church is the conscience of America. Its pulpits are to "flame with righteousness," as a quote attributed to de Tocqueville has it. 
When America's pastors no longer have the courage of their convictions, America begins to drift from its moorings. It loses its moral center. Its conscience becomes dull. The American people, including their politicians, can no longer tell right from wrong because they aren't being told the difference by those who are entrusted with the oracles of God. 
A gyrocompass is an amazing device used in ships and airplanes because no matter where it's put, it always enables the pilot to find the horizon and identify truth north, especially in rough weather. The Word of God is our cultural and spiritual gyrocompass. It's time for America's pastors to steer by it once again. 
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Monday, October 24, 2016

This is the Only Thing You need to Know Before the Election - BRYAN FISCHER/AMERICAN FAMILY RADIO

(Reuters photo)



This is the Only Thing You need to Know Before the Election

Wednesday's night's debate between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was enormously clarifying for voters. Regardless of the position you take on abortion, you found out all you need to know to cast an intelligent vote. 
For those who believe in the dismembering of unborn babies in the womb, Hillary Clinton is the obvious choice. Ms. Clinton made it clear that she still unapologetically supports partial birth abortion, a monstrous procedure in which a baby is partially delivered before the abortionist punches a hole in her skull and sucks out her brains before crushing the skull and yanking her lifeless body out of the womb. If that's your cup of tea, Hillary is your girl. 
Mr. Trump, on the other hand, called that procedure "unacceptable" and pledged again to only nominate to the Supreme Court judges who believe in the sanctity of life, judges who are prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the abortion issue to the states where it properly and constitutionally belongs. 
(In addition, Mr. Trump has also pledged to sign legislation which will defund Planned Parenthood, make the Hyde Amendment permanent federal law, and ban abortions after 20 weeks.) 
The first of our organic laws is the Declaration of Independence. It unambiguously and emphatically declares that we are created beings (not evolved ones) and that there is a Creator (with a capital "C") who is the source of every single one of our fundamental human and civil rights. 
These rights are "unalienable," which simply means that no earthly agency has the moral authority to take them away from us. The first of these inseparable rights is the right to life. It is the most fundamental of the three fundamental rights listed in the Declaration, for without life there is no liberty to enjoy and no happiness to pursue. 
The Founders enshrined in our very first legal document, the document that brought the United States into being (no Declaration, no United States) the principle that all life is precious since it comes from God, and that the purpose of government is to "secure" that right. The purpose of government is not to grant us rights but to secure the rights already given to us by God. 
So the first sacred duty of the American government is to guarantee and protect the right to life. That is its fundamental, foundational, indispensable moral and legal obligation. Since the right to life comes from God and not from government, no government at any level, or any federal agency, including the Supreme Court, is at liberty to tamper with it. 
It is impossible for a judge at any level, especially at the Supreme Court level, to fulfill his sacred oath of office without a firm, fixed, and unwavering allegiance to this paramount principle. If a judge doesn't get the life issue right, he's not going to get anything else of significance right. 
It should be a given that any prospective Supreme Court justice affirm that there is a Creator and that the Creator insists that the fundamental rights to life, liberty, and property must be protected by government at all levels. If a judge doesn't have a conviction of that sort, he's not qualified to be a judge in traffic court let alone sit on the highest bench in the land. 
The Constitution, the second of our most fundamental organic laws and the supreme law of the land, affirms this. Twice, in the 5th and 14th Amendments, it flatly declares that no one - no one - can be deprived of his right to life without due process of law. That is, before government can authorize the taking of a human life, that individual must be charged with a crime, face his accusers in open court, have access to counsel, and receive a trial by a jury of his peers. Not a single one of these fundamental civil rights is granted to an unborn baby. His life is mercilessly snuffed out through abortion without anyone to advocate on his behalf. 
He is voiceless and helpless, the very definition of the kind of human being government has a sacred duty to protect. Donald Trump understands that. Hillary Clinton does not. 
Every other issue pales into insignificance next to this one, including immigration, the threat of Islam, the economy, and foreign policy. It supersedes even the character issue. Both candidates are of inexcusably low moral character. But one believes in the sanctity of life and the other one does not. One of these two people is going to be setting policy on the life issue for the next four years and well beyond. The Supreme Court justices our next president puts on the bench will be issuing opinions on the life issue long after the next president has vacated the Oval Office. This is almost certainly the last chance we will have to see that the Court becomes a constitutional and life-affirming one. 
The choice we face on November 8 has now come down to a simple, binary choice between life and death. It is a choice between a candidate who is pro-life and a candidate who is pro-death, between a candidate who supports the butchering of babies just inches from birth and a candidate who believes unborn babies must be protected rather than dismembered. It is a choice between pagan barbarism and civilization, between savagery and life, and between medieval darkness and light. Let us pray God we choose wisely.
Bryan Fischer is the host of the two-hour weekday "Focal Point" program on American Family Radio.
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Monday, September 19, 2016

Donald Trump's Pro-Life Pledge is 'Yuge!' - BRYAN FISCHER/AMERICAN FAMILY RADIO CHARISMA NEWS

Donald Trump

Donald Trump's recent pro-life pledge was a defining moment of the 2016 presidential race. (Reuters photo)

Donald Trump's Pro-Life Pledge is 'Yuge!'
BRYAN FISCHER/AMERICAN FAMILY RADIO  CHARISMA NEWS
Voters who have wondered where Donald Trump stands on the abortion issue need wonder no longer.
Trump today made perhaps the most pronounced pro-life move a presidential nominee has ever made by declaring a specific pro-life platform for his presidency and putting a prominent and unapologetic pro-life leader in charge of his pro-life coalition.
The level of specificity in his presidential pro-life agenda is virtually unheard of. Most candidates try to play it safe by trotting out pro-life bromides and hoping that will satisfy social conservatives.
Not Trump, not this time. Here are the specific things he pledges to do if elected president:
  • Nominate pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • Sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide.
  • Defund Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions; and reallocate their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive healthcare for women.
  • Make the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions.
This is a spectacular list. He pledges to make the sanctity of life a qualifying issue for any potential Supreme Court nominee, which is as it should be. The Founders identified the "right to life" in the Declaration as an unalienable right granted to every human being by the Creator. The Constitution itself reaffirms the right to life explicitly in both the 5th and 14th Amendments.
The United States was founded on the premise that this right is the very first of the rights God has given to man. No human agency or authority has a right to deprive another human being, including the pre-born, of this right since it is a gift from God.
It is not just a human and civil right, it is a legal and constitutional right. A judge who does not recognize the right to life is unfit by definition to serve on any judicial bench anywhere in the United States at any level at any time.
Trump also pledges to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, defund Planned Parenthood (which currently gets $534 million every year in crony socialist subsidies), and permanently ban taxpayer-funded abortions.
How do we know this is more than empty rhetoric? By his appointment of Marjorie Dannenfelser to head up his pro-life coalition, Trump has put a name and a face to his pro-life commitment. Ms. Dannenfelser, as the head of the Susan B. Anthony List, has faithfully fought the good fight to protect innocent life for over two decades, and she has fought it well.
Naming her to head up his pro-life effort is like dropping a live grenade into the pro-choice crowd. They will freak. They will fume and foam at the mouth. They will return withering fire. It will be Armageddon.
Trump is smart enough to know the firestorm his appointment of Dannenfelser will create. It is surely a reassuring sign to pro-lifers that he is undeterred and determined to forge ahead through the flames.
This platform headed by this chairwoman leaves absolutely no doubt that voters will have a clear-cut choice on November 8 between the pro-death extremism of Hillary Clinton and the pro-life commitment of Donald Trump. Voters who have said there is no fundamental difference between the two candidates cannot say that any longer.
There are defining and clarifying moments in every presidential campaign. This is that moment for 2016. The die has been cast, the colors are clear, and the choice is plain.
Bryan Fischer is host of the two-hour weekday "Focal Point" program on American Family Radio.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

America Is Dying One Weak-Willed Governor at a Time - BRYAN FISCHER/AMERICAN FAMILY RADIO CHARISMA NEWS

LGBT Celebration

America Is Dying One Weak-Willed Governor at a Time

(Reuters photo)

According to the Founders, government has been established, not to give us rights, but to secure the unalienable rights given to us by God. 
Among these rights are religious liberty. In fact, according to the First Amendment, the free exercise of religion is the very first right government is pledged to guarantee and protect. 
Somebody needs to send a copy of that amendment to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican and self-identified Southern Baptist, who evidently has forgotten all about it. In so doing, he has vetoed away what is left of religious liberty in the Peach State. 
Gov. Deal is the poster child for how we are losing America: one cowardly governor at a time. One after another, we have seen supposedly principled governors cravenly cave to the bullies and bigots of Big Gay. The Gay Gestapo has claimed another victim in Gov. Deal and every freedom loving Georgian will pay the price. 
Gov. Deal has vetoed a religious liberty bill that is about as mild a bill as you can imagine. It would have protected pastors from being forced to perform same-sex weddings, and churches and other faith-based organizations from being forced to rent out their facilities for wedding ceremonies which celebrate the infamous crime against nature.
Thus Gov. Deal is now on record declaring to one and all that he doesn't mind if a Southern Baptist pastor is compelled by government to officiate a gay wedding or get punished in the process. He's just fine with a church or a Christian school being ordered by government to rent its facility for a gay wedding or to a homosexual activist group, or else. 
In other words, Gov. Deal, as Indiana Gov. Mike Pence did before him, has abandoned any pretext of protecting Christians from discrimination in his state. As one lawmaker bluntly put it, "It's open season on people of faith" in Georgia. 
The bill had been virtually eviscerated before it even got to the governor's desk. Even if the governor had signed it, it would have provided no protection at all for Christian vendors who exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to the free exercise of religion in the way they run their businesses. Christian bakers, florists, photographers, T-shirt makers and so forth are now officially left high and dry in Georgia, abandoned by the very official who has taken an oath before God to protect them. 
About all that was left in the bill was protection for what pastors and churches and faith-based organizations do inside the four walls of their own buildings. Now even that protection has vanished like a whiff of smoke and the governor has left them without a shred of legal protection. 
The governor piously claimed, "I do not respond well to insults or threats," and then vetoed the bill after Coca-Cola, Netflix, Apple, Time Warner, Marriott, Walt Disney and the NFL rattled their sabers.
The governor is right. He does not respond well to insults and threats. He folded like a cheap accordion at a Lawrence Welk concert. 
As Todd Starnes put it, he "was more interested in protecting the Almighty Dollar than he was protecting followers of the Almighty." 
If you want a three-word Snapchat to explain why we are losing America and why the Republican Party is being abandoned in droves by people of principle, here it is: Governor Nathan Deal.
Bryan Fischer is the host of the two-hour weekday radio program "Focal Point" on American Family Radio.
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