Category: Reformation

Getting Global Notice -- This from Egypt

9/28/2012

I received an email from an Egyptian friend who found our website and contacted me months ago. I wrote him the other day to see how he and the church in Egypt was fairing. Here is his reply from today:

"Thank you Rev. Kent for your kind message.
We are experiencing a more hostile environment for Christians in Egypt recently....but I think things on grounds are different than what the mainstream media shows...
...As time passes and as I go with my journey with bible study I become more convinced that the church in Egypt (and worldwide) is lacking true biblical teaching...in Egypt we do not have true reformed theological teaching in most Presbyterian churches.... the good news is that during the past two years i have seen many American and British young people who come to study Arabic in Egypt and they were willing to preach the GOSPEL to Egyptians...also many young Egyptians are becoming more illuminated and willing to witness for Christ bravely
These young Egyptians study the WORD diligently and by the power of the holy spirit they preach the true gospel of Our lord Jesus Christ to the majority of the Coptic orthodox Christians in Egypt...
I hope you would have the chance to visit Egypt in the near future...
In Christ
_______"

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The Upcoming Election (Conference)

8/28/2012

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In many countries around the world, leaders are chosen by some application of a popular election. This means, the people get to choose whom they will follow!

Not so in a monarchy! Countries with kings and queens rule by divine right! (That is unless some type of reforms have taken place relegating the monarchy to some 'figure head' of state and said state still thinks it's fine to sing their historic national anthem!)

So the question is: Is the Kingdom of God more like representative democracy or a perpetual monarchy? Would the answer to this question have any bearing on how the Christian begins to understand the doctrine of election?

To be sure, this topic creates quite a bit of debate among various religious denominations. Even to this day, certain denominations are embroiled in controversy regarding how this doctrine ought to be taught in their churches. The repeated criticism of those who oppose a robust preaching of the doctrine of election is, "You remove all responsibility from the believer to obey God's commands to bear fruit unto righteousness and remove the zeal for evangelism!" Conversely, those who confidently affirm election state that those who avoid this doctrine are subject to preaching techniques that exalt, "decisions and responses that are tabulated," rather than faithfulness to the text and a reliance upon the Holy Spirit to move hearts to faith and repentance.

Well, the two parties are campaigning for your decision! Who will win your vote? We pray that you'll attend our convention (er...) CONFERENCE and be properly challenged to Christian maturity by unpacking this important teaching of Scripture!

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Does the Reformation Still Matter?

10/20/2011

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Reformation Day 2011: Does the Reformation Still Matter?

Written by Christopher Neiswonger on 19 October 2011.

With Special Guests: Lane Chaplin of "Rightly Divided", Doug Eaton of "Bethel Grace Baptist Church of Bellflower California", Pastor Arthur Andrews of "Hephatha Lutheran Church" of Anaheim, Pastor Kent Moorlach of "Communion Presbyterian Church" of Irvine, Joe Long and Susan Yesner, with apologetics.com host Christopher Neiswonger.

SHOW LINK: http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=677:reformation-day-2011-does-the-reformation-still-matter&catid=43:kkla-995-fm-los-angeles&Itemid=74

ALSO AVAILABLE ON ITunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apologetics.com-weekly-radio/id91466394

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We Received A Letter! (OK, an email...) "What is your conference all about?"

10/16/2011

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"Can you explain why this conference is called the "Reformation OC Conference?" Reformation to me means the movement that started when Martin Luther protested certain practices of Roman Catholicism back in the 1500's. So I don't understand the conference's title or its purpose.

I heard that there is a big apologetics conference being held at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa the last weekend of October. It's too bad that these two events are happening on the same weekend.

Thanks,"

Thanks for writing...,Your statement is true about a period of time called, The Reformation. A lot of movements spiraled off the actions begun by Martin Luther.
The broadest movement captured the convictions of rejecting how the Roman Catholic Church had depended so heavily upon the Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome and the traditions and dogmas of the church that could not be supported by substantive scriptural reference. This movement wanted to return to reading the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew and Greek, primarily), and wanted to remove all traditions not expressly taught in the Scriptures.

From this broad movement came a stream of theological reflection that became set apart from other groups (such as the Anabaptists), and rallied to the cries of, "The Bible alone is sufficient to teach us that salvation is of grace alone, by faith alone, on account of Christ alone to the glory of God alone." These 5 "Solas" became the standard for "Reformed Theology." This is the theology that summarizes what our church* believes, and like most churches, we claim it to be the theology expressed in scripture and by the early church.

While the original foil for the Reformation was the Roman Catholic Church, it is a Reformed contention that we always NEED reforming because we tend to fall back into our old ways of actually avoiding the truths of God's word by replacing them with human and cultural ideas and traditions. And this is sort of the point of the conference.

A lot of people today are becoming intrigued with Reformation Theology again because they are wondering if their own churches are faithfully teaching God's word, or simply entertaining, or pushing a political agenda, or ignoring difficult doctrines, etc. Further, Reformation Theology not only directs us in how we worship God in church, but also how we worship God in all of life! Many people today are interested in learning how the Reformation of Martin Luther's day can still be applied to the church and culture today.

Calling the conference, "Reformation OC" is entirely related to how internet search engines link people to websites. For example, one person who found us told us that he typed the word, "reformation theology" in a search engine, and our website popped up first!

The purpose of our conference is to gather everyone interested in this perspective and allow them the opportunity to interact with our very gifted speakers (AND, to introduce them to churches* like ours!)

Yes, this is a busy time of year -- just after everyone gets into their Fall routine and just before the winter holidays. We chose this weekend because Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. So we plan to have all our future conferences on the last weekend of October.

I love apologetics!! And I'm sorry to step on another conference for sure... In fact, and it could just be me; but I think our conference will be better for people ;o) I can explain why in more detail later! AND, I'll send you a link to the Apologetics.com show I did just this past weekend on the Reformation to give you an idea of what our conference is going to discuss in detail (it will be posted soon!)

Thanks again,

* See "Looking for a Church" tab on this website

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Getting Global Notice -- This from Egypt

The Upcoming Election (Conference)

Does the Reformation Still Matter?

We Received A Letter! (OK, an email...) "What is your conference all about?"

RevK

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