eChurch Blog

This post has now been removed from this blog.

Please Visit the new UK Christian Mental Health Website for support, advice, articles, discussions and more.

This post has now been removed from this blog.

Please Visit the new UK Christian Mental Health Website for support, advice, articles, discussions and more.

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. 1 Tim 4:1

Unfortunately I believe that it will happen, only because Scripture blatantly speaks of the great falling away. The majority of this is caused by false or deceived preachers in pulpits, diluting the absolute truth of the Word to fit in with science and the world’s view, in the false hope of trying to make church more palatable for the masses by massaging their ‘itching ears’. However, this doesn’t bring anyone to church or to faith in Christ, in fact it does the reverse and makes the church look weak and feeble.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. 2Tim 4:2-4

But take heart, it means we are that much closer to The Day of Lord and His return “….for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed….” (2Thess 2:3)

The falling away, (called the rebellion in the NIV) and the deception is already happening here in the UK now. The stats suggest that only have 6% of our population attend church, and only 2% of us are bible believing, spirit filled, born again Christians.

The head of the Anglican church here in the UK, the Archbishop, is a self professed member of a coven of wicca witches, and their rituals are televised during the summer solstice. But for me the worst abomination is that they encourage and invite islamic imams to preach and teach in their churches to their sheep.

However, I must add that there are many, many faithful people in the Anglican church, who love the Lord, and are called by God into the C of E to feed and care for the sheep. However, it is a calling that I do not envy. It must be a constant uphill struggle not just against the prince of this world but also against the enemy within.

462 years ago Luther nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to castle church. This marked the beginning of the reformation and freedom for the UK and large parts of Europe from the slavery and authority of the Papacy. This was the time of the re-establishing of the authority of God’s Word, and for which many, many saints shed their blood, so that we can have the freedom to read for ourselves the Scriptures. And yet now we are in a horrendous position, the very foundation of the Word is being undermined in our churches.

The preachers and teachers in some of the mainstream dominations do not preach the true gospel, but a different gospel, a gospel of universalism. They teach that God is a loving God, and He will condemn no-one, all will end in heaven. It is true that God is love. But He is also a God of justice, of truth and holiness. We would not be called to love Him by walking according to His commands, if what we said, thought and did in this life was irrelevant. We will be called to account for our actions in this life. They teach also teach that there is no hell, they do not expound the scriptures and the truth anymore. Witchcraft, fornication, divorce and the practice of homosexuality are fine, as the belief is that in this civilised day and age, it is an acceptable lifestyle choice and many priests live and practice this. Abortion is just so acceptable within our culture now, but yet our women are literally sacrificing their children to the god of Convenience.

We need to get back to the Scriptures; and believe unquestioningly and wholeheartedly what the Logos Word teaches us. We need to be girding ourselves daily with the Word. And putting on our spiritual amour, for our fight is not against flesh and blood. We have to have the Word circumcised on our hearts by the Spirit, for us to use the Sword of the Spirit, so that no weapon formed against us can prosper.

And to make proclaiming the truth even harder for us, our government are trying to push through legalisation which will carry a maximum 7 year prison sentence for those who proclaim that that there is only one way to God, i.e., through Christ alone as the Gospel testifies.

But we are called to the Gospel and our calling is irrevocable (Rom 11:29). We are to go and share this wonderful, magnificent, joyous news of the Gospel, and drag people out of the fires of hell, and teach them the Truth, to Love and Follow the Lord.

Blessings

Although many may argue that we should lead by example and not smoke and/or drink and yet go into an environment where there is drinking, such as a pub or club, and so we can be a silent witness. This could be regarded as a little too pious by the very people we are witnessing too, and in a way could actually alienate them more.

Once we are in Christ, we are set free from sin and bondage, and we are truly free (Jn 8:36,Gal 5:1). We are blessed by God that now we have freedom, the freedom to choose. In our freedom we can choose to sin or not to sin. We can choose to drink and smoke or not to drink and smoke, because in God’s wonderful Grace, we’re now not enslaved to sin, but have the wonderful freedom of choice. However, let us not continue in sin that excludes us from the kingdom, and perhaps drunkenness is one of these sins (1Cor 6:10, Gal 5:21)

However, both Jesus and Paul, point out that we should not worry about what we eat or drink (Lk 12:29) as in the Kingdom of God these are not important, (Rom 14:17) but to live righteously, be filled with the grace, love, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (2Cor 11-14)

Therefore, we must do all things in faith, if we think something is a sin, (i.e. smoking a cigarette/cigar or having a drink) then it is sin to us and so we must refrain from it. (Rom 14:23) as we are called nor to sin anymore, and not to be drunk on wine but filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) and walk in the Spirit, not in carnal flesh.

But at the same time we are not to judge others, but only ourselves, and this is between us and God (Rom 14).

So then this can raise the question at what stage in consumption does the drinker become drunk?

I think I may have asked the unanswerable question, particularly if it is to be asked in a generic sense. However I personally believe that it is when you quench the Holy Spirit. This for some will be just one sip, particularly for those who have stepped over “the line” and have at some point in their lives given alcohol the stronghold by abusing it and then been abused by it . However, there are others who have never been to that point, and can enjoy a glass of wine and still not quench the Spirit.

So dear brother and sister, the choice is yours, just do not quench the Spirit, but feel free to live and love the Lord, giving thanks for all things, if you smoke, then do it in faith and thank God for each cigarette, just do not become a slave anything, as you cannot serve two masters. If you take a small glass of wine with your meal, again praise God for His wonderful provision.

Finally, we are called to love one and another, and particularly those that are not as mature in the faith as you are. Paul points out if our brothers or sisters are weaker in the faith, then follow their lead and do not please ourselves (Rom 15:1,2) for it is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that will cause your brother to sin. (Rom 14:21)

So for me this is the crux of it, if it is a sin to my brother I will not make him stumble.

Blessings

I just can’t help myself

I was looking on the Internet earlier today and came across a site with a fabulous tag cloud that rotates round as you move your cursor over and I just had to have one….I sound like a kid.

Look on the left at the top, this tag cloud is powered by Flash technology and I think it looks great!

Normally I don’t touch Flash with a barge pole with my websites because traditionally although very pleasing to the human eye Flash is not normally pleasing to the search engines. In other words Search engines can’t read Flash. But the wonderful aspect of this Flash tag cloud is that it still allows me to output the regular tag cloud for non Flash users and search engines to see the tags as well.

Always remember that I am on hand to create for you the finest church or Christian ministry website on the net

Feel free to contact me for an informal chat.

Blessings Webmaster

I originally posted this on the Post Modernism theology. However, I think its needs to have its own posting.

I believe that the dispensationalists teaching a pretribulation rapture are wrong. I first came across this teaching back in the late nineties, shortly just after I gave my life to Christ, and as it was taught by someone I respected very much, I took it on face value. However, after doing some serious bible study and a theology course, I soon realised how unsound the teaching was. Personally I do not have a problem with dispensationalism in general, just the pretrib teaching.

Sadly I believe that the likes of Darby and Scofield have marred dispensationalists by their error of teaching the pretrib hypothesis. The foundation of this teaching may have origins in demonic influences, through a young woman called Margaret McDonald. Some suggest that she was a female psychic and others say that she was a prophetess from the Scottish Irvingite sect in the 1800′s. Whether this is true or untrue is not the issue for me, but the fact that scripturally the teaching is totally unsound.

The major crux of this teaching relies upon Rev 3:10 “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth”. When relying on this text the dispensationalists totally ignore all normal biblical standards of interpretation. It was written to the Philadelphain church not to the whole of the Asia Minor churches and therefore in context cannot be directly applied 2000 years later to the universal church. Even if we are to literally interpret this text and apply to the rapture, the end times and the whole church. It says “He will keep us in the trials. Keep is to protect and preserve, not to remove. Matt 22 clearly shows that the body of Christ will pass through the tribulation, as those days will be cut short because of the elect. Equally we are warned, there will be many deceivers and the enemy will even try to deceive the elect if that were possible.

My biggest worry because of this teaching is that Christendom in general is unprepared for any tribulation. There is an atmosphere of ‘don’t concern yourself with what may happen, as we will be ‘raptured’ away before any of it begins’ I feel that we have seen elements of this already with the beginnings of the financial and economic meltdown facing the world. Many Christians were caught out (not up!) by trusting and believing in these systems. The politicians, Wall Street, and the City of London have been telling us that “all’s well, we are all entitled to have whatever we want, and it is our right to have financial peace and security. We should all own our homes, and buy whatever else we fancy on credit, without worry, as you can use the collateral in your house, which is rising daily because of the wonderful boom in real estate. The good times are here and here to stay”. Theses are lies from the pit of hell itself, as the rest of the world struggle to feed themselves, the West lives in luxury, but yet never sated. Unfortunately though, these lies were believed by many.

Anyway that’s my rant for the day, but let me return to the pretrib rapture. IF and that is a big IF, we are all raptured before the great tribulation and I am proved wrong, I will at the front of the procession praising and thanking my Lord and my God. However, until then, let us at least be prepared and have oil in our lamps, along with discernment and wisdom, so that when tribulation does come along, is not a shock. The scriptures tells us not to worry, as He will protect us and preserve our souls, not necessarily our lives, but the scriptures also tell us to be watchful, be prepared and expect it!

Blessings

I’m really proud to announce that eChurchWebsites (Website development for churches and christian ministries) has been listed in the creme de la creme of Christian Website directories. Have look:-

UK Christian Websites

Here is some more information about this Christian directory from their website:-

UK Christian Websites is a listing of the best British (UK-based) Christian websites, or web sites. We have a special concern for those websites which focus on strong and solid teaching.

More About This Site Directory

You may think this is a small page of links but we have purposely designed it this way! This is not a long listing – we are just giving you the creme de la creme of quality UK Christian websites.

Most Christian directories contain many thousands of links; the chances of somebody finding your listing and linking to you from such a site are infinitesimally small – but this is a ONE PAGE listing of the best UK-based Christian sites, and we will never allow it to grow beyond one page. The result? A rapid-loading page where all links can be found within a few minutes! We refuse to list poor sites here, but if we do list you, you will receive numerous ‘hits’ from this source. The lack of quality British Christian web sites is so serious that we have decided, at least initially, to include a few non-UK sites which focus on British evangelical Christians.

ABOUT OUR NAME:
We are the original UK Christian Websites – when we first conceived this name we did a search and there was no other directory of this name. Lamentably, a few have now taken this directory name without searching if any similar directory already existed. We have no connection with them. One such site contains a so-called “Official Top 50″ of UK-based Christian sites which have to pay for inclusion. There is no such thing as an “official top 50″ and if there were, such a listing should not be based on paying anybody! We have no charges. Jesus said, ‘Freely you have received, freely give.’ You just have to ask us and provided the quality is there, we will list you! NOTHING TO PAY! Of the 50 listed on that site virtually none are sites which contain many pages of solid Christian teaching – in contrast to the sites which we list, and a very few of their ‘top 50′ represent positively heretical teachings.

PLEASE READ THIS:
As we started to put this page together there were a serious lack of good quality Christian websites based in the UK; a reflection, perhaps, of modern materialistic and secular Britain. We are hoping that this situation will dramatically improve. We have no intention of making this a huge page and intend keeping it down to a maximum of about 80- 100 of the creme de la creme of quality British Christian sites.

PLEASE NOTE FURTHER:
We will generally not post the websites of local church congregations on here, but might do so if we find an excellent one with access to many teaching resources. With the mushrooming of false teachers who do not hesitate to pervert the words of Scripture in order to make themselves powerful/wealthy, we are especially interested in doctrinal and countercult sites.

What We Are Looking For…..and What We Will Tend to Exclude!

PLEASE, PLEASE do not contact us to list a site which is:
a. Currently ‘down.’
b. Only has about 3 unfinished pages.
c. Badly designed with poor site navigation.

When we check out a site, We would like to see:
1. A clear Statement of Faith.
Such a Statement testifies that the site stands in the great evangelical Faith and is not the cover for a cult.
2. A Quality site, the quality not only in sensible helpful design, but also in a sensible, consistent and intelligent approach to Christian problems and doctrinal understanding.
3. A good-sized site. Please don’t bring a site to our attention if it only has 1-10 pages.
4. Some Solid Christian Teaching.

More and more people are coming into contact with the gospel for the very first time through Christian websites – take advantage of this! Don’t believe the old idea that people will only read internet articles if they are very brief; nobody accepts this any more. Some of the most popular articles on the Museltof group of Christian websites are very, very long articles! In this day of religious pluralism and of the spreading tentacles of the cults and sects, we feel that all serious Christian sites should give at least some basic coverage to the disciplines of Apologetics and Countercult, even if this is mostly through external links. We are also always pleased to note the willingness to link to external sites where additional fine biblical teaching may be found.

This will remain a simple one page site so anything listed here will have exceptional exposure. When we tested it, for instance, a Google Search for ‘British Christian websites’ or, ‘UK Christian websites’ brought us up on the first page! It therefore follows that we expect a link back to one of our sites (E Mail us for information), ON THE HOMEPAGE. A text link would be fine. We feel this is asking very little for such exposure.

WHAT WE WILL TEND TO EXCLUDE:
1. Sites which have too many slow-loading graphics on their homepage. This has become a major turn-off for many browsers. The homepage tends to set the standard for websites; there is nothing better than a crisp, neat uncluttered homepage which loads quickly.

2. Sites which uphold false teachings. No site will ever be listed if it supports the ‘Word-faith’ message, that is, the ‘prosperity teaching’, or ‘positive confession’. We admittedly support New Covenant, four point Calvinist theology – emphasizing the teaching of grace just as the Apostle Paul did – but we will not necessarily bar a site tending towards being Arminian as long as it is not excessive and does not attack non-Arminians.

3. Sites which have a Links page pointing to the sites of false teachers. It is surprising how often otherwise fine sites include links to extremist charismatic and word-faith teacher’s sites. These are excluded.

4. Sites which generate annoying pop-up ads on page entry (although this is far less of a problem nowadays).

I’m really proud to be accepted in this excusive directory!

Webmaster

I gave the main eChurchWebsites (The home of Christian website development) a complete ‘make over’ last night.

eChurchWebsites Make Over

The original website was a bit dark and moody and I thought a little hard to read and lets face it there is no point in having great website content if its difficult to read.

I think the vibe for it was a little wrong and so I have gone for bright, clean, fast and breezy.

It’s a little different on this blog as this is more a tool for me personally and so I don’t mind this being a little dark and moody (remember I can make blogs for your church or christian ministry).

I posted an article yesterday on this blog and it was page one on Google within a minute! Check out this link to a google search for Christian Mental Illness As I am writing this blog is number 3 & 4 on the first page of Google and I only posted this yesterday! Powerful stuff so do remember that if you want to share your Christian faith and journey online I’m here to get you up and online in no time at all. It’s not just about having the blog tool, it’s knowing how to use it properly and make it powerful in the search engines.

Anyway, I digress, check out the new look eChurchWebsites. I keep thinking I should add more functionality and lots of funky tools to the website as when I gave it the make over I switched off a lot of tools, but in truth I’m quite enjoying the website simplicity. I often think of Google in this respect as unlike their competitors their standard search page is soo simple and clean and not cluttered with lots of stuff. I know that you can have your own Google search page configured how you like, but at least then you get what you want on a web page and not just tons of stuff chucked at you.

I’m ready for your comments

Blessings – Webmaster

This post has now been removed from this blog.

Please Visit the new UK Christian Mental Health Website for support, advice, articles, discussions and more.

This post has now been removed from this blog.

Please Visit the new UK Christian Mental Health Website for support, advice, articles, discussions and more.