Anders Behring Breivik was NOT a Christian

Why We Can't Recommend Dr. Robert Morey

Note:  Though some of what Dr. Robert Morey has written over the years has been profitable and helpful, Shepherd's Fellowship has always had to recommend some of his material with reservation because he has made many off the wall comments both in print and in his audio presentations.  However, we can no longer recommend his material whatsoever due to the following information. Below is written and audio documentation that Dr. Robert Morey advocates dropping a nuclear bomb on the Kaba/Mecca:

THE ACHILLES HEEL OF ISLAM

The path to Paradise, according to the Five Pillars of Islam, involves the city of Mecca and its stone temple called the Kabah.  Muslims pray toward Mecca five times a day.  What if Mecca didn't exist anymore?

They must make a pilgrimage to Mecca and engage in an alaborate set of rituals centered around the Kabah once they arrive.  What if Mecca and the Kabah were only blackened holes in the ground? 

What if Medina, the burial place of Muhammad, was wiped off the face of the planet?

What if the Dome Mosque on the Temple site in Jerusalem was blown up?

The great weakness of Islam is that it is hopelessly tied to sacred cities and buildings.  If these cities and buildings were destroyed, Islam would die within a generation as it would be apparent to all that its god could not protect the three holiest sites in Islam.

The Sword Held Over Their Heads

With American ships stationed around Arabia and troops on the ground within Saudi Arabia itself, it would take about seven minutes for cruise missles to take out Mecca and Medina.  These cities could be vaporized in minutes and there is nothing that the Saudis or any other Muslim country could do to stop us.  The Israelis could take out the Dome Mosque at the same time.  It could happen so fast that no one would have the time to respond.  With these surgical strikes, few lives would be lost.  And, with three strikes against them, Islam is out!

The Threat

The US government and its allies must agree that this is the final solution to the Muslim problem.  We must tell all terrorist groups that the next time they destroy the lives and property of Americans at home or abroad, we will destroy Mecca, Medina and Dome Mosque.  They will be responsible for destroying the three most holy sites in Islam and bringing the religion to its knees.  We must tell all the Muslim countries that are presently supporting and harboring terrorists that if they do not cease and desist at once, we will destroy the heart of their religion.  Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Islamic World would, for the first time in their bloody history of oppression and tyranny, have to give civil rights and human rights to women and non-Islamic religions.  They would have to allow their people to decide for themselves what religion, if any, they want in their lives.  The 'religious police' would be disbanded.  All Islamic laws would have to give way to the UN declaration on human rights, civil rights, women's rights and freedom of religion.  Once Muslim governments took their foot off the neck of their people, millions of Muslims would convert to Christianity as they have had enough of oppression and violence from their Imams and Mullahs.  [Robert A. Morey, Winning the War Against Radical Islam, (Las Vegas, NV:  Christian Scholars Press, 2002), 168-170.]

For audio documentation, listen to the "Tough Love" speech by Dr. Robert Morey on YouTube starting @ 22:00 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmimg1wli5o&feature=channel_video_title

If the U.S. military wants to drop a nuclear warhead on Mecca, then that's their business.  However, advocating such things has no place in the ethical instruction of a Christian theologian as it directly contradicts Christs command in Matthew 5:44-45,

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

IN CONCLUSION, it is our assessment that Dr. Robert Morey is a certified "loose cannon" and we can no longer recommend his material as we cannot trust what crazy, unbiblical nonsense he's going to say next.  It is the Christian's responsibility to test all things and hold fast to that which is true (1 Thess. 5:21) and preach the gospel, knowing that our lives may have to give way to our enemies so that they can be granted eternal life as they hear the gospel from our dying, persecuted lips.

NCT ThinkTank 2011 Conference Videos

This past week I had the pleasure of attending my first New Covenant Theology ThinkTank in Canandaigua Lake, NY at LeTourneau Christian Camp.  This was hands-down, the best conference I've ever been to.  The reasons were as follows:

1.  Like-minded fellowship with people who obviously love Jesus.

2.  Excellent theology.

3.  Built into the NCT ThinkTank is a willingness to allow for the presenters views to be openly examined and respectfully critiqued by the other conference participants in light of Scripture.  This promotes further refining of our views so that they conform to Scripture. 

Our meeting was held from July 25-28, and we covered a variety of topics related to coming to a further understanding of biblical theology through the hermeneutic of the New Covenant – Jesus Christ our Lord, following the redemptive-historical view of Scripture.

Listed below are the links to each of the sessions on video. Manuscripts will be added later after each presenter refines their papers for publishing.  Some papers may be more detailed than the presentations.

The Earth Stove Society will be publishing an extensive reading list that encompasses the whole range of our think tank topics over the past few years.  Contrary to some, NCT is rooted in good scholarly study as demonstrated in the following presentations.  Many authors have contributed to the ideas of a solid biblical theology, although in the overall, they may not be what might be labeled as “NCT”. But, in those pages are foundational elements of a true biblical theology, in the historic-redemptive approach which is Christ centered and God glorifying. There will be references to books, commentaries, journals, articles and web site content.  Some of the references will be annotated.

Session 1 John “Jack” Jeffery
Severino Pancaro: The Law in the Fourth Gospel – The Metamorphosis of “Nomistic Termini” and The Law in the Fourth Gospel – The Transferal of Symbols for the Law to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel.

Session 2 John Jack Jeffery
Carl F. H. Henry, “The Holy Spirit and Christian Ethics”.

Session 3 Dustin Segers
NCT and Apologetics

Session 4 Joseph Krygier
God’s Glorious Mission – Toward a Biblical Theology view of Mission(s)  Rooted in the Attributes of God

Session 5 Ed Trefzger
Apart from us they should not be made perfect: A  survey of views on Church and Israel (including a surprising NCT view)

Session 6 Ed Trefzger
Apart from us they should not b perfect  – my thoughts on an NCT-informed view of OT/NT saints and the Church.

Session 7 Chad Bresson
The Incarnation of the Abstract: New Covenant Theology and the Enfleshment of the Law

Session 8 Dustin Segers
NCT and Social Justice – Is the Tim Keller model biblical?

Session 9 Shane Becker and Joseph Krygier
God’s Glorious Mission – Toward a Biblical Theology view of Mission(s) looking at The People on Mission

Session 10 John Dunn 
A Look at OT parallels, couplets, and typology of the redemptive historical theme from the Garden through the Nation of Israel

Session 11 Moe Bergeron
The Promise and the Necessity of The Spirit

HT:  Earth Stove Society

Evangelism Memory Verses - Beginner's Version

Note:  For all those dear saints at Shepherd's Fellowship who labor with us in reaching Greensboro with the glorious gospel, what follows is a list of memory verses designed to help you become a better tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit in evangelism.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – The unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 5:27-28 – Whoever looks at another person with lust commits adultery in their heart.

Luke 16:15 – Self-justification before men; that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

Romans 2:5-6 – Unrepentant sinners storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath.

Romans 3:10-12 – There are no good people.  No one seeks after the true God.

Romans 3:20, 23, 6:23 – Nobody is justified by keeping law because nobody can match up to its standard of perfection.  The eventual payment for sins is physical and spiritual death, but eternal life is found in Jesus Christ alone.

Romans 3:28; 4:4-5, Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6 – We’re saved by faith alone apart from works.

Colossians 1:20-22 – Jesus died on the cross to bear the punishment of sinners.

Matthew 12:36 – People will give an account for every careless word on judgment day.

John 3:36 – The wrath of God abides on those who do not believe in the Son of God.

Luke 13:3 – Jesus said that if you don’t repent, you’ll perish.

John 3:16 – God has a general love for all, but eternal life is granted only to those who believe.

John 14:6 – Jesus is the only way to get to God (an exclusive truth claim).

John 14:21 – The one who loves Jesus strives to keep His commandments.

1 John 1:8-9 – If you say you haven’t sinned you’re a liar.  If you confess them to God, you’ll be forgiven through Christ.

Acts 17:30-31 – God commands all people everywhere to repent because He’s going to judge the world by Jesus Christ, whom He raised from the dead.

Acts 4:12 – Salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone and no other religious leader.

Isaiah 53:5-6 – Jesus bore the wrath due to sinners on the cross (He paid the fine they couldn’t pay).

Luke 18:13-14 – A genuine prayer of repentance.

What about the Ten Commandments? The Ten Commandments are the summary of the covenant document given specifically to the nation of Israel (Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13).  Christians aren’t under the Mosaic Law, but are under the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:20-21; 2 Cor. 3; Gal. 6:2; Heb. 8:13).  Nine of the Ten Commandments are brought over into the New Covenant and have become part of the law of Christ (cf. Matt. 5:21-22; 27-28; 31-32; 44-45; John 13:34; Eph. 5:1-5; Rom. 7:7-9; 13:8-10; Eph 6:1-4; 1 Tim. 1:8-10).  The only exception is the Fourth Commandment or the Sabbath, which was fulfilled in Jesus as our Sabbath rest (cf. Acts 15:28-29; Rom. 14:5-6a; Gal. 4:21-31; Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 4:1-10).  Thus, don’t take a lost person to Exodus 20 to show them their sin; take them to Christ’s law.   

Questions for Torah Keepers

The following video was posted in response to some friends who teach that New Covenant believers must keep the portions of the Old Covenant Law of Moses that pertain to food laws (Lev. 11), festivals, and Sabbaths (Lev. 19:3). 

The Importance of New Covenant Theology

INTRODUCTION:  The following post is a response to a dear individual that is very confused about how the Old Covenant Law of Moses relates to the New Covenant believer.  He posted a video in his Google+ account from a cult known as 119 Ministries that boldly proclaims on their website,

It is our position at 119 Ministries that nothing in the Word has been abolished.

By this, they mean that Christians are obligated to keep the food laws, Sabbaths, and feasts that are listed in the Law of Moses.  To substantiate this, they frequently appeal to 2 Timothy 3:16 and Matthew 5:17-18.  I will deal with 2 Tim. 3:16 below, so let's now consider Matthew 5:18,

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)

Since this is one of the major passages the heretics use to build their case, I will discuss it carefully. Here's the question we need to ask:  

When is everything accomplished? (Matthew 5:18)

Option #1 – At the 2nd Coming.

This option says that the entire Mosaic Law, the law of the Old Covenant, continues until the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. This option cannot be true if Scripture can be quoted in context that states that Mosaic Law has been changed or abolished in the New Covenant era. Ephesians 2:14-16, Galatians 3:25, Hebrews 7:12, Galatians 4:21-31. Scripture cannot contradict itself therefore Matthew 5:18 must mean something else.

• The Ten Commandments are said to be a ministry of death and condemnation in the new covenant era (2 Corinthians 3).
• The Mosaic Law is said to be abolished because it would not allow for a new version of the people of God in the New Covenant era that was not distinctively Jewish (Ephesians 2:14-18).
• There is said to be a change in the Mosaic Law in the New Covenant era since the Mosaic law would not allow for a new priesthood in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:11-12).

Option #2 – The Cross and Pentecost

This option says that Jesus Christ by his death on the cross and with the coming of Pentecost has brought to an end the Old Covenant era and has accomplished all that the Old Covenant had revealed in picture form by ushering in the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13).

• The New Covenant is the fulfillment of Abrahamic Covenant. The Old Covenant produced a physical people of God, Israel, and they were given a physical land, Palestine, but this was not the true fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 15, Galatians 3:17-25, Galatians 3:15-18, Hebrews 4:1-11).
• The New Covenant is the fulfillment of what was pictured in the Old Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13).

The second interpretive option of Matthew 5:18 is the only acceptable option a believer can hold to if they want to remain orthodox and not contradict clear passages in context elsewhere in the New Testament.

As a result of studying heretical material, this young man is very confused about the relationship believers living under the New Covenant in Christ have to the law of Moses.  He believes that Christians need to keep the Old Covenant dietary laws of Leviticus 11.  This issue is easily answered by a clear understanding of the relationship between the Old Covenants (Mosaic Law) and the New Covenant in Christ; i.e., New Covenant Theology. What follows is my brief response to him.  I post it here to show the importance of having a correct understanding of how the Bible fits together and the ramifications poor theology can have on the life of a New Covenant believer.

The Response

Hi XXXX,

I realize you may have already developed strong convictions in this area, but to teach that the Old Covenant food laws are still required for New Covenant believers is not only moving the clock of progressive revelation backwards but contrary to what this man says in the video above, it is damnable just as 1st Timothy 4:4 teaches. This is because such a move seeks to put a yoke upon the shoulders of a Christian that God never intended for a New Covenant believer to bear. But before I go any further, consider the following:

Jesus abolished all of the Old Covenant food laws when he declared all foods clean with the coming of the New Covenant era,

And He said to them, 'Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? (Thus He declared all foods clean.)" Mark 7:18-19

The same God that originally gave the holy, righteous, and godly food laws of Leviticus 11 is the same God that abrogated them and used a divinely sent vision concerning their abrogation to prepare Peter's heart to give the gospel to the Gentiles,

But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.  Acts 10:10-15

The entire Old Covenant law with its 613 commands has been completely abolished with the coming of the New because it was a ministry of death, engraved in stone (i.e., the decalogue),

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.  2 Corinthians 3:2-11

The entire Old Covenant (i.e., the Mosaic Law) has become obsolete with the coming of the New Covenant,

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. A New Covenant 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH; 9 NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD. 10 “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. 11 “AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM [c]THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. 12 “FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” 13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

2 Tim. 3:16 doesn't mean that all Scripture is directly applicable to us now but that all Scripture is profitable in some way. To say that the Old Covenant is directly applicable to us now contradicts many clear New Testament passages in context. But what's worse than that is this: where do we draw the line? If we say that the Mosaic food laws are still binding upon Christians, why not the laws about planting mixed vegetables in my garden, wearing polyester shirts, or trimming the edges of my beard?  (Lev. 19:19, 27) Shall we tell our Christian friend that he's in sin because he has a mixed garden in his backyard and is clean shaven? If the food laws still apply what about those laws? Why not, and how would you know? Or how about God's commands to kill Israel's enemies under the Old Covenant? After all, I'm a spiritual child of Abraham by virtue of faith in Christ (Gal. 3:29), so why not be consistent with the Old Covenant law and slay those who are God's avowed enemies of the gospel instead of praying for them and preaching to them? 

The point I'm making is that when we dip into the law of Moses to get our laws for today, we cannot arbitrarily pick and choose which laws we want to grab and bring with us into the New Covenant era and which ones we want to skip over because with the law of Moses, its all or nothing. If you're going to keep part of it, you're going to have to keep the whole thing, just like Paul said when dealing with the issue of circumcision (Gal. 5:3). This is because if we dip into the very law that has been abolished to get our ethic for today, we have moved the redemptive clock backwards and are in danger of preaching the same legalistic false gospel that the Judaizers preached in Galatia if we preach that keeping the Law of Moses is required for Christians. Therefore, this is a very serious issue because it's not just dealing with food, it's making implications that relate to what era Christians are in and what commands they are obligated to follow to be pleasing to their Lord.

2 Tim. 3:16 means that all Scripture teaches us something about God and that in some way it is useful for teaching, rebuking, etc. However, we know from clear New Covenant passages in context (such as those above) that we cannot rebuke a man for eating a hot dog in the New Covenant era because Jesus has repealed those laws and what was sin under the Old Covenant is holy under the New.

If this man is teaching that it is always sinful to consume unclean foods under the New Covenant era then he is teaching the very thing that Paul warned against which are doctrines of demons.

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." Colossians 2:16-17

For a Biblical alternative, I'd recommend viewing the following series on New Covenant Theology by A. Blake White: http://www.youtube.com/user/ablakew

The following New Covenant Theology website is excellent as well with plenty of audios and articles dealing with the issue of which law believers are under: http://www.ids.org/

Works are a Product of Regeneration!

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.  (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Very briefly, Paul gives a generic testimony for every born again disciple of Christ. The first seven verses should sound very familiar to your own conversion experience. We were dead and walked in accordance with Satan, while not even fully understanding what we were doing. In case you’ve ever thought of that as being incredible, think about it this way. The enemy is identified as the father of lies, and the most effective deceiver. Therefore, the realization of our previously unregenerate state should make something very clear to us: The state of unbelief is the universal height of deception. It should not come as a surprise to us that the most hardened of unregenerate people profess that they do not believe in Satan’s very existence. This is appropriate; after all, what better place to begin an assault if you are the world’s greatest deceiver?

Now after this dark introduction, God is given His due credit for the greatest act of love and rescue against the greatest form of Satan’s deception and hatred. (Read verses 4-7). While under full control of the enemy, God doesn’t simply give us a hand and show us the direction He wants us to go. His first action taken in this passage is to make us alive. His love fuels the grace that makes us alive. And God goes further to say that He makes us alive so that He might raise and seat us with Him in order to show us the riches of His grace in kindness toward us. All of these glorious truths are tagged with the phrases “in Christ” and “with Christ” because these acts toward us are forever based on the merit and righteousness of God in the flesh.  Amen!

Then in verses 8-10, Paul gives us perhaps the clearest explanation of the relationship between salvation and works. Works do not produce salvation, but salvation does produce works. Remember that God not only chose us for Himself before the foundation of the world, but He also prepared our works for us that we may simply walk in them. 

How do works relate to regeneration by grace through faith?

"Works are to salvation, what thunder is to lightning, an inevitable result. Just as thunder does not generate lightning, our good deeds will not generate salvation. But on the other hand, just as you can't have lightning without the following thunderclap, you can't experience the transformation of salvation without a change in your attitudes and behaviors. And those changes are a gradual process called sanctification, that can be likened to an endurance race. The apostle Paul often compared the Christian life to a long race, as did the author of the book of Hebrews.” -- Steve Kreloff, Pastor of Lakeside Community Chapel in FL

As a final thought, as we encourage each other in service and good works, let us remember that God is the one who is at work, and we are merely mouthpieces. Just as we cannot bring about salvation by earthly power, Ephesians 2:10 reminds us that God has prepared every act of worship that we will ever give Him. We need to consider this carefully before we act on our personal expectations. Let’s serve the body of Christ with patience and kindness, just as Christ serves us by giving us His strength and power to serve Him back to His glory as the Ultimate Servant.

Deacon Jones

Pray for Your Deacons

We provide a Deacon Minute each Lord’s Day to encourage you from God’s Word to serve the body and to keep you informed of service opportunities in the body.  Over the last two weeks you have heard two deacon minutes that deal with two very different areas of service. I would ask to see who remembered what those areas of service were, but this is a deacon MINUTE, so I will remind you, just in case, you have forgotten.

Larry spoke last week about praying for our elders, specifically Pastor Dustin, as he is active in evangelism on the streets of Greensboro, and Jeremy asked us to consider how we behave when we are being served. I have been challenged by both of these men and thank them for the time they put into preparation.

So I ask you, did either of these topics cause you to reconsider your behavior or did you hear what was said and then go out and continue to behave as you have? All too often, I hear God Word brought to bear on my life, I feel ashamed at my behavior, I want to change, and then due to the cares of this world, I fall back into my old sinful way of doing things. Praise the Lord, He often reminds me, by the work of the Holy Spirit of this failure and empowers me to change, often times bringing to mind the things that I have been taught, through the preaching of the Word, personal Bible Study or a challenge from another brother.

I hope when a deacon gets up here each week to encourage you, that you are eager to hear from God’s Word. I would ask you to consider praying for your deacons that we will be true to God’s Word as we speak and as we serve? There are currently four (4) serving deacons and now two (2) deacon candidates. There are six (6) men that you will begin to hear from on a rotating basis. Each of us have different abilities and weaknesses. Some of us find it easy to stand and speak, others find it more difficult. Greg and Andrew will start soon, and they are brand new. Ken is coming off of his sabbatical, as it appears his brain is healing well. Will you pray for the six of us? Will you pray that God will use each of us, work through us, and make us true servants; serving the needs of the body, organizing the service to the body and each week exhorting the body to serve while providing necessary information regarding that service? Thank you!

As many of you know through email, Emily will be packing up and moving out this Thursday. Please contact Larry or Greg if you can help. Also, thank you to the two individuals who have offered to serve by continuing the work of preparing the bulletin each week.

In a few minutes, I will read Matthew 14, and we will each be reminded of the account of Peter walking on the water with Jesus. We can ridicule Peter for his lack of faith or marvel that he was willing to step out in the first place, but we will all agree, that none of it was possible with out the power of Jesus at work, controlling nature and circumstances to bring about this miracle. Are we willing to be used by Christ to accomplish his will?

Philippians 2 reminds us of God’s plan for our lives. Verse 13 says, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” God’s desire is to use us, empowered by His Spirit to do His good pleasure. I am excited when I see God working through His people and accomplishing His Will, I ray that each of us will eagerly submit to His Will.

Deacon Wilson

An Apologetic for Family Devotions

INTRODUCTION:  I am continually reminded of two things as I stand outside an abortion clinic twice monthly to preach the gospel:  (1) God is totally sovereign in salvation.  (2) I wonder how many of these abortive parents and clinic workers had parents that regularly taught and actually lived out the Bible in from of them?

I am a firm believer in sovereign, monergistic regeneration.  I wouldn’t be standing in this place if I didn’t believe that.  I firmly believe that I can’t save anybody and I can’t change anybody’s mind and that basic presupposition is basis upon which I do all my ministry work.  When I stand to preach in pulpits and on street corners I often ask myself the same question that God asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” and of course I always answer myself “O Lord GOD, You know.” (Ezek. 37:3)  Thankfully, the God who ordains the end is the same God that ordains the means to the end and it is those means that He uses to rescue men from their own self-imposed slavery to sin. 

Sometimes, when standing outside of that abortion clinic, cars will roll in with Jesus fish on their windows and Christian stickers on their bumpers, blasting praise and worship music while I’m trying to appeal to these same people to repent and believe the gospel. 

And when I see these things I am reminded of the fact that a blatant contradiction like that can exist because our culture has traded in God’s truth and its application to all areas of life for a mess of worldly pottage known as secular humanism.  Setting the issue of salvation aside for the moment, I have often wondered how many lives would have been saved had those abortive parents been reared in Christian homes with parents that regularly taught them the Bible and lived it out before them through Scripture memorization, catechism work, and regularly spoke to them concerning the glorious things of the gospel when they spent time with their wives and kids.  I have often considered what kind of positive, sin-hindering effect sound Biblical teaching to families would have on the culture. 

Examining the Problems

But what do most professing Christians do?  Husbands and fathers abdicate their responsibility to care for the spiritual needs of their wives, and both parents usually spend time doing what they want to do and if their children are being “discipled”, they leave it up to an immature youth group worker that acts, dresses, talks, and lives pretty much like the world.  Parents also give up their responsibility to know their own faith and propagate it in their own homes, churches, and communities.  The result of failing at family and church discipleship can have disastrous consequences, two of which are (1) the proliferation of false gospels, unbiblical evangelism, and false converts, and (2) promoting of what I call the “passive male syndrome”. 

PROBLEM # 1:  False Gospels and Unbiblical Evangelism produces False Converts

When I evangelize college students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro I hear things like this from professing Christian college students: 

• Dude, I’ve been there done that.  I already prayed the prayer when I was 14.  I’m all good.
• I became a Christian when I was baptized at age 8.
• I’m gay and I love Jesus. 
• I love God and Jesus but I think all religions get you to God.

On June 13, 2011, Tim Challies posted an article titled I Am Not Alarmed[1] where he discusses his reasons for why he thinks so many teens leave churches after High School.  He quotes Barna's statistics:

In September of 2006 George Barna released what must be among his most influential studies. Following interviews with more than 22,000 adults and 2,000 teenagers from across America, he revealed that the majority of twentysomethings who are raised as Christians subsequently abandon the faith. The study found that “most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years—and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood.

Then Lifeway statistics:

Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23.

Another study from Church Communication Networks revealed,

. . . that up to 94 percent of Christian teens leave the church within a few years of leaving high school.

Tim then says that he is skeptical of these statistics because,

Looking at the evangelical landscape in the United States (where these studies were performed) and in Canada, I see that the majority of children, and probably the vast majority of children, are raised in churches where what they hear is a false gospel or a gospel that has been emptied of all that makes it the power of God for salvation. We should not be at all surprised that children abandon this kind of a counterfeit gospel as soon as they are able to. I would do the same.

 

The Real Problem:  No Exposure to the Biblical Gospel

I think Tim is spot on.  I think the stats are woefully inaccurate.  Here's why:  I have interviewed hundreds if not thousands of these so-called "former Christians" and “professing Christians” on a local university campus and on the street and few of them have ever been able to give me a decent explanation of what the gospel is.  Moreover, when I explain the true gospel to many of them, they look at me as if I am describing another religion that came from the planet Zorch.  Of course, from their perspective, I am.  This is because for most formerly churched and church attending college kids, Biblical religion is a religion they have never been exposed to.  Instead, some have been immersed into Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a religion whose "god" is nothing more than a divine butler that meets all of your sinful, wandering desires as long as you measure up to what our trendy society deems a "good person".  Some have been schnookered by Word of Faith or prosperity gospel which has a god that is interested in you being happy, healthy, and wealthy; in other words, a god who is interested in tricking you into thinking that he’ll pad your wallet while you pad the prosperity preacher’s wallet.  Some have come from Roman Catholic or other high-church backgrounds and ditched the smells and bells for something that they deem more intellectually stimulating.  Either way, most of them were either deceived or bored out of their minds with what they thought was Christianity and they ditched it as soon as they could.  I don’t blame them.  

Amazing Malarkey Detectors

Challies goes on to rightly note, "Kids are amazing 'bull detectors'"; in other words, they eventually leave these so-called churches because they recognize that what they are getting from them is nothing more than warmed over pop-psychology, a lousy entertainment-fest, or a spiritual social club that lacks any real content or substance and refuses to deal with the ultimate questions (Who am I?  Why am I here?, etc.).  To make it worse, they don't see changed lives.  Instead, they see their parents and everyone else acting just like the rest of the secular world the other six and half days per week.  They see no family and individual prayer, no talk of the things of God, no doctrinal instruction, no fruits of the Spirit, no sacrifice for others on a regular basis, and in a word, no change.  Why go to a building each week to "play the hypocrite" with a bunch of people who come to hear more "chicken soup for the soul" from a professional public speaker who really isn't that good of a speaker, and get lousy entertainment from the half-baked "praise team" when you can sleep in, watch football, and drink beer with your buddies instead?  After all, for $30-100 or more, you can go to a pop music concert that doesn't moralize you to death with vapid platitudes, is honest about who they are and what they are on about, and isn't seeking to be something they're not, and wants you to sin boldly.  Who in their unregenerate "right" mind wouldn't take the latter over the former?  Also, I am convinced that this partly accounts for the rapid increase in professed skepticism among formerly churched college kids.  After all, the "church" obviously wasn't interested in answering ultimate questions, didn't promote critical thinking and study, and so I'm going to go with those who do!

The Solution:  The Biblical Gospel

 

As Challies notes, the solution is the gospel.  The more children that are exposed to the fact that the Transcendent, Sovereign, Triune, Just, Holy God of Scripture will either give you what you deserve forever in Hell or you will have your sins paid for on the cross of Messiah Jesus, the more true converts you will get and the more you will have children distancing themselves from this gospel because they hate the God of this gospel.   The more boldly and clearly you proclaim the truth, the more some children will believe it by God's sovereign grace, and the more some children will clearly set themselves off from their truly Christian parents and tell them, "I do not believe in Biblical religion.  I know what the Biblical gospel is and what a true Christian acts like, and I am not one of them."  While it is tragic when a kid ditches the gospel for a mess of worldly pottage, it sure is better for them to accurately know where they stand rather than have them think they have some semblance of "pure and undefiled" religion, when they really don't.

PROBLEM # 2:  PASSIVE MALE SYNDROME

 

Passive Male Syndrome is characterized by some of the following symptoms:

• Professing Christian fathers cast off the biblical commands for discipling their children and spiritually nurturing their wives. 
• Professing Christian fathers are involved in a church that is program-centered rather than discipleship-centered. 
• Often, the professing Christian husband/father is living the typical, high-energy, rat-race life in the secular realm.

The Christian husband/father’s job is to be proactive and protective, not passive (Pro. 1:7-8; 3:12; 4:1-5; 6:20-21; 28:7; Eph. 6:4).

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

Here are some of my non-profound suggestions for Christian parents:

1.   Fathers, repent for giving up your responsibility to teach your children about God.

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:4)

• Recognize that your relationship with God is # 1.  When that begins to suffer, everything else does too.  If you don’t care for your own soul you cannot care for the souls of your family.  This means that you generally need to go to bed early enough so that you can get up early enough to read the word, pray, and nourish your own soul.  Then, you focus on prayer for your family and then for your church. 
• Recognize that your children and wife are not going to be here forever but will spend eternity somewhere forever.  This means that you must sacrificially spend plenty of time with them, loving them, discipling them, praying with them and for them.  This means that they come before work and church responsibilities.  Because you love God and realize that they are a gift given to you, you realize that you must spend as much time as possible with them because you are not guaranteed to have them tomorrow (James 4:14).
• Men, recognize that your secular work responsibilities come before your local church ministry responsibilities but you cannot use work as an excuse to avoid your spiritual responsibilities and church involvement.
• Men, recognize that your church responsibilities come after all of that.

2.   Husbands, wash your wife with the water of the word of God and seek to understand her feelings, fears, and needs lest your prayers be hindered:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ²⁶ so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:25-26) – We are to cleanse our wives with God’s truth just as Christ cleanses His bride with God’s truth!  This can happen on the back porch, at the dinner table, chatting on the beach, etc.

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” (1 Peter 3:7)

3.   Wives, submit to your husbands and allow them to lead (Eph. 5:22-24).

“Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. ²⁴ But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” (Eph. 5:22-24)

• Ladies, please help and encourage your husband in the work of family devotions/discipleship (Pro. 6:20b).

4.   Parents, know God and the gospel.  You can’t teach your children who God is unless you have sufficient knowledge of God’s word and God’s gospel. 

• This means you may need to simplify your life so that you can regularly study the word.
• Husbands and wives can work through the word together.
• Ask your elders for help re: study tools and resources where you can learn to study, read, and accurately interpret the Bible. 
• However, be warned, don’t let this turn into a mere academic exercise.  You are studying to know God better so that you can communicate God’s truth and God’s work in your own life to your family, not to become an academician.

5.   Regularly read the word of God to your entire family (dinner, after-dinner, before bed). 

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Phil. 4:8-9)

• It’s not necessary to read long chapters, but read paragraphs or verses and have some discussion time with your entire family. 
• Don’t be legalistic, be flexible.
• Seek to find ways to make it interesting and fun.  This means you have to know your wife and children well enough to know what interests them.  If they are bored, then you need to change what they are doing. 
• This is supposed to be good news, not bleary-eyed drudgery, so don’t be a legalist.  Jesus’ yoke should be easy and His burden light (Matt. 11:28-30). 

6.   When you spend time with your family, use catechisms, music, objects and events to teach them about God.

• Use can use a doctrinally sound catechism.
• Use the deaths of animals and people to teach your children about what Adam’s sin did to creation generally and mankind specifically.  Then use that to springboard
• Look for opportunities to teach your children about sin, grace, justification, etc. and lovingly call them to repentance over and over again. 
• When they are 6-8 years of age, begin discussing with them what a true Christian “looks like” (i.e., the evidences of regeneration from 1^st John). 

7.   Have a regular time each day where you all spend time together as a family (i.e., dinner, breakfast, back porch, bed-time, etc.) where you and your wife go to God in prayer for your children.

IN CONCLUSION, your family is precious.  Love them with the truth by teaching it and living it before them.  As already noted, there are many different ways to get God’s truth to your family.  All in all, you’re not looking for mere quality time; you are looking for quality time in the midst of quantity time.  Smash your idols and get busy for the Kingdom by starting first in your own home. 

---

[1] http://www.challies.com/articles/i-am-unalarmed

Is This the "Power" of Your Gospel?

INTRODUCTION:  The following notes were taken with permission from a dear Christian sister's Facebook report concerning demonic events that take place outside of their local abortion clinic in the name of Christ. 

Some of the clinic workers arrive to slay the innocent with praise & worship music playing in their cars. One post-abortive mother told me that Sonia (a long time abortuary employee) prayed over her, in Jesus' Name!, when she hemorrhaged after delivering her son into the toilet.

One young lady named Shanika was laughing, dancing & singing out loud to Kirk Franklin in the back parking lot. Her friend was aborting her late term baby inside. I read her Hebrews 10:26-27 & 31 "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries....It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Shanika smiled, shook her head & said: "That ain't in MY Bible." 

Lydia came to kill her baby wearing a witnessing T-shirt. It had an image of Jesus on the Cross on the front. The words above & below the image said: "If you love Me, love others". Lydia told me that she had aborted another child as well, but she assured me that it was 'okay', "Cuz' Jesus forgives". After she had her second baby murdered she stood on the porch, waiting for her ride. Lydia told me that she was the HEAD of intercessory prayer at her church. 

We have had the sad experience of watching another post-abortive mother lead "worship" on the porch of Orlando Women's Center. Denise sang "Amazing Grace", dancing & raising her hands in the air after having her baby dismembered. 

During the first Stand for Life a religious devil, dressed in white flowing clothes, laid her hands on all of the aborting moms & their companions, one by one, blessing them in Jesus' Name before they killed their infants. I heard her assure one of the women who we had ministered to & pleaded with all morning: "Do not worry, God is with you." 

Baby Rowan's mom had a "Christian" counselor assure her that murdering Rowan at 22 weeks was "for the best". 

Abortionist Randall Whitney told me: "Patte, we are both Christians. The only difference between you & me is that you are a pre-modern Christian & I am a post-modern Christian."

The above accounts remind me of the "ministries" of Balaam, Saul, and Judas.  

• Balaam was a false prophet that was controlled by God's Spirit (Numbers 24:2), spoke God's truth (23:12), and would not speak anything other than what God told him to speak (22:18).  He even confessed that he had sinned against God (22:34), yet he died a lost man (31:8). 
• Saul had his heart changed by God (1 Sam. 10:9), was controlled by God's Spirit (10:10), and prophesied with Israel's prophets (10:11-13), yet he died as a dejected, humiliated failure of a king and a lost sinner (1 Sam. 15:26; 16:1; 28:16).   
• Judas was chosen by Christ as a disciple and was sent out to work attesting miracles in Christ's name (Matt. 10:1-8), yet he was a non-elect reprobate destined for destruction (Luke 22:48; John 13:18; 17:12; Rom. 9:6). 

Do you remember what Jesus said to Judas when he came to betray Him?  "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:48)

Friends, do you, like Judas, betray Jesus with your empty praise yet commit acts of wickedness designed to betray Him and His truth so that you can perform your own agenda?  if your "Jesus" can't keep you from having abortions and living in ongoing, habitual sin, then please know that you are a stranger to the Jesus of the Bible and on the broad path to destruction.  Don't fool yourself into thinking that you actually know God, that He hears your prayers, and receives your praise,

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 "They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 "So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 "For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. (Proverbs 1:28-32)

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.  (Matthew 7:13-14)

Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' 24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-- and great was its fall."  (Matthew 7:22-27)

Turn to the true Christ of Scripture.  He will judge all men at the end of time and if you don't know Him you will not receive His grace, mercy, and saving love.  However, if realize your sinful, wretched, and miserable condition and if you are broken, humble, and convicted of your wicked state before God, then come to Jesus in repentance and faith,

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Responding to Common Objections Against Calvinism

INTRODUCTION:  The following objections were leveled against the doctrines of grace in a recent Facebook post I was having with a gentleman who abhors Calvinism.  The person leveling them said that the first five points were inconsistently practiced by Calvinist evangelists since Calvinism doesn't provide any basis to do those things.  Numbers six through ten are objections that are either misrepresentations of historic, orthodox and creedal Calvinism or are simply declarations of distaste for certain attributes, actions, and decrees of the God of the Bible. 

The objections are in blue font with my response following: 

1.  "Repent the Kingdom of God is at hand . . ." - Why is this inconsistent with the Biblical doctrines of election and predestination? Romans 9 teaches that God shows mercy to whom He will have mercy. Romans 10 teaches that people cannot be saved unless they hear the gospel. The lesson: God uses the means of gospel preaching to bring in the elect. This is historic, Biblical Calvinism 101. 

2.  "Christ and Him crucified for the remission of sin . . ." Again, not inconsistent, but consistent with Biblical predestination/election. Christ laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:14). What Christ procured on the cross for sinners, will be applied to the elect in historical time as men preach the gospel, the elect hear, and are subsequently drawn by the Father (John 6:37-44). 

3.  "Be holy as He is holy . . ." Have you read the Puritans? Have you read Jonathan Edwards work titled "Holiness"? The Puritans lead the way in holiness and piety in the late 17th and on into the 18th centuries. God's sovereignty does not cancel out the saint's responsibility to be increasing in sanctification. "For it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13) "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (Heb. 10:14) 

4.  "Sin, righteousness, and judgment to come . . ." My friend, have you not heard MacArthur's series on Revelation? If that's not preaching on the Judgment to come, I don't know what is. I and the rest of the evangelists I associate with consistently preach against sin, warn of impending judgment, and proclaim that men need a righteousness not of their own derived from their own filthy rags of good works, but that which comes through faith in Christ. Calvinist evangelists also preach that after men are regenerated, they will desire to follow God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and that if that desire if not there, they are not saved. 

5.  "A godly sorrow that leads to repentance . . ." - I recently preached this very thing last week on the street to a group of homeless folks. See here: http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=qQ-EHZiDtkI&feature=c​hannel_video_title  The issue is that God Himself must grant such repentance as it cannot be conjured up by the sinner Himself (2 Tim. 2:25 - see last section). 

6.  ". . . except there are times that you can't because God is causing you to sin." Again, this is to ignore primary and secondary causation.  Chapter 5.2 of the The Modern 1689 London Baptist Confession puts it this way,

‎

Nothing happens by chance or outside the sphere of God's providence.  As God is the First Cause of all events, they happen immutably and infallibly according to His foreknowledge and decree, to which they stand related.  Yet by His providence God so controls them, that second causes, operating either as fixed laws, or freely, or in dependence upon other causes, play their part in bringing them about.  Gen. 8:22; Prov. 16:33; Acts 2:23.

A person's regeneration is directly, actively caused by God, but God does not directly cause the reprobation of a sinner but does so through secondary causes.  A classic example of this is found in 1 Kings 22:19-23 where the true prophet Micaiah prophesies that a demon will be allowed to deceive Ahab's prophets to serve as the secondary cause that God uses to cause Ahab to go into battle at Ramoth-Gilead and be killed.  Another classic example is found in Job chapters 1-2 where Satan is seen as being under the sovereign control of God yet God chooses to "let him loose" as a means to test Job's faith.  Job recognized that ultimately his pain and suffering comes from the hand of God (Job 1:21-22).  The most famous example would be Acts 4:27-28 with the crucifixion of Jesus.  Acts 4:27-28 clearly teaches that the most heinous evil that ever occurred, namely, the murder of the Son of God, happened because it was predestined by God. The people that participated in it did what they wanted to do according to their own sinful natures, but God ultimately was in charge of their wills as He certainly could have kept them from sinning against Him, though He didn't decree to do that so that men would be saved.  Calvinists recognize that according to Scripture, ultimately everything that occurs, occurs as a part of God's sovereign plan for the universe; a plan which has existed from eternity past (Isa. 46:10). 

The only way around this would be to embrace Open-Theism. If God has exhaustive foreknowledge of all future events (and He does, cf. Isa. 46:10) and created anyway knowing that this world would end up the way that it did, then this means that He is the ultimate cause of it since He knowingly set it up to be this way. Nevertheless, He cannot be blamed for it as He Himself does not cause a man to sin (cf. James 1:13-15), and there is no law above Him that says that He can't do what He desires with His creation (Pro. 16:4; Rom. 9:19-23).

O Lord, why have You caused us stray from Your ways, and hardened our heart from fearing You?" (Isaiah 63:17)

Isaiah does not ask the Lord whether or not He caused them to sin. Isaiah asks why He caused them to sin, to "stray from Your ways." Earlier Isaiah wrote,

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; burning is His anger and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation And His tongue is like a consuming fire; 28 His breath is like an overflowing torrent, Which reaches to the neck, To shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin.  (Isaiah 30:27-28)

It's obvious from the context who is putting the "bridle in the jaws of the people."  It is the Lord that is leading them to ruin.  As most non-Calvinists rightly note, this is God hardening them in their sin as a form of judicial punishment; but it is God's activity nonetheless. 

King David is another man who informs us concerning the truth of God's sovereignty over evil and sin because God Himself told David that He would cause someone to commit adultery with his wives as a form of judgment against His house.

Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 'Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.  (2 Samuel 12:11-12)

The Lord takes full responsibility for this massive adulterous affair stating, "I will do this thing". What is He talking about? He makes Absalom have sex with David's ten concubines (2 Samuel 16:21-22; 20:3).

David prayed, "Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who do iniquity . . ." (Psalm 141:4)  David knew full well God does incline people's hearts to do wicked things through various means, and so he asks the Lord not to do so with him. Yet, the Lord did so, even with David. Besides the adulterous affair with Bathsheba and subsequent murder of Uriah in 2 Samuel 11 which the Lord caused (Proverbs 20:24), later it says,

Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah." (2 Samuel 24:1)

The following verses reveal David sinned when he did this act which God "incited" him to do through the secondary cause of Satan (1 Chron. 21:1).  Therefore, the Lord clearly moved David to sin through secondary causation.   In fact, it is ultimately God who moves all men to sin through secondary causes whenever they sin,

I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. (Jeremiah 10:23)

Man's steps, man's actions, are not of himself. If man's actions are ultimately not his own, whose are they? They are God's and His doing,

Man's steps are ordained by the LORD, How then can man understand his way? (Proverbs 20:24; see also 16:9)

When men do evil, that is "ordained by the Lord" for His own sovereign purposes (cf. Gen. 50:20; Acts 4:27-28). Nevertheless, God cannot be blamed or rendered guilty since there is no law over Him, He can do what He wants with His creation, and what He does He does justly, contrary to the opinions of men.  Consider again what Chapter 3.1 of the Modern 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says,

FROM all eternity God decreed all that should happen in time, and this He did freely and unalterably, consulting only His own wise and holy will.  Yet in so doing He does not become in any sense the author of sin, nor does He share responsibility for sin with sinners.  Neither, by reason of His decree, is the will of any creature whom He has made violated; nor is the free working of second causes put aside; rather is it established.  In all these matters the divine wisdom appears, as also does God's power and faithfulness in effecting that which He has purposed.  Num. 23:19; Isa. 46:10; John 19:11; Acts 4:27, 28; Rom. 9:15, 18; Eph. 1:3-5, 11; Heb. 6:17; Jas. 1:13; 1 John 1:5.

Without denying the above or that God is the first cause of whatever comes to pass, it is true, at the same time, that the will to sin stems from the sinner's own evil heart (Jeremiah 11:8). The only thing the unregenerate sinner's evil heart can will to do is sin (Proverbs 17:11; Jeremiah 13:23). That's the reason, at least in part, why the way of man is not in himself. He didn't create himself, and he didn't give himself his own evil heart that is only and solely inclined to do evil apart from God's saving grace (as Genesis 6:5 teaches). But many refuse to acknowledge this and overtly claim God "never causes evil" when the Lord Almighty says otherwise.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7, KJV does a good job here of a literal translation; וּבוֹרֵא רָע [uvorê' râ`] "and create evil")

Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? (Lamentations 3:37-38, KJV)

Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?  (Amos 3:6, KJV)

Even though He takes no pleasure in wickedness as it violates His moral will (Psalm 5:4) and He is holy and righteous (Psalm 145:17), He is nonetheless the creator of evil, as Isaiah 45:7 explicitly states.  Job knew this. He knew God is the cause of all things, even evil. Job said,

With Him are strength and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him. (Job 12:16)

Job was talking about God's absolute cause and control of everything. Read the context of Job 12:16 in Job 12:13-13:1.  God Himself says,

If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. (Ezekiel 14:9, KJV) 

This indeed is a form of God's judgment, but note that it is God that "deceives" the false prophet to prophesy falsely and then punishes that false prophet for the very thing he rose him up to do. This same thing is seen in Gen. 50:20, Isaiah 10:5-19, and Acts 4:27-28. 

7. "[you] sin because God makes you . . . " - See response under # 3 above.  So, while God is the ultimate cause of whatsoever comes to pass, it is the sinner himself acting as a secondary cause that is solely guilty for his own sinful lusts,

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.  14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.  15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)

Because God ordains, plans, and decrees that sin and evil exist in His creation, it does not logically follow that this therefore makes God a sinner, wicked, or evil.  To assert such is blasphemous. 

8.  "righteousness because you aren't . . . " - "Indeed there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).  "If we say that we [Christians] have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)  While Christians can and do sin (1 Kings 8:46; Galatians 5:16-17; 1 John 1:8; James 3:2), sinning is not a pattern-habit of their lives because they have been born of God (1 John 3:9-10).  Thus, any righteousness we have is not of our own work, effort, or exertion, but solely by imputation, or being credited as righteous.  If we do not repent and believe we will not receive imputed righteousness per Romans 4:4-5 and Philippians 3:9, we have no righteousness,

Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.  5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness . . .

. . . and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith . . .

When we are credited as righteous in God's sight by virtue of repentance and faith through what has done for sinners in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18), we are credited perfect (even though we still sin) and are given a new heart whereby we have a desire and ability to grow in sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). 

9.  ". . . judgment because I am going to judge you and throw you into hell for the way I made you." - The Bible teaches that false teachers were prepared for destruction and are likened to creatures that are born to be captured and killed,

But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, (2 Peter 2:12)

Proverbs 16:4 clearly states that God has made everything for Himself, even the wicked for the day of doom,

The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4)

And 1 Peter 2:8 says that the unbeliever who stumbles in disobedience to the word are appointed to stumble,

and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this [doom] they were also appointed. (1 Peter 2:8)

As Dr. Curt Daniel notes regarding 1 Peter 2:8,

There is no word "doom" in the Greek but has been added by the translators.  It should read, "to this they were appointed".  To what?  To disobedience to the Gospel, that is, unbelief in Christ.  God foreordained that some men would believe in Christ, be saved and go to Heaven.  He also foreordained that the rest would not believe, but would thereby disbelieve, be lost and go to Hell.  Curt Daniel, The History and Theology of Calvinism, 299.

Let's consider Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus.  Jesus said that given Judas' predestined role in history and the subsequent judgment he would face for turning Christ over to the Jewish leaders, it would have been better if Judas had never been born,

The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. (Matthew 26:24; Mark. 14:21)

What is more difficult for the non-Calvinist is not only the fact that Christ's crucifixion was predestined (Acts 4:27-28; Luke 22:22), but that Judas' role as the reprobate betrayer was predestined as well,

While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. (John 17:12)

10.  "You can't have godly sorrow unless I make you be sorry and make you repent. The ultimate puppetry from the sovereign god of Calvinism."  Sadly, this is more mockery and mischaracterization of God's truth.  God says that people cannot come to Christ apart from the sovereign drawing of the Father,

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)

No one can come to Christ unless it is granted to him by the Father,

And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." (Joh 6:65 NAU)

No one can savingly repent unless God enables them to do so because all unbelievers are in the trap of the devil, being help captive by him to do his will,

The Lord's slave must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:24-26)

No one can savingly believe unless God grants it to them,

For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, (Phil. 1:29)

Those who do not savingly believe are willing and voluntary slaves to their own sinful desires and cannot welcome and embrace God's truth.  Jesus told the unbelieving religious leaders of His day,

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. (John 8:44-47)

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom. 8:6-8)

Thus, the unbeliever is completely unable to do submit to God's will because their mindset/heart is decidedly against God's truth and light and will not come to the light lest they be exposed in their sin and wickedness.  

IN CONCLUSION, men are not puppets that are at mechanistic whim of a fatalistic divine process as our objector has asserted, but men are willing and voluntary slaves to their own sinful desires, and lest the Lord Jesus Christ set them free through regeneration in the context of gospel preaching, they will always choose to go to Hell rebelling against God because their sinful natures are averse to God's love, light, truth, and holiness.