November 1, 2022 Show with Ryan Weingard on “How a United Methodist Pastor Came to Embrace the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace Through His Own Preaching”
2 views
November 1, 2022
RYAN WEINGARD,
a former United Methodist
pastor who converted to the
Reformed Faith & is now involved
in a Reformed church plant in
Pennsylvania, who will address:
“HOW A UNITED METHODIST
PASTOR CAME to EMBRACE the
DOCTRINES of SOVEREIGN
GRACE THROUGH HIS OWN
PREACHING!”
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- Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown
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- Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
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- Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.
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- Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
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- Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation, to make one another wiser and better.
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- It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions, and now here's your host,
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- Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,
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- Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet
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- Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is
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- Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this first day of November 2022.
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- And as many of you know, who listen to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio regularly, twice a year
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- I have the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon, and I invite guest speakers.
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- The last one that I had featured Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, who was actually my guest yesterday to discuss
- 01:55
- Reformation Day. And I love meeting men of God that I have never met before at these luncheons.
- 02:05
- I, of course, love rekindling old friendships and sharing fellowship with beloved friends that I've known for many years who sometimes just travel locally a short distance, and some of them have traveled many hours from Long Island, New York, and Georgia, and North Carolina, and other places.
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- But I do love meeting first -time folks, or folks for the first time,
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- I should say. As well, and one of those folks that I knew that I had to get on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio is
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- Ryan Weingard. Ryan is a former United Methodist pastor who converted to Reformed Theology, and is now involved in a
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- Reformed church plant in Pennsylvania. Today we are going to be addressing his fascinating story, how a
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- United Methodist pastor came to embrace the doctrines of Sovereign Grace through his own preaching.
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- And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Ryan Weingard.
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- Hello, Chris. It's great to have you on, and you are such a gregarious, gracious, and humble man, in addition to having a fascinating testimony, that I was thrilled to hear your acceptance of my invitation and look forward to our discussion.
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- We have a tradition here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, whenever we have a first -time guest, that that guest gives a summary of their salvation testimony.
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- And before we move on to how you actually embraced the doctrines of Sovereign Grace, I would love to hear from you how you actually first became saved by the grace of God.
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- That story would include what kind of religious atmosphere, if any, in which you were raised, and what kind of providential circumstances our
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- Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to Himself and saved you. So let's hear your story.
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- Well, very well. Deep down, I wish I had to say that I was just born and always believed, but as you often find, that is not the case.
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- I was raised in a Christian home. My parents, I believe, did a very good job of instilling the
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- Christian faith in me, and I considered myself a Christian right up into adulthood.
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- Since the age of three, when we moved to PA, I was in the
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- United Methodist Church in Townville, PA, and experienced many blessings there.
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- I considered myself a Christian and stayed away from all the party scenes and all that throughout school.
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- I did attend public school. But then, as I entered adulthood and I went to college,
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- I strayed from the path and had some rebellious time there.
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- So the real fascinating part of my salvation story, I would consider myself actually being saved as an adult, because I do not believe that I really believed, since I had strayed so far at one point.
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- But I was going through a rough patch, and I actually picked up a
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- Bob Marley album on vinyl at a local record store one day, and I brought that home.
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- And I had listened to Bob Marley, but didn't really know what he sang about, and I was sitting there on my apartment floor listening to this record
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- I had just bought, and I hadn't read my Bible in two years or so. I looked over and saw my
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- Bible sticking out under a stack of papers. I went over and I picked it up and I sat down and I just randomly opened it to a psalm.
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- And as I looked down at the page, I heard the lyrics that Bob was singing coming out of the speaker as I read them on the page.
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- And that really threw me for a loop. I immediately closed the Bible, shoved it back under the papers, and left.
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- That was my immediate reaction. So even Bob Marley, a Rastafarian, was preaching the
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- Gospel to you? Basically, yeah. He preached to me, but the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
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- I believe it's... Well, anyway, I'm not going to struggle for this psalm. But yeah, and then two weeks later,
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- I went to that same record store and I bought a Peter Tosh album. Now, Peter Tosh was one of the
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- Wailers. It was Bob Marley and the Wailers. This was a solo album he did. And it was almost identical.
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- I threw this disc on the record player, sat down, saw the Bible, grabbed it, randomly opened it to another psalm, completely random, and as the words came out of the speaker,
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- I read them. So this time,
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- I did not just shove my Bible back under the papers. I had to sit and think about this. This is kind of like an
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- Augustine story, where he heard children playing and they were saying pick up and read, or take up and read.
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- And that was, to Augustine, a sign from God to pick up the
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- Bible and start reading it. Wow. I didn't know that story. Well, that's fascinating.
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- Well, yeah. It's very similar to that. I would love to say, then, that I immediately believed and ran off into the sunset being a
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- Christian. But that did not happen either. And how long did it take for your dreadlocks to grow out?
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- Well, you're good. Are you 17 years old?
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- I had no idea. That was just a joke. I know. You're 17.
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- I'm a young man. You have the best laugh on radio, and I went, I hope I can make him laugh. And if you don't mind, and let's not forget where you left off there, back up a little bit because the
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- United Methodist Church is not as monolithic as people may think.
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- It is not all leftist, not every congregation is apostate.
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- There, in fact, especially since I began conducting my pastor's luncheons here in Pennsylvania after moving here from New York, there have been a reasonable number, considerable number, of United Methodist pastors who have come who are evangelical,
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- Bible -believing. And so, what was the kind of United Methodist congregation in which you were raised?
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- And also, if you don't mind, I mean, obviously this will in some way reveal how old you are, but what years would this have been?
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- Because it's probably a lot harder these days to find a
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- United Methodist Church that is in any way faithful to the Scripture. And I know that there was even a recent split where the more conservative members who believed in biblical inerrancy and so on, and opposed the atrocities and the abominations of homosexuality and abortion and so on, left the
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- United Methodist Church to enter into or to form the global Methodist Church.
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- But tell us about this Methodist congregation in which you were raised. Yeah. So, Townsville United Methodist Church was considered to be a conservative congregation, even to this day.
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- And I was raised under what I would consider today to be some Bible -believing and Christian conservative, biblically conservative.
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- And that continued, so that would have been 1981, when I was three and we moved back to Pennsylvania.
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- So, my earliest memories of the church are, you know, running around playing with the pastor's kids.
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- I would still consider it a conservative church and Christian.
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- And they were up until, oh, I'm going to say I was around 13, so around 90, 91, early 90s in that area, we received our first female pastor.
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- So they sent us a female, and I'm sure you're familiar, but if listeners are not familiar, the
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- United Methodist system is itinerant, as they call it. It follows an old tradition of circuit -riding preachers.
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- And so the conference assigned you pastors, and you don't get a lot of choice. So, we liked our pastor at the time, but they decided it was time to make a change.
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- And we got our first woman pastor. That, I recall, that kind of blew up the church in some ways.
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- People weren't accepting of that due to what they read in Scripture. Now, I believe that that is a very serious violation of the
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- Scriptures. I'm not an egalitarian by any means. I am a firm believer in exclusively male headship in the church.
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- And I believe the husbands and fathers are to be leaders in their household.
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- But, having said that, I do know that there are women in pastoral ministry out there who are, amazingly, in every other way, conservative and even evangelical.
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- Would that be the case with this woman, or was she more of a feminist and liberal?
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- Well, yes, I agree with you on all of your points you just stated. And what
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- I'm realizing now, as I'm older and have thought through these issues, is that I do believe that she was also liberal.
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- But guardedly so. I think she realized that the time and place she was in that she could be full -out feminist with us.
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- I do recall a couple of anti -gun sermons that she preached. And we're very rural.
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- People are very proud of, you know, they enjoy their guns and proud of their hunting. And those did not go over well.
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- So, I believe that she was more liberal than I knew at the time. Yes, in fact, even being a conservative
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- United Methodist pastor doesn't guarantee that you'll be a Christian. I found that out the hard way when my show,
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- Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, was being conducted out of WNYG Radio in Babylon, Long Island, New York.
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- And a Bible -believing, evangelical United Methodist pastor, who is a friend of mine, now retired,
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- Dick Williamson, Dr. Dick Williamson, who was for many years the pastor of the
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- Seaford United Methodist Church on Long Island. And he was able to remain there for decades, unlike the story that you just told.
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- I think it was because the denomination knew that the congregation would not stand for a minute for a liberal.
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- And Long Island, New York, it's very, very difficult to find a conservative, evangelical,
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- Bible -believing Methodist pastor, so they just left him be. But anyway, he told me, hey, you should give a call to the new pastor at Simpson United Methodist Church in Amityville, Long Island.
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- I hear he's a conservative, and Dick did not know much else about him. So I did a program on conservative, evangelical pastors in liberal denominations.
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- That was the theme. And I had an evangelical pastor in the
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- PCUSA on, and I had a pastor from, it may have been an
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- Episcopal church who was Bible -believing and evangelical. And I had the United Methodist pastor on.
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- And we were having a conversation before we went on the air in the studio. One of the pastors asked, hey, guys, what's your favorite
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- Bible translation? And one said, oh, I love my old King James.
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- And the other one said, I use the NASB in my pulpit. And the United Methodist pastor said,
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- I prefer the New World translation. I said, what? I said, excuse me? That's the Jehovah's Witness Bible.
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- He said, oh, yes, I'm an Arian. And then the engineer said,
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- Chris, you're going on the air in 30 seconds. And I had to scramble to know what to do.
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- I was in a panic, and I changed the theme at the last second to pastors in liberal denominations who are against abortion.
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- That way kept the topic away from theological issues, because there was no way
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- I was going to promote the idea that this guy was an Arian. So that was an amazing lesson, because I didn't know that you could actually be an
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- Arian at that time and be a United Methodist. Even though they allowed all kinds of liberal heresies in there,
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- I did not know that even the deity of Christ was up for grabs as far as ordination.
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- Wow. Well, yeah. It's quite difficult to end up in, isn't it?
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- Oh, yeah. I do a lot more diligent vetting these days.
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- Now you know that they hallucinate him.
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- But pick up where we left off. You were a dreadlock wearing guy.
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- Now, were you convinced that you actually became regenerate, became born again during these experiences or after these experiences listening to the reggae music, but it just so happened that the specific songs were quoting
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- Scripture? Yeah, it was the... Well, yeah. So to finish that up, whatever caused me to pull that Bible out and open it, and at the same time impressed upon me that there's more to this world than just what
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- I'm seeing anymore. You know, there is a spiritual realm. From there, it took a little more time, but I was actually at a music festival in southwest
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- New York up near Clymer, and a bunch of old reggae's from Jamaica were playing in a band up there.
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- I walked over. I felt like I needed
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- God, and they were singing Scripture, though in their Rastafarian way, which that's probably a whole other show if you want to talk about what they believe.
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- Oh, yeah. Are you very familiar with them enough to discuss them in detail? I think
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- I could do a decent job. Okay, yeah. They are varied and not consistent, but they do have a particular slant to their beliefs, and they all center around who they call
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- Rastafari or Burheel's philosophy of Ethiopia. And interestingly enough, some of them have fellowship with the
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- Black Hebrew Israelites, or should I just say Hebrew Israelites? They don't use the word
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- Black in the description of themselves, but they happen to be all Black. But they sometimes gather together at meetings, as I was told by Oscar Dunlap, who
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- I interviewed. He's a deacon at Apologia Church in Mesa, Arizona, and he was a
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- Black, or should I say a Hebrew Israelite, and came to Christ primarily after seeing
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- Dr. James R. White debate one of their leaders, and he saw his leader just utterly annihilated as far as the discussion went, and he was convinced he needed to further investigate the theology of Dr.
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- James R. White, and he, by the mercy of God, got saved. But anyway, I interrupted you there. Oh, that's fine.
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- Yes, you're correct. As a matter of fact, the Rastafarians may have come first with that type of theology, and inspired the others.
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- Or maybe they inspired each other. But yeah, I recall that with Elder Raka, I believe. But anyway,
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- I remember just feeling kind of overwhelmed, and I prayed a prayer.
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- I stood there, and I said, Lord, I don't know who this Rastafari they're singing about is, and this was literally my prayer.
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- I said, but I do know from growing up in the church that Jesus Christ is
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- God, and I just want to give my life to you now. And then I looked at the stage, and I added to the prayer, and I'll grow dreadlocks like theirs as a sign of my commitment.
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- And that's what I consider basically my salvation moment.
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- Now, from that point forward, I returned to my local Methodist church, um, to Townville.
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- And most Methodist churches are arranged in what they call a charge. So you have multiple churches in the charge.
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- And this particular charge had Townville and a church called Troy Center. And at that time,
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- I moved out of Meadville, where the zipper was invented, by the way.
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- Little fun historical fact. But I moved out of Meadville and over to Troy Center, which is about 20 miles east.
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- In the middle of nowhere. And there's Troy Center right at the bottom of the hill, about a half mile from my house.
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- So I played guitar, and I started playing some of this reggae music of Bob's that I was enjoying.
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- And my dad was a lay pastor at the time. So the lay speaker,
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- I should say. A layman who could preach sermons and was licensed to by the church.
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- And he was going to preach that week and wanted me to play a song. So I played with him at Townville.
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- I went down to Troy Center, where I'd never been. I played with him there. And I looked around, and I went, this is where I need to be.
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- Asked the pastor. And they already had a piano player, but she invited me in. And I started playing hymns for them on the guitar.
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- Now, right at that time, we started getting... We got another pastor who took a lot of money out of the church.
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- And people weren't happy with him. And the church started to kind of split over this pastor.
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- So he wasn't very biblically solid. So what I walked into, as I sought to reinforce this faith
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- I'd recommitted myself to, I walked into a pastoral leader who looked me straight in the eye and said, because I had a question about the
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- Old Testament. He said, it doesn't matter. It's Old Testament. We use the New Testament here.
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- And that kind of upset me, because I had the whole Bible in my hand. As every
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- Christian should. Not that they should never have the compact New Testaments, but that's not to be the sole basis of their faith.
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- It's the entire, the whole counsel of God. You don't even understand the New Testament rightly, unless you understand the
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- Old Testament. Exactly. Yeah. So he left.
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- Then we got another woman in, who I don't believe was a Christian. Then she left, and we got another woman behind her, who again,
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- I doubt the Christianity. And the one in between was very tight.
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- You mean her tenure as a pastor, not her life? No. And this woman looked at me, that was her name, and she said the same thing.
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- You don't need the Old Testament. We don't use that. So out of all of that, what
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- I'm trying to get at here is that I did not receive the training that I needed in order to understand the
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- Christianity I was pursuing. And because of that, it left me astray in a way.
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- And I don't know if you've heard of Steve Vanguard or Josh Pack or some people, but I kind of followed their path for a little while.
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- I decided that maybe I didn't understand the Bible. I didn't see healings happening. These miracles didn't happen anymore.
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- I had no leadership to help me understand why. I was given a
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- New Interpreter Study Bible. And I don't know if you're familiar with that group. Nope.
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- It is very liberal. And out of all of that,
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- I kind of started practicing a syncretism. I embraced the New Age and Christianity and was in some way trying to meld them together.
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- And I had to climb out of that on my own. So, in fact, let's pick up right where you left off there because we have to go to our first station break.
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- And if anybody has a question for Ryan Weingart about his journey from a
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- United Methodist pastor into the Reformed faith, and that was done by the grace and mercy of God and the power of the
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- Holy Spirit using his own preaching. And if you have a question, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.
- 25:48
- C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.
- 25:56
- Don't go away. We'll be right back with Ryan Weingart right after these messages. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world.
- 26:17
- Here's Joe Reilly, a listener in Ireland, who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,
- 26:25
- Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Reilly, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.
- 26:33
- Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is
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- Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.
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- Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
- 26:58
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- Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight -volume commentary on the larger catechism. Heritage is a member of the
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- For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com,
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- Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Vigna and thanks for listening. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the
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- Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan. All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching.
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- Jeffrey uses the finest and buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my
- 34:22
- Nestle All in 28th edition with a navy blue goatskin inside liner and the electric blue goatskin from a
- 34:29
- French tannery used to rebind a Reformation study Bible I used as a gift. The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome.
- 34:40
- Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather, making whatever he rebinds a one of a kind work of art.
- 34:50
- For more details on Post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding go to ptlbiblerebinding .com
- 34:57
- that's ptlbiblerebinding .com For the perfect custom designed engagement ring or any one of a kind piece of jewelry created exactly according to your imagination and specifications
- 35:51
- Royal Diadem Jewelers has you covered. No matter where you live in the world Royal Diadem will walk you step by step through every stage of the process and even hold a high -tech internet virtual visit using state -of -the -art jewelry design technology to serve you.
- 36:07
- They start by listening carefully to determine your needs. They're interested in making what you want not what they want to sell you.
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- From rough design to digital model to photo realistic image to wax prototype model to the finished product they are continually listening to your input likes and dislikes making any changes necessary along the way.
- 36:31
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- 36:39
- Visit royaldiadem .com that's royaldiadem .com today.
- 36:46
- Sterling Vanderwercker owner of Royal Diadem Jewelers his wife Bronnie his business partner and manager
- 36:52
- Brian Wilson and the entire family thank you all for listening to praying for and supporting the work of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
- 37:09
- And I am so thrilled to receive the great news today from the owner of royaldiadem .com
- 37:18
- Sterling Vanderwercker that a couple in Texas who listen to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio are having a custom design piece of jewelry created and we at Iron Sharpens Iron Radio are receiving 100 % of the profits for that sale.
- 37:38
- And they are still offering that wonderful opportunity to us so especially with Christmas coming up if you have any interest in buying a piece of jewelry either one that is already in stock at royaldiadem .com
- 37:52
- or just as this couple in Texas is doing having a custom design piece created whether it's a custom design engagement ring or whether it's turning your own church or parachurch ministry logo into a pendant for a necklace or a ring or other piece of jewelry please as soon as you can while they are still offering us this great opportunity to receive 100 % of the profits for any sale please go to royaldiadem .com
- 38:23
- royaldiadem .com and mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio that's a very important element of the process because that's how we are going to receive 100 % of the profits for any sale this is a limited offer a limited time offer so I don't know when they are going to bring that to an end it's a mystery to me but hopefully it will continue into the future for a fairly long time but I don't know so please try to get that done as quickly as possible if indeed you are interested in purchasing jewelry for Christmas or for any other reason royaldiadem .com
- 39:02
- we are now back with Ryan Weingart if you just tuned us in he's a former United Methodist pastor who converted to reform theology and is now involved in a reform church plant in Pennsylvania and we are addressing how a
- 39:15
- United Methodist pastor came to embrace the doctrines of sovereign grace through his own preaching our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com
- 39:24
- c h r i s a r n z e n at gmail .com give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence and before the break
- 39:33
- Ryan you were talking about how you became unfortunately involved in syncretism you were trying to meld the new age movement together with Christianity which seems to be something very common when people are involved in the new age or the occult or any other kind of aberrant religion they try very often to import elements of Christianity into what they teach there are very few people and very few religions that outright condemn
- 40:10
- Jesus Christ and want nothing to do with him but obviously they in reality want nothing to do with the true
- 40:18
- Christ of the scriptures but they will very often include him in some way in their rhetoric in their propaganda and their false teaching and so you were in this process if you could pick up where you left off yes
- 40:33
- I was and for those who are in a confused position and correct to say their propaganda works well in those cases they are good at what they do and they kind of drew me in I don't want to dwell too much on that Steve Bankart there's
- 40:58
- Melissa Doerr they tell a very similar story to mine so you know you can pursue their podcasts and stuff so these people that you're mentioning they're now evangelical
- 41:14
- Christian? yeah okay yeah they're all they're being interviewed some of them have been on some of Apologia's shows places like that so for the most part
- 41:28
- I would say you know they're Christian they may not follow the exact theology we do but there's one more strange providential event that really drew me out of that and back in the day
- 41:43
- I would have called that prevenient grace of some sort now it's just provident you know not to interrupt you again but I have found for the first time ever now there may be folks that disagree with him but my dear friend
- 42:00
- Roger Salter he has been on my program he is a reformed
- 42:06
- Anglican he's a five -point Calvinist and he said that provenient grace on my show not long ago provenient grace is a title that was robbed by both
- 42:24
- Roman Catholics and Armenians that has a reformed meaning and I believe he was referring to the effectual call and calling it provenient grace which
- 42:38
- I've never heard any other reformed person do but I just thought I'd throw that out there because apparently there are reformed people who are truly reformed who use that term but have a different understanding of it than obviously
- 42:51
- Rome and the Armenians would well that's very interesting
- 42:58
- I'd be interested well to bring it to this point where things really started changing for me
- 43:09
- I was well I found out okay I was at Penn State while Jerry Sandusky was there doing his horrible misdeeds with the young people and when he got arrested that really stood out to me because I thought wow there was a major evil group operating at this college
- 43:33
- I was at and I think it was always on occasion would hear
- 43:38
- Alex Jones and he brought up a book called The Franklin Cover -Up a book written by Senator John DeCamp in the early 90s just real quick it was about a satanic ritual abuse scandal that they uncovered while doing investigation into the savings and loans scandals of the 80s those who are alive remember that I'm sure they're investigating the
- 44:04
- Franklin Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska and they uncovered a ritual abuse ring and this all got covered up and the senator at the time felt like it was such an important story that at least he had to get it out so he wrote a book about it so this was an actual proven satanic ritual abuse story because there were especially in the 80s a lot of fraudulent stories that charlatans posing as Christian evangelists especially in the charismatic realm were peddling these things that turned out to be totally false so you're saying this was an actual true account?
- 44:45
- As far as I can tell let's put it this way this is the most legitimate account I've ever found and there's corroborating evidence so I looked up you can find like victim testimonies from this case on YouTube where they released them onto YouTube and you can watch these interviews and see people flip into different voices very disturbing and the reason this book was brought up is because the president of the
- 45:15
- University of Nebraska was named in the book and that's where Jerry Sandusky was working at the time so the idea might be that he continued the same practices that they were doing and moved it to Penn State so this is as legitimate as you can get when it comes to a book now the reason the book was written is because the grand jury investigation ended up convicting the witness the victim witnesses instead of going after the perpetrators so Senator DeCamp wrote the book trying to get it out and give all his info so that being said
- 45:59
- I read that learned all about the satanic ritual abuse the real stuff and yeah
- 46:06
- I am familiar with the satanic panic and I did watch the Geraldo episode that he had and there was some shadiness and there were some false stories peddled about but in this case another interest of mine popped up and that was in the
- 46:22
- Nephilim which I enjoyed talking to your former co -host there at your pastor's luncheon about because I listened to your episode on that Oh Buzz Taylor you mean?
- 46:33
- Pardon? Buzz Taylor my former co -host on the Iron Church Okay Yeah that's who
- 46:40
- I talked about we had a good conversation there on the debate night so he
- 46:47
- I was interested in it and this all came together in one random occurrence while I was at work
- 46:54
- I found out about a conference in Newark, Ohio called Nephilim Mounds Conference about the
- 47:00
- Nephilim and I went well that's that sounds fun you know and I saw there was this
- 47:06
- L .A. Martinsville Lee was speaking who I'd heard talk about giants and then a man named
- 47:11
- Russ Dizdar I'd never heard of him he passed away this year I consider him a friend and a brother so his passing was sad but he was speaking and I didn't know who he was and I saw he had a podcast and I'm I work in Meadville, PA and I turned this his last podcast on and I'm sitting there listening to it while I'm working and he starts talking about satanic ritual abuse of course the first thought was what in the world does this have to do with the
- 47:42
- Nephilim? I was a little confused but the providential moment came when
- 47:48
- I'm listening at work and he goes I was dealing with a victim and and then he hesitated he went oh this is
- 47:55
- Meadville, PA and I just oh my goodness here and he had this horrible story he told and I just about fell off my chair and I went home said
- 48:07
- Kelly we have to go what I gained from this conference that has to do with our story is he convinced me that satanism was real that it was pervasive and that it was extremely damaging and he also convinced me that the old and new testament did in fact fit together and that the bible should be our sole authority that we need to believe it's true and that's something that was being that was not being enforced in the church
- 48:41
- I was in at the time so I became convinced that if we have the bible we need to understand it we need to believe it out of this this whole story
- 48:53
- I don't want to lead you down these rabbit trails too far you know we need to get to me preaching and converting that right we do we do have about an hour left so that's fine yes so I came back to church and right around that time we got a new pastor and he was
- 49:15
- Korean and just so you're aware and so everyone is the church the Methodist church was applying both critical gender theory and critical race theory okay the application of it was happening so the reason we got a
- 49:30
- Korean pastor and we were basically I was told this at one point was to because our denomination was too uniform that our denominations should represent the diversity of God's kingdom and therefore we should have white and black and Asians and Latinas all these should be represented and if your church doesn't represent it well enough if they're too uniform then what they would do is take a woman pastor for instance critical gender theory placed her in your pulpit and force you to deal with her or in this case they took a
- 50:09
- Korean from Korea with a thick accent and placed him in our church and according to the current rhetoric of critical race theory he's a white man because he's not black and Asians seem to be on a a peer level with Caucasians as far as being inherently bigoted and racist and they are not to receive preferential treatment as blacks are that's what
- 50:41
- I've been hearing from the people who are keeping up to date on these heresies of critical race theory and so on well yeah that's definitely how it's being applied right now in our context
- 50:55
- I would contend that these Marxist theories can be twisted and spun to whatever goal you have in mind and I believe this was their goal at the time and is still today so the good well he blew up our church too the church started splitting apart because they didn't want someone with he was very conservative bible believing pastor and I came back from this conference that I just told you about where I met this
- 51:29
- Russ Dizdar and became convinced that scripture was true and I needed to understand it and he helped me on that path and he said oh yeah well
- 51:41
- I came to the conclusion that I need to believe the bible when I read it and he reinforced that for me he also looked at my new interpreter study bible and he goes oh he goes that that bible no good he said no good
- 51:59
- I said really because they don't believe in miracles he said they don't believe that you know the people who wrote the bible wrote the bible and he gave me a whole list of things he goes
- 52:08
- I used to own one he goes you know what I did with it he goes I threw it in the trash he goes threw it right in the garbage well sounds like a good man yeah in fact let's pick up where we you left off because we have to go to our midway break right now and please be patient folks the midway break is always a little longer than the other breaks because Grace Life Radio 90 .1
- 52:32
- FM in Lake City Florida needs to localize Iron Trip and Zion Radio geographically to Lake City Florida in order to fulfill
- 52:42
- FCC requirements so they do so by using by airing their own public service announcements and other local things during the midway break we on the other hand simultaneously air our globally heard commercials please use this time wisely respond to our advertisers so that they know that you're listening and when you can't purchase anything please at the very least thank them for sponsoring
- 53:06
- Iron Trip and Zion Radio if you love this program and are grateful that there are those out there who are sharing the wealth that God has blessed them with with Iron Trip and Zion Radio so if you're thankful for that please thank our sponsors we could not exist without our advertisers and also send in your emails to our guest today
- 53:27
- Ryan Weingart chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com don't go away we'll be right back after these messages
- 53:42
- When Iron Trip and Zion Radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the
- 53:47
- New American Standard Bible were among my very first sponsors it gives me joy knowing that many scholars and pastors in the
- 53:55
- Iron Trip and Zion Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the
- 54:01
- NASB I'm author Gary DeMar president of American Vision and the
- 54:06
- NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Dan Labenick of West Hills Baptist Church in Huntington Station, New York and the
- 54:14
- NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Justin Peters of Justin Peters Ministries and the
- 54:20
- NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Reverend Buzz Taylor author of God's Lawson and the
- 54:27
- NASB is my Bible of choice I'm Dr. William Webster pastor of Grace Bible Church in Battleground, Washington founder of the ministry
- 54:36
- Christian Resources and the NASB is my Bible of choice
- 54:42
- I'm pastor Ryan Galan of Central Islip Community Church in Central Islip, New York and the
- 54:47
- NASB is my Bible of choice I'm pastor Brandon Smith of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in Jackson, Georgia and the
- 54:56
- NASB is my Bible of choice Here's a great way for your church to help keep
- 55:01
- Iron Trip and Zion Radio on the air Pastors, are your pew bibles tattered and falling apart?
- 55:07
- Consider restocking your pews with the NASB and tell the publishers you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Trip and Zion Radio Go to nasbible .com
- 55:19
- that's nasbible .com to place your order I'm Dr.
- 55:34
- Tony Costa professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love
- 55:44
- Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, Long Island, New York pastored by Rich Janssen and Christopher McDowell It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word enthusiastically proclaim
- 56:09
- Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as I have
- 56:24
- For more information on Hope Reformed Baptist Church go to hopereformedli .net
- 56:31
- that's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711 that's 631 -696 -5711
- 56:46
- Tell the folks at Hope Reformed Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron Here's what
- 57:04
- Gary DeMar, President of American Vision had to say about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio recently
- 57:10
- Good to be back, Chris I always enjoy our time You, I have to tell you one of the better interviewers out there and I've been doing this for 30 more than 30 years
- 57:20
- Wow, that's some compliment How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything
- 57:27
- We're in good shape I'm glad you said it on the air so I don't have to brag about myself
- 57:34
- Tell your friends and loved ones about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio airing live Monday through Friday 4 to 6 p .m.
- 57:41
- Eastern Time at ironsharpensironradio .com Hi, I'm Buzz Taylor Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio has had a long -time partnership with our friends at CVBBS which stands for Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service They specialize in supplying
- 58:05
- Reformed and Puritan books and Bibles at discount prices that make them affordable for everyone CVBBS has been a family -owned book service since 1987 operating out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania They seek to bring you the best available
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- 58:56
- That's cvbbs .com Or you can order by phone at 1 -800 -656 -0231
- 59:04
- That's 1 -800 -656 -0231 Please let our friends at CVBBS know that you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Flipping burgers
- 59:23
- Passing sixth grade Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments and certifications
- 59:31
- But do you know what requires no training at all? Becoming a parent My name is
- 59:37
- A .M. Brewster I'm the president of Truth Love Parent and host of its award -winning podcast I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s
- 59:45
- And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes
- 59:53
- That's why Truth Love Parent exists We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents
- 59:58
- God called and created them to be We produce free parenting resources train church leaders and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness
- 01:00:10
- Please visit us at truthloveparent .com Every day at thousands of community centers, high schools, middle schools, juvenile institutions, coffee shops and local hangouts
- 01:00:33
- Long Island Youth for Christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need Jesus We are rural and urban and we are always about the message of Jesus Our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on Long Island, New York by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Christ Long Island Youth for Christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959
- 01:00:56
- We have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world
- 01:01:04
- Help honor our history by becoming a part of our future Volunteer, donate, pray or all of the above For details, call
- 01:01:13
- Long Island Youth for Christ at 631 -385 -8333
- 01:01:18
- That's 631 -385 -8333 Or visit liyfc .org
- 01:01:27
- That's liyfc .org James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here
- 01:01:44
- If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity
- 01:01:54
- And besides that, they feel so good I'm so delighted I discovered post -Tenebrous
- 01:01:59
- Lux Bible rebinding No radio ad will be long enough to sing their praises sufficiently but I'll give it a shot
- 01:02:05
- Jeffrey Rice of Post -Tenebrous Lux is a remarkably gifted craftsman and artisan
- 01:02:11
- All his work is done by hand from the cutting to the pleating of corners to the perimeter stitching
- 01:02:16
- Jeffrey uses the finest in buttery soft imported leathers in a wide variety of gorgeous colors like the turquoise goatskin tanned in Italy used for my
- 01:02:26
- Nestle All -in -28 edition with a navy blue goatskin inside liner and the electric blue goatskin from a
- 01:02:33
- French tannery used to rebind a Reformation Study Bible I used as a gift The silver gilding he added on the page edges has a stunning mirror finish resembling highly polished chrome
- 01:02:43
- Jeffrey will customize your rebinding to your specifications and even emboss your logo into the leather making whatever he rebinds a one -of -a -kind work of art
- 01:02:54
- For more details on Post -Tenebrous Lux Bible rebinding go to ptlbiblerebinding .com
- 01:03:02
- that's ptlbiblerebinding .com Have you noticed the gap that exists between the
- 01:03:16
- Sunday morning sermon and the Sunday school classroom or the small group study? So often we experience great preaching from the pulpit but when it comes time to study
- 01:03:26
- God's word in those smaller settings well let's be honest it leaves a lot to be desired
- 01:03:32
- It seems like it is nearly impossible to find good curriculum out there today that is true to the word of God and is built upon sound doctrine much less it's hard to find curriculum that will actually teach people how to study the
- 01:03:44
- Bible Hi there, my name is Jordan Too and I am the Executive Director of the Baptist Publishing House Our ministry is dedicated to providing local churches with sound
- 01:03:55
- Bible study resources Our quarterly curriculum is titled the Baptist Expositor and for good reason we are
- 01:04:02
- Baptist and we exegete the scriptures If you want to have a curriculum that teaches your people how to study the word of God I invite you go to our website download a free study baptistpublishinghouse .com
- 01:04:15
- May God bless you Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the
- 01:04:44
- Prince of Preachers to heart The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world
- 01:04:56
- Since its beginning in 2001 Solid Ground has been committed to publish God -centered,
- 01:05:02
- Christ -exalting books for all ages We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com
- 01:05:09
- That's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past to present you can unearth from Solid Ground Solid Ground Christian Books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio And don't forget folks with Christmas coming up make solid -ground -books .com
- 01:05:28
- your very first stop for all your gift -giving needs What better gift to give someone than a book that will possibly be used by our
- 01:05:38
- Sovereign Lord to lead them to Christ if they are lost But it will also, if you are giving these gifts to your brothers and sisters in Christ will help them to be further equipped to even be more ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within them
- 01:05:53
- That's solid -ground -books .com solid -ground -books .com
- 01:05:59
- They purchase them I'm sorry, they publish and bring back into print nothing but the finest in Christian literature dating back to the
- 01:06:07
- Protestant Reformation and extending forward to our present day including such modern day authors as Dr.
- 01:06:13
- James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries That's solid -ground -books .com
- 01:06:19
- Purchase frequently, purchase generously Always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Before I return to my guest
- 01:06:28
- Ryan Weingart who is a former United Methodist pastor who came to embrace the doctrines of sovereign grace through his own preaching before I return to that story we just have a couple of very important announcements to make
- 01:06:41
- First of all, folks if you love this show and you do not want it to disappear I'm urging you please go to ironsharpensironradio .com
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- I believe Well if that's the case please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com
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- click support then click click to donate now last but not least if you are not a member of a
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- Christ honoring biblically faithful theologically solid doctrinally sound church no matter where on the planet earth you live
- 01:10:10
- I may be able to help you find a church sometimes even right around the corner from where you live as I have done with many people throughout the world in our
- 01:10:19
- Iron Sharp and Zion Radio listening audience so if that describes you you do not have a
- 01:10:24
- Christ honoring biblically faithful home please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com
- 01:10:30
- and put I need a search in the subject line I will do my best to help you find a church that's chrisarnson at gmail .com
- 01:10:37
- I need a church in the subject line that's also the email address where you could send in a question for Ryan Weingart on his journey out of the
- 01:10:45
- United Methodist Church after discovering and embracing the doctrines of sovereign grace that he was led to believe through his own preaching as a
- 01:10:55
- United Methodist minister if you have a question send it to chrisarnson at gmail .com and give us your first name at least your city and state and country of residence so Ryan if you want to pick up where you left off in your journey and we will hopefully very soon get to the point in your life where you began to preach as a pastor and as I said already these things that you were preaching from the word of God began to trouble your heart and mind and soul and led you to abandon formerly held beliefs but if you could yes we're almost right there so I was recommended to throw away the
- 01:11:40
- New Interpreter Study Bible I had Pastor Jay the Korean pastor encouraging me to pursue my scriptural understanding and that's when
- 01:11:51
- I I'll say it this way I think that's when
- 01:11:56
- I decided scripture had to be primary in my life not sola yet but primary and so it was at that time where I had seen such a mess made out of the church by the pastors
- 01:12:11
- I had encountered just mishandling situations and stuff that I thought
- 01:12:16
- I could possibly maybe benefit the church by becoming a pastor myself at this point
- 01:12:24
- I was playing music there I was their lay leader so I led the liturgies in the service
- 01:12:29
- I would stand in for the pastor when he was unavailable and preach sermons and was leading the adult
- 01:12:37
- Sunday school class and God was equipping me in that way but so I pursued that and they have a path in the ministry called a local licensed pastor and the way that works is you apply, do an interview or two a few sessions and then you go to what they call licensing school which is a kind of an intensive program where they go over all the aspects of ministry and then they give you a license and a pulpit so you can marry people you can serve communion but then you have to take course of study so seminary courses on your own and complete it within a certain amount of time so I pursued that course went to the licensing school
- 01:13:25
- I was already convinced enough of the Bible and Christianity that when
- 01:13:30
- Bishop Tom Bickerton came and taught us about sacrament and told us that he doesn't use the word father in liturgy and by the way
- 01:13:39
- Bishop Bickerton is now the bishop of I forget his name but the conference that encompasses
- 01:13:46
- New York City he's the bishop of their conference now but he said he refuses to use the name father in the liturgy because people might have had bad experiences with fathers and that might drive them away from believing in Jesus and I went well that's absolutely horrible again
- 01:14:05
- I guess he knew or knows more than Jesus because Jesus didn't stop using the term father apparently yeah and right after he got done saying it
- 01:14:17
- I'm pleased to announce Chris that I had the somebody said well we're gonna have a meal would somebody like to bless it and I shot my hand up real quick right after he said it and I said
- 01:14:27
- I'll pray and I raised I said bow your heads and I said father in heaven please bless this amen so I was already seeing some problems and it was also in that licensing school where I received my first critical race theory training and I mean
- 01:14:50
- Michael O 'Fallon did a conference in 2016 where I had Jordan Peterson come to speak and Jordan Peterson talked about it and Jordan put the slides on the screen that I was handed out in my training for critical race theory so this is the milieu in which
- 01:15:07
- I entered ministry I became a pastor of Brownhill United Methodist Church a rural congregation and I knew
- 01:15:18
- Chris I just knew I had these sermons they needed to hear this word and I had about six of them and when
- 01:15:26
- I finished those six sermons I went uh -oh this is a long haul I better really start understanding the bible better because I don't and so I started
- 01:15:40
- I followed the lectionary the revised common lectionary and I started preaching the scriptures as I read them and I was
- 01:15:49
- Westland you know I did believe the Westland theology free will you know the whole
- 01:15:57
- Arminian concept was strong in my understanding but I kept encountering scriptures as I preached that seemed to contradict it so what
- 01:16:08
- I did is I would preach them as I read them and let them lie and say well this is what it says and we have to get around that so it was at that time where I found this documentary on YouTube by this guy named
- 01:16:26
- Stephen Anderson called New World Order Bible Translation and I thought looked at my wife they said you really think the
- 01:16:34
- New World Order is messing with the bibles? I don't know we better watch it so we watched this and he's presenting this whole
- 01:16:41
- King James argument and I'm like well okay and suddenly he interviewed this guy named
- 01:16:47
- Dr. James White when the whole movie was over I looked at my wife and I said well that was kind of interesting
- 01:16:59
- I don't know about Stephen Anderson's argument here but that Dr. White really made sense another
- 01:17:07
- Romans 828 moment yeah never heard of him before and I found her interview with Stephen Anderson when
- 01:17:24
- I was done with that I was confronted with a
- 01:17:30
- Sola Scriptura reformed argument a Calvinist argument from him and I went okay this seems to make sense
- 01:17:39
- I need to figure this out and that's when I started I found every debate he ever did on Calvinism versus Arminianism I think you hosted some of them if I remember correctly yes
- 01:17:51
- I did okay I watched everyone I could find on YouTube Chris and I was angry and I was upset and I didn't agree with him yet I went well the scripture says it
- 01:18:07
- I have to deal with it so I would go to the scripture passages and I distinctly remember doing a bible study in my church and I remember
- 01:18:18
- I wanted to go through 1 Timothy because I thought the church could use some church building scripture like how to be a church because they were struggling and I got to 1
- 01:18:29
- Timothy 2 and I went well who is everyone in this text because it reads first of all then
- 01:18:38
- I urge the petitions prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone for kings and all those in authority and then below that it indicates that Christ who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony at the proper time and I remember looking up and going you guys might not like this but I don't think all means everyone in the world here and I indicated that I believed it indicated in the context kings those in authority all types of people and that was that stands out in my mind
- 01:19:17
- Chris is one of the moments where I went okay I think I'm becoming a Calvinist now and I encountered some texts
- 01:19:26
- I'm preaching like Ephesians 1 Ephesians 2 that seemed to indicate predestination of course we get to Romans 9
- 01:19:37
- John 6 these texts I had to deal with as I was working through my sermon and as I dealt with them
- 01:19:45
- I dedicated myself to sola scriptura I thought this is the only authority
- 01:19:51
- I must follow it I have to deal with these texts and that is when
- 01:19:57
- I started embracing the doctrine of sovereign grace to get us through this long process to the point where you wanted to have your show about now when
- 01:20:11
- I came to believe in these things it was a lot more of a brief episode in my life
- 01:20:21
- I was joining a reformed baptist church and I was interviewed for baptism and I said to the elders
- 01:20:36
- I love you guys I want you to be my pastors I trust you I love the people here but I don't think
- 01:20:42
- I'm ever going to become a Calvinist I just don't believe in that stuff that part of your whole message
- 01:20:47
- I just don't believe it at all and don't think I ever will and they said to me well as long as you believe in the gospel we will not enforce upon you an immediate decision to believe in the doctrines of grace when you're not there yet we're going to be patient with the
- 01:21:10
- Holy Spirit with your sanctification with your growing in grace and the knowledge of the
- 01:21:16
- Lord so you will still be permitted into membership as long as you agree not to undermine these teachings and in other words not to bad mouth them the other members not to try to overturn sermons in the minds of fellow congregation members not to start a mutiny of Arminians so I agreed and within months a very short period of time a
- 01:21:46
- British brother who is now with the Lord for eternity he approached me and said
- 01:21:52
- I understand you're having trouble with doctrines of sovereign grace read this booklet and he gave me
- 01:21:59
- George Whitfield's letter to John Wesley in election I read it and my first reaction after finishing reading it was oh no this is true but I still hate it but so it was even it was more infuriating because I recognized it was true and I still did not surrender to it but it was a very brief period of time after that that I bowed the knee rejoicing in these truths and fell in love with these truths now what was the case with you?
- 01:22:36
- you came to these you came to an understanding of these truths that are exclusively reformed and you came to embrace them were you doing not saying you were doing this in the worship service but were you doing at least in your mind and heart cartwheels or were you pounding your chest and knocking your head against the wall even if it's allegorical because you didn't like these things even though you acknowledged they were true
- 01:23:10
- I did not like them at first it was more of a wrestling with them even after you came to embrace them as fact yeah and I thought you know these are here and we have to deal with them and I can't see a way around them it really upset me to think that I couldn't make my own choice in salvation at first but that didn't last long
- 01:23:41
- Chris one day I remember going you know what and I think it was
- 01:23:48
- Dr. White who pushed me here because he and debates and stuff actually
- 01:23:54
- I just re -listened to his radio show that Dave Hunt he did I listened to that again recently and he even said it there that is
- 01:24:03
- Christ not powerful enough to save people and I went well no
- 01:24:08
- God has to be sovereign over all things he made them and so once I got to that point realized that God was sovereign it was only
- 01:24:19
- Christ it switched from being something
- 01:24:25
- I was upset about and struggling with to one of the greatest comforts that I've ever experienced in my faith and I became convinced that if you pursued a true scriptural understanding and you promoted
- 01:24:43
- Christ first and foremost that God would stand with you and be sovereign over every situation even with people you might be witnessing to or preaching to that weren't believing even though I had people leave that church while I was there not necessarily over these specific doctrinal issues but kind of peripheral to them
- 01:25:06
- I was convinced that God was doing this to glorify himself and that it was okay so that's what it did to me it instilled that assurance of my salvation my faith and of God's sovereignty over every situation but yes
- 01:25:25
- I wrestled a lot it took me at least a year of working through this to really decide this must be the truth now while you're coming to embrace these things during sermons that you're preaching yourself yeah did you start to have a red light going on in your mind saying uh -oh this also means
- 01:25:47
- I'm going to have to leave the United Methodist Church did that ever enter into your mind while you were preaching or when did that come about?
- 01:25:56
- oh well that was a whole different set of circumstances I became convinced that perhaps
- 01:26:01
- I could reform this church and that if I kept preaching them people would have to recognize these truths and see them for what they are now within a few months of me taking that pulpit
- 01:26:17
- I had to announce to my congregation that the United Methodist Church had ordained its first openly gay bishop in the
- 01:26:25
- Rocky Mountain Conference and my church immediately they wanted to leave Methodism they did not want to be a part of this at all praise
- 01:26:34
- God praise God and to their credit they wanted to do that and I was like no no no we should fight this from within I'm not going to lead you out so I think they were more right than me as I look back on it but so do
- 01:26:52
- I I went to the annual conferences and I made it onto one of their little you know they were doing some legislation and I was able to I've stood up in the middle and opposed their legislation and utilized scripture and convinced them the scripture is correct and they changed a little bit and I said see you can do this work but then a situation broke out in our church that involved my family and it wasn't a good situation and the whole situation will remain anonymous but it forced me into a position where I felt like I just couldn't continue ministry there and so I left the pulpit for other reasons but once I left that pulpit
- 01:27:43
- Chris I could not with a good conscience return to Methodism I knew
- 01:27:49
- I had to find a reformed church just out of curiosity knowing that the
- 01:27:57
- United Methodist Church I'm not sure how strict the standards are with the new global Methodists I know that they must be in some significant way a lot more strict than the
- 01:28:10
- United Methodists because it's a conservative group but since the
- 01:28:15
- United Methodist Church seemed to allow a host of all kinds of things including as you said the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop would they allow somebody to be a
- 01:28:31
- Calvinist as a minister or bishop a five -point Calvinist etc. Yes I believe they would
- 01:28:38
- Really? As a matter of fact you and I before the show were talking to me that has a
- 01:28:47
- Yes and I don't know I don't know it's the first time I heard about it I don't know if the man is doing this out of or in a state of rebellion against the denomination or if they have allowed him to maintain that teaching there and remain there as a pastor
- 01:29:05
- I knew folks in Pentecostal denominations that were permitted to remain where they were as Calvinists even though that was not the position of the denominations that these men were in but I just don't
- 01:29:24
- I don't know enough about the denomination to know if they are fully aware that he is a
- 01:29:30
- Calvinist and if they are saying ah that's okay things could be worse whatever
- 01:29:38
- The way it was presented to me was it was called big tent theology they said we have a big tent our tent can encompass all sorts of theologies within the overarching tent of United Methodism is how they conveyed it to me so my impression is that if you are a
- 01:30:07
- United Methodist pastor in a church right now and your church is not complaining about you and you're not just running out of money and dying they seem to be content to leave you where you are at the moment besides your theology yeah and you know what
- 01:30:23
- I've also witnessed with some of the liberal denominations the denominations very often will leave alone churches that are predominantly in leadership and in the congregation ethnic minorities if they are theologically conservative they won't say a word they're just like let them alone let them do whatever they want because they don't want to appear to be racist or bigoted so they just leave those in let's say a predominantly black congregation or predominantly hispanic or asian congregation if they're preaching a very conservative biblically faithful word in a liberal denomination very often
- 01:31:06
- I have seen that not all the time but I've very often seen that they have been left alone by the authorities of the denomination even if the authorities are as left -wing as you can get yeah yeah and we need to be clear about one point the denomination is governed by the book of so it's the same as it was when they founded this in the 60s the global methodists are ascribing to the book of discipline
- 01:31:38
- I think the main difference between the two would be that the global methodists are claiming that they are willing to apply the discipline the removal of you know or excommunication if you would or defrocking of those who are straying from the christian faith whereas right now the judicial council won't remove anyone from their pulpit yeah that's another thing that I've noticed over the years is that sometimes when you have an evangelical pastor elders and congregation in a liberal denomination sometimes those congregations don't do any church discipline because they think it's enough that they're surviving there in a liberal denomination while preaching an antithetical message to the liberal denominations positions and they are preaching the bible and they are basically saying well we're going to let god separate the wheat from the tares and we're not going to do anything and I'm against that I think a church to function biblically needs to have church discipline but that's just something that I've noticed that very often
- 01:32:52
- I'm not saying in every case I'm just saying very often I've noticed when I've gotten to know conservative bible -believing evangelical pastors in liberal denominations that they don't conduct church discipline
- 01:33:02
- I don't know if you've seen that yeah the only case
- 01:33:18
- I know of is there was a man I think this was 2015 or somewhere in that time period before the openly homosexual bishop was appointed there was a man in Pennsylvania who married a male couple and he was defrocked after that case there were no others the judicial council of the general conference which is the overarching global conference started refusing to prosecute cases so so he was defrocked by a liberal the liberal hierarchy of the
- 01:33:53
- United Methodist Church he was yes wow but that was the last time okay and we're going to go to our final break it's going to be a lot shorter than the other breaks and we do have a number of people waiting patiently well
- 01:34:09
- I hope they're waiting patiently they have their questions asked and answered by you Ryan so if you'd like to get in line please send in your email immediately to chrisarnson at gmail .com
- 01:34:22
- chrisarnson at gmail .com give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence don't go away we're going to be right back after these messages we here at iron sharpens iron radio praise
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- 01:36:41
- Joseph Piper President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary every
- 01:36:50
- Christian who's serious about the deformed faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the
- 01:37:00
- Westminster Larger Catechism titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Moorcraft it is much more than an exposition of the
- 01:37:08
- Larger Catechism it is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology
- 01:37:17
- Dr. Moorcraft is pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation for details on the eight -volume commentary go to westminstercommentary .com
- 01:37:35
- westminstercommentary .com for details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com
- 01:37:46
- heritagepresbyterianchurch .com please tell Dr. Moorcraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia that Dr.
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- Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here if you've watched my
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- that's ptlbiblerebinding .com As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations a church
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- 01:40:06
- God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshipped and how he shall be represented in the world they believe churches need to turn to the
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- Bible to discover God what to include in worship and how to worship God in spirit and truth
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- Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a God -centered focus reading, preaching, and hearing the word of God singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith, joy, and sobriety discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace
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- .com that's gcbcnj .squarespace .com
- 01:40:53
- or call them at 908 -996 -7654 that's 908 -996 -7654 tell
- 01:41:04
- Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio this is
- 01:41:25
- Pastor Bill Sousa Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support
- 01:41:36
- Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our
- 01:41:52
- Lord Jesus Christ and of course the end from which we strive is the glory of God if you live near Franklin, Tennessee and Franklin is just south of Nashville maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby we hope you will join us some
- 01:42:12
- Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org
- 01:42:26
- that's gracechurchatfranklin .org this is
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- Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our Sovereign Lord God Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always have been sticking with or switching to the
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- 01:47:52
- And Ryan, we have some questions from our listeners that I want to get to before we run out of time We have an anonymous listener who says,
- 01:48:00
- I am remaining anonymous because I am dreading the fact that I have to confront a dear brother in Christ who is an ordained minister in the
- 01:48:10
- United Methodist Church He is a Bible believer He is an evangelical but he believes that other
- 01:48:16
- United Methodists should stay put where they are and fight the good fight I cannot condone this ideology of his because it is a clear example of people being unevenly yoked with unbelievers especially since the
- 01:48:34
- United Methodist Church has reached the depth of depravity that is currently teaching and practicing including in the area of homosexuality and other nightmarish sins
- 01:48:48
- My question to you is do you think that it is legitimate for a
- 01:48:53
- Bible -believing Christian to remain in the United Methodist Church and I have a follow -up question on the global Methodists and I will wait until you finish answering that question before I go to his global Methodist question
- 01:49:07
- Um, sure That is a good question a situation
- 01:49:18
- I heard one to answer but I would contend
- 01:49:27
- I would agree with the questioner the point where if you're in a conference like this you're submitting to the authority of those above you and I struggled myself
- 01:49:45
- I could not remain in it because I could not as he said yoke myself to this unbelief and this blatant you know, immorality that they're promoting
- 01:49:58
- That being said I have family my own father and mother still attend the
- 01:50:03
- United Methodist Church They have a different view than me and I'll give it to you accurately
- 01:50:11
- My father says these churches exist in these communities We have over 85
- 01:50:17
- United Methodist Churches just in the two counties here in my conference alone
- 01:50:22
- The majority of churches were Methodist for a long time Yeah, Cumberland County is filled with them
- 01:50:28
- Even on the same street in Mechanicsburg there's like four United Methodist Church within like a hundred yards of each other
- 01:50:35
- Yeah, yeah And each of those churches has genuine Christians in them that are just showing up to church to worship
- 01:50:43
- So he would contend that you need to have good solid
- 01:50:48
- Christians in those churches to help these believers along and I think there's some validity to that But I will say this and I think this is very important If you yourself need the spiritual meat that a good solid
- 01:51:10
- Christian church can provide or if you have a family a wife and children and they need that meat then
- 01:51:18
- I think the only responsible thing to do is to find a faithful church and as a pastor boy,
- 01:51:28
- I would I struggled myself and would struggle I would be dreading the confrontation just as the listener is but I would encourage him to try to have that conversation with his pastor and at least find out what his pastor said
- 01:51:46
- All right, the second part is what do you know about the newly formed Global Methodist Church the conservative split from United Methodist Church Even conservatives can sometimes adopt heretical views and even
- 01:52:02
- Oral Roberts the notorious charlatan faith healer from what
- 01:52:09
- I understand remained a member of the United Methodist Church until he died If that is not the case
- 01:52:15
- I know that he was a member of the United Methodist Church for decades nonetheless but there is seems to be a toleration of very aberrant word of faith
- 01:52:26
- Pentecostal views even amongst the conservative United Methodists and also the ordination of women and some other things they may not be aware of What is your understanding of the
- 01:52:37
- Global Methodists and are they a safe place for a Bible -believing Christian to enter?
- 01:52:46
- They are going to adhere to the current book of discipline and they are affirming the traditional creed the
- 01:52:55
- Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed They are still ordaining women and will continue to They are not getting rid of that They honor
- 01:53:05
- John Wesley In 1761, John Wesley granted a license to Sarah Crosby to preach as far as I know one of the earliest women preachers and he allowed for that said that if they were under then they should be allowed to preach
- 01:53:23
- I have a big problem with that I think that's probably going to be a linchpin in the future of the
- 01:53:31
- Global Methodists that will cause problems They still uphold I'm sure they uphold what they would call the
- 01:53:38
- Wesleyan quadrilateral that scripture is primary and not sola and you can also use tradition reason and experience to exegete scripture
- 01:53:49
- So I see some issues in it and they aren't going to change that theology
- 01:53:55
- They're going to keep it They're going to continue having women pastors and as for keeping heretical teachers in as you mentioned
- 01:54:05
- I don't know I don't know how they're going to handle it I don't know when they'll be able to identify a heresy or how they will if they'll go through an excommunication or not
- 01:54:17
- Okay, thank you Anonymous If you have never entered a question or submitted a question before your first time questioner you have won a new
- 01:54:25
- American Standard Bible compliments of cvbbs .com and compliments of the publishers of the
- 01:54:31
- NASB So give us your full name and mailing address and we'll have it shipped out to you
- 01:54:36
- Obviously your identity will remain anonymous A friend of mine local
- 01:54:42
- Orthodox Presbyterian pastor here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania Pastor Jeremy Brandenburg of Redeemer Presbyterian Church here in Carlisle has a question
- 01:54:54
- Hello sir, what is one area for growth that you identified in the
- 01:54:59
- Reformed Church since you joined it? One area for growth that you have identified in the
- 01:55:07
- Reformed Church One area for growth I assume he means for the church to grow
- 01:55:12
- I don't know It might be your own spiritual growth In fact, Pastor Jeremy if you want to clarify that question send in another email
- 01:55:20
- But I don't know what she meant Okay, well, what we named recently
- 01:55:28
- Providence Reformed Church a church plant So when I left Methodism I guess I'll answer they found a
- 01:55:37
- Reformed Church in Meadville St. Paul's Reformed And we started attending it in 2019
- 01:55:44
- Pastor Brian there was very good Brian Hazen Cope is his name He was very good at teaching a hermeneutic how to exegete and read scriptures
- 01:55:53
- I learned a lot from him in that I was very blessed But over time
- 01:55:58
- I came to realize that especially when COVID and all that started that the church probably needed to be taking some stands that a lot of churches weren't taking and proclaim dominion over the community in certain ways
- 01:56:16
- And I wasn't necessarily finding that there So I pursued this church plant
- 01:56:21
- So for me, I would contend that the areas of growth that the Reformed Church has before it is taking dominion over its community
- 01:56:32
- You could, I know Christ Church and Canon Press is really pushing this
- 01:56:38
- Christian nationalism book that's coming out and they're talking a lot about it You could, I would be looking in that area for our growth to take that dominion to start businesses to grow your families to participate on school boards if you feel so led to join your local township councils things like that and bring that Christian worldview into those areas and let
- 01:57:05
- Christ do his work there Thank you, Pastor Jeremy And I want you now to Well, first of all,
- 01:57:13
- I want to just quickly plug Pastor Jeremy's church It's such a good church The website is RedeemerOPC .org
- 01:57:20
- RedeemerOPC for Orthodox Presbyterian Church dot org And that's here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania I would like you to now in about a minute or 90 seconds summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today
- 01:57:35
- I want people to know that God is sovereign over all things and that it has to be sola scriptura
- 01:57:43
- The doctrines of grace and the five solas are so amazing in life
- 01:57:52
- That would be the number one thing Promote Christ as sovereign
- 01:57:57
- Honor his word as the only authority Great Do you want our listeners if they have further questions to contact me and I'll pass on their emails or do you want to provide contact information?
- 01:58:09
- Um, I could provide it It is a long and complicated email as you know
- 01:58:15
- So I could give it here I'm fine Why don't I just have them send them to me because we don't have time for a long complicated email
- 01:58:23
- Send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com
- 01:58:30
- and I will pass on any emails that you may have that you would like to begin a correspondence with Brian today
- 01:58:38
- I want to thank you so much Brian for doing such an excellent job and it's amazing that this was your first interview
- 01:58:46
- You certainly sounded very relaxed and there was no anxiety or fear that came through in your speech
- 01:58:54
- You did a great job I look forward to having you back on the show and I look forward to sharing fellowship with you again in the near future
- 01:59:00
- I want to thank everybody who listened today especially those who took the time to write in questions
- 01:59:05
- I apologize to those of you who wrote in questions that we didn't have time to ask
- 01:59:10
- I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater