Beware of Faux Historian David Barton!?
Before you use any material from so-called historian David Barton, think about looking for another resource. Barton has a ‘history’ of getting history wrong… and sorry to say that is the tip of the iceberg with this fellow who is often quoted as a scholarly resource. As recently as this past month, I have seen a number of Christians I respect using Barton as a reference – my advice don’t do it! Parts of Barton’s work (attempting to revise American history for example) has in part been proven false, he is buddies with a variety of heretics/charlatans such as Kenneth Copeland and a list of others.
In my opinion, there is plenty of documentation showing Barton to be a fraud along with those you see him with on TV such as TBN, or hear him together with Mormon Glen Beck – who Barton considers a brother in Christ!
Here is one of the latest articles addressing Barton:
David Barton Appears on Jim Bakker’s Program, Does Prophecy and Dream Interpretation
For more of Barton’s escapades including his twist on American history see these articles:
Berean Research: David Barton prays an annointing on Glen Beck
Apprising Ministries: David Barton Controversy
Is “Rest in Peace” Biblical? A Serious Thought!
What exactly does R. I. P. mean to you? Most would reply “Rest In Peace.” But does that even exist? Let me explain what I mean.
One of the hardest things to face in life is a loved one dying. My grandparents, my dad, and very recently (May 18, 2019) my oldest brother have moved on from this world. Of these loved ones, I can only speak with certainty concerning three; my dad and brother were saved, but my maternal grandmother was not.
When Christians die their soul is immediately with the Lord in Heaven, but when unsaved people die, they are in torment in Hell. The bodies left on this earth are nothing more than decaying shells. From my point of view, there is no “resting in peace” for both the saved and the unsaved because the saved are with the Lord and rejoicing with all those who have gone before them, while the unsaved are awaiting judgment because they passed up the opportunity to be saved when they had the chance.
Those who do not believe John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Or John 3:16, 17 “For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” cannot rest in peace even if that was possible.
Resting in peace will be (for myself while I still live on this earth) knowing my saved loved ones are spending eternity in Heaven where I will one day reunite with them.
From this day forward I am declaring for myself that R. I. P. will mean “Rejoicing In Paradise.” Dad, Kurt, I can’t wait until I get to Rejoice In Paradise with you!
By, Kathy Beardsley
For more on this topic:
Rest in Peace? by Ligonier Ministries
Is it biblical to say ‘rest in peace’ (RIP) in regards to someone who has died? by Got Questions?
Could Jesus Have Chosen Differently?
I’m curious to know how well Christians really listen and think about the words of some of their favorite songs? Until the last couple years, I wasn’t drawn to sing a song solely because of the words, but more so because of the combination of the words with the tune and the music. Whether it was inspirational, upbeat, or slow, I didn’t take the time to think about what was actually being said. But after hearing a few songs with a phrase or two that I knew was in error scripturally, it got me to thinking about how many other songs slip in similar things. It surprised me just how many songs of old as well as many recent and current songs were scripturally inaccurate. It also got me to thinking how much these words may have influenced my doctrinal beliefs.
For instance: One of the old classics “He could have called 10,000 angels.” This, for those who don’t know, is in reference to Jesus dying on the cross and he could have called 10,000 angels to rescue him. There are several other songs inferring the same type of sentiment—He could have chosen to let us receive the punishment he bore in our place, etc.
The problem with that is, it would have been disobedience. Disobedience is sin! God the Father gave us Jesus, his perfect son in the flesh, to fulfill his plan of salvation for us. If Jesus had deviated in the least, at any point while he lived on this earth, he would have been in disobedience to his Father’s plan. Jesus would have been rendered imperfect and unworthy to bear our sins on the cross.
I have no doubt that the sentiment of these songs was written with the best intent, but they are misleading. The poetic liberty taken in some of these songs may seem to reinforce attributes of love and compassion, but in reality, Jesus’ perfect, unblemished nature and deity is diminished to the level of imperfect humanity. – by Kathy Beardsley
Abortion is not a right it is 1st Degree Homicide! The recent news shows just how barbaric it is and those very callous people who could take the lives of our most helpless! It is a shame and disgrace to America showing how so many have such low regard for human life. I pray for our nation that the blatant sinful acts of those in leadership will backfire and make abortion illegal again. Herescope’s article says more:
The Revival of Molech – And the Return of Bloody Barbarism
“And they build the high places of Baal,
which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,
to cause their sons and their daughters
to pass through the fire unto Molech;
which I commanded them not,
neither came it into my mind,
that they should do this abomination,
to cause Judah to sin.”
(Jeremiah 32:35)
Don’t Be Foolish!
We or at least most of us have already heard or even know the Bible verse John 3:16 but how many know verse 17, and perhaps verse 18?
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:17-18 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Simple believe on Jesus and be saved! Saved from what? A condemnation for refusing the greatest gift ever given to man and choosing to go our own ways! Open your eyes, look at this topsy-turvy world do you really think it has the answers for what is right or wrong, true or false, good or evil and so on? I certainly do not and at every turn our dependence on ourselves and our own strength fails us – maybe not immediately but it is always inevitable everything crumbles into ruin. Even the Universe all around us, Sun, Moon and Stars do not equate to a drop in the bucket to just how big it is and we are completely without control to what fate could destroy us in a flash from the sky originating in space.
So why is it so hard to swallow that there really is something bigger than us? Something we were made a part of and something that truly gives us purpose? Open your eyes! The simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Creator of the Universe reaching out to us who He created in His image. Are you one of His children? Do you know what it means to be saved?
Below is an excerpt from the famous Preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon from 1860 and it is just as relevant today in 2018 as it was 158 years ago and I hope it acts as a wake-up call to some sleepy lost souls!
“Have I a man here who declares that he is pardoned and yet indulges in the sins which he pretends are forgiven? Sir, you have either deceived yourself, or else you are uttering what you know is untrue! He who is forgiven hates sin! We cannot be washed clean if we still persist in living up to our neck in filth. It cannot be possible that a man is pardoned while he still continues to wallow in abominable sin. “O yes,” but he says, “I am no legalist! I believe the Grace of God has made me clean, though I do go on in sin.” Sir, it is clear you are a legalist, but I will tell you what else you are—you are no child of God; you are no Christian; for the Christian is a man who uniformly hates sin! There never was a Believer who loved iniquity—such a strange thing as a pardoned sinner who still loves to be in rebellion against his God. “Yes,” but I hear another say, “Sir, that may be true; but I do not profess to be pardoned in any such way as you speak of. I believe my sins to be so small and little; that I have no need to go seeking mercy. Or if I seek it, I do not expect that I shall find it here. I dare say I shall fare as well as the best when I go into another world.” Poor fool! Poor fool! You are condemned already! The sentence of God has gone out against you— “Whoever believes not on the Son of God is condemned because he believes not.” And yet you, when your sentence is written out and your death-knell, perhaps tolling now, say your sins are little? They are so great, Sir, that the fires of Hell shall never expiate them and your own misery, in soul and body forever, shall never be a full equivalent for the iniquity you have committed against God! And so you don’t want to know that you are forgiven; you are content to take your chance with the rest? A chance, indeed, it is! But know, Sir, I feel so differently in my heart from you in that respect, that had I a doubt at this time about my sins being forgiven, I could not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, till I was assured that I had received God’s love in my heart. If at any time a doubt crosses my soul, I am the most wretched of beings! For surely, this is like light to the eyes, like friendship to the spirit, like drink to the thirsty and bread to the hungry—to know one’s self forgiven! Go out of this hall and say, “I am walking over the mouth of Hell and may slip in at any moment; I am hanging over Hell by a single hair and into a flame may be speedily hurled, yet I do not care whether I am damned or not.” Say it right out in broad English—say you are in doubt as to whether you shall go to Heaven or Hell—say, if you must go home today and in your upper chamber lie down on your narrow bed to die—say you are not sure whether you shall see the face of your God with acceptance and yet you are content! Speak like an honest man and like a fool, for such language is only the raving of a madman and a fool!
Oh, I beseech you, never be content until you have sought and found a Savior! Yes, and until you are sure you have found Him, do not be happy with a, “perhaps,” or a, “maybe.” Do not rest your soul on chances, but make sure work for eternity. I bid you, Sirs, by the solemnities of eternity, by the fires of Hell, and by the joys of Heaven—get your foot on a Rock and know it is there!
Do not make guesswork of it. Put it beyond all chance. O dying Sinner! Do not let it be a question with you whether you shall be saved or whether you shall be damned! O frail Man, tottering on the brink of the grave—do not let it be a matter of uncertainty as to whether Heaven shall receive you, or Hell engulf you! 
Be sure of it one way or the other. If you can make your bed in Hell; if you can endure the everlasting burning; if you can suffer the anger of God when He shall tear you in pieces like a lion, then go on in your folly!
But if you would have a portion among them who are sanctified; if you would see the face of Christ and walk the golden streets—be sure that you are in Christ—be certain that you are trusting Him and be not satisfied till that is put beyond all question, beyond all argument, and all contention!” (Bold or Italics emphasis mine)
The New Park Street Pulpit 1, Volume 6, www.spurgeongems.org – For Spurgeon Sermons online A SENSE OF PARDONED SIN, NO. 316, MAY 20, 1860, C. H. SPURGEON, AT EXETER, HALL, STRAND
Audio of sermon here: Sense of Pardoned Sin, A
PDF of the entire sermon here: #316 – A Sense of Pardoned Sin
The Force is a Farce – More Hollywood Lies!
Thoughts I pondered this morning… that I hope others find a blessing. Whether it is Star Wars and the force, or Harry Potter with some ‘magic,’ Hollywood is a hopelessly dark and lost place to find real power and truth to live by. Please consider this and what our kids and you are ingesting daily from them! – John
If the force depends on everything living where do you go when you die?
If the force is so powerful why can I find no real hope believing in it?
If the force is in and flows through everything why do I not see it or feel it?
If the force around you depends on life for energy then it is dying too.
There is no hope with the force, and if you had the power it is most often shown as a tool to manipulate people for some supposed greater good. In their words, it depends on your perspective of what is right or wrong.
The force also depends on some so-called mitochondrial things in our blood that can be measured so is that really a force or a manifestation of something foreign inside of you?
There is so much wrong with “the force” would you really want it with you for all the grief it causes the good side or dark side? The stories told by Lucas in Star Wars are dark and murderous!
In reality the force is more comparable to witchcraft, and innumerable myths then anything of truth. The force and everything like it, is really a farce to delude the feeble minds of men, women and children away from the real power of truth!
We’d rather digest some relativistic postmodern nonsense and think wow wouldn’t it be cool if I could have power to do that – imagine what I could do! And down the rabbit hole you go! All meaningless fantasies but if they are your truth, you are lost… seriously you are REALLY lost!
In this crazy world we live so many seek to escape from reality, whether it is with drugs or the ways Hollywood tells you to think. Movies, TV shows, and music are “the force” that claim to be there to just entertain, often they will include a grain of truth to draw you in, and your simple mind is twisted. The music leads our youth like a bunch of rats following a pied piper, copying their way of singing, speaking, dressing, and fads with hair, piercing and tattoos. They march their merry way into the darkness!
The force is another philosophy/religion and part of the string of lies coming out of Hollywood. They offer us no hope for what awaits us when we die except their meaningless thoughts woven into a variety of fantasies.
The force isn’t real and it has no power for you or for me. – That isn’t my opinion it is reality!
You won’t see or feel the force flowing through everything and it is a blind fool that follows it with blind faith – it is utterly dark and hopeless.
With all of its science fiction, Hollywood’s force is just more dead teaching the dead, more death in a dying world in a great and seemingly infinite universe that is in a state of decay. No wonder they promote zombies, vampires, and more!
While society is being entertained by Hollywood, we are being slowly drained of common sense then drawn into their vain ideas and philosophies. Vanity upon more vanity, ever wonder why some of those big names commit suicide!? Because there is no hope without truth!
But you may argue, I am a good person and am drawn to the good and light side of the force, yet I am telling you, you are blind to its vanity and you are without real hope – if that is your faith, it is a dead faith and you are another foolish victim of the Hollywood’s lies!
In this crazy world would you rather believe a lie or learn about the truth?
Would you be so bold to NOT be the individual that the world is telling you to be!? Would you dare to learn what is true? Would you dare to follow where only one man who has ever lived as true has gone?
The Force is no force at all, it has no wisdom or knowledge and those saying it say it is just some power within… it is really no power at all (whether it is Star Wars, Harry Potter, and etc.) It is not hope, it is not true faith and its concept of love is perverse lacking the ability to save a single soul!
The Force is altogether darkness there is no good side/dark side or white magic/black magic – and promotes the worst sort of lie painting it’s heroes as some sort of saints! While it may seem an attractive idea, it leads only to darkness and death. Besides all of that when you step back from it all you discover how very sad, depressing and gut ‘wrenchingly’ DARK the force or MAGIC is!
So, ask yourself, wouldn’t truth (no matter how hard to believe) be better than the force!?
Bible verses coming to mind and when searched:
1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Corinthians 10:20-21 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Also fitting to the timing of this article – Hallowe’en – Should Christians Be Apart?*
Grammatical Error versus Intentional Misapplication
While there is no argument as to the definition of figurative or symbolic language, there is a clear difference between common grammatical error in the proper use of the terms, i.e. the correct term for the illustration given versus intentional misapplication of figurative terms for the purpose of creating a connection in which neither part has any relation, and also to separate a relation that IS clearly connected. A person who is quite skilled at intentional misapplication could make great use of it through the process known as eisegesis—an interpretation, especially of Scripture, that expresses the interpreter’s own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text.
C. I. Scofield was guilty more often than not of eisegesic intentional misapplication, yet, he and his notes have acquired a celebrity status to the degree he is absolved of any personal wrong doing in his life. Despite the ample documentation proving the allegations for which there has been no documentation of his repentance, his notes became the final authority (even more so since his death in 1921). The Scofield Study Bible has been and continues to be used in churches, Bible Colleges and Universities to teach among other erroneous things, such as dispensationalism, the rapture and seven-year tribulation. For some, the defense of his notes, or the eschatological teaching within them is so dogmatic, lack of salvation or the disbelief of Christ’s return is implied if you don’t agree with them. Some have even gone so far as to sever relationships.
“One argument of defense was that Scofield did not write the notes. It is irrelevant how much of the notes are penned by Scofield’s hand. He is, on the one hand, having credit and fame bestowed upon him for them, but on the other hand, when issues of error arise he is defended as a nonparticipant. Scofield claimed thirty years of study and pastoral duty as well as being the editor of the notes. He approved of everything before it went to print. He also boasts of a,
“…wide circle of learned and spiritual brethren in Europe and America to whose labours he is indebted for suggestions of inestimable value.” Scofield Study Bible, Pocket Edition, page iv, 3rd paragraph.
They are highly educated people who should be well aware of the rules of English and the proper use of figurative terms, which brings us back to the original point of intentional misapplication.
To argue a case of misapplication by just spelling out a definition is as pointless as comparing apples to oranges. For example, if I said “the soup bone has been simmering for an hour” and “the dog’s bone is buried in the back yard” and the two sentences are related because they both speak of bones, you would probably give me a puzzled look as to how I came to that conclusion. Then someone comes to my defense by simply giving the definition of a bone. Would that convince you the two are related? Of course not, but that is what some have done with Scofield’s claim on all the “types” and figurative terms he says are connected as proof there is a rapture and seven-year tribulation. He also separates what should be connected partly because of the lack of similar wording, but mostly because it was necessary for his interpretation to be accepted. In order to win over as many as he could to his side of the fence, consistency of his view had to be maintained one way or another.
Ultimately, Scofield and friends manipulated the meanings and parts of speech to suit their teaching of eschatology and gain support of their version. In doing this, the chance was greater that the recipients of the teaching, by whatever means, would believe truth was in their grasp.
Some have said, “I never owned a Scofield Bible.” I can say, “I never owned a McGuffey Reader,” but it was the first to teach the phonics method in learning to read, which is how kids continue to learn to read today.
A person does not have to own a Scofield Bible to be taught the rapture/tribulation false doctrine contained in the notes.
Unfortunately, contrary to their belief, the acceptance of Scofield’s interpretation means students, pastors, teachers, etc., have also been manipulated and are continuing to teach the error in blind faith. Suffice it to say, if any other Bible version contains commentary supporting the rapture, etc., the original source from which they gleaned that teaching is Scofield’s Bible.
For more on Scofield and his notes click link below:
