DISCIPLE

An American parody of Luke 2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from the U.S. Treasury, that all of America should go shopping. 2 (And this decree was  first made when leading economic indicators dipped to their lowest point.) 3 And all went out to shop, each to his own mall. 4 And a Christian also went up from his suburban home to the city with its many malls because he wanted to prove he was from the household of prosperity. 5 And with him was  his wife, who was great with economic worry. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, they found many expensive presents, pudgy-faced dolls, trucks that turn into robots, and a various assortment of video games. 7 And the woman wrote checks for those they could afford and charged the rest on many different kinds of plastic cards; she wrapped the presents in bright paper and laid them in the garage; for there was no room for them in her closet. 8 And there were in the same county childre...

  Many today are concerned about maintaining the standards of the Reformation; others, those of the so-called Fathers; but the author of these papers is not concerned with standards such as these. It is not sufficient to get back to the Reformation, however blessed this movement was of God; still less to the teachings and practices of the successors of the Apostles. The latter invariably warned us of those who would succeed them, and commend us alone to God and the Word of His grace.     The author, then, knows no standard of authority but the Holy Scriptures. To argue from history and tradition would be to meet the enemy on his own platform, and to court defeat. But he is silenced when, in simplicity and faith, we meet him with the Word of God.     How important then, it is for us to go to the Fountain Head of truth and to search reverently and weigh solemnly the Scriptures to which the author has appealed in support of his statements, statements whic...

W. E. Vine, respected author of the well-known Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words , exposes the pagan origins of the Christmas celebration in his little-known but equally scholarly work, The Origin and Rise of Ecclesiasticism. Excerpt from Chapter 4, Further Developments Towards The Papal System "...We have noticed the combined effect upon the churches, in the third century, of the desire for worldly aggrandizement on the part of the Church leaders, and of the patronage of the Emperors, who on their part saw possibilities of unifying the elements of the State through the instrumentality of the Church. With a view to establishing his throne on a secure basis, the Emperor Constantine the Great reconstructed the official arrangements of the Imperial Government, and adjusted the constitution of the Church so as to model it approximately to that of the State. The ecclesiastical organization of the churches, by this time so vastly different from the New Testament ...

     The bleating of sheep on the slopes of Carmel brought a frown to Samuel's brow. The movement of oxen and donkeys in the sultry valley made his stomach turn.  But when his eyes fell upon two men in the distance, walking and talking together like friends, that was the last straw!  As he approached them, he remembered his earlier instructions to Saul:     The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord.      ......Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and women, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey (I Sam.15:1, 3)     The words had been unmistakably clear and direct.  King Saul was to carry out God's plans.  It was an open-and-shut case of divine extermination without options and without opinions.  The Sovereign of heaven had spoken...and there was to b...