Christianity Today reports yesterday on their meeting together – not much of a clear voice on anything, especially on what really matters.

I like what Chuck Colson said about Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly in the latest World magazine (p. 28, Feb. 26, 2011).

LDS apologists, you really ought to pick up this book, Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism, when it comes out.  It would increase your understanding.

And, secondly, I would encourage you all to compose a similar book on views of the spectrum of Mormonism.  It would help my understanding.  You all are certainly not the same.

“Your doctrine of justification by faith is dangerous, for by eliminating the law you also eliminate a man’s sense of moral responsibility.  If a person can be accounted righteous simply by believing that Christ died for him, why then should he bother to keep the law or, for that matter, why should he bother to live by any standard of morality?  There is no need to be good.  The result of your doctrine is that men will believe in Christ but thereafter do as they desire.”

Do you side with this opinion?

A team of seven from our church family left in a van this morning for Salt Lake City.  They will fly to Houston, Texas.  Tomorrow morning, they board a Boeing jet, flying to Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

It is a 10-day mission trip in Honduras.

We would appreciate your prayers.  My wife, Kristie Ann, and my oldest daughter, Hannah Marie, are a part of the team.

See here:  Gospel in the Stars

1. The Catholic Church, 68,503,456 members, up .57 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention, 16,160,088 members, down.42 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 7,774,931 members, down1.01 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members, up 1.42 percent.

2011 Church Membership  HT: SI

When will the LDS pass the Methodist in America?  Or will they?  Things are becoming more and more of a slow go in the United States of America.

Chad writes, “Is it Romney’s turn?”

I guess we will have to see.

1.  Romney is solid with strong, politically conservative, multimillionaire Frank Vandersloot here in Idaho Falls.

2.  Romney is solid with zealous LDS republicans in Southeastern Idaho.

3.  Romney even looks and acts today like a LDS General Authority.

But here is the question before the American people:  Do they consider his connection with the morality and authority of America’s LDS apostles as a liability for the President of the United States of America?

See here.

1.  I was recently looking into the Mormon Transhumanist Association, and I came across Roger’s blog, Tired Road Warrior.  Yesterday, Roger highlights a quote in regard to the Mormon and Process Theology View of God.

God in both process theology and Mormonism, then, can be called “all powerful” only if that is taken to mean “having all the power that is possible for one being to have.”  But God is not omnipotent in the traditional sense of actually or even potentially exercising all the power there is.

Such a rejection of classical theism’s view of an omnipotent God requires a new view about the type of influence that God can and does exert in the universe and, even more fundamentally, a new view of the very notion of power itself.  Process theology’s alternative, which is shared by Mormonism in its basic metaphysic is to conceive of power–both power of God and of all other existents–as ‘persuasive only.’

2.  On the other hand, Thomas Schreiner, in his new Galatians Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (2010) throws out a jab:

If we are propounding a view that has never been articulated throughout  the history of the church, we are almost certainly wrong.  If someone thinks he or she has discovered a new doctrine after two thousand years of church history, we can be quite confident that such a person is mistaken.  We are not isolated as believers.  We live in community and hence we learn from brothers and sisters of our day and from believers who have gone before us.

Therefore, we can be quite sure that a doctrine such as open theism is unbiblical.  No branch of the Christian church — whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant — has ever endorsed such a theology.  It is not enshrined in any confessional statements, nor has any significant theologian ever espoused such a teaching.  The universal teaching of the church throughout history is a reliable guide that should not be jettisoned” (p. 79).

We begin tackling I Corinthians 7 next Sunday morning.

My initial questions

Should a man get married? Should it be more than one companion?  What rights does the man have in a marriage?  What rights does a woman have?  When is it possible for a husband and wife to withhold physical intimacy from one another?  Should men and women stay single?  How is it good for unmarried and widows to remain single?  Are there any concessions for a divorce in marriage?  Are there any concessions for remarriage?  What about marriages where one of the spouses is an unbeliever?  What is the calling of God in your life?  How does the Lord want you to serve Him?  Concerning what Paul writes in I Corinthians 7, what is binding commandment and what is human advice?

Alan Johnson’s questions

Should I get married, especially if I want to wholeheartedly serve the Lord, perhaps as a missionary?  Can Christians marry nonChristians?  Does God approve of divorce under certain circumstances?  What are these circumstances?  If I divorce for a biblical reason, can I be remarried with God’s blessing?  Isn’t remaining single less than God’s best for us?  Can I marry with God’s blessing if my spouse has died?  If I have been divorced or widowed, would it be better for me remain unmarried?

Robert Gromacki’s questions 

1) Does the rise in Christian marriage seminars and in the publication of Bible-oriented marital books indicate that Christian marriages are failing?  2) Why have many Christians looked upon sex (its discussion and practice) as a taboo?  What can be done to overcome these prejudices? 3) Should the single life be promoted as much as the marital union?  In what circumstances would it be preferred?  In what circumstances would it prove awkward? 4) Have divorced and separated partners been discriminated against in evangelical churches?  Can they have an effective ministry?  5) Is remarriage after divorce Biblical?  Give a Biblical basis for your answer.  Since the evangelical world is divided on the question, how dogmatic should a person be? 6) Have single men and single women been forced out of strategic opportunities for Christian service?  Would it be preferable for a pastor to be single or married? 7) What present situations would correspond to the cause of the Corinthian distress?