Friday, February 22, 2013

Memorial Service



On February 12th, Dr. Malcom Couch lost his long-standing battle with cancer and passed into the presence of his Savior, Jesus Christ. He left behind a wonderful spiritual legacy as well as many friends and loved ones. 

A Memorial Service will be held in his honor in order to celebrate his homecoming and heavenly promotion. All wishing to pay their last respects to this wonderful man of God are invited to attend.

The service will be held at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, TX. The service will be conducted on Thursday, March 14 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM with a luncheon immediately following the service. The museum is found at the following address: 

7500 Park Lane, Dallas, TX 75225
Cross Streets: Park Lane and Boedeker Street
Neighborhood: Preston Hollow

Furthermore information regarding location is available at the below link.

CLICK HERE

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A Tribute to Dr. Mal Couch from Dr. Andy Woods

It is with mixed emotions that I announce tonight that Dr. Mal Couch early this morning around 2 AM on February 12th lost his battle with cancer and passed into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The reason my emotions are mixed is because on the one hand I am happy since I now know that Mal Couch is in a better place. Paul indicated that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and to depart and be with Christ is far better (Philip. 1:21-23). 

On the other hand my heart is heavy tonight with sadness knowing that I have temporarily lost the companionship of a mentor and even more important than that a very good, close, personal friend. The life of Dr. Mal Couch was nothing short of extraordinary. I hope to blog about it in more detail at a later time. God used him in so many strategic ways to touch many people, including myself. I've had the privilege of knowing him personally over the course of the last decade. Volumes could be written on the things that I have learned from this man philosophically, theologically, and professionally. He invited me to contribute to a plethora of journal issues, books, conferences, online resources, and CD interviews. Despite my busy schedule, only one time I remember did I ever turn him down. In many ways, he was a father-like figure to me. Outside of my immediate and extended family, there was probably no one who was a greater supporter, influencer, encourager, and cheerleader for my life and ministry than Dr. Mal Couch. I owe the current trajectory in my life largely to his positive influence. His passing certainly makes heaven richer and earth poorer. 

Besides my mixed emotions of happiness and sadness, one other feeling strikes me very strongly this evening. That sensation is urgency or motivation! His passing reminds me of how brief life really is (Ps. 103:15-16; Jas. 4:14). It's imperative to all of us like-minded ministers and believers to invest what limited time we have left in this fleeting life into eternal things. Mal Couch seemed to understand that his time on earth was limited, and so he wanted to make every second count for Christ. We should follow his example. His passing is a reminder that the spiritual baton has now been formally passed to those of us that he influenced. Let us take that baton, consisting of the rich things that we learned from him, and pass it on to the next generation while there is still time and freedom to do so. His passing has personally awakened within me a desire to reconsecrate my life to God so that He can use me as His channel of blessing to others. I want to bless others the same way Mal blessed me. 

The death of the giants of Mal's generation remind us that we can no longer count on these older Christians to disseminate what their generation stood for (Dispensationalism, pre-tribulationism, Zionism, literal interpretation, free grace, conservatism, and constitutionalism). It's our turn now to take the lead in these issues. Let run our race with boldness and endurance knowing that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1). May God strengthen us for the task ahead. Thank you again Dr. Mal Couch for what you have meant to so many and for the encouragement and training you have given us to follow your wonderful example.

During this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers go out to Mal's family, especially his wonderful wife Lacy.

Sincerely,
Dr. Andy Woods

Monday, October 29, 2012

The Eternality of God by Dr. Don M. Miller

  Of the countless doctrines that have caused me to stand in awe of God, one aspect of theology that absolutely fascinates me His eternality. Just this morning while preparing music for Sunday I was singing the Chris Tomlin song- How Great is Our God- oh how true! Through the years of sitting under the teaching of Dr. Couch on more than one occasion I recall him brushing the tears from his eyes as he contemplated the awesomeness and magnificence of God. As we take a moment to consider the eternality of God, I pray that you may also find yourself in awe of the splendor and power of God.

  The eternality of God is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity. If God is not eternal, then eternal life is not His to give to anyone. Also if God had a beginning He too would have to have a creator, at which point he is not the one true God. Without the eternality of God, Christianity is futile.


Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology says this is reference to God being eternal:

  God is eternal ( Deut 33:27 ; Psalm 10:16 ; 48:14 ). Scripture does not provide philosophical reflection on this fact but assumes it. The Lord is the Rock eternal ( Isa 26:4 ) and the eternal King ( Jer 10:10 ). God's word, rooted in his being and will, is likewise eternal ( Psalm 119:89 ), as are his righteous laws (119:60), his ways ( Hab 3:6 ), and his kingdom or dominion ( Daniel 4:3 Daniel 4:34 ). Since God is eternal, so are his love ( 1 Kings 10:9 ), his blessings ( Psalm 21:6 ), and all his other attributes and benefits. They endure without end; as long as God exists, so do they.

  The subject of the eternality of God requires that we understand that God is infinite in relation to time. He is without beginning, and He is without ending. Eternality means not only that God dwells in unending duration from eternity past to eternity future, it means that He dwells in another dimension outside of time. Consider with me that to God, all history appears as both past and present.
 

  Notice with me an incredible passage: Revelation 13:8
  
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

  How incredible it is to consider that even before the foundation of the world, the names were written in the book of life. Clear evidence that God sees everything past, present and future.

 Another passage we must consider is Romans 8:30


and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

  Notice the unbroken chain- and the fact that God sees the finished product when He looks at His children!

  Why is this critical such a critical doctrine? Because as we understand the God who was, who is, and who will always be, we can draw strength and comfort in knowing that our Heavenly Father is completely  sovereign and holds all things together yesterday, today and forever


1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

  How wonderful it is that those who have trusted Christ will ALWAYS (eternally) be with the Lord!

Monday, September 24, 2012

An Unchanging Message for an Ever Changing World by Dr. Don M. Miller

All of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of God’s perfect standard.  Our sin completely and totally separates us from any chance of reaching God.

But God did for US what we could NEVER EVER do for ourselves!  HE CAME TO US!  John 1:14 says that “the Word (Christ) became flesh, and dwelt among us....”  Jesus Christ left heaven, added to His deity humanity, lived a sinless life, and offered Himself as the ONLY acceptable sacrifice PAYING IN FULL the penalty for our sin. JESUS CHRIST became the BRIDGE that reached across that impassable canyon which separated us from God.  THAT is the FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH upon which the church is built!  Our sin is forgiven and we are redeemed and covered by the righteousness of Christ ONLY through FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE.

But in the past thirty years there has been a proliferation of “new gospels” here in the United States. Some such as the “new age” belief system, and Hinduism, are rooted in eastern mysticism. Others are based more on pop-psychology than they are on the gospel.  However the church is wandering away from the central message of the grace of Christ isn’t a NEW problem. The Apostle Paul had to address this very issue with the church in Galatia.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;  which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." --Galatians 1:6-7

Paul’s astonishment is not that false teachers exist, but that the church was following them!  He had expected false teachers and in fact had warned the Ephesians elders (Acts 20:28-30) that false teachers would come. Notice that these false teachers were not opening denying the gospel message. They only wanted to “improve” the message by adding to it: requirements, new ceremonies and new standards. It is as if they are saying, “We believe in Jesus Christ – but we have something wonderful to add to what you already believe!”   What they viewed as a “new” gospel was actually a distorted gospel. The word translated “distort” means to transform into something of an opposite character.


Paul explains that this new gospel or “good news,” is in reality not the gospel or “good news” at all! It is a counterfeit!

As Christians in America we believe in the freedom of religion, but Christians need to realize that does not make all religions equally true. While we defend the right of each individual in this country to worship as they choose, in so doing we not defending that all religions are also “the” truth.  Jesus could NOT HAVE BEEN MORE CLEAR!   John 14:6,”I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”   May we be challenged to consider that ANY OTHER GOSPEL being presented other than FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE is misdirecting men and women away from the only truth that can save us from our sin! May those of us who teach be diligent and unwavering in presenting the uncompromised truth of our redeemer and Lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Emerging Third Way of Apostate Pastors and Globalist Leaders By Brannon S. Howse

The following is an excerpt from the just released book by Brannon Howse, Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews That Rule America From The Grave (368 pages, hard-cover)

  The leaders in the educational establishment, the apostate Church, occultism/pagan spirituality, or the government-corporate complex want the idea of social and spiritual evolution embraced worldwide in order to bring about their desired "new order" or "new world order." Secular humanist and Fabian Socialist Julian Huxley (brother of Aldous) was the First Director General of the United Nations  educational, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO). He explained, "The task is to help the emergence of a single world culture!"

  This "task" is even at work in America's political arena. Bill Clinton's mentor and former professor Carrol Quigley made this clear in his book, Tragedy and Hope:

  The chief problem of American political life...has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

  And it's working. While there are some truly conservative Republicans, most embrace the same worldview and agenda of their fellow politicians across the aisle. This is a form of Marx's dialectic process, the true intent of which is revealed by Julian Huxley:

  "...at the moment, two opposing philosophies of life confront each other"  You may categorize the two philosophies as super nationalism, or as individualism versus collectivism or as capitalism versus communism, or as Christianity verses Marxism. Can these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis be resolved in a higher synthesis? I believe not only that this can happen, but that, through the inexorable dialectic of evolution, it must happen.

  Those who buy into Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolution and apply it to society embrace this concept of social evolution. There are others who apply it not only to the social and cultural arenas but also to the spiritual world. Generally, these are New Age devotees of the New Spirituality. Generally-but not always.

Emerging Trouble

  The pastors and authors of one of America's fastest growing spiritual movements, the Emergent Church, sing the praises of socialism. As I'll explain in more detail later, the Emergent Church champions the neo-Marxist call for a utopian society through spiritual evolution where good and evil merge to form a "better" third option. This idea derives from the belief system of philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finds its contemporary manifestation in the "Third Way" movement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In the Third Way, capitalism, socialism, and communism merge to form a misanthropic combination of the three. This blending is now represented in the terms "the New World Order" and "the new enlightenment."

  The Third Way promotes Communitarianism, a toxic blend of communism, socialism, atheism, and Cosmic Humanism. Communitarians believe in universal health care, government-subsidized housing and education, radical environmentalism, Fabian socialism, and the like.

  An article on the website of the Democratic Leadership Council explains how Clinton and Blair have promoted Third Way thinking across the globe:

  Starting with Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign in 1992, Third Way thinking is reshaping progressive politics throughout the world. Inspired by the example of Clinton and the New Democrats, Tony Blair in Britain led a revitalized New Labour party back to power in 1997. The victory of Gerhard Shroeder and the Social Democrats in Germany the next year confirmed the revival of center-left parties which either control or are part of the governing coalition forming throughout the European Union. From Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, Third Way ideas also are taking hold.

  On Sunday, April 25, 1999, President Clinton and the DLC hosted a historic roundtable discussion, "The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century, "with five world leaders including British PM Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Dutch PM Wim Kok, and Italian PM Massimo D'Alema, the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and DLC President Al From.

  Not to be hoodwinked by the window dressing of Third Way advocates, however, Vaclav Klaus, prime minister of the Czech Republic, warns against the real future it offers: "The Third Way is the fastest route to the Third World."

  But that seems to be where communitarians want to take us.

  Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews that Rule America from the
Grave

  This is it, the one book you need to read if you want to understand the big picture, connect all the dots, and understand current times, and future events and trends that will be unfolding. This ground-breaking book by best-selling author Brannon Howse is the result of thousands of hours of research over many years and is must reading for every teenager and adult.

  Brannon reveals how the worldviews of 21 dead people are still influencing every aspect of American life and vying for the hearts and minds of adults and students. Whether we are discussing, law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, education or religion, the people and worldviews seeking to further their agenda in these disciplines are almost always connected back to four major forces. Brannon reveals the connection between occultism/pagan spirituality, the apostate church, the educational establishment and government/corporations.

  Through this book you will come to understand the oppositions worldview, heroes, goals, strategies, masking terms, networks and targets. Those who share the worldviews of these 21 enemies of our constitutional republic and Biblical worldview do not want their agenda and its consequences to be revealed to the American people. Above all, they do not want us to equip and train our children and grandchildren with a Biblical worldview by which to recognize, reject, and fight against their seductive and destructive lies.

  This book will equip you to do just that as Brannon gives specific and pro-active responses you can take to make this the finest hour for the American church.

  Here is the list of twenty-one for which Brannon has dug up worldview facts you must know and prepare to oppose:

  Saul Alinsky, Karl Marx, John Dewey, John Maynard Keynes, Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Margaret Sanger, William James, Alice Bailey, Helen Schuman, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, Benjamin Bloom, B.F. Skinner, The Frankfurt School, Soren Kierkegaard, Julius Wellhausen, Christopher Columbus Langdell, Betty Friedan and Roger Baldwin.

  Topics covered include:

  Corporate fascism, sustainable development, the Third Way, global governance, dialectic process, the Delphi technique, the Cloward-Piven Strategy and deliberate chaos, community organizing, Fabian socialism, the federal reserve and a fiat currency, America's decline is Europe's gain, cultural Marxism, government mandated youth service, legal positivism, postmodernism, soft-despotism, higher-criticism, pagan spirituality, feminism, welfare-state capitalism, the false-dominate church, the Emergent Church, the spiritual battle for America, the United Nations and occultism, unmasking the one-world religion, the deconstructionists in the culture and in the church, psychological labeling of dissenters, behavior modification, a planned economy, the assault on parental authority, the two tracks to globalism, Keynesian economics, collectivism, similarities between America and Nazi
Germany, national leaders are a reflection of the people, social justice, why the culture war is lost if the church goes weak, is God judging America?, When and why does God judge a nation?, the environmentalist/globalist connection, cultural revolution/sexual revolution, the right to die becomes the duty to die, the true purpose of the law, why the State wants the children, are we all God's children? And much, much more.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Why Must Everything Change? by Jan Markell

   The false teachings among some prominent church leaders have no end nor does the race to unify all religions. My thanks to Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, World Net Daily, and author Joel Richardson for some background here.  Fasten your seat belt because now we have Christians observing Ramadan.  This goes miles beyond Muslim-Christian dialogue, which is bad enough. This is actually giving respectability to those who killed 3,000 innocent Americans who are even more on our mind in this season of 9/11. Once again, I have to ask, where is the outrage?

   Emergent Church leader Brian McLaren is fasting during the Islamic Ramadan but is he fasting so that Muslims would come to salvation in Jesus Christ alone? And Tooley asks, "Would McLaren organize a similar fast on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims of radical Islam?  Or would that be too culturally confrontational for the post-modern evangelical who has shunned his conservative past and prefers creating common ground that creates alliances for the Left?"

   McLaren says on his blog: "Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting for spiritual renewal and purification. It commemorates the month during which Muslims believe Mohammed received the Quran through divine revelation, and it calls Muslims to self-control, sacrificial generosity, and solidarity with the poor, diligent reading of the Quran and intensified prayer."

   He continues, "But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them."

   Here we go honoring Islam again, just as they did in 2007 and 2008 with "A Common Word Between Us and You." Today's bunch of short-on-discernment leaders now observing Ramadan prove my point: Slippery slopes go only one way --  down -- and never turn around. And please tell me as an evangelical, what is it we will learn from Islam?

   McLaren states, "We, as Christians, humbly seek to join Muslims in this observance of Ramadan as a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness. Each of us will have at least one Muslim friend who will serve as our partner in the fast. These friends welcome us in the same spirit of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness." 

   It stretches credulity to watch the religious Left continue to forge unholy alliances with some who are sworn enemies of the gospel and who are burning down Christian villages around the world and cutting off the heads of other Christians. And they will continue to do the same until they hear and respond to the "good news" of Jesus Christ, which is not the purpose of the Christian Ramadan effort!  Yet an underlying motive with all such efforts is to declare the God of Christianity and the god of Islam as the same. If you get nothing else, remember that when such words come out of the pulpit in your church and renounce it!

   Some are asking if we don't have a virtual endorsement of Islam by liberal Christianity today with a few evangelicals thrown in for good measure. Signers say, "Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century." If you hear one of them say this, challenge them with, "No, saving the lost while there is time is the central challenge and that won't happen by joining with Muslims during Ramadan."
Author Joel Richardson, who has been on my radio program "Understanding the Times" on several occasions, asks the right question: "Is such an 'observance' actually tantamount to an endorsement of Islam?"

   As this is written, a young former Muslim girl named Rifqa has fled her home in America, going to another state, fearing the Islamic practice of "honor killing." Her parents, she fears, want to kill her for becoming a Christian. Will Brian McLaren and those following him in this outrage confront Muslim leaders about this? Does McLaren share the "common good" of honor killings? Of course he doesn't, but by keeping quiet, he doesn't improve this deplorable situation.

   In McLaren's recent book, "Everything Must Change," he suggests that evangelicals must turn Left to be relevant and atone for past myopia. Many of us are grieved that churches have taken his advice, and the advice of other church leaders with skewed ideas or theology and have thus destroyed evangelicalism as we once knew it.

   But it's not just all about unity!  McLaren believes that evangelical support for Israel is an obstacle to interfaith harmony.  While largely unwilling to criticize radical Islam by name, he has condemned the "terrible, deadly, distorted, yet popular theologies associated with Christian Zionism that create bigotry and prejudice against Muslims."  He urged Christian Zionists to bravely abandon their prejudice, just as white segregationists had to shed theirs 50 years ago.

   Mark Tooley concludes appropriately by saying, "McLaren's interfaith ritual just further evinces the Left's chronic misunderstanding that all cultural and international conflict can be remedied through apologies, folk songs, western guilt, and flamboyant sentimentality."

   That "old-time religion" we once loved is evaporating because guys like Brian McLaren and his Emergent buddies have convinced people that "everything must change." The one-world religion is literally on the horizon. Look over a fence and you will see it approaching.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Constitutional Crisis Looming? By Patrick Wood

The inflammatory issue of Barrack Obama's birth certificate is gathering steam across America: Was he or was he not born in the United States?

If he was born anywhere other than on American soil, then his presidency is invalidated. Why? The Constitution of the United States pointedly requires that the President be a natural born citizen. Defusing the issue would be easy: Obama could simply provide a legitimate and complete birth certificate proving his birth location. Not only has he stubbornly refused to do so, but he has spent several million dollars in legal fees to thwart various citizen lawsuits that demand proper disclosure.

Obama has also legally cloaked records that could potentially support or discredit his citizenship claims, like school records and transcripts from Harvard and Occidental College. Some investigators suspect that he may have applied for admission as a foreign student.

The pack of critics (called "birthers" by Obama defenders) is getting larger by the day. Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh are both talking about it. WorldNet Daily devoted an entire issue of WhistleBlower Magazine to it. Lawyers have filed dozens of lawsuits. Military officers are challenging potentially illegal orders to be deployed to combat zones overseas. Leftwing organizations are being drawn into vocal opposition, thus stirring the pot even more.

As the battle heats up, the attacks on the "birthers" by their detractors (mostly leftwing) is taking on a familiar pattern. The former are being being ruthlessly ridiculed, scorned and marginalized as the "lunatic fringe."

So far, neither side has blinked. Neither is willing to give an inch. The battle lines have been drawn. Herein lies the problem. Barrack Obama's approval rating is already dropping like a rock and the public is more sharply polarized than ever. After just six months in office, Obama has fared worse than even Jimmy Carter in 1976, whose outrageous acts had enraged the American public like none before him. Carter had no chance of serving a second term.

Many Democrats have already pulled away from Obama, fearing that he is a) too far to the left or b) pursuing a narcissistic agenda that leaves them out of the picture.

Obama should have balked during his campaign when supporters and his captive media compared him to the Messiah. Everybody hailed Jesus Christ when he appeared in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but less than three days later, they demanded his execution.

Perhaps Obama was convinced by his handlers that nobody would care about this natural born citizen thing. Or, perhaps they convinced him that he could get away with it even if they did care.

What Obama may not know is that these same handlers might soon offer him up as a cheap sacrifice in order to force a Constitutional crisis.

Why? Because it would almost certainly require a Constitutional Convention to straighten out the mess. Every Presidential act would be invalidated. Civil unrest would be rampant. Chaos would reign, and chaos is the desired environment for the powers behind Obama.

With every passing day that the birth issue is not resolved in Obama's favor, the odds will persistently increase that a Constitutional crisis will soon unfold, and that America will be polarized like never before in history.


This article appeared originally at the August Forecast (www.augustforecast.com/tag/birthcertificate/).