WE NEED REVIVAL TODAY
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, DD
Although the Eternal God
has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” and sent judgment upon
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood upon multitudes of wicked sinners during the
time of Noah, He is also compassionate, loving and kind!
“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11; 28, 29)
“Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matt. 7:7,8)
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him?” (Matt. 7:11) ,
TIME, SPACE, MATTER, ENERGY FORCE Acclaimed philosopher, sociologist and scientist HERBERT SPENCER writes about Five Factors as the most general forms into which the manifestation of the UNKNOWABLE (God) are redivisable: They are: time, space, matter, energy and force!
The Holy Bible reveals this amazing truth in Genesis 1:1, 2. In the beginning (time); God created the heaven (space) and the earth (matter). And the Spirit of God (energy) moved (force). The very first words of God, introducing the Creation of the world fills us with reverence, as well as joy.
We lift our voices to Him in joyous praise and song. He seems so far away, yet He is very near as we open our hearts to Him! It is not surprising that the Creator of all things would reveal His wondrous work in a way that it would inspire all of us to open our hearts to Him!
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1;1-4, 14)
THE WORD OF GOD IS ALIVE!
“For the Word of God is quick (alive) and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession.
“For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:12-16)
“Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Is. 1: 18). “Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.” (Rev. 3: 20)
GOD IS FAITHFUL AND KEEPS HIS WORD!
“And I pray the very God of
Peace SANCTIFY you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. FAITHFUL is He that calleth you, who also WILL DO
IT." (1 Th.
5:23-24)
FRANCIS SHAEFFER, acelebrated theologian wrote in 1971: “We are on the verge of the largest revolution the world has ever seen – the control and shaping of men through the abuse of genetic knowledge and psychological reconditioning.”
Francis Shaeffer based his
projection on what was happening in the beginning of the seventies, as well as
the prophecies given in the Holy Scriptures 2000 years ago! Undoubtedly,
Shaeffer was referring to the brain washing technique
used in the Soviet Union and Communist China.
The most dangerous ‘psychological reconditioning’ however,
has been slyly and cleverly forced upon millions of children in our schools and
unsuspecting parents by the media, during the last two or three decades
through ‘political correctness! Now, the seeds planted
then have birthed a number of new perversions like gender bending, gender
dysphoria, and sex change surgery.
POLITICIAN’S COURSE DESTRUCTIVE!
In the early seventies, Pierre Trudeau charted a
course that would destroy our civilized, respectable and time-honoured laws
on capital punishment, divorce, homosexuality and bestiality,
abortion and marijuana use!
Regrettably, he succeeded in making things “abhorrent” to
most Canadians “seem less reprehensible” to a gullible
public! His political cronies have since escalated his concepts and now the
brainwashing is almost complete!
We thank God for the recent decision of 1.2 Million
African Methodists leaving UMC over allowance of LGBT Clergy, Same –Sex
Weddings!
DEPARTURE FROM THE FAITH OF
JESUS!
In the "American Worldview Inventory
2024" (AWVI), George Barna, the director of Research at Arizona Christian
University's Cultural Research Center, explained our country's "40-year
drop in biblical worldview." He described an increasingly prominent shift
in society, which Barna attributes to "the new morality" sweeping
over all sectors of life.
Barna, who also serves as a
senior fellow at Family Research Council, highlighted that within five
generations, "the national incidence of adults holding a biblical
worldview has plummeted from 12% to today's 4% level" -- a number expected
to drop to 2% within the next 15 years.
According to the inventory data, 2024 shows "a dramatic shift in morals." For instance, the majority of adults hold that issues such as lying, abortion, gay marriage, "and the rejection of absolute moral truth" are "morally acceptable."
Additionally, "Less than half of all adults embrace the Bible as their primary guide to morality." As the study made clear, "Millennials have proven to be social disruptors, reshaping the moral belief and behavior norms established by Boomers and Busters [Gen X]." And Gen Z has merely followed in their footsteps.
CONVEYING THE HEART OF JESUS!
In this little booklet I try to convey the heart - beat of God
regarding the Church, for which Jesus Christ “gave His life as
a ransom” and rose from the dead in power and great glory!
As true believers in the Eternal God and His Son
Jesus Christ whom He sent to redeem lost mankind, we embrace the Holy Bible
as “the only rule for faith, morals and ethics”. We reject all
other teachings and philosophies that do not agree with
His Word!
The Protestant Reformers rejected the corrupt church of the Middle Ages,
by taking a definite position on ‘What is truth and what is only
human invention’ regarding Eternal Salvation and the rule for
faith and morals!
ONLY RULE FOR FAITH AND MORALS!
The term used to articulate this belief was ‘Sola Scripura’, meaning ‘The Scriptures Alone’! The Bible alone is the final authority in matters of faith and morals. We rely on none other! We reject all teaching that adds to the Word of God or takes away from the Word of God.
Sola
Scriptura means that the Holy Bible is the ONLY revelation
from God to mankind for salvation. It is the only basis for truth!
The Old Testament states: “Thy Word is truth” (Ps.
119:142), and in the New Testament Jesus Christ confirms that statement to the
letter. In His High Priestly prayer to His Heavenly Father, Jesus
declared: “Thy Word is truth.” (John 17: 17)
Our Lord confirmed the authority
of the O.T. Scriptures: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot (Greek, iota) or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matt.5
17, 18; 24: 35)
“Jesus answered and said unto them: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matt.22: 29). Our Master warned those who put tradition before the Word of God: “Making the Word of God of none effect through your traditions which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do.” (Mark 7: 13)
Since only the Holy Scriptures
are inspired, we REJECT TRADITION as being necessary for salvation!
Forty - six times in the Bible we find the words: “It is written.”
JESUS SAID, ‘IT IS WRITTEN’
Renouncing the devil in the ‘wilderness temptation’, our Lord said: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.” (Matt.4: 4). And He stated: “The Scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10: 35)
The Bible says: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim.3: 16-17)
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1: 20-21)
HERE IS A STRONG WARNING!
The Bible declares: “Every Word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.” (Prov.30: 5-6);
“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizard (spiritualist mediums) that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God, for a living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Is.8: 19-20)
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add
unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part
out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy city, and from the things which
are written in this book.” (Rev.22: 18-19)
The BIBLE says: “If we receive the witness of men, the
witness of God is greater: For this is the witness of God, which He hath
testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself: he that believeth not hath made Him (God) a LIAR, because
he believeth not the record God gave of His Son. And this is the record that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath
the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1
John 5: 9-12)
Recently, a survey was taken among Norway’s Lutheran
State Church pastors in the region of Oslo and district
regarding ‘belief in Hell’! Out of nineteen pastors who
were asked if they believed in a literal Hell as the Bible and the Lutheran
Church teaches, all answered that they did not!
The Roman Catholic Church, which used to say
that it never changes, has changed regarding the doctrine of Hell. During his
weekly address to the general audience of 8,500 people at the Vatican on July
28, 1999, Pope John Paul II rejected the reality of a physical, literal
hell as a place of eternal fire and torment. Rather, the pope said
hell is separation, even in this life, from the joyful communion with God.
Hell is that – separation from God – and it is a
lot more! IT IS A PLACE OF
TORMENT unlike
anything we could imagine. It is a place of eternal regrets and torment. Fire
and brimstone is only a type of the eternal judgment the Bible states awaits
Satan, the Beast and the False Prophet and all those reject Jesus Christ our
Lord who shed His precious blood to save us all!
The Bible declares the reality of hell (Heb. 6:1, 2). Jude taught that hell is a real, literal place of fire and torment (Jude 3, 7). St. Paul wrote of the vengeance of God and everlasting damnation (2 Th.1: 8, 9). St. John described hell as a real place (Rev. 14: 1 0; 20:10-15; 21:8).
Jesus Christ taught that
hell literally exists, is eternal and that those who reject His perfect
sacrifice for their sins will spend eternity in that place! (Matt.13: 41, 42; 18:8, 9;
25:41- 46; Luke 16:19-31).
The great philosopher and theologian, C.S. LEWIS, wrote regarding
Hell: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from
Christianity than this. I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully that
all will be saved.” Being true to the Holy Scriptures, however,
was more important to C.S. Lewis than to allow his natural mind to be convinced
otherwise! He stood with the Holy Scriptures regardless of his personal
feelings.
In his book, ‘Mere Christianity’, he made this powerful
statement: “God will invade, but I wonder if people who ask God to
intervene openly and directly in this world quite realize what it will be like
when He does! When that happens it will be the end of the world. When the
Author walks on the stage, the play is over.
“God is going to invade alright. It will be too
late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing. It will
be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we
realize it or not. Now today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right
side. God is holding back to give us a chance. It will not last forever. We
must take it or leave it.”
The Bible warns: "Let God be true, but every man a
liar" (Rom. 3:3, 4)
MARTIN LUTHER STOOD TRUE!
At his heresy trial at Worms, Germany on April 18, 1521, Martin Luther – the brilliant scholar and theologian - was asked to recant his Gospel writings. At the risk of being burned at the stake like John Huss, Bishop Latimer, Bishop Riddley and other reformers before him, Luther replied:
“Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will notrecant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
WINSTON CHURCHILL made a great point when he said: “If there was more Hell preached from the pulpit, there would less Hell in the pews.” Shortly after World War 11, Churchill was invited to speak at the University of Norway in Oslo.
Here are some of his remarks: “To make excuses for myself I could name the teachers of my youth who denied Christianity. But I will rather lay the blame on myself. Then, perhaps, I will find One Who will carry that load for me. Nothing can come up against the Christian ethic as the leading light for a people’s future. Christianity is the safest spiritual foundation for a people.”
BLAISE PASCAL, French mathematician, scientist and philosopher (1623-1662), stated: Man is an incomprehensible Monster, at once Sovereign Greatness and Sovereign Misery… If they turn their back on God, one of two things can happen. They will think they are gods and become insane or turn to carnality and become animals.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN said: “I now see as never before the preciousness of God’s love in Jesus Christ, and how we are brought near to Him as our Father through Him. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way, all our present difficulties.”
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW stated: “I am ready to admit after contemplating the world and human nature for sixty years that I see no way out of this world’s miseries but by the way that would be found by Christ’s will.”
AUGUST STRINDBERG, the noted Swedish author stated shortly before his death: “Clearly said, I ascribe all my misfortune to this one fact, that I have been Godless! An individual that has broken contact with God cannot receive any blessings. All this talk about ‘being your own man and making your own happiness’ is chaff.
“If the Lord does not build the house, they labour in vain who build it. That is the whole truth! That misfortune can also strike a person of faith, we know. But the outcome is not the same. These accidents seem only like trials that pass over and leave peace in their wake. A curse rests upon everything that an ungodly person puts his hand to. If money comes his way, it will disappear like it came. Nothing remains, nothing prospers in the life of the ungodly!”
MALCOLM MUGGERIGE, well-known British writer and former atheist, observer at World Council of Churches Convention (before 1980) wrote: “One may be excused for noting that institutional Christianity is inexorably extinguishing itself. At Uppsala one could clearly see that they agreed on almost everything as they believed almost nothing. They reminded me of a group of drunks that I observed in a country bar, in my youth. Individually they would have fallen over, but collectively they managed to remain upright.”
Muggeridge’s counsel to a troubled world is worth listening to. He writes: “Christ is the only answer to an insane world… they will not understand that the trouble with the western civilization is not economics, but more – good and evil! They are thinking they make things work by policies, inventions, but man will never live on this planet without God.”
CHURCH OF ENGLAND: IN SPIRITUAL TROUBLE!
The Church of England has recently been challenged by Paul Eddy to proclaim Christianity as the only way to salvation and offer strategies on how to evangelize Muslims.
Senior church leaders as well as some Muslim figures have voiced anger at the motion proposed by Paul Eddy – a lay member of the church’s General Synod, according to BBC. Eddy, along with traditionalist Anglicans, argues that the church should stop avoiding hard questions about its beliefs.
The Church of England must make it clear that it believes in what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to salvation, he said. Currently training to become a priest, Eddy believes that being upfront about the church’s beliefs will be helpful to Muslim-Christian relations.
“Most Muslims that I’ve talked to say, ‘I really wish that Christians would stop watering down their faith and expecting us to do the same,’” Eddy said on BBC Radio Four on Sunday. “Until we start really saying what we really believe in our faith, there will be no respect.”
Also, Muslims expect Christians to believe that Jesus is the only way to God, Eddy noted. “They will expect us – if we’re true Christians – to try to evangelize them, in the same way they will expect us, if they’re true Muslims, to adopt their faith,” he said.
But the problem is that the church, in an effort to be inclusive and to avoid offending people of other faiths, has “lost its nerve” and has “not doing what the Bible says,” he noted.
"Both Christianity and Islam are missionary faiths,"Eddy pointed out."For years, we have sent missionaries throughout the whole world, but when we have the privilege of people of all nations on our doorstep, we have a responsibility as the state church to share the gospel of Jesus Christ."
He urges Anglican bishops to give church members advice on how to evangelize, and how to better support Muslims who have converted to Christianity, and are now ostracized by their communities.
WILLIAM PENN, after whom the great state of Pennsylvania is named made this powerful statement: “If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing that I can do for my fellow human beings, let me do it now, and not detour or neglect it. I shall not pass this way again.”
DO NOT THINK ANY SIN IS TRIVIAL!
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away, and enticed.\-
“Then when LUST hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and SIN, when it is finished, bringeth
forth DEATH. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” (James 1: 12-15)
ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE– the mighty man of prayer – wrote in a letter: “I am deepened in my conviction, that if we are to be instruments in such a work (revival), we must be purified from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.
“O, cry for personal holiness,
constant nearness to God, by the Blood of the Lamb. Bask in His beams, lie back
in the arms of love, be filled with His Spirit – or all success in the ministry
will only be your own everlasting confusion.
“Do not think any sin trivial; remember it will have everlasting consequences. O, to have Brainerd’s heart for perfect holiness, to be holy as God is holy, pure as Christ is pure, perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect…How much more useful might we be, if we were only more free from pride, self conceit, personal vanity; or some secret sin that our heart knows. O, Hateful sins that destroy our peace, and ruin our souls.”
McCheyne stated: “Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, where life has been hid with Christ in God. These are of the old time religion, hung there to the nails of the cross!”
WILLIAM BOOTH said: “There have been more than enough conferences and congresses, and committees and deliberations. It is time to act! We have not a moment to lose. No more doubt! No more delay! Arise ye children of Light, and buckle on the armour bright, and now prepare yourselves to fight against the world and Satan. We are called to fight with Him and for Him with every particle of strength we have to the last gasp. That is enough!”
A.W. TOZER declared: “Any REVIVAL that comes to a nation, and leaves people as much in love with money as they were before, is a falsehood, and it’s from the devil.” JOHN WESLEY said: “God does nothing apart from prayer and everything through it.”
ANDREW MURRAY stated: “The power of the Eternal world have been placed at prayer’s disposal. It is the very essence of true religion, the channels of all blessings, the secret of power and spiritual life. It is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise. It is fellowship with the unseen and most ‘Holy One’! It is on prayer that the promises of God wait for their fulfillment, the Kingdom for its coming, and the glory of God for its full revelation!”
GIROLAMA SAVONAROLA, a Roman Catholic bishop stated in 1497: “Come here, wretched Church… In your lechery, you are a shameless whore. Once you blushed for your sins, but not now. The priests (Roman Catholic) used to call their sons nephews: now they are not nephews, butsons plain and simple.” – from the ‘Men of the Renaissance’ by Ralph Roeder.
WILLIAM TYNDALE was a student in Cambridge when Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenberg. He was troubled by the horrendous sins within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1523, taking advantage of the recent invention of the printing press, Tyndale began to cast the Scriptures in the current English. His aims were simple but ambitious (as expressed to an educated man).
He said: “I defy the Pope and his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scriptures in his lifetime than thou dost.”
In 1536, under the laws of the ‘Bloody Old Vatican Wolf’, William Tyndale the great Bible translator was condemned to death. Just before he was strangled and burned at the stake, he prayed: “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”
MARTIN LUTHER stated: “Three things make a preacher: prayer, the Word of God and suffering. The greatest trial to undergo is to have no trial.” Regarding prayer, Martin Luther said: “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.”
LEONARD RAVENHILL stated: “The greatest tragedy is a sick Church in a dying world. If Jesus preached like we preach today, He never would have been killed.”St. Pauldeclared: “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor.4:5); A preacher said on the 70 th. anniversary of his ordination: “God cannot stop loving us.”
“Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
To the praise of the glory of
His Grace, wherein He hath made us ACCEPTED in the Beloved. In
whom we have Redemption through His BLOOD, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His Grace.” (Eph. 1: 2-7). Amen.
