Reformed Journey

The 1.3 billion Catholics in the world have a new Pope. Leo the XIV. In the time of the reformers, he would have been welcomed by the protestants of the day as the Antichrist. As modern-day protestants, we can, and should agree, that at the very least the Pope is the leader of an idolatrous theology, which includes the rejection of justification of faith alone, the claims of papal infallibility and the veneration and/or outright worship of Mary and the saints.  But is Pope Leo XIV the Antichrist?  Because I grew up in a Pentecostal charismatic church, it follows that I had a Dispensational Premillennial understanding of end-time events. This means that the Antichrist was always just over the horizon. He would be a charismatic political leader, possibly from Europe, who would one day sign a peace treaty with Israel, rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and unleash global deception during a seven-year Tribulation. Scriptures like Daniel 9, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13 were i...

“Jesus became poor so you could live in abundance – yes, even financially. This verse [referring to 1 Corinthians 8:9] reminds us that Jesus gave up everything, including His heavenly riches, to meet all our needs. Are you walking in the financial freedom and generosity God has called you to?”                                Charis Bible College Facebook post Tues, 11 Mar 2025.  This post appeared on the Chris Bible College Facebook page above a picture of the verse, 1 Corinthians 8:9, which states, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The phrases “your sake” and “might become rich” were specifically highlighted.  We will look more closely at this verse in a moment to see what the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, really meant when this verse was written to the Corinthian...

Healing Now? "It says in 1 Peter 2:24, by his stripes we were healed. You aren’t waiting on God to heal you, God has already healed you. He’s already provided the power, it’s already done, it’s already released. It’s not a matter of whether God will heal you, but you have to reach out and receive, and this is what it took me 20 years to learn."                                                                                                                     Andrew Wommack  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hb4kYFzKNxw 1 Peter 2:24, which the Apostle Peter quotes from Isaiah 53, is a common prooftext for false, word of faith teachers such as Andrew Wommack who attempt to show that Jesus, by dying on ...

Are we instructed to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament in church?  Does Psalms mean the Psalms?  Some Christians teach that the bible commands us to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament in our church services. There are verses in the New Testament that instruct us to sing Psalms. Such as Ephesians 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,” and its parallel text in Colossians 3:16, “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Is Paul teaching and instructing the Ephesian and Colossian churches, and us, to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament? First, let me say that singing the Psalms is obviously an excellent thing. Throughout church history, churches have sung the Psalms, not only as they flourished but also as they were persecuted.  In his excellent book, Worshiptainment, Dr Matthew Everhard gives three reasons for singing the Psalms in...

“Such a good reminder to stay the course; don’t quit hoping and believing. God will always be faithful to you (2 Timothy 2:13). Encourage a friend today by sharing this post with them.  This post, accompanying the attached picture with Andrew Wommack's quote, “If you don’t quit, you’ll eventually win,” was posted to the Charis Bible College Facebook page. Charis is the Bible College run by false teacher Andrew Wommack. Once again, we see Andrew Wommack twisting scripture by taking verses out of context to make people believe the Bible teaches that they will eventually get what they want. The implication is that if they keep 'hoping and believing,' then God will be faithful and they will win-i.e., they will get that promotion, that thing they want, that bill paid, etc.  To make this blatant greed seem biblical, the Bible College attaches a verse: 2 Timothy 2:13. However, is that what 2 Timothy 2:13 teaches? Does this verse teach you'll eventually "win" if you d...

“So when he created the first man, he just spoke him into existence and just like that, it happened. But after sin entered this earth, after we gave that dominion to Satan, God still had to speak the second Adam into existence, but he had to do it through people. And the reason it took 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve for Jesus to show up was because he couldn’t speak directly independent of people, he had to speak through people, and there were just very, very, very few people who were in tune enough with the Lord to be able to hear these things and speak these things forth.”                                                                                                                    ...

Andrew Wommack changes Jesus' explicit teaching.  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g1hdZtnCApc “All you’ve got to do to see you go from where you are to where you know God wants you to be is go to the book, go to the bible, find the seeds that promise the things that you’re needing and you put those seeds in your heart and you defend them. Satan will come and try to steal away the word, but if you will stand against the affliction and the persecution and if you don’t let other things enter in and choke the word of God, this seed will activate this supernatural born again life that’s on the inside of you and it’s just a matter of time until you see things come to pass.”  Hermeneutics is the discipline of biblical interpretation that helps readers and hearers of Scripture understand and apply the biblical text.  One key principle of Hermeneutics is that a particular passage of scripture has one meaning but may have multiple possible applications.  The Andrew Wommack quot...