JesusOurSovereignSavior

Most important of all, it’s Theologically sound… unlike
most of the garbage you hear on Christian radio.

The Plumbline Collective

‘Works! works! A man gets to heaven by works! I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand.’”

Art Azurdia

“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; but the righteous has hope in his death.” Proverbs 14:32

“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.”

That is, the wicked man dies–just as he lived.

He lived in wickedness–and in wickedness he dies.

His wickedness sticks fast upon him–when his earthly enjoyments, his friends, and all created comforts leave him forever.

The guilt of his wickedness lies heavy upon him–like a mountain of lead, ready to sink him into the depths of eternal misery!

And the principles of wickedness, which he indulged all his life, still live within him, even after the agonies of death; nay, they now arrive at a dreadful immortality, and produce an eternal hell in his heart!

He leaves behind him not only all his earthly comforts–but all the little remains of goodness which he seemed to have, while under the restraints of divine grace: and he carries nothing but his wickedness along with him into eternity! With this dreadful attendant–his wickedness–he must stand before the tribunal of his holy Judge! To leave his earthly all behind him, and die in the agonies of dissolving nature–this is terrible. But to die in his wickedness–this is infinitely the most terrible of all!

He once flattered himself that though he lived in wickedness–that he would not die in it. He adopted many resolutions to amend, and forsake his wickedness toward the close of life, or upon a death-bed. But Oh! how sorely is he disappointed! After all his promising purposes and hopes–he died as he lived–in wickedness!

This is generally the fate of veterans in sin. They are resolving and re-resolving to reform all their lives; but after all–they die the same as they lived. They intend to prepare for death and eternity–but just not today. They have always something else to do today; and therefore they put off this work until tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, and instead of reforming, they die in their wickedness. Tomorrow comes–and they are in hell!

“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.” He is driven away–in spite of all his reluctance. Let him cling to life ever so strongly–yet he must go! All his struggles are vain, and cannot add one moment to his life.

Indeed, the wicked have so little taste for heaven, and are so much in love with this world–that if they leave it at all–they must be driven out of it–driven out of it, whether they want or not!

When they hope for heaven, they do in reality consider it but a shift, or a refuge, when they can no longer live in this, their favorite world. They do not at all desire heaven–in comparison with this world. They would live forever in this present world–if they could have their choice. But let them grasp ever so hard–they must let go their hold. They must be driven away, like chaff before a whirlwind–driven away into the regions of misery–into the regions of misery, I say; for certainly the happiness of heaven was never intended for such as are so averse to it; and who prefer this wretched world, with all its cares and sorrows–before heaven itself!

“But the wicked will lose hope. They have no escape. Their hope becomes despair.” Job 11:20

“When the wicked die–their hopes all perish!” Proverbs 11:7

“The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath!” Proverbs 11:23

A professed atheist–is a monster that we do not often meet with.

But the more absurd and astonishing phenomenon of a practical atheist; one who is orthodox in principle–but an infidel in practice–we find wherever we turn!

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46

“They claim to know God–but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good!” Titus 1:16

“Those who claim they belong to the Lord–must turn away from all wickedness.” 2 Timothy 2:19

Really… you should be reading this everyday, and if you’re not… start now.

To my wholly subjective impression, this seems to be one of three main kinds of “deconversion stories.” Most of these stories are patent fakes, told by someone who clearly had about as much Christian involvement as I have in the government of China. (To wit, I can spell “China.” See? C-h-i-n-a.)

Another tries a more rational approach, claiming Science or contradictions or the like.

A third comes from the other direction, telling sad stories that amount to “not feeling it” anymore for one reason or another.

All of the stories have in common that the God of Christianity let the speaker/writer down. And that was that.

Candidly, as I mentioned, I often simply do not believe the speaker or writer. A great many of these stories range from paint-thin rationalizations unable to withstand 23 consecutive seconds of rational analysis, to cut-and-paste alibis. They’re concocted or borrowed simply to cover up an overruling love for a particular sin or sin-pattern. And that’s just about as deep as it goes.

Observation: the speaker/writer would invariably deny that analysis, insisting on the nobler-seeming, more solid-seeming cover story. But if there’s really no God, why bother with a cover? Just get on with it, no explanation necessary. Especially if you really are no more than matter-in-motion in an amoral, careening, meaningless universe. But I digress.Finish Reading.

It is the deepening conviction of the writer,
that what is most needed today, is a wide
proclamation of those truths which are the
least acceptable to the flesh.

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting
forth of the character of God–
His absolute sovereignty,
His ineffable holiness,
His inflexible justice,
His unchanging veracity.

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting
forth of the condition of the natural man–
his total depravity,
his spiritual insensibility,
his inveterate hostility to God,
the fact that he is “condemned already”
and that the wrath of a sin-hating God
is even now abiding upon him!

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting
forth of the alarming danger which sinners
are in–the indescribably awful doom which
awaits them, the fact that if they follow their
present course only a little further–they shall
most certainly suffer the due penalty of their
iniquities!

What is needed today, is a scriptural setting
forth of the nature of that dreadful punishment
which awaits the lost–
the awfulness of it,
the hopelessness of it,
the unendurableness of it,
the endlessness of it!
Excepting the Cross of Christ, nothing else
so manifests the heinousness of sin–as the
doctrine of eternal punishment.

It is just because these truths have been
withheld so much from public ministry to
the saints–that we now find so many
backboneless, sentimental, lop-sided
Christians in our assemblies!

A clearer vision of the awe-inspiring attributes
of God–would banish much of our levity and
irreverence.

A better understanding of our depravity by
nature–would humble us, and make us see
our deep need of using the appointed means
of grace.

A facing of the alarming danger of the lost
sinner–would cause us to “consider our ways”
and make us more diligent to make our “calling
and election sure.”

A realization of the unspeakable misery which
awaits the lost (and which each of us fully merited)
would immeasurably deepen our gratitude, and bring
us to thank God more fervently–that we have been
snatched as brands from the burning, and delivered
from the wrath to come! It would also make us far
more earnest in our prayers–as we supplicate God
on behalf of the unsaved.

I think I am very close to concluding that this whole “New Atheism” movement is only a passing fad—not the cultural watershed its purveyors imagine it to be, but simply one of those occasional and inexplicable marketing vogues that inevitably go the way of pet rocks, disco, prime-time soaps, and The Bridges of Madison County. This is not because I necessarily think the current “marketplace of ideas” particularly good at sorting out wise arguments from foolish. But the latest trend in à la mode godlessness, it seems to me, has by now proved itself to be so intellectually and morally trivial that it has to be classified as just a form of light entertainment, and popular culture always tires of its diversions sooner or later and moves on to other, equally ephemeral toys.

Take, for instance, the recently published 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists. Simple probability, surely, would seem to dictate that a collection of essays by fifty fairly intelligent and zealous atheists would contain at least one logically compelling, deeply informed, morally profound, or conceptually arresting argument for not believing in God. Certainly that was my hope in picking it up. Instead, I came away from the whole drab assemblage of preachments and preenings feeling rather as if I had just left a large banquet at which I had been made to dine entirely on crushed ice and water vapor.