Welcome to
Authentic Word
The website of
DAVID W. NORRIS
Defending and promoting the orthodox, historic,
God-centred and Biblical Faith
Picture: The world's first iron bridge over the river Severn in Ironbridge, Shropshire,
birthplace of the industrial revolution and a place where John Fletcher ministered,
a little up river from Bridgnorth and Kidderminster scenes of Richard Baxter's labours.
NEW
Hollow Unity
By C. H. Spurgeon
There are now two parties in the religious world. The party everywhere apparent has a faith fashioned for the present century – perhaps we ought rather to say the present month. It derides the 16th century Gospel and that, indeed, of every period, except the present most enlightened era. It will have no creed because it can have none; it will not be tomorrow what it is today.
NEW
FREEDOM FROM WORRY
By George Mϋller (1805-1898)
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
“Be careful for nothing”; that is, “Be anxious about nothing,” no anxiety ought to be found in the believer. Great, many, and varied may be our trials, our afflictions, our difficulties, and yet there should be no anxiety under any circumstances, because we have a Father in heaven who is almighty, who loves His children as He loves His only begotten Son, and whose very joy and delight it is to succour and help them at all times and under all circumstances.
What is the cause of our present woes?
"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs 29:2)
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." (Proverbs 14:34)
"Remove righteousness and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms? A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which plunder is divided according to an agreed convention." (Augustine in City of God, IV:4)
NEW
The independence of home education (homeschooling) under real threat in the UK
Recommendations likely to be accepted and implemented by government include compulsory registration with local authorities which they can refuse. Given the antichristian stance demonstrated by so many local authorities, Christian parents are probably more likely than most to encounter difficulties. Given that our authorities see nothing wrong with giving a child to same-sex couples to adopt, much to the dismay of many in the Christian community of our land, it is perhaps understandable that they should feel children are at risk when being taught the basics of the Christian faith and its moral precepts. It will seriously undermine much of the ideology governing their actions and aims and they have much to lose. Children will be interviewed without an adult being present, a state of affairs dubious on its own.
click on titles to read other similar articles:
Whose children are they anyway?
INTRODUCTION ONLY (to read the complete text order DAYSPRING 14, click publications)
"There is not a single instance in human history in which civil liberty was lost and religious liberty preserved”
JOHN WITHERSPOON (Presbyterian minister, president of the College of New Jersey, later Princeton)
A fox in charge of the chicken run!
The modern godless humanist state hates the family. It sees it as a rival source of authority and a powerful alternative moral influence, a hindrance to its aim of bringing all things under its antichristian rule. The family is therefore to be dismantled wherever possible, its bonds broken, its influence upon children neutered. The UK government has demonstrated its stance towards family life by appointing a hardline feminist, Dr Kathrine Rake, to head up its heavily government-subsidised Family and Parenting Institute. Last year this organisation received almost £8 million from Ed Ball’s Department for Children Schools and Families. This unelected, undesired and undesirable quango was founded in 1999 by the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and is pivotal in securing the break-up of traditional, and more particularly, Christian family values. (Like many of his government colleagues, Straw, was a noted Marxist in his student days, a belief-system none of them appears yet to have openly renounced. Nevertheless, I stand to be corrected should this not be the case.)
The appointment of Dr Rake, currently director of the women’s campaign group the Fawcett Society, is rather like putting a fox in charge of the chicken run. Her stated aims are more about reversing sex roles and breaking up traditional family life than offering any useful help to parents. She wrote in The Guardian three years ago:
“We want to transform the most intimate and private relations between women and men” (ed. note the order!).
“We want to change not just who holds power in international conglomerations, but who controls the household budget.” She wants to challenge “the traditional roles of homemaker and breadwinner.”
“We want to change not just what childcare the state provides, but who changes the nappies at home.”
Because this woman propagates unbelievable piffle, because her dangerous nonsense works against those laws God Himself has placed within the created world and revealed in Scripture, her efforts will ultimately fail, but sadly not before she has wrought untold havoc and brought much sadness, suffering and tragedy into the daily lives of ordinary people.
It is important that we counteract her insidious, crafty and altogether treacherous undertakings with biblical teaching and resist at every turn her efforts and of those like her. We are under no biblical obligation to submit to godless laws that interfere with our family life, but rather we are constrained to resist them. To permit the state to control our families is to invite their destruction.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE - but please do not alter anything in it, do not make any charge for it, and indicate from where you obtained it.
"Families under attack" TO READ click here
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“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3)
There are always wars going on somewhere in the world, but to concentrate our thoughts on these alone would be to lose sight of the all-embracing and much more horrendous underlying reality. The truth is that the whole world is at war, divided into two irreconcilable camps. Furthermore, we each and every one are all involved, no one is excused, there are no conscientious objectors. There is no neutral ground from where we can observe the progress of the struggle. There is no middle ground, no no-man’s land, where those unwilling to fight can flee for refuge, no secret underground bunkers safe from the conflict, no isolated island in the sun where we can remain forgotten. There is no country to which we can retire, where this fight to the death is not underway, there is no place anywhere on earth where peace reigns save in the hearts of those who love God and even here there are continual armed sallies by the enemy. There is not one spot on earth the rule over which is not disputed by these two opposing parties. This struggle covers every part of life and we are all affected by it whether we like it or not. The ravages of this war are more horrific by far than any fought between the nations. No machine-gun batteries, no bombs can inflict such damage. No napalm, no atomic bomb, bestows such devastation. Those who would seek to escape cannot do so, for though they would hide, close their eyes; although they may sleep through the noise, this terrible conflict will still descend about them bringing with it eternal calamity and torture that no earthly war has ever done. This life and death struggle can end only in the defeat and destruction of one side and victory and eternal glory for the other.
Zion’s King shall reign victorious,
All the earth shall own His sway;
He will make His kingdom glorious,
He will reign through endless day.
What though none on earth assist Him,
God requires not help from man;
What though all the world resist Him,
God will realize His plan.Nations now from God estrangèd,
Then shall see a glorious light,
Night to day shall then be changèd,
Heaven shall triumph in the sight;
See the ancient idols falling!
Worshipped once, but now abhorred;
Men on Zion’s King are calling,
Zion’s King by all adored.Then shall Israel, long dispersèd,
Mourning seek the Lord their God,
Look on Him whom once they piercèd,
Own and kiss the chastening rod;
Then all Israel shall be savèd,
War and tumult then shall cease,
While the greater Son of David
Rules a conquered world in peace.Thomas Kelly 1769-1855
All or nothing...
"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."
(1 Corinthians 8:6)
If there is just one square inch where the Word of God does not speak with supreme authority, then there is no place where it is authoritative. We cannot fence off anything; we cannot limit Scripture to 'spiritual ' matters and claim the rest for ourselves. If there is somewhere where the Word of God is not authoritative, then who has the final say in that place? Just one more arena for someone to play at being god. Equally, if there be but one discrepancy in the sacred text, one thing missing, then the Bible is altogether untrustworthy.
When Caesar wants the things that are God's
Are we bound by Scripture to obey without question every every law our governments take it into their heads to put on the statute book? What the Bible says.
As godlessness increases in our western democracies, as our leaders seek to redefine morality, diminishing all real sense of right and wrong, so Christian believers are increasingly coming into conflict with the law. Our governments seem unable to bring themselves to punish wrongdoers adequately, and they are now frequently harassing the law abiding. This is a reversal of the godly order. The question now arises as to whether as Christian believers we are bound to obey every law our governments take it into their heads to put on the statute book. ....
"Whatever doctrine is new must be wrong; for the old religion is the only true one; and no doctrine can be right, unless it is the very same 'which was from the beginning" JOHN WESLEY
Modern Moloch worship…
False deities were introduced into Israel through the many heathen wives of Solomon. One of the most horrendous of these false gods was Moloch. According to 1 Kings 11:7-9, Moloch was an idol worshipped in Ammon.
“Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.”
At the heart of the worship of Moloch was child sacrifice, something clearly forbidden in Scripture. (Leviticus 18:21)
“And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.”
Worshippers would light a fire within the idol until it was red hot. Newborn babies would then be taken and laid in the arms of the idol and the bystanders would watch the infant burn to death.
As in ancient Israel, we are today living in times of widespread apostasy. The sacrifice of children is still taking place although not always physically (perhaps with the one exception of abortion). Too many Christian parents are handing over their children to our modern Moloch state, an idol that demands we sacrifice our offspring, giving them into the oversight of those with godless purposes from the cradle onwards. A truly godly upbringing is sacrificed for materialistic benefits. They then stand and watch their lives being destroyed in the classroom, their hearts and minds being turned against God and all that is godly. Our children are precious.
"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD" Psalm 127:3
Whose children are they anyway? (unabridged)
A biblical consideration of the children of Christian families and the goals of humanistic state education
We ought not to be at all surprised, if after having sent our children to be given an education in godless surroundings, an education specifically designed to prejudice them against the Gospel, that they eventually turn their backs on all that we as parents have sought to instil in them of the truth of God. What is really happening in government schools and educational establishments?
NOW AVAILABLE IN DAYSPRING 14
Sleepwalking to disaster: an appraisal of modern progressive teaching methods and their effects on children
Read the Introduction here > read more
MAKE SURE OF YOUR COPY OF THE COMPLETE ARTICLE !
DAYSPRING 14 still going out, if you are not sure whether you are on the mailing list to receive this publication free of charge, please email us. Otherwise you should receive your copy shortly , overseas readers in the next few weeks. For details of other publications planned see NEWS
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2)
The Christian life begins with a crisis, but continues with a process. Where there is no evidence of a process, there can have been no crisis. Where there is no transformation, there has been no regeneration. A seed that does not germinate, does not grow, does not blossom, produces no fruit, holds no life. Where professing Christians are little different than those around them, where they have the same goals, views of the world and of life, and maintain the same thought patterns as those living without Christ in the world, then any confession of Christ is but the sound of empty words, words devoid of meaning. We are non-conformists in this world and we must not think strange the antagonism and even hatred and persecution that goes with this. We rejoice in it, for it is yet one more assurance to us of our part in Christ whom the world also receives not.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
"Falsehood may promise more, but it is ever cruel, for it promises but to deceive in the end"
Frank H. White
We are want to measure ourselves against others, more often than not to seek grounds for placing ourselves above them. It were better that we measure ourselves rather against Christ, for then we shall gain a true picture of what we are in and of ourselves. Comparison with others feeds our pride, comparison with Christ engenders a recognition of our true state and genuine humility. As believers, if there is any good in us, we are what we are only because of Him. If we despise others, we set at naught any profession of a work of Christ within us.
"God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13)
"In this new religious tide there is no demand at all for deliverance from sin; there is no longing whatsoever after redemption; nowhere the desire for a conscious personal reunion with the living God, our Father in heaven, declares itself. ...And if some of them are still appreciating some connection between the vocabulary of the old religion with their new sentiments, it is not the Father, and not the Saviour, whom they most fervently adore, but it is almost exclusively the Holy Spirit ...their constant endeavour is not to fear, to serve and to love the living God, their Creator and Disposer of their destinies, but to enjoy fully the mystical titillation of a delightful religious feeling."
Abraham Kuyper (1837 - 1920) from 'The Antithesis between Symbolism and Revelation'
Read Kuyper's THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST click here
A dying man to dying men ...turn and live!
Taken from Richard Baxter’s CALL TO THE UNCONVERTED
Edited and rewritten
GOD made you for everlasting life. The sad truth is that you have no knowledge or experience of it. You look at yourself and your life in a completely different way. You may feel content, but this is an illusion. In fact, your situation is one of pitiable misery. You may feel secure, but this is a dream. Your true state is one of constant danger of being swept away into eternal misery and loss at any moment. You stand before God lost, guilty, and full of sin. God, being all-knowing and all-seeing, sees you through and through, as you truly are. He sees and knows the things you hide from others, and He looks into depths within you that even you have never seen. God knows your true condition. He knows everything there is to know about you. He knows things about you that you would not want even your best friends to know, things you do not even know about yourself. Nothing is hidden from Him.
The true nature of Gospel preaching: John Elias of Anglesey
Preaching in the open-air, John Elias would address crowds of up to ten thousand or more. His concern was for the terrible condition of those ready to die with no saving knowledge of Christ. This was a Gospel for the whosoever, "no matter what nation, no matter how wretched or unworthy he might be; whosoever believeth." Elias saw himself as God’s messenger with a solemn responsibility to speak of the seriousness of man’s dreadful condition in sin. We should not imagine that the soil in which the good seed of God’s Word was planted in those days was any more ready to receive it than today, or that men’s sins were less and their hearts less hardened. What then is lacking but those who will go in God’s name to call men to Christ?
“We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves.” (C. H. Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, vol. VII)
God did not create man merely to see him destroy himself and for the rest of creation to go down with him
The answer of God to the human dilemma
The words of the poet William Cowper will find a sure echo in the hearts of all right-thinking people when reflecting on what is going on around us. The barrage of news coverage twenty-four hours a day can be more than overwhelming.
Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more! My ear is pain’d,
My soul is sick with every day’s report
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill’d.
The Task, Book II
Let us begin at the beginning. It is always convenient to place the blame for everything that goes wrong a step or two away from us. We constantly depersonalise the world and all that goes on in it. We abstract ourselves from it as though what goes on out there has little to do with us. All the problems lie with the state, with youngsters out of control, with the abuse of drugs and alcohol, lack of moral teaching, schools, parents, immigration, you name it, the list goes on and on. But who makes up this nation of ours? People do, we do. Our nation is us and what goes on in our land today is a clear reflection of the kind of people we have become. If those who sit in government are in any sense sleazy or corrupt, this can only be an indication of what is going on in the rest of the nation. If there are more bad apples in the police, in parliament, in the judiciary, then this reflects on us all and we ought to be somewhat careful. If there is more divorce, then there are more of our marriages breaking down, and presumably more of us committing adultery. If there is more violence and murder, then there must be more of us taking to violence as an outlet for our frustration and hatred. If there is an increase in such misdeeds, this can only mean that a greater portion of our people is now engaging in these evils. Who is responsible for the current state of affairs? The answer to that question is easy. We are. These are the depths to which we as a nation, of which we each make up an individual part for better or worse, have sunk.
The world outside us is a macrocosm of what is present in the human heart. There is really little point is seeking change in the wider world, if we are not prepared to countenance change in our own lives. God calls upon all men everywhere to repent, turn from their former ways and seek Christ. "God … commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30).
“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
(Psalm 2:10-12)
When a preacher becomes heretical, it is always about Christ. If he is not clear about Christ crucified, and you hear one sermon from him - that is your misfortune. But if you go and hear him again, and hear another sermon like the first - it will be your fault. If you go a third time - it will be your crime.
Good advice from C. H. Spurgeon
All modern bible translations, but especially those translated by ‘dynamic equivalence’, are largely designed for ‘dynamic’ reading. The reader is not recovering a communication given by God once-for-all-time in the past, but listening for the voice of God from a string of words that have no fixed meaning. They may say one thing to one person and something quite different to someone else, depending upon the circumstances. The same words may even say something different to the same person on different occasions. Truth is in the end what the reader makes it. There is no underlying fixed meaning. No single reading of this bible is right or wrong, just different. The reader is not a passive recipient but an active co-creator to whom the bible text provides reading ‘cues’. Any translation methodology, such as that used for the New International Version and most modern versions, that is based on this view of language cannot give us access to the unchangeable Word of God, ‘for ever settled in heaven’. > read more
"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." (2 Timothy 4:2-5)
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