FAITH, POLITICS, and the Christian: Audio Discussions by Branno Howse of “CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW NETWORK”

 Just wanted to throw these out there for anyone who is interested:

 Brannon Howse: February 6 from February 06, 2008
Some “Pro-family” leaders were working for months behind the scenes to push for Mitt Romney who has flip-flopped on the issue of abortion and gay marriage. Why would these leaders not support Mike Huckabee with his strong pro-life, pro-marriage record? Is it time for some of these “leaders” to get off the national stage? Are these “leaders” damaged? Is access to the White House and winning more important than the life issue?
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Brannon Howse: February 1 from February 03, 2008
Warning: Stay with the program. Brannon has NOT gone liberal. Topic: Are Christians that oppose the emergent church, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen and others being unloving and unchrist like? What is the price of unity? Can we get along and go along with those that are contrary to Biblical truth? Are we required to call someone before we publicly talk about what they have publicly written and said?
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Brannon Howse: January 30 from January 30, 2008
Rick Warren goes to the National Cathedral and declares that “the future of the world is not secularism, it’s religious pluralism.” Warren is also calling for mainline churches and evangelicals to come back together. Can you say ecumenicalism or one-world religion?
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Brannon Howse: January 29 from January 29, 2008
Evangelicals embracing the Occult? National pastors conferences, churches, “Christian” magazines, books, DVDs and websites are now promoting walking a labyrinth. What exactly does that mean? Should Christians use a Ouija board to “experience” God? If not then why a labyrinth?
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Brannon Howse: January 4 from January 14, 2008
Did the Founding Fathers violate New Testament principles when they founded America as stated by Dr. John MacArthur? Is civil disobedience always unbiblical? Are ALL governments ordained or approved by God? What is the incorrect view that so many pastors and Americans hold on Romans 13 that impacts how they live?
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Brannon Howse: December 6th from December 28, 2007
Brannon interviews Pastor Ray Bauman. Ray was a seeker friendly, emergent, postmodern, seeker friendly church builder. Today Ray seeks to reveal the unbiblical nature of these movements and to teach the New Testament model of church building. Ray explains how man-centered evangelism, marketing and entertainment draws large crowds of false converts and immature Christians who don’t grow in their Biblical knowledge and discernment.

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CELEBRATING CULTURE: Examining Different Worship Styles….

Why not have both cultures celebrate one another? One thing, for example, that my church used to do was have a month was to have celebration of a different culture. For example, for the Jamacians in the church, we had something called “CELEBRATE JAMAICA”, where the worship style was done in Jamaican songs…….and there was food as well from the culture during the church fellowship. Later on, there was something called “Celebrate Nigeria”, where the same was done as well…….

It was all done with the intention of trying to be like Revelation 5:9 and Revelation 7:9, WHERE THE issue of culture isn’t overlooked……for each praised the Lord in their own tongue….but all were united in praising the Lord TOGETHER ….TO ME, that seems like a clash of sub-cultures in one setting but it was all nonetheless glorious..

ARTICLE of the Week: “Jesus the Pharisee (from Boundless)

Visited Boundless.org  this week and I was reminded of an interesting commentary by one of the writers there on the issue of Pharisees and Jesus……………not so much whether Jesus condemned the Pharisees, but rather focusing on the fact that many often ignore:

JESUS WAS A PHARISEE

   

Here’s an excerpt if anyone’s interested ( http://www.boundlessline.org/2007/06/jesus_the_phari.html ):

The book I’m reading, King of the Jews by D. Thomas Lancaster, has a chapter devoted to the idea that, theologically speaking, Jesus was most likely a Pharisee. What?!

As the book points out, we usually think of Pharisees as super bad dudes……In general, being associated with the Pharisees is not a good thing. But, says Lancaster, perhaps we have misunderstood exactly what was going on with Jesus and the Pharisees:

Gospel scholars have recently come to the shocking conclusion that not all Pharisees were hypocrites. In fact, the majority of them seemed to be pretty decent fellows! … The simple point is that Yeshua (not to mention His brother James and His apostle Paul) was, for all practical purposes, a Pharisee. His theology, His hermeneutic, His parables, His argumentation, His conclusions and even His dinner invitations were Pharisaic in origin. While we cannot be overly dogmatic that Yeshua was a Pharisee, there is no other sect or form of faith in all of human history with which He shared a closer affinity. He conducted Himself as if He were one.

The book goes on to point out that the Pharisees are often with Jesus — in more ways than one:

The Pharisees themselves were never far from Yeshua theologically or geographically. He was often a dinner guest in their homes, and they were often critics of His ministry. At times, some Pharisees vehemently opposed Him. On other occasions, they cheered Him on while He thwarted the Sadducees or nailed home a point of Torah. On another occasion, the Pharisees are depicted trying to rescue Him from Herod (Luke 13:31).

Now, we do know that some of the Pharisees are critical of Jesus, but sometimes the questions they ask are simply that — questions. They are not always trying to trap Him — they are truly seeking to know Jesus’ theology.

And, according to this book and other scholars I’ve heard, much of what we see Jesus do throughout the Gospels is in line with the Pharisaic tradition of the time. Jesus commends the Pharisees for tithing mint, dill and cumin — something that was not part of biblical law, but was part of Pharisaic tradition. Many of the parables of Jesus are actually old Pharisaic stories — sometimes with different endings. Much of Jesus’ thoughts on issues were in line with the teachings of the Rabbi Hillel — a Pharisee.

Now, Jesus does call the Pharisees out quite often. But Lancaster posits that the times Jesus gets angry with the Pharisees is when they elevate tradition above the Scripture. And although Jesus seemed to follow many of the Pharisaic customs, He obviously held the Word of God above the traditions of men. Lancaster notes that while Jesus may have theologically lined up with many of the teachings of the Pharisees, He never did so to the detriment of the Truth.

Unlike the Pharisees, He did not allow Jewish tradition to be elevated to the same level as Scripture. He was quick to discard any traditions that contradicted the Word of God. He placed compassion above the stringencies of tradition, and He rebuked hypocrisy and pretense whenever He saw it. But He did all of this from within traditional Judaism and as a part of traditional Judaism.

 All of that I found interesting…………….& it really brought up the point that when it comes to terms and definitions we use on people that often we use them without understanding the history of them….thus leading to a misrepresentation of that terminology…

CUSTOMIZING CHURCH (i.e. only fellowshipping with believers we can make look more like us??)

And the article of the week is one by brother TIM CHALLIS, who does EXCELLENT BOOK REVIEWS for Christians and has done many extensive interviews from brothers from various denominations/camps but who wish to stay unified in the faith.The article is on the subject of CHURCH  COMMUNITY and whether or not one gets the option of CUSTOMIZING IT TO THEIR WISHES LIKE A COMPUTER…….or whether or not it’s something more. If one wishes to find more information on the subject, then you are welcome to go here

 http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001474.cfm

http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001243.cfm

 http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001071.cfm

http://www.boundless.org/regulars/office_hours/a0000812.html

Again, I’d encourage all readers to please visit the site as it is one of the most comprehensive and ON-POINT Asites regarding what it means for young adults to have a Biblical Worldview. Apart from that, please enjoy the article…

http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001676.cfm

Involuntary Community by Tim Challies I live much of my life basking in the glow of a pair of liquid crystal display monitors and with the gentle ambient hum of a computer fan registering somewhere just above my subconscious. As a Web designer by day, a blogger by night and a writer whenever I can squeeze in a few moments, I live with my eyes glued to these 22″ glowing rectangles. Because I use a computer so much, I take great care in ensuring I have just the right machine — one that will suit my every need. I need to have a large monitor since studies and personal experience show that productivity increases proportionately with screen real estate; I need to have a fast computer because I am constantly jumping from program to program, clicking quickly from e-mail to Photoshop to the Web and back again; I need to have a sizeable and fast hard drive to accommodate a large collection of music and the files for hundreds or thousands of projects. Even the keyboard needs to be just right. Because I type millions of words every year, I need to ensure that the keyboard “feels” the way I need it to in order to type my fastest — the keys need to have just the right amount of give and the keyboard has to have the extra buttons that make my life so much easier, one second at a time. A couple of weekends ago, with my office computer fading fast, I decided the time was right to take the jump and to buy myself a new one. Though I searched the catalogs, Web sites and flyers of all the big box stores in my area, I couldn’t find a machine that suited my every need. Reluctantly I concluded that the easiest solution was to build a system myself. I spent a few hours researching components, ensuring that each would work with the other and that each represented the best value for my money. I drove to a nearby computer store, bought the individual components, and then returned home to assemble it all. By the time the sun set on Saturday I had built the system, installed the operating system, and had begun to personalize it, making sure that every setting was just the way I like it — just the way I need it to be to make me work my best and my fastest. It was ready for me to get to work on Monday morning. As I went to bed on Saturday night I thought about the first computer I had ever owned. The computer cost far, far more, yet it had less than one ten thousandth the ability of this one. It came as it was — there was little room for personalization. I was struck by how much I expect and demand today when it comes to customization. Today I want things to suit me as an individual. General doesn’t work; I need specifics. I wasn’t so picky back then — I was happy simply to have my own computer. Customization and personalization have become the order of the day in our culture. We want our lifestyles and our personal tastes to be reflected in all we buy, all we own, all we wear and in all the things we do. Even if we are all compelled to buy the next big thing, we still insist that we make the choice as individuals, not as a mass of consumers influenced by clever marketing. Sure, we all rushed out to buy iPods within a year or two of their release, but we consoled ourselves that we are different from the other people who bought iPods because we chose the pink one or we bought a snazzy protective cover to go over it. Our iPods were different because they looked different. They were expressions of our individuality. Or so we insisted. Customizing our appearance and our gadgets is not enough. We also want to customize the groups of people we spend time with, preferring those who are most like us. We go online and join social media communities made up of others just like us; we create Facebook accounts to compile lists of our friends and search for MySpace friends on the basis of our shared interests. We add our books to the LibraryThing catalog and see how many people have all the same books we do. We search high and low for what we have in common with others.

HILARIOUS: Lego StarWars….

Back Down Memory Lane (again): “Never Can Say Goodbye”

Just trying to give everyone a break and bring us all back to the OLD SCHOOL (and man, there are times when I think  I was actually meant to be alive then since I love it so much and my parents practically raised me around the music)

What’s Calvary Chapel-Vineyard relationship like Nowadays?

The following is from a dialouge I was following on the issue of Calvery Chapel and the VINEYARD CHURCHES…….and the relationships between the two as they split:

 In the words of the man who began the conversation,

Calvary Chapel-Vineyard relationship

---

How do Calvary Chapel ministers/members feel about Vineyard churches almost 30 years after the split between Chuck Smith and John Wimber?

Here are the following responses:

I like a lot of the vineyard worship songs, but some of the Vineyard fellowship are “out there” in their Theology.

I’m only visited one veneyard before and it was borderline.

 Vineyard underwent a large schism over the “barking”, etc.(which was Rodney Howard Browne’s Toronto Blessing originating in Kansas), probably in the early to mid 90’s.
By his grace, Nic.
The founder of Vinyard John Wimber, if memory serves as far as his name, was caught up in plenty of heresies. They can easily be had online.
www.letusreason.org ~Mike Oppenheimer’s Site has something on it I am fairly certain.

[SIZE=3]In Wimber’s defense, while he did briefly identify with a couple of deviant “movements” in the early 90s (in particular the Kansas City “prophets” and the Toronto “Mixed”-Blessing) and led many in the Vineyard into them, he and the movement, to their credit, withdrew from them when extreme elements arose that seemed defined those movements. Wimber was no theologian but was a person hungry for a genuine expression of the Spirit’s power and felt that he had witnessed it in Kansas City only to realize, later, that perhaps he had been mistaken. The Vineyard in 2008, under Bert Waggoner’s leadership, is IMHO a very balanced group that seems more intent on a scriptural theology of the Holy Spirit than in chasing firetrucks. At least that’s my observation. [/SIZE]

Perhaps so, I am not current with has gone on in the remaining Vineyard Fellowships since the schism. Inspite of having this hunger for the expression of the Spirit; sincere or not, I believe that very attribute being unchecked led to most of his problems. IOW: The Word as a the final rule of faith and verification of God’s Spirit, as it moves in light of his word, was the problem (…in thy light, we shall see light~psalms 38:9). We already demand this same standard in regards to tradition, whether or not we believe them to be divine in origin; see Mat 15. New revelation as it were, should be considered with similar scrutiny. This too is indigenous to most if not all groups that consider themselves active in the charisms of the NT church. So what say I? More emphasis on God’s word for comfirming what happens in the body. I believe Chuck Smith’s policy/distinctive on keeping the service orderly concerning the charisms of the church, has been a negative protection (a good thing) from falling into the pitfalls that John Wimber and Vineyards experienced. Ironically this was the very thing Wimber and his followers criticized about Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel. I have heard first hand by Vineyard assemblies, that Chuck Smith attempts to shackle the Holy Spirit in his distinctives; during the service of the gerenal assembly. I have said before that this has been a very good thing, that Calvary distinctives define, as to keep much of what maybe emotional charismania vs. emotionally, worshipping and serving the God in the assembly.
By his grace, Nic.

Hi JimmyB; I attend a Calvary Chapel. My Pastor gave me this link to a program that has Pastor Chuck talking about the whole John Wimber thing. If anybody else is interested, it’s there for your viewing.

http://ccof.ccofweb.net/index.php?op…ask=view&id=53

I hope it helps.

Take care and God bless!