To All iPod’ers: Redeem The Time

Like most people these days, I spend quite a number of hours each week commuting to/from work.  It’s surprising when we total up the number of hours we spend each month in the car getting to and from our occupations.  

For the majority of us, this isn’t a trvial amount of time.  So how do you spend this time each month?   Does your blood pressure rise with each incident of driver aggression?  Do you sometimes blurt out expletives when someone cuts you off?  Are you listening to your favorite music or disc jockeys?  Maybe you listen to the news/weather/traffic?

Let me offer you one alternative that perhaps you haven’t thought of.  Why not redeem this time by listening to biblically-based podcasts?  If you don’t know what a podcast is then you probably won’t benefit from what follows in this particular posting.  My recommendation for you is to consider getting the “KJV Bible on CD” (Alexander Scourby is a fantastic reader of God’s Word!).  For those who know what podcasts are, please read on…

If you’ve already got an iPod, there’s no cost whatever in doing this.  If not, you can get one of the 2G versions for approx $150.  It’s easy to subscribe to free podcasts from your broadcaster(s)-of-choice, download them every week or two, and then listen to them during your morning and/or evening commutes.   

I subscribe to the following podcasts:  Renewing Your Mind from RC Sproul; Grace To You from John MacArthur; Just Thinking from Ravi Zacharias; and Liberty PCA (our family’s church).  I’m sure most people have their own favorites.  But please use just one earbud for safety — this way you can hear traffic and be alert for sirens, etc. 

I’ve found listening to these podcasts on my way home from work each day to be an effective way to clear my mind from the hassles and worries of the office and get myself into the right frame of mind for being with my family. 

For myself, it’s an effective way to “redeem the time” by dwelling on matters of eternal significance.  Maybe it will be for you too.  Just remember to use only one ear bud! 

To God Be The Glory!   

Denying the Doctrine of Eternal Damnation

NEW UPDATE: If you are a follower of Harold Camping or a listener of Family Radio, please see the posting for 13 November 2009.

 

We encourage those who ardently follow anyone who denies the doctrine of eternal damnation to read the posting carefully.  Scriptural interpretation comes not from our human intellect but from the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit…Who is not the Author of confusion.  Jeff and Cindy

 

Yes, you read the title of this posting correctly.  There are teachers who are now teaching that there is no eternal damnation of the unbelievers.  How sad it is to see once faithful teachers of reformed biblical doctrine sink ever deeper into the miry pit of falsehood.

 

Many people are being led astray by those who now teach that there will be no eternal damnation of the unsaved.  God instead will simply annihilate them.  Some of these same teachers also state that the rapture of the believers will be on May 21, 2011 followed by 5 months of tribulation and terror on the remaining unbelievers on earth.  Then, when the LORD returns on Thursday October 20, 2011, unbelievers will be annihilated.  How is this any different from prominent Jehovah’s Witness’ teaching? 

 

 

In the Bible, “perish” doesn’t mean we simply cease to exist as these latest teachings instruct.  To be sure, that’s what most people would like for it to mean.  However, letting the Bible serve as its own interpreter, we learn that “perish” means to come under constant torment forever separated from God because of our sin.  Contrary to merely ceasing to exist, Scripture instead paints a very different – and much uglier picture – likening it to a furnace of fire, outer darkness, weeping & gnashing of teeth, and unceasing misery.  The nonbeliever’s misery will not end on Thursday the 20^th of October 2011.

 

 

Don’t let anyone erroneously tell you that when you die, all your troubles will go away after a little bit of suffering.  Being sinful, we’d like to believe that fairy tale, wouldn’t we?  Thankfully, God is honest with us in His Word about our predicament. 

 

The Bible declares The wages of sin is death [Romans 6] – and the spiritual death God has in view is eternal. 

 

 

 He who has ears to hear, let him hear…

 

 

 (1 John 2:19) They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.  

 

To God Be The Glory!