The Black Church

When you think of the so called "Black Church", who do you think of & what things run through your mind while imagining or remembering your typical experiences past and present? This question could have various answers depending on who you would ask. If you ask me, I can only speak from my experiences and what I have read. To answer my own questions, I would say I think of a bunch(generally speaking, not for all) ignorant people who specialize in the terrible art of eisegesis and think that they can praise there way through the trials of life. In which they have been told that when trials come, all God wants from you is praise and He will work it out. Here are some others; Give your way out of your storm by sowing gobs of money to your church or TBN or some other insidious apostate pseudo-christian organization. Can we mention any prominent black leaders? Many would say Martin(Michael King) Luther King, TD Jakes, Fred KC Price, IV Hilliard, Creflo Dollar, and the list would go on. All of these men are black and may have done some good things for society, but according to their beliefs and doctrinal statements they would be disqualified from being a Christian from a Biblical standpoint.

I have to be honest and say that this makes me and continues to make my very saddened and angry at the same time. WHY? Simply because we do not hear about Thabiti Anyabwile, Ken Jones, Anthony Carter, Saiko Woods, John E Coleman, or the men from Black and Reformed Churches of America. So when people see me carrying my Bible, they jokingly starting running in circles, doing cart wheels, speaking in tongues, or some type of generalization(a truth typically) of the Black Church.

I think the fact the norm in America and a harsh fact is that Sunday is the most segregated day during any given week. Why do people have such a hard time separating themselves from tradition or what makes your feel comfortable? This was a question I had to come face to face with. At the time I was a 26 year old male(now 27) who God dragged out of my comfortable feeling because I have a God given desire to hear the Word preached accurate and authoritatively. I got to the point where I felt that I was losing my mind because no one spoke my language amongst my own black people. I hated church with a passion and thought, "there is no one in the church who thinks things through logically or anyone who has the guts to tell there pastor that they were wrong."

Where does this begin? Typically we are taught to respect our leaders in the church and nowadays pastors are saying that they hear directly from God and not always from the Bible. So we hold them in a higher regard. Here is the problem. When your pastor starts to say things that do not line up with the revealed will of God(the Bible), at that time you challenge him in a respectful way. If he does not give you an answer backed by scripture, GET OUT!!! Some might differ with me here and say follow the Matthew 18 approach, but I say no. Why? Unfortunately if you are in that church and you go to your brother or sister in that church, they are not thinking like you. If they were they would not be there. This may be a good approach to wake up some people in the church but typically from all of the stories I have heard; it is a rarity. I also say this because sometimes pastors can be very deceptive and manipulative and you may not be prepared to discern his craftiness. Once again this is based off of my experiences and stories I hear all the time, but I would be prayerful in seeking God in how you should handle this.

The intent of my writing & our(me and Lionel's) other site is to sound the alarm for not only black people but all people. I believe reformed theology to be **100% Biblical. Most people in the black church will never hear about reformed biblical theology and will look for black churches only. We want to be that light in this darkness. Get out of the mode of thinking that says, "black church, white church, Asian church, Indian church etc." God's elect are of every tribe and nation. My white pastor is my brother just as much as my black brethren. We are not related by any type of physical lineage but we are tied to together by our Lord Jesus the Christ. Do not be dismayed when you have strife in the home about what God has enlightened you to. Just obey Him and trust Him.

** J. MacArthur made a comment at his 2003 conference concerning that issue and stated, "I embrace reformed theology as long as it is Biblical & where it is not biblical I do not embrace it". He went on further to state, "They [Reformers] got their anthropology right, their harmartiology right, soteriology right, ecclesiology right, but when they came to eschatology, that's when the problem started". Just to clarify, some current Reformed Baptist preachers and former one's had different eschatoligical positions. When I stated Reformed Theology, I am speaking mainly on TULIP & how we are Saved.(i.e. 1 Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone") 2 Sola fide ("by faith alone") 3 Sola gratia ("by grace alone") 4 Solus Christus ("Christ alone") 5 Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone").

Free Books

Lionel graciously bought some books from John Piper's ministry. I have a couple of copies left from the stash he sent me. If anyone would like a free copy. Please email me with your address and I will send you a copy. God Bless in Christ




tlhorton80@hotmail.com

Good Videos Clips

Apostasy

I remember at at time in my walk with the Lord when I thought that Hebrews chapter 6 and 10 was talking to the believer who had sinned after being saved. I was terrified when reading this and thought I was doomed and had lost my salvation. I thought that my salvation was something that I decided and therefore if I messed up I could lose it. Glory be to God it is not me holding it together. If I made the wrong mistake or slipped I was forever lost. This was before I was introduced to the Biblical doctrines of grace.(i.e. TULIP-Calvinism) I hope you know that for a true believer in Christ it is impossible to lose your salvation. Why? Not because I said it, but because God has said this in His Word. (John 10:27-29, Rom 8:35,38-39, 1 Pet 1: 4-5, & Phil 1:6)

I would like to focus on these two passages.

Hebrews 6:4 For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

In the book of Hebrews the writer starts out building a case for the supremacy of Christ against everyone else prior to his first advent. He proceeds and makes it ridiculously obvious that the Israelites had seen the wonderful works of God and still would not believe in chapter 3. From all of this we are built up to what we understand to be a warning to the apostates. We understand that this could not possibly be talking about the believer simply because we have all sinned prior and after coming to salvation. (1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.) Christ died for our sins past, present, and future.

Many people today and even then in one way or another experience the blessings of God(Romans 1:20). We see the grace of God alone in just life and breathing and others like the Israelites and the people during the life of Christ seen His works first hand. Let us just think of the Pharisees who seen the very hand of God before their eyes and attributed that good to the evil one. To go even further all we have to do is examine the life of Judas and see how he betrayed our Lord after being with the Lord on many more intimate and personal occasions and still turning his back on Christ. In this we see that mere intellectual understanding does not save anyone. Without the gift of faith given to us from God, surely we would all be without hope. The gift of faith(Ephesians 2) coming from the Father is the key that unlocks the shackles that bind us to sin and the evil one. No this does not mean that after salvation we never sin. If you've been through the book of first John he makes it clear that after salvation our affections change and we begin to love what God loves and hate what God hates more and more as we get to know him in our temporal earthly journey. (1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.) ( 1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.) We are to be Christ-like. What does this mean? Well we have to get to the understanding of how badly God hates sin. We simply have to look at the first sin that was committed in Eden to see how serious God is about sin.

I caught of glimpse of this first hand last week at work. My boss simply told all of the people on our team to not do something. I knew that my boss was in a meeting and willfully decided to do it anyway. Immediately the phrase popped in my head, "premeditated sin" and I thought of Psalm 19. Now did I lose my salvation? I certainly hope not!!! We as Christians ought to become so acquainted with the Word of God that sin should not be habitual or permanent in our life.

In Hebrews 10 the comparison is made of the ones who rejected Moses, how much more will they be off when rejecting the one time propitiating blood of Christ and regard it as a common thing. The Greek word used here lets us know that this is not general knowledge but more of a personal "knowing without a shadow of a doubt knowledge."
Epignosis akin to epiginosko, denotes "exact or full knowledge, discernment, recognition," and is a strengthened form of gnosis, expressing a fuller or a full "knowledge," a greater participation by the "knower" in the object "known," thus more powerfully influencing him.

I wanted to make it clear that when Paul says in Romans 8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation(damnatory sentence, condemnation) to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. He meant exactly what he said. My question is what sin do you haphazardly let reside in your life and say, "it is only a small sin." Does your sin bother you? What things are you doing to eliminate the sin in your life. I leave with a interesting quote by Spurgeon.

“Of all the sins that can happen to us, perhaps the deadliest of all is that of not being conscious of having any sin. A good old Scotchman used to say that there was no devil in the world so bad as having no devil at all, and that not to be tempted was the worst sort of temptation. So I think, and not to be conscious of any sin is, perhaps, to be at the furthest point from God to which any human being can go; for, the nearer we are to God, the more conscious we are of our own shortcomings, and the more earnestly do we struggle to overcome every atom of sin which we discover to be within our souls.”

Free Inserts for Christmas Cards

My Pastor Jim Elliff and some of his associates have some great Biblical materials for free. I plan on printing some of these out and putting them in Christmas Cards when I send them. Very good material-God Bless

Here is the Link

Above the Clouds

Psalms 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou [art there]. 9 [If] I take the wings of the morning, [and] dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light [are] both alike [to thee]. 13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

As many of you know, I had the pleasure of attending the 1st Stand Up Conference in Newark New Jersey. I have to be honest here. I hadn't flown since I was 5 years old and at the time I had the pleasure of having my wonderful mother to sit with me and comfort me in my fear. Fast forward 22 years later and I was flying alone. I have the full assurance that the Lord is with me where ever I go just as David said listed above. It is such a blessing when all the head knowledge I have had the pleasure to obtain by the mercies of God come to life before my eyes. What do I mean you ask? Well I understand that God is totally sovereign over absolutely everything. The hard part is believing what He has said in His Word and then when you have to apply it to your life. Understand that the purpose of us having to apply what we believe is not so that God can test us for His knowledge, for He already knows exactly what we possess simply because He is the Giver of all we have. The purpose of us being tested is so that we know what the Lord had placed in us for His glory.

Certainly as stated above I understood that God is in control of every single aspect of my life but even as I took off in the plane I feared. After thinking about this while flying I realized how incredibly stupid(this is how I talk to myself sometimes-I am harsh with me) I was on this topic. I say that I would love to be with the Lord and I am looking forward to spending all eternity with Him and loving him without my human flaws. (1John 3:2)What a pleasure it will be to see him and then be like him. This is my position and I firmly hold to this but I had to think; Do I cherish anything over Christ in my life? What a pleasure to have this desire placed in me. I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to fear death because Christ has already conquered this for the elect.(1Cr 15:55)

Romans 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

After arriving in Newark I literally wanted to kiss the pilot and tell him," next time give me a parachute chump!!" Just joking here. How shallow of me to have the understanding that God is totally sovereign but only apply it when it is convenient or comfortable to me. That is not how it works and I am thankful that the Lord showed this to me. To top it off I had the temerity to talk with Saiko Woods about the sovereignty of God and not even really apply it to certain aspects of my life. It was blessing to hear his sermon about the complete sovereignty of God over everything.

On my flight back the Lord really gave me a peace while flying. I began to cry as I left the conference and cry even more when we took off. I was very joyful to see so many people who adhered to the Word of God and also felt sad that so many where without a body. I know the people who were sitting across the aisle from me wondered why I was crying. During my flight it was snowing and the pilot took us above the clouds and I got a chance to see the Glory of God in a whole new perspective. Some of you who frequently fly might not think this is a big deal. I once again began to cry like a new born baby uncontrollably. In the past year after soaking myself in the Word of God and with the Lord supplying me with a life breathing body of believer's. From going to a person who literally despised the church because I honestly thought church go-ers where the most Biblically ignorant people on the earth. I used to be just a church go-er and God sovereignty started me actually reading the scriptures and studying for myself. Once I did that I realized either I am crazy or you all are not reading your Bible. I am not and was not crazy. I longed for a body of like minded true Christians and the Lord graciously supplied.

In the past year and a half the Lord has changed my heart to the point is all that I see is Him. I could no longer look at the moon the same. I started to see the handy work of God in creation. I began to see my total depravity and God's holiness. I began to deteste what God detested. I began to love what God loves. You see before when I would see a sunrise or a simplistic star, it did not move me. Now I understand more and more every day that the Lord does not and has not saved everyone. For this I am forever thankful. I don''t understand why God saved me nor do I care. He did not see anything in me good and nothing I could ever do to be accepted by Him. I was just like Adam and all other creation after him. But glory be to God for Christ Jesus-The Lamb of God. Worthy Worthy Worthy Is the Lamb that was slain.

Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Rev 5:12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Workplace Religion

Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

What great joy I find in Jesus the Christ. Here in Hebrews the writer talks about the history of Israel and how they seen all the works of God and still did not believe. Now God has spoken through His Son and if some of Israel did not enter the rest after not believing, how much worse off shall we be if we disregard His Son.

While at work today two people on my team went on a extra long lunch to buy some Christ-mas things to decorate our work area since we are having a contest for tomorrow for "Best Decorated Work Station." The two people who went to gather the materials by mistake bought a statue of Christ being born in a manger. They were going to put it in with the decorations and decided "That would be too religious and might offend someone." An unbeliever who is on my team said, "too religious? how could that be when we are celebrating Christ-mas?" Yes I wanted to say, "PREACH PREACHER!!!!" "WELL WELL!!" "UM MMMMMM"

From here somehow we got into a discussion on the Bible and its legitimacy. Some of the comments said were, "The Bible was written by men and is not reputable now" "King James Version was the only true translation" "God does not judge" Oh and check this one out..."Before you die God gives you a chance to get it right with him"(deathbed conversions) "I hope I just make it in" "I am going to have a long talk with God when I get to Heaven and tell him what is up and why I better get in"

If you know me I started throwing scriptures like I was a world class pitcher. Obviously with those few comments my theological juices were flowing like the Nile. I quickly became the bigot and narrow minded one when I began to speak about the judgement of God and His standards. I made very clear that the only acceptable sacrifice and righteousness that God accepts is His Son-Jesus the Christ-The Lamb Of God.

What bugs me is why do people want to wait to die or until they get close to death to try to figure God out? Why not seek God now when things according to you, seem to be going smooth. After our conversation I felt bad for these people and prayed the Lord would be gracious in opening their hearts for salvation. In the same thought I felt great joy for God saving such a wicked filthy man like me who at one time used to be just like these people who are absolutely blinded to the truth of the Gospel.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

This year in my christian life, I like never before long to be with Christ. While at the conference in Newark New Jersey and when I listen to Pastor John Coleman I constantly hear him say how he does not fear death and that he like all Christians should do-embraces death. Ephesians 2:3 says-Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

It seems in our culture we naturally view tribulation as the judgement of God or think that we are going through a trial because of sin in our life. Lets look at what James says on this.

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Is Jesus Christ your joy. Is there anything or anyone in this world that you find more satisfaction in? This is a difficult question because Jesus says

Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes [shall be] they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.