Category Archives: Take Heed Ministries

News From The Front – June 2003

Dear praying friends,

In this issue of NEWS FROM THE FRONT I think it is significant that the 3 main articles in it all deal with errors that have been publicly promoted by those who have professed to be Christian. It is clear that we are living in days when the threat to the truth of The Gospel is as great [if not greater] from within professing Christendom as it is from without the professing Christian domain. I have been reminded of the Apostle Paul’s warning to the elders at Ephesus as he took his leave from them when he said “I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them” [Acts 20:29-30]. His instruction to the elders on how to combat this threat was found in verse 28 when he said, “TAKE HEED therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers”. Please pray that our efforts may assist faithful elders to “Take Heed” and to “feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood”.

Continue reading →

News From The Front – March 2003

Dear praying friends,

In recent years TV programmes looking at ‘natural disasters’ have become very popular and graphic footage of damage caused by tornadoes, avalanches, volcanic eruptions etc have vividly brought home to us the havoc that can be wreaked upon humanity by such happenings. One particular programme I saw speculated upon the potential for disaster should a large portion of one of the Canary Islands [off the North West coast of Africa] suddenly slip into the Atlantic Ocean. It would apparently trigger an almighty ‘Tsunami’ – a huge ocean tidal wave that would race westwards and devastate the East Coast of the USA. – It would literally bury and destroy life and light along that coast.

I believe the professing Christian Church faces an almighty ‘Tsunami’ of unprecedented apostasy. Large portions of biblical truth are, thanks to the departure from Biblical truth and separation-standards by so-called ‘evangelicals’, slipping into the ocean of ecumenical compromise and a swelling tidal wave of polluted so-called ‘unity’ is threatening to engulf and extinguish the light of The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, there is a barrier and defence against this swelling tide and it is called ‘truth’ and no ‘Tsunami’ orchestrated by Satan himself will succeed in burying and destroying “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” [2 Corinthians 4:4]. Let us all ‘take heed’ and ‘take heart’ from the words of Christ who said “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [Matthew 16:18].

Continue reading →

News From The Front – January 2003

Dear praying friends,

This is an unscheduled additional NEWS FROM THE FRONT that has been prompted by the sheer volume of information that I want to distribute to you. The ‘print size’ is perhaps a little smaller than usual – again it is to enable me to include as much information as possible. You will notice that at the foot of this page, details of a Council of Reference are no longer listed. There is nothing sinister in this; it is simply the result of changed circumstances. Since the formation of the Council a number of years ago, of the original 6 members, only one is still currently working in the same situation. As a result of the various changes of location and service, including of course our own move back in 2000, it has become increasingly difficult to arrange regular ‘get-togethers’ and so it has been decided to formally ‘disband’ the Council. Each of the ‘retiring’ members has assured me of their ongoing full support for “Take Heed” and will continue to offer me a ‘listening ear’ and advice in appropriate circumstances. Margaret and I wish to record our deep appreciation to all those who served on the Council. Their friendship, fellowship and encouragement have meant much to us over the years and we wish them God’s richest blessing as they continue to serve Him “in spirit and in truth”. A new year has unfolded and as we face “the wiles of the devil” we will need both strength and help, so let me conclude this letter with what was our own Church motto text for 2002 – “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped” [Psalm 28:7].

Continue reading →

News From The Front – December 2002

Dear praying friends,

The ‘lead’ article in this newsletter focuses on the initiative that was known as Power To Change and lack of space has prevented me from saying all that I would have liked to have said so I want to share here with you an additional example of the worrying influence of this event. In Bangor, a Power To Change guest speaker was James Ryle who was for a time a board member of the ecumenical Promise Keepers and in 1990 stated ‘The Lord has appointed me a lookout and shown me things that I want to show you…The Lord spoke to me and said “What you saw in the Beatles, the gifting and the sound that they had, was from me…It was my purpose to bring forth through music a world-wide revival that would usher in the move of my Spirit in bringing men and women to Christ”’. Mr Ryle on another occasion claimed he had a vision of a Beatles concert where people were “screaming the name, Jesus”. In a bygone age, Mr Ryle would have been taken out and stoned to death! Commenting on Luke 5:4 “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught” C H Spurgeon wrote ‘In the saving of souls, God worketh by means; and while the present economy of grace shall stand, God will be pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe’ and as my own Pastor often says ‘and all God’s people said – Amen’! Thank you so much for another year of support and encouragement, please pray on, and may He in 2003 continue to “perfect that which concerneth you” [Psalm 138:8]

Continue reading →

‘Sola Scriptura’ – Greg Bahnsen

Is ‘Sola Scriptura’ a Protestant Concoction?

A Biblical Defence of ‘Sola Scriptura’

by Dr. Greg Bahnsen

(Transcribed by David T. King from a taped lecture and edited for the WWW by James Anderson)

The issue of Scripture and Scripture Alone (or what Protestants have come to call the principle of Sola Scriptura) is a matter that divides professing Christians as to the foundation of their faith and what defines their faith. Back in the days of the Reformation when there were men who felt that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ had been not only corrupted by the Roman Catholic Church, but had virtually disappeared under the mask of human traditions and rituals and things that kept people from actually hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, in order to reform the Church, in order to have the grace of God more clearly proclaimed to people, Protestants realized they had to take a stand not only for ‘Sola Gratia’ (i.e., in Latin, ‘By Grace Alone’ for our salvation), but that had to be proclaimed on the basis of Sola Scriptura (‘Scripture Alone’) because the Roman Catholic Church used its appeal to human tradition in the Church (or what they considered divine tradition in the Church) as a basis for its most distinctive doctrines.

Continue reading →

The Perfect Sacrifice by C.H. Spurgeon

“It shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein” Leviticus 22:21.

Thus, then our text shuts out all self-righteousness. IT ALSO SHUTS OUT ALL PRIESTLY PERFORMANCES.

There is a notion among some people that the priest is to save them alias the minister, for men easily in these charitable days make even Dissenting ministers into priests.

I have heard people say “Just as I employ a lawyer to attend to my temporal business, and I do not bother my head any more about it; so I employ my priest or my clergyman to attend to my spiritual business, and there is an end of it”.

This is evil talk, and ruinous to the man who indulges in it. I will speak of this priestcraft very plainly. Recollect “it shall be perfect to be accepted;” therefore all that this gentleman does for you must be perfect.

I do not know what it is that he does, I am sure. I never could make out what a priest of the Roman or Anglican order can be supposed to do in his highest function of the mass. I have seen him walk this way, and I have seen him walk that way: and I have seen him turn his back, and it has been decorated with crosses and other embelishments; and I have seen him turn his face; and I have seen him bow; and I have seen him drink wine and water; and I have seen him munch wafers; and I have seen him perform many genuflections and prostrations; but what the performance meant I have not been able to gather. To me it seemed a meaningless display.

I should not like to risk my soul on it; for suppose that during that service he should think of something that he ought not to think upon, and suppose he should have no intention whatever of performing the mass, what then becomes of those who trust in him and it?

Everything, you know, depends upon the intention of the priest. If a good intention be not there, according to the dictates of his own church, it is all good for nothing, so that your souls all hang upon the intention of a poor mortal in a certain dress.

Perhaps he has not after all been rightly anointed, and is not in the apostolical succession! Perhaps there is no apostolical succession! Perhaps the man himself is living in mortal sin! Ah, me! There are many dangers about your confidence. Are you going to hang your soul on that man’s orders or disorders? Mine is too heavy to hang upon so slender a nail, driven into such rotten wood.

If you have a soul big enough to think, you will feel ‘No, no; there cannot be sufficient ground for dependence in the best pontiff that ever officiated at an altar. God requires of me, myself, that I bring to him a perfect sacrifice; and it is all a device of my folly that I should try and get a sponsor, and lay this burden on him. It cannot be done.

I have to stand before the judgment-bar of God in my own person, to be tried for the sins that I have done in the body; and I must not deceive myself with the idea that another man’s performance of ceremonies can clear me at the judgment-seat of Christ. This man cannot bring a perfect sacrifice for me, and it must “be perfect to be accepted”.

O sirs, do not be deluded by priestcraft and sacramentarianism, whether the priest be of the school of Rome, or of Oxford: you must believe in the Lord Jesus for your selves, or you will be lost for ever! &

“It shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein” & as this rule shuts out all other confidences, SO THIS RULE SHUTS US UP TO THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST &

My heart rejoices as I think of Gethsemane, and Calvary, and of him who by one offering hath perfectly sanctified all who put their trust in him. “It is finished” said he, and finished it is for ever.

Our Lord has presented a perfect sacrifice. “It shall be perfect to be accepted;” and it is perfect. “There shall be no blemish therein;” and there is no blemish in it.

Glory be to God Most High.

 

“CATHOLICISM and ISLAM – TIES that BIND”

November 2002

The above title became a source of controversy when I used it for a talk given at a recent prophecy conference. What I found curious about the commotion was that it came from Catholics (and some evangelicals) who had yet to hear my presentation. Furthermore, the title reflects the hope and prayers of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Rome has been tilling this “common ground” with Islam for decades, as evidenced by the 1994 Vatican publication, Recognize the Spiritual Bonds Which Unite Us: 16 Years of Christian-Muslim Dialogue. Why, therefore, would anyone be upset by my simply repeating what the Roman Catholic Church very much desires?

Continue reading →

Power To Change – Ecumenical or not Ecumenical?

At a meeting I attended last Saturday evening it was reported to me that at the recent New Horizon event, Stephen Cave of ‘Evangelical Alliance’ in his public promotion of ‘Power To Change’ stated publicly words to the effect that ‘Power To Change is not an ecumenical ploy’.

In view of the fact that I opened my article ‘The Leaven in Power To Change’ with these words – ‘The latest ploy to involve ‘Evangelical Catholics’ as full ‘partners’ and ‘participants’ in mainstream so-called Evangelical Mission efforts is being progressively launched over the next months’

I feel it only right to respond to what Mr Cave said. ‘Ecumenism’ in the professing Christian world has always been understood as being ‘co-operative effort’ to promote Christianity. Historically faithful ‘evangelicals’ did not get involved in such ‘co-operation’ when the Roman Catholic church was involved for the simple reason that Rome does not preach Biblical Christianity.

So, when it comes to ‘Power To Change’ is there ‘ecumenical co-operation’? – Mr Cave apparently says ‘No’. Firstly, in support of my assertion that it is ‘ecumenical’ can I ask

Continue reading →

News From The Front – September 2002

Dear praying friends,

From time to time I am asked about the need for the ministry of “Take Heed”. Earlier this year I was sent, by way of encouragement from a brother in Christ the following ‘daily devotional’ and I would like to share it with you and may it encourage us all to be on our guard and to “Take Heed”.

(Henry Morris – Institute for Creation Research – ‘Days of Praise’ – 7 June 2002)

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5). This warning by Christ has special relevance in these latter days when there are multitudes of “false Christs, and false prophets” (Matthew 24:24), not only in the so-called “New Age” movement but also (in view of the fact that “Christ” means simply “anointed”) in all kinds of religious, political, and educational areas of influence, and are, as Jesus warned, deceiving many. Therefore His urgent warning: “Take heed!” This is a frequent emphasis in the New Testament. For example, Paul warned the Ephesian elders: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you” (Acts 20:28,29). Note also the warning to the Hebrew believers: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). To anyone who feels overconfident in his own ability to withstand such deceptions and temptations, Paul warns: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12). Many similar warnings exist, and therefore we do well to take heed also to the safeguards that God has provided. “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (I Timothy 4:16). Continue in sound Biblical doctrine! For “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place” (II Peter 1:19).

Continue reading →

The ‘Spin Doctors’ of ‘Power to Change’

The term ‘spin doctor’ has come to prominence in recent years because of the use by ‘New Labour’ of specialist spokespersons who put a ‘spin’ [usually glossy] on items of government policy for public consumption. They have come to be regarded with increasing suspicion as ‘truth’ has subsequently emerged to show very often the questionable nature of their official ‘spin’.

On Sunday 21 July, ‘Power to Change’ spokesmen, Michael Fitch [Northern Ireland committee] and Tom McGuiness [Southern Ireland committee] were interviewed on Radio Ulster’s ‘Sunday Sequence’ about the forthcoming ecumenical ‘mission’ called ‘Power To Change’to be staged from23 September until 20 October 2002.

In answer to the question ‘What’s the thinking behind Power to Change’? Michael Fitch stated ‘The whole thinking behind Power to Change is that for the average Christian in Ireland, after they’ve become a Christian, within 3 years they don’t know any other people apart from Christians and the whole idea of Power to Change is to mobilise Christians to get them out beyond their comfort zone and to share THE GOSPEL, which is as relevant today as it has been for 2000 years, with those that are around them’.

Continue reading →