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DEFENDING THE
FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES [Archive ]

Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world.

Defending the Faith articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel.

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MESSIANIC JEWS AND THE LAW OF MOSES
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THE CROSS, SELF-DENIAL AND
THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

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DEFENDING THE
FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES [Archive ]

Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world.

Defending the Faith articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel.

To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button.


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DEFENDING THE FAITH #201  

SECULARISM AND THE ABOLITION OF THE FUTURE

 

The future has been abolished! Does that statement seem outlandish? Let me explain.  

Secularism, whether it's called Secular Humanism or atheism, is the belief that there is no God and no accountability to God in the afterlife. To the secularist, death results in the ending of consciousness, hence there is no future for the individual human being. There is no future for humanity as a whole when all life ceases at the time of the heat death of the universe according to the secularist. All that you have learned and experienced through relationships, work, play, education, love, pain and pleasure evaporates at death. This is the secular abolition of the future. This view is not isolated to avant garde ivory tower types but permeates our society. The abolition of the future has resulted in the philosophical pessimism and purposelessness of our youth and it drives the drug culture.

Why do I dwell on secularism? Secularism is the de facto state religion of the United States and virtually all of the Western World. (I include nominal Christians under the term "secularist" because nominal Christians generally live a secularist lifestyle.) Christianity has been kicked out of the state run schools in the US by misapplication of the constitutionally dubious doctrine of separation of church and state. Education is by far the largest public forum and if Christianity is kicked out of public education then it is in essence marginalized. Christians are forced to pay taxes to support schools that indoctrinate children in the secular origins myth called evolution. Everything is taught from a perspective of philosophical atheism. My niece was assigned the book The Da Vinci Code as a reading assignment by her school! The Da Vinci Code is a blasphemous book that gives a scandalously distorted view of church history and denies the deity of Christ. I could give other examples of public school assignments that actively undermine the Christian faith.

The secularist cult has taken over public education. Secular education is not neutral as often claimed but is aggressively evil. Secularism denies the existence of God as transcendent lawgiver. If there is no transcendent lawgiver there is no law above man's law hence all things are permissible. World famous secular philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) said "If there is no God, there is no right or wrong or absolute morality only opinions as to right and wrong." Secularism is the negation of law, morals, ethics and values. Secularism is amoral and purposeless. It is anarchy. The postmodern concept of the self has replaced God as lawgiver. Self with its relativistic and shifting opinions of right and wrong is the only lawgiver. Society is the collision of selves with no guiding philosophy or religion to unite the whole.

Young people who've been robbed of their Christian faith and hence robbed of their hope for a future beyond death live only for this life and its passing pleasures. There are currently 39 sexually transmitted diseases extant in the United States but this fact gets little publicity. Many of these, like herpes, are incurable viruses. The HPV virus causes cervical cancer -- it is sexually transmitted cancer. We all know of the devastating death toll of AIDS. Out of wedlock births and paternal child abandonment are rampant. Legalized abortion has resulted in the mass murder of millions of the preborn.

Secularists believe in assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Christians believe that all human life is sacred and even the very elderly have futures that stretch to eternity. All human life has a future and has meaning in relation to God. Secularism is a religion. It takes great faith to believe that life came about by chance as the secularists claim. Secular Humanism is recognized as a religion by the US government. It is a religion without a moral code. Radical secularism has all the coerciveness of any fundamentalist faith but without any inherent moral restraint.  

 There is only one true religion. The laws of logic, specifically the law of noncontradiction, determine that there can only be one true religion. This is because all of the world's religions contradict each other and no two contradictory statements can both be true. If Hinduism is true then Christianity is false and vice versa. God has given authentication to the one true religion by miracles. The one true religion is the one religion authenticated by the best and most miraculous events. To be blunt, the religion with the best miracles wins. Christianity is the one true religion because Jesus came in fulfillment of 333 predictive prophecies and worked miracles never seen by anyone else since the foundation of the earth! No other religion or philosophy compares with the supernatural authentication of the Christian faith. Christianity gives us hope and a future.   

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

  1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
  2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
  3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
  4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
  5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2010 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given


Read Bill Nugent's award winning Christian book, Lawful or Legalistic: How New Testament Believers Must Understand Old Testament Laws. For more information and to order click here.
Return to the Defending the Faith Archive

DEFENDING THE FAITH
APOLOGETIC ARTICLES

Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world.

The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel.

All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given.

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LAWFUL OR LEGALISTIC

Lawful or Legalistic by Bill Nugent

HOW NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS MUST UNDERSTAND OLD TESTAMENT LAWS

Published by Xulon Press, Longwood, Florida USA, this book is available in soft cover at xulonpress.com at a reasonable price. It is similar to our free eBook #1 (Messianic Jews and the Law of Moses) but is written more from a Gentile perspective. Winner of the Best Christian Biblical Book of the year 2008 award given by Christianstoryteller.com.

Grace versus law is an issue of supreme importance to every follower of Jesus the Messiah. Finding the proper balance between grace versus law is a major key to a joyful, victorious lifestyle that glorifies God. The on-line book titled Messianic Jews and the Law of Moses and the new paperback Lawful or Legalistic: How New Testament Believers Must Understand Old Testament Laws tackle the subject of grace versus law from a whole new perspective.

The author, Bill Nugent, a gifted Bible teacher, approaches grace versus law by giving a proper understanding of how the Old Testament law is a prophetic picture of the New Testament walk by the Spirit. For instance the Sabbath was a day of rest on which the people were commanded to cease from work. Under the New Testament we observe not a literal cessation from work every seventh day but rather we observe the spiritual fullness of resting in Christ whereby we cease striving and simply flow in Christ's strength and joy to work in such liberation that it hardly seems like work.

Other aspects of the Old Testament Law such as tithing and the dietary laws are also discussed from this perspective. Issues such as Jewish believers' Torah observance are discussed. The prophetic issues pertaining to the millennium in which some teachers claim that animal sacrifices will be offered in a rebuilt temple are also discussed at length. Other chapters contain some extremely helpful teaching on laying down the self-life and how to walk in continued guidance by the Holy Spirit.

You will enjoy reading this timely, insightful, practical and thought provoking book. What follows are short descriptions of each chapter:

  1. THE TEACHINGS AND LIFE EXAMPLES OF THE APOSTLES REGARDING THE LAW: The whole concept of covenant and covenant law is defined. The New Testament apostolic teaching on the Abrahamic and Sinaitic covenants is explained as a foundation for the central premise of the book. The fact that we fulfill the Law by walking in the Spirit is shown. Voluntary keeping of the literal Law of Moses is permitted but not biblically required. The apostles’ teachings in the epistles are studied in the context of their godly lifestyles which are recorded in the book of Acts. It is important to understand the lifestyle and cultural context of the apostles' teachings. The emphasis in this chapter is why we must walk in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
  2. THE NEW WINESKIN INSTEAD OF THE OLD" Specific examples of literal Mosaic laws (Sabbath, dietary laws etc.) are given in order to show how these laws find fulfillment in Christ. The emphasis in this chapter is on how to walk in the Spirit to keep the law in substance rather than shadow.
  3. WILL ANIMAL SACRIFICES BE OFFERED IN A MILLENIAL TEMPLE? The eschatological question as to whether or not animal sacrifices will be offered in a stone temple during the millennium is dealt with here. This chapter explains why a reinstitution of the animal sacrifice system is not at all intended by the prophetic passages often cited to make this claim. A correct understanding of the prophetic passages is given.
  4. ARE GENTILES UNDER THE COMMANDS OF NOAH? There are some teachers who put Jewish believers under the literal Law of Moses who also attempt to put Gentiles under a separate legal system based on the Noahide covenant of Genesis nine. This chapter explains that Gentiles are free from this obligation because the commands given to Noah also find their fulfillment in Christ. Each of the commands of Acts 15:29 (alleged to be derived from Noah) are analyzed in depth.
  5. THE LAW OF MESSIAH: We are under grace and not under law yet the New Testament is full of commands. This chapter analyzes the commands Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount and the commands given through the apostles in the epistles and explains how we are to understand and obey them. Specific examples of how the apostles understood and obeyed these commands are given. Examples from modern day life are also given to shed light on how we must walk by the Spirit to obey New Testament commands.

    Click Here to Order

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