Be the Church – Page 2 – PaulThompsonBlog

the Claptrap

Posted on April 20, 20152 Comments

My Twitter account had some activity this past week from a church consulting group. (In most of the Twitter world activity is no big deal, but for a guy like me this was huge.) After having a sermon ‘favorited’ by someone/group that I don’t know anything about I decided to investigate why they would even ‘favorite’ a sermon of mine.

The investigation was both humorous and disheartening.

I appreciate that there are people interested in helping the Lord’s church but I fear it appears more like they are preying on the Lord’s desperate people. There is a lot of clatter about ‘growing’ churches; how they are growing and how your church can grow too…

I’ve known of church consulting groups for a long time. LifeWay Christian Resources even has their own church consulting groups from within the publishing house arena and independent groups.

What must Christ think of our business like approach? Are we really this lost? Has God left without knowledge and understanding on how to be the church?

“What good is our busy religion if we have lost majesty, reverence, worship – and awareness of the divine?” A.W. Tozer

“Entertainment, that ancient and time-honored counterfeit of worship, is neither God-centered nor a byproduct of being God-centered. It must not be employed as a tool for drawing people to worship the God of the Bible.” John Snyder

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This is the kind of claptrap going on around Christendom: Innovative Church and Worship Consulting: Coaching pastors, worship leaders and praise teams to total church health, experience, knowledge, Jesus. This is how InnovativeCWC introduces themselves.

“Does your worship team need a worship consultant?”
1 Day on-site: $950.00
2 Day on site:$1,650.00

The best consultation a church can get is to open that Bible and see what God wants from her. Unless that church is more interested in what others are wanting from her. If that is the case then perhaps this offer from InnovativeCWC is worth doing.

Then again, if a church does not worship God, it’s really only become a social club – and a social club is powerless to help the lost.

I don’t want to appear arrogant or selfish in thinking that I or this church can’t benefit from others input. But this looks like an appeal to the innovative lie that has been hounding the Lord’s church from the beginning.

Are these offers for consultation like the advice from Job’s friends who he calls “worthless physicians”?

I would prefer to speak to the Almighty. (Job 13:3)

The Fight Against God

Posted on October 8, 20141 Comment

Many are prepared to say that the war raging in the land for the definition of marriage is over. Look at nearly any online dictionary and you will agree, the modern English language has redefined marriage to include same-sex partners.

The agenda to redefine marriage from a biblical worldview has launched the attack in a strategically smart way (this should not surprise anyone.)

The battleground is messy, like any battleground would be.

It’s hard to engage in public forum or face to face conversation because the language of hate has been turned upon the ones who carry the message of love. Those who love are accused of hating, they are accused of being bigots, they are accused of being barbarians and backwards. They are told to get used to the new America, one that is finally free for all to do as they please.

This is what the conversation has looked like for me in recent days on the matter in public forum, emails in response to blog posts and conversations with friends.

Paul Thompson, perhaps you could look at it like this: There are “God ordained ways” of doing many things that we, and you, no longer follow; for example, how to properly conduct genocide, own slaves, stone children to death, own women, and sacrifice animals are all among the deed that God ordained to be done “just so” in his “specially approved way”…Just add marriage to your list, please, so that we can finally end the thousand-years-reign of inequality, injustice, bigotry, and hypocrisy to finally enter a new era of peaceful acceptance. Thank you.
Whose God? Yours, the Muslims, the Hindus? There are so many to choose from. Seriously.
If you don’t like gay marriage…don’t marry a gay person
Ok well in my place of worship my pastor fully supports gay rights. I’m a bisexual Christian I married a man when I was 19 and that man cheated on me and divorced me and with man or woman I’m happy and God is happy to call me his child and is proud that I spread love throughout the state.. So keep your rude remarks to yourself.. Same sex is here to stay and God is proud of his same sex children
Paul: This is not about christ, christ SHOULD have nothing to do with this discussion. Unfortunately people like you can involve Jesus and impose your own fear of homosexuality onto the population

The reaction to the Supreme Court decisions this week is not at all surprising. It is difficult to not let the comments distract or derail the message of calling all people everywhere to repentance. There is nothing more natural than for anyone who has crowded God out of their worship than to be offended when a biblical worldview is expressed.

What is more natural for anyone who has begun to worship and serve the very things they’ve created rather that the Creator who made them? Now, until all of us repent of this arrogance and turn to God, all we have to save ourselves is the romantic idea of love and fulfillment of a self navigated path born in decadence.

The use of godly language only exposes the overwhelming evidence that the heart has been busy deceptively leading to a faithless relationship with God. The best way for a deceived heart to gather momentum is to draw others into their circle of corruption. And then, of course, a grand place to launch the greatest front on truth is to sow that seed of deception in the heart of a lazy western church being led by men and women who think they can prevail against the God they have crowded out of their lives and churches.
Decadence is nothing new. The temptation to do as one pleases without regard to God is constant with all people. The powerful indictment against the church today is that she is in great need of revival. The problem in our land is not homosexuality, the problem in our land is that many pastors are afraid to speak biblical truth into the culture. There is a backslidden condition that has the church is a place she has not been in, or better, not known she is in for a very long time.

They are in the church and the pulpits across the land. They serve on committees and teach bible study groups. Consider it…

How many Christians will attend your mid-week prayer gathering this week?
How many homes will gather the family together tonight to pray and give priority to Christ?
What will the church people complain of this week?
Christ-likeness is made light of in the church as much as it is out of the church.
Consider how many times you pray, “thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” while you steadfastly refuse to do the will of God.
Many will say “amen” when the preacher speaks of marriage between one man and one woman while they laugh out-loud in their home with the children watching degenerate characters made heroes to the family while suffering saints are not even prayed for.

This day we are in today, is not a secular problem. The day we are in today is a spiritual problem where the saints of God have grown cold and quiet. The church of the Lord Jesus has lost her militancy. Our land rarely looks to the church seriously any more. She’s made a circus of the church and looked at as the same kind of silliness as we do of the furniture store going out of busyness (again) or the car lot with a gimmick to get you on the property.

As in Jeremiah’s day, the Lord says, “what iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (Jeremiah 2:5) In their vanity they have determined that God is no longer important or relevant.

My plea is to the church. Marriage needs to be defended, but we must stop blaming the homosexual for the decay of the nation. Look to an arrogant church caring only for herself and the advancement of her “brand.”

Church, where have you been? Repent! Then call all sinners to the place you have found your hope, the place of the cross. The soul who looks at their sin on the body of Christ doesn’t have to be told to stop your decadent ways, He sees holiness and knows he is ruined in his current place of arrogance. He humbles himself and repents, then turns to Christ.

Reader, look at that cross again. See your sin? You own it and its cost is death. Stop fighting and cry out to God for forgiveness. Rise up a new creature in Christ as you turn from your sin.

Arise, Church!

Posted on March 5, 2014Leave a comment

It is a good day to be the church.

It is my argument that it is always a good day to be the church. Earlier this week ChristianAudio announced their free audio book download for the month of March would be “The Normal Christian Life” by Watchman Nee. Where there may be some controversy surrounding his life and especially what became of his teaching when he died in the early 70s, there is no doubt that there is value to the church today. I highly recommend this book to you for consideration.

My intent is not to write about this book, my intent is to speak about this good day for the church and to borrow Nee’s title of this classic book The Normal Christian Life for a moment. I promise to give it back, but it is a good title for consideration.

The normal Christian life is (should be) radically different than the normal American life.

The normal American’s life is expected to be a life of relative ease and marked with a type of common blessedness in comparison to the overwhelming majority of the rest of the world. Over the past couple of centuries, Christians have grown to love this ease of life and have forgotten that the Bible speaks of a normal life that is a marker of true believers.

I fear this is because we have lost the preaching of the Gospel in our land. The Gospel, the biblical Gospel is counter to the secular norm. This secular norm is attractive to the carnal man because it affords him ease of life and the pursuit of pleasure in temporary life and no craving is given to the carnal man for eternal matters.

The carnal man longs for the matters of this world and they are never satisfied until satisfied. He rules his life based on what he is born for. He argues that those who stop him or speak against him are attempting to keep him from being who he was born to be. Demanding, even though he wouldn’t admit that he is like this, that his (created) god would not make him with these cravings unless he meant for him to be satisfied in them.

“for natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised .” (1 Cor 2:14 NASB)

The spiritual man, on the other hand, has been regenerated.

How does a carnal man become a spiritual man? He must be regenerated. He must be born again. In other words, his carnal (old man) must be put to death. Then, he must be given a spiritual nature (new man) that has been made new.

We hear far too often of persons being brought into the kingdom of heaven without being “put to death”. As Charles Spurgeon puts it,

“we hear of persons being healed before they have been wounded, and brought into a certainty of justification without ever having lamented their condemnation, we are very dubious as to the value of such healings and justifyings. This style of things is not according to the truth. God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the law. When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit.” (the Soul Winner, p.13)

We need gospel preaching, not simply preaching about the gospel.

Too often, the preaching about the gospel leads to emotionalism. Story’s that move even the carnal man, because emotionalism usually touches the temporary. It touches and moves a man, but it doesn’t generate new birth. He’s been part of something that his carnal nature understands and he compartmentalizes the experience as common to all people. But when the doctrines of the gospel is preached or shared, the carnal man is confronted with his offense to God that must be dealt with. Either he must reconcile this offence on his own merit and face the wrath of God without the blood covering of Christ or he must be put to death first, then regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit and covered by the blood covering of Christ and live.

There will always be true Gospel preaching, may there be an increase of Gospel preaching today. Preacher, look to your bible. Our duty is not to excite the carnal man, our duty is to preach a gospel that first offends, then rescues. We are not called to produce hypocrites. We are called to take this gospel to the nations.

“To make proselytes, is a suitable labor for Pharisees: to beget men unto God, is the honorable aim of ministers of Christ… To introduce unconverted persons to the church, is to weaken and degrade the church; and therefore an apparent gain may be a real loss. (the Soul Winner, p.5)

Arise! preacher, to your post! You and I must continue to aim at men whose hearts are not yet broken of their love for the things of this world and then we must keep on preaching Christ crucified until they are rescued from the sure condemned condition.

“A far greater work must be done before a man is saved.” He must see his condition without Christ. This work is only done with gospel proclamation.

The ‘normal Christian’ sticks to the Gospel. The ‘normal Christian’ is hated by the unregenerate. The normal Christian sticks to the Gospel.

The Romance of Homosexuality

Posted on February 6, 20141 Comment

As I look out the window in my office I see that the weatherman’s prediction was right. It’s snowing. The coming storm came.

Rachel Holt, from KMVT, came by on Tuesday to get some thoughts from me on the same-sex marriage discussion going on in the region. I don’t know how the end result, post edit, context statements will come across yet, but I’ve been pondering the critical moment the church is in today (as she always has been.)

The apostle Paul told Timothy to be a pillar and buttress of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). There is always a need for the church to be this voice.

If we allow emotion to rule our lives we will always lean toward being an enemy of God. Today, many are advocating for states to recognize same-sex partners as the “same as” heterosexual marriages. This is complex isn’t it?

This is a definition issue, not a rights issue.

There is no place for anyone to treat a homosexual as a lesser person or less than. This is the complexity of the matter. To speak against homosexuality is interpreted as equal to racial discrimination. This is not the same topic.

Marriage is unique. It is all about differences; books are written, studies are conducted, conferences are held, and the bible declares the two – male and female – are one.

Now, I’m distracted from the reason for writing today.

The matter on my mind today is about the future of the church. I’m not worried about the future of the church, Scripture says that the church will prevail. My interest is in regard to Paul’s argument to Timothy about why he tells him to be a pillar and buttress of truth.

There is no reason for Paul to instruct Timothy to be this unless there is a present and a future need. Paul picked up the architectural illustration of weight supporting elements that cause buildings to be safe today and remain into the future. Without them, everyone is at risk of being injured.

There is little romance when it comes to talking about absolutes. People are won over with stories the pull on emotionalism, but the church is instructed to be mindful to “structural” (truthful) integrity. A building’s integrity is depending on the integrity of the architect. Marriage, if it is to survive, must find its stability in the integrity of its architect. The church is blessed with the responsibility to both know and speak this truth into her culture.

Let’s be honest about this…

There is a clear and bold agenda in our land today to redefine the term “marriage.” The way the enemy of the Lord is doing this is with winsome stories that pull on emotional strings of caring people.

The Lord’s people are caring people.

The enemy knows this about our design, it’s our character. We care about people. We meet peoples needs. We seek ways to pull together and help struggling people. Look at our history.

In caring for people, we must never compromise our place in our communities. Our duty to the city is to be a pillar and buttress of truth, not the carnival atmosphere non-profit organization that many have become. This is why, when we abandon this role and blind ourselves with emotionalism, we become a danger to our community rather than a truly safe place.

The state of Idaho may soon travel down the same path as other states; but church, you must not abandon your duty.

We are no longer safe harbors in dangerous windstorms, we no longer safely navigate ships to port if we put the light out of the lighthouse, we can no longer rescue a perishing soul when we rule the day with un-directed emotion.

Yes, we are still emotional beings. We care about people. But when we care about them, we love them enough to plead with them from the safe place of truth.

Is the church prepared for the coming storm? Have we prepared our children to prepare their children to be the pillar and buttress of truth? Or have we simple taught them how to change with the times and keep the numbers up? Will we really turn to the survey conducting arm of our denominational publishing houses? Or are you prepared to steadfastly keep your gaze on the King of Glory? Has the church forgotten? Her duty is to her Savior.

Twin Falls… Idaho… United States of America… If you want to build a society with a redefined definition of marriage, you are surely going about it the right way. But are you prepared for God to turn you over to your sinful cravings?

Church of the Lord Jesus Christ… are you going to speak into this matter with truth-less ‘caring’? Oh, arise church! Don’t turn that lamp of truth off as the storm approaches. Keep it on, do the unromantic thing and keep the light on. It’s your duty. Do it even when the culture complains about how the lamp keeps them up at night. Arise, church, and teach truth. Arise, church, and give helpful compassion to a spiritually ‘homeless soul’ in the raging blizzard of our day, and be a safe-haven that will provide lasting refuge as well.

Vance Havner put it this way: “Perhaps we do not sharpen the ax because it means work and hard, unromantic effort. Our lives need a going over now and then and the flesh does not relish it.”

Lazy Glutton

Posted on December 10, 20132 Comments

Can there be anything worse than being called a glutton? Apparently so. How about a “lazy glutton”?

I suppose as the new year approaches many of the local gyms will begin to cash in on appealing to the “lazy gluttons” who will pay big bucks for an annual gym membership that will only get used for a few weeks. Do they expect “normal” gluttons to use their gym membership more than the “lazy gluttons”? I wonder if there is a price break if you sign up under the “lazy glutton” plan?

Likely no…

I like to be refreshed and reminded of biblical standards for elders/bishops/pastors/shepherds on a regular basis. A way of attempting to stay spiritually fit for the duties I have. Today I was reading this passage from Titus and was more struck by the qualifier “lazy” than ever before.

Then I began to look at all of the adjectives. The Text became very uncomfortable. Because I’m a poor grammarian I hesitate to put the exercise in print but I’ll attempt.

Titus Chapter One, verses ten through sixteen reads like this…

10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. 12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. (NASB)

I’ll first take out all the qualifiers and just read the text. This is an exercise I use in personal study that helps me see how strong the text becomes with the adjectives.

10 For there are men, 11 who must be silenced, 11 teaching things they should not teach. 12 One of themselves said, “Cretans are liars, beasts, gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him.

I then read this again and begin to put the adjective back (I’m sure I missed some and didn’t see some.) But this is what began to happen as I read this again.

Paul wasn’t telling Titus that [some] men must be silenced or that all men must be silenced. But that there were many men who were rebellious [and would refuse to recognize the spiritual authority of the elders in the church] who must be silenced. Wow.

These rebellious men were empty talkers and deceivers. Meaning, by talking with impressive words they were able to say things that meant nothing and empty of any clarity and by doing so, theses rebellious men were able to deceive. (I’ll examine who they were able to deceive later.) There’s more about these men though, Paul isn’t done describing who these rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers are. Most of them [many] are of the circumcision. Meaning Jews and/or self-righteous and were rebelling against the Lord’s elect with empty words with the intent to deceive. Meaning further, they knew what they were doing. They knew that if they were going to deceive others they would have to do so with language that was familiar but lacking clarity and with fuzzy definitions in order to deceive; in order to get a following; in order to continue practicing their sin without being exposed to others as weak spiritually.

As Paul identified who these men were and addressed some of their motives, it then makes sense why he instructs Titus that they must be silenced. This goes back to who these rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers were upsetting; [whole families]. They [must] be silenced. Not because they are doing right but because they are leading [whole families] away from truth (they are deceivers after all) with teachings (doctrines) that have no place in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to get personal, prideful gain.

Then the apostle identified one of these rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers and exposes him with his own philosophy that carried truth, but likely didn’t want Paul exposing the entire truth.

When Paul said that their testimony of the Cretans was true he wasn’t saying it as a racial or ethnic attack. He was explaining to Titus that the Cretans’ sin nature had to be confronted and reproved so that they may be sound in the faith. They were not only liars, they were always liars. They were not only beasts, they were evil beast. They were not only gluttons, they were lazy gluttons. These rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers were not looking to bring the Cretans into light with the gospel, they wanted to leave them in their sinful state to continue proving how righteous they were compared to the Cretans. If they can say what is true about others without having to say what is true about themselves then they are able to win over whole families

The attention gets laid back to the Rebellious, empty talking, deceivers. When the apostle Paul finishes testifying to Titus that this is true not only of the Cretans, the Rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers, but by implication true of all natural men.

Spiritual men must not give ear Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth, namely the rebellious, empty-talking, deceivers. They are defiled and unbelieving. Yet they are left in leadership role in churches. To them, the only thing pure or true is what they claim to be pure and true. Proving that both their mind and their consciences are diseased. They make claim to know the mind of God, but their actual behavior denies their claim. They are obviously Rebels, empty-talkers, and deceivers. In every effort to do good they prove to be frauds. They are being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

WOW!

Arise, church of the Lord Jesus Christ and be the church. Put off your rebellious, empty-talking, deceiving ways. Put on His righteousness and go forth as obedient slaves, speaking words of life, leading many to truth.

Pillar and Buttress of Truth

Posted on August 19, 2013Leave a comment

“…I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15 NASB: The source of that Truth is God as found in the Holy Bible, revealed to humanity through the power of the Holy Spirit, and fleshed out in the incarnation of God Himself in the flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ.)

Today (August 19, 2013), New Jersey Governor, Christ Christi signed a bill making way for the second state to ban “licensed therapists” from advising gay teenagers to abandon their sinful craving of homosexuality (according to the Salt Lake Tribune).

The vogue argument of our day is if someone is born “that way” then it must not be sinful. If this kind of thinking is fleshed out and defended by law then one should prepare for all of Hell to be unleashed in our land. Yet, more than the furry of Hell to fear, see the hand of God’s righteous wrath on the horizon.

Church, arise and be the church. Paul instructed Timothy to tell the church that she is the pillar and buttress of truth. Speak truth, church. Arise in love and warn people everywhere to repent of the ‘natural’ sins of their flesh. Flee from your born cravings of adultery, sexual perversions of all kinds, hatred, murder, thievery, speaking lies, cheating, and endless base debauchery of all kinds.

When any lifestyle of sin is defended by law as natural then there are no limits in sight to what man will attempt to legalize. We are no longer standing on the precipice of falling into the hands of an angry God; prepare yourself for God to turn us over to our wicked ways. The message to the church is the same as it always has been. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor enough to warn them that the next step is a free fall to certain doom.

Church, arise in love and be the church. Call all men, including yourselves, to repentance for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

The Importance of Doctrine

Posted on August 7, 20131 Comment

The overwhelming evidence and ongoing discussion of the trending decline of attenders in evangelical churches continues to be a major discussion point in denominations who have built a financial economic dependence on numbers. I find the statistical reporting of the trends both insightful and confusing. As helpful as the data is in noticing a trend, it is, at the same time, disturbing to watch a publishing house behave more like a freelance salesman, telling anyone what they want to hear about a product that fixes everything that is wrong.

Before I’m completely misunderstood, let me say that obviously not everything a publishing house promotes fits this description and not everyone who works tirelessly for a publishing house is out to get money from the market. I imagine most really want to see transforming results come from their attempt to help the local church. I really believe this. I don’t blame the publishing house. I hold the local church to the fire, as it is, in this matter. She is the one responsible.

One of the most interesting observations I make of my ministry archives is that I can tell you places, events, preachers and publishing houses who spend a lot of energy and money to talk about the need to change. It gets communicated like this; “If we don’t do something different now, we are going to miss a generation completely with the gospel.” These are compelling words to a minister. They are words of desperation. They are used to motivate. But why is this coming from a person with a product to sale?

The day may be desperate; but why is it desperate? Is the bottom line slipping into the danger zone? Has the shelf life of the previous product come to the end of it’s life cycle ? Should the church treat her duty like that of a ski shop that puts last years model up for steep discount to make room for this years model? Should the church behave like a grocer who rotates the product according to the expiration date of the milk? I don’t fault either industry from doing what they do, I’m especially thankful that the USDA regulates milk shelf-life. These are good practices for a consumer based business.

Over four years ago I began to ask myself and my church to examine ourselves in light of Scripture. Ultimately, the questions were all boiled down to issues of sufficiency.

Is Scripture sufficient? Is it sufficient to instruct us in all matters of church life? When Scripture speaks to matters or church life are we diligent to do that? When Scripture appears silent on a matter do we have permission to yield to cultural norms and trending seasons of life?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking on these matters. I’m thankful for the Lord’s patience with me and the long-suffering of the Lord’s people at Eastside Baptist as we attempt to let Holy Spirit teach us this all sufficient word of God, the Holy Bible. Then present it to this current generation as an all sufficient word for the next generation. We are committed to teaching biblical doctrine now, so that any generation to follow will know that this is important. Important enough to go against the trends of our day who are behaving as we once did, desperate to keep hold of a ‘market share’ in order to maintain our economic standard.

Perhaps if evangelical churches behave more like a dutiful mother instead of fun babysitters, there would be fewer people leaving.

There is a tempting lure to be declared by others as creative and greatly concerned for the youth in our day. Are we told in Scripture to be creative and think outside the box in relationship to the things of God? Is it unloving to put biblical doctrine in front of the Lord’s people, young and old? Or should we try to turn the trend around with the philosophies of men rather than being dutiful and obedient to our Lord. As for me and my church we will strive with enduring resolve to trust that the Lord knows how to build His church.

Plea to the Christian publishing house, please stop treating this church like a market share.

The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail

Posted on December 10, 2012Leave a comment

I’m not in the habit of reading any of Anton LaVey’s writings. Nor would I recommend them to anyone. In some research for sermon preparation I did read Wikipedia’s bio of LaVey in search of what I understood to be The Nine Satanic statements. They are everything opposed to righteousness or godliness.

LaVey, claims that “Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years!” Satan is not the best friend the (true) Church has ever had. As a matter of fact, Jesus tells Peter; “I will build my church and the gates (or forces) of Hell will not prevail” (Matthew 16:18).

I could agree that Satan is the best friend the [false] church has ever had and is why he longs to keep it in business. Keeping a [false] church in business makes sense if the enemy wants to mislead all who would join on an emotionally charged false conversion.

But the Lord’s church will prevail! She will not be overcome or over powered by that which is false. And this is why she must stand on the alert. Guard the Trust. Persevere through the end. Advancing the Gospel banner. Dispelling the lies of the enemy, always!

To be clear: Satan is no friend of the church. It’s a good day to be the church!

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