John Berridge advice to itinerant preachers
John Berridge of Everton was an ordained preacher in the Church of England in the eighteenth century, a contemporary of Whitefield, Wesley, and Howell Harris. After several years of preaching while still unconverted he was born again and upon seeing God’s grace in his life he began to preach wherever he could find a crowd, six days each week and still Pastor his flock in Everton. He advises those that preach with the following exhortation:
As Paul was, so be thou a fool for Christ’s sake, yea the very scum and off-scouring of all things. The preacher must be prepared to lose the world’s esteem. Happy is the man who has lost it wholly and honestly. Secret prayer and the study of scriptures are foremost when preparing to preach. His advice was to ‘ Look simply unto Jesus for preaching food;’ and what is wanted will be given, and what is given will be blessed, whether it be a barley or a wheaten loaf, a crust or a crumb. Your mouth will be a flowing stream, or a fountain sealed, according as your heart is. Avoid all controversy in preaching, talking, or writing; preach nothing down but the devil and nothing up but Jesus Christ. Much reading and thinking may make a popular minister, but much secret prayer must make a powerful preacher.
Berridge had simple rules in preaching;
The open-air preacher must be wise and not preach in working hours. He must conclude before six in the morning and live as his host usually lived. He was not to allow people to give him treats. He was not to rail against opposing clergy. A host must not be kept up late at night in order that they can rise early in the morning. An itinerant preacher should leave immediately after breakfast and morning family prayer are over. If possible he should not dine where he preaches in order to save the people expense. The preacher must be prepared to trust God to open the way as He did for the children of Israel through the wilderness. A rural dean or rambling bishop must be able to preach without notes and have a great desire to spread the Gospel. Overall the preacher must feel the need of God’s grace throughout the whole of his life.
I see it now, and do confess,
My utter need of Jesus’ grace,
And of his Spirit’s light;
I beg His kind and daily care.
O Lord my heart and tongue prepare,
To think and speak aright.
Prepare my tongue to pray and praise,
To speak of providential ways,
And heavenly truths unfold;
To strengthen well a feeble soul,
Correct the wanton, rouse the dull,
And silence sinners bold.
The theme of Berridge’s Gospel preaching was regeneration, in contrast to what he considered the normal preaching of morality. A moral conduct shall avail him nothing, without a new birth, a new nature from above. He firmly believed that the preaching of the law was important, for that will ‘make you feel the scores’. The law was preached before the Gospel: ‘Fresh plowing also must go before every fresh seeding’; the law before the Gospel. His advice to a young preacher is this: Begin with laying open the innumerable corruptions of the hearts of your audience; Moses will lend you a knife, which may be often whetted at his grindstone. Lay open the universal sinfulness of nature; the darkness of the mind, the frowardness of the will, the fretfulness of the temper, and the earthliness and sensuality of the affections. Speak of the evil of sin in its nature; its rebellion against God as our Sovereign, ingratitude to God as our benefactor, and contempt both of His authority and love… lay open spirituality of the law, and its extent, reaching to every thought, word, and action, and declaring every transgression, whether by omission or commission, deserving of death. Declare man’s utter helplessness to change his nature, or to make his peace. Acquaint them with the searching eye of God, watching us continually, spying out every thought, word and action, noting them down in the Book of remembrance, and bringing every secret thing into judgment, whether it be good or bad.
When your hearers are deeply affected with these things ( which is seen by the hanging down of their heads ) preach Christ. Lay open the Saviour’s almighty power to soften the hard heart, and give it repentance, to bring pardon to the broken heart, a spirit of prayer to the prayerless heart, holiness to the filthy heart, and faith to the unbelieving heart. Let them know that all the treasures of grace are lodged in Jesus Christ for the use of the poor needy sinner, and that He is full of love as well as power; turns no beggar from His gate, but receives all comers kindly; loves to bless them, and bestows al His blessings tithe free. Farmers and country people chop at that. Here you must wave the gospel flag, and magnify the Saviour supremely, Speak it with a full mouth ( ore rotundo ) that this blood can wash away the foulest sins, and His grace subdue the stoutest corruptions. Exhort the people to seek His grace, to seek it directly, seek it diligently, seek it constantly, and acquaint them that all who thus seek shall assuredly find the salvation of God. There are many distractions but Christ is all powerful. Not only is Christ the message but He is also the reaper.

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All things are created by God for His glory.The Word of God declares we have all sinned And have fallen short of His glory. The Gospel or Good News is that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance.

Thanks for visiting. maybe you wondered why the sign reads you are sinners.com. THE word of GOD declares we are all sinners and have fallen short of GOD’s glory. This ( we ) includes me and you and all since the very first man. All are sinners, guilty, awaiting death and GOD’s judgement. But the Good News is that Jesus Christ died for sinners, shedding His blood for the atonement of sin. All who come to saving faith, believing that through the sinless life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they are reconciled to GOD,  granted repentance, pardon from sin, and life eternal. All this because Jesus Christ is God the Son co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, and His shed blood more precious and worth more to God than all the sins of all men of all ages. By bearing the wrath of God and offering Him self as a sacrifice for the sins of many, God’s justice is satisfied, His judgement clothed in mercy, ransom paid and therefore God is just to justify the ungodly. The righteous are justified by faith. This not only that we may escape the wrath to come by by His death, but to attain to glory by His life. but the self righteous, the proud , unrepentant sinner, have nothing but justice awaiting, for the wages of sin is death, and the wicked shall be turned into hell. But the gift of GOD is eternal life through Jesus Christ. I invite you to leave a comment.

Come ye sinners, poor and wretched

weak and wounded, sick and sore;

Jesus, ready stands to save you,

Full of pity, love and power,

He is able, He is able,

He is willing, doubt no more.

Come ye thirsty, come and welcome

God’s free bounty glorify;

True belief and true repentance,

every grace that brings you nigh,

without money, without money,

come to Jesus Christ and buy.

Come ye weary, heavy laden,

Lost and ruined by the fall;

If you tarry till you’re better,

you will never come at all.

Not the righteous, not the righteous,

Sinners Jesus came to call.

Lo! The incarnate God ascended,

pleads the merit of His blood.

Venture on Him; venture wholly,

Let no other trust intrude.

None but Jesus, none but Jesus

can do helpless sinners good.

I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Saviour
O There are ten thousand charms

as written by Joseph Hart:

Preaching at Utah Valley University

Is evolution a lie?

Is evolution a lie?

Why do I hold a sign that declares evolution is a lie? Do I really believe evolution is a lie? Can it be true that students in public schools and universities are being taught a lie? Rather than a discourse on the science of evolution, since my career was more in applied science

( spending 28 year as a Nuclear Rx Operator at Surry Nuclear Power Plant), I will attempt to be concise and gracious.

I use the sign mostly in an attempt to encourage people to think about important things, like truth. Thus, when someone says that they believe that “evolution” is true, my question is always with regard to how they define or describe the concept of truth. To say that evolution = truth, leaves a major discrepancy, if they can not define truth.  When they attempt to continue their opinion of the science of evolution, my second question is simply, “do they, or can they “know: anything for certain, since the word science means knowledge. I believe that every human being is created by God in His likeness, hence we have knowledge of that which God our creator makes known to us. Human beings have the ability to think in a way which no other creature on earth can attain. We certainly do not know all things, for we ae not omniscient, but we can think, and reason, and infer. We can consider who we are, and where we came from, and where we are going, because God created us as rational beings. We can use and understand concepts like logic, math, language, truth, justice, mercy and grace. If we can agree that there is a truth and human beings can know some things which are true, then the discussion could move on to whether evolution is true, and by what means we could know that it was true.

The noun evolution is used broadly and for ideas pertaining to history, process of change, unfolding, social changes, economic changes, historical development, extraction of a mathematical root, a process in which the whole universe is a progression of interrelated phenomena, and then phylogeny or a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations.

As per my sign, it is not referring to ideas, history or mathematical problem solving, but is referring to phylogenies, meaning the evolutionary history of a kind of organism, which  would be distinguished from the evolution of genetically related group of organisms.

• These definitions are found in Merriam Webster on line 2012

I will refer to an article from www.talkorigins.com to address more clearly the vocabulary that today’s evolutionist might use. This website is very informative and offers the most pure insight into the scope of evolution I have ever seen presented. As a Christian I disagree with what they teach, but I appreciate they don’t make claims that go beyond what this theory attempts to achieve.

First, we have to get the definitions right. Below are some of the terms as taught by “ Talk Origins’.

The following terms are defined: macroevolution, microevolution, cladogenesis, anagenesis, punctuated equilibrium theory, phyletic gradualism

Creationists often assert that “macroevolution” is not proven, even if “microevolution” is, and by this they seem to mean that whatever evolution is observed is microevolution, but the rest is macroevolution. In making these claims they are misusing authentic scientific terms; that is, they have a non-standard definition, which they use to make science appear to be saying something other than it is. Evolution proponents often say that creationists invented the terms. This is false. Both macroevolution and microevolution are legitimate scientific terms, which have a history of changing meanings that, in any case, fail to underpin creationism.

In science, macro at the beginning of a word just means “big”, and micro at the beginning of a word just means “small” (both from the Greek words). For example, “macrofauna” means big animals, observable by the naked eye, while “microfauna” means small animals, which may be observable or may not without a microscope. Something can be “macro” by just being bigger, or there can be a transition that makes it something quite distinct.

In evolutionary biology today, macroevolution is used to refer to any evolutionary change at or above the level of species. It means at least the splitting of a species into two (speciation, or cladogenesis, from the Greek meaning “the origin of a branch”, see Fig. 1) or the change of a species over time into another (anagenetic speciation, not nowadays generally accepted [note 1]). Any changes that occur at higher levels, such as the evolution of new families, phyla or genera, are also therefore macroevolution, but the term is not restricted to those higher levels. It often also means long-term trends or biases in evolution of higher taxonomic levels.

Microevolution refers to any evolutionary change below the level of species, and refers to changes in the frequency within a population or a species of its alleles (alternative genes) and their effects on the form, or phenotype, of organisms that make up that population or species. It can also apply to changes within species that are not genetic.

more freedom to change.

Confusions

Ways in which the term “macroevolution” is used by scientists. Some are exact in the way they use it, while others are less exact. These usages are not all the same, and this causes some confusion. Why do scientists not agree on the meaning of their terms?

The meaning modern authors give to the terms “macroevolution” and “microevolution” is often confusing, and varies according to what it is they are discussing. This is particularly the case when “large-scale” evolutionary processes are being discussed. For example, R. L. Carroll, in his undergraduate textbook (1997: 10) defines microevolution as “involving phenomena at the level of populations and species” and macroevolution as “evolutionary patterns expressed over millions and hundreds of millions of years”. Eldredge says, “Macroevolution, however it is precisely defined, always connotes “large-scale evolutionary change” (1989: vii) and throughout his book speaks of macroevolution as roughly equivalent to the evolution of taxa that are of a higher rank than species, such as genera, orders, families and the like. In his book Evolution, Mark Ridley defines the terms thus (2004: 227):

Macroevolution means evolution on the grand scale, and it is mainly studied in the fossil record. It is contrasted with microevolution, the study of evolution over short time periods, such as that of a human lifetime or less. Microevolution therefore refers to changes in gene frequency within a population …. Macroevolutionary events events are much more likely to take millions of years. Macroevolution refers to things like the trends in horse evolution … or the origin of major groups, or mass extinctions, or the Cambrian explosion …. Speciation is the traditional dividing line between micro- and macroevolution.

There are many papers published that use the term in this “higher category” way; why is that?

Science is not always consistent in its use of terms; this is the source of much confusion. Sometimes this is carelessness, and sometimes this is because of the way in which terms are developed over time. When biologists and paleontologists talk about macroevolution in the sense of “large-scale” evolution, they are strictly speaking meaning only a part of the phenomena the term covers, but it is the most interesting part for those specialists. That is, they are talking about the patterns of well-above-species-level. l evolution (Smith 1994).

The misuse of the terms by creationists is all their own work. It is not due to the ways scientists have used them. Basically when creationists use “macroevolution” they mean “evolution which we object to on theological grounds”, and by “microevolution” they mean “evolution we either cannot deny, or which is acceptable on theological ground.

( end of article by Talk Origins).

If we were provided evidence that a building or painting existed, not one of us would refuse to infer or conclude the existence of a builder by using our sense and reasoning. Few could be convinced that such an object could appear at random over ages of time. To reduce the building to atomic particles and rebuild it, would only reinforced the logical truth that it was built, and would leave us ignorant with regard to who the builder is.

To imagine the building was brought from another galaxy still does not disprove the builder.

In fact, even the concept of a building and a builder are the result of a rational mind.

However some may liken a human being to be nothing more than an earthen vessel. But earthen vessels don’t live or think. Therefore they imagine that the earthen vessel began to live and reproduce by random chance. There is a bias in this line of thinking which rejects all thought of a Creator, Who is greater than all created objects and knows all things and has power to accomplish whatever He desires. For the nature and desire of man is to be autonomous or self-governing, yet we did not create ourselves and we live in the universe which God created and within this universe there are not 8 billion earthen vessels, but a human race bound by laws of logic, physics, morality, and order.

Wishful thinking changes nothing.

Most evolutionist today are absolutely close- minded and will not consider a Creator. This bias results in the conclusion that man is the sum of his chemical make-up and any instincts he has inherited. But man is more than an earthen vessel. He is made in the likeness of God and therefore knows certain truths, such as logic, math, astronomy, etc. Some may deny knowing that that can know anything, but this is self`refuting. (Although they never admit or understand).There are also moral absolutes which are present within the human race, no matter how hard individuals and societies may attempt to remove them. We cannot escape our human nature which is evidenced when we accuse others and make excuses for ourselves and our like-minded cohorts. Many, claim to be opposed to any and all authority yet, when attacked will be the first to object, and call for the authorities.

I include a passage from J. Budziszewski’s writing, “Escape from Nihilism”. He was an atheistic philosopher of religion teaching at the University of Texas. He states “You cannot imagine what a person has to do to himself to go on believing such nonsense (there is no GOD). He was unusually determined not to know GOD or the revelation of GOD written on his heart. Visualize a man opening the access panel of his mind and pulling out all components that have GOD’s image stamped on them. The problem is that all the attributes of man,  have GOD’s image stamped on them, so the man can never stop pulling out these components. No matter how many he pulls out, there are still more to pull. (As long as a man can still think, reason, seek truth, or know truth his must continue to remove all these attributes that have GOD’s imprint upon them.  As long as there were thoughts of love, mercy, hate, compassion these had to be pulled out).  “I was the man” he wrote. . Because I pulled out more and more and there was less and less that I could think about.”  To get to a place when all reflection of GOD is removed, is to become a clay pot, an empty vessel.

Thinking themselves wise, they become foolish. ( Romans 1:22).This man came to a place where he acknowledged he could not escape the truth, he could not escape GOD, and he could not escape himself. GOD’s law was written on his heart.

The knowledge of our creation, and God’s will is that which will grant us true wisdom.

GOD created us for HIS glory and that we would enjoy His presence. This is the fullness of Joy. This is abundant life.

GOD created man with the ability to love Him, for GOD is love. God created man so that he would trust Him. This loving and trusting in God produces the fruit of obedience. But, man did not trust what God said, thus he disobeyed and sinned and through sin came death. Death did not come about as GOD’s way of evolving to a higher species. GOD’s creation was perfect, but now because of sin, the world is passing away and everything in it. GOD created every kind after its own kind, which after all these years is what we find in the fossil record, and in the ocean depths, and on the mountain tops, and under a microscope. After billions of mutations bacteria remain bacteria. And man is still man and still fallen in need of a supernatural work of a supernatural GOD to be reconciled. Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man (the first Adam) and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned. In fact sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He was a prototype of the coming One. But the gift is not like the trespass for if by one man’s trespass many died, how much more have the grace of GOD and the gift overflowed to the many, by the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as sin reigned in death so also grace will reign through righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5.17

Jesus Christ is GOD taking on the nature of man in addition to HIS Godhood living a life of perfect obedience unto death. even death on the cross. It was GOD’s predetermined decree that He would bear the sins of many and offer His soul once and for all, and die, for the atonement of sin, so that GOD’s justice would be vindicated, and Christ’s glory displayed for all creation, for all time, and for all  eternity. For GOD was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile everything unto Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth or of things in heaven

Col 1.20

He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement which brought us peace was placed upon Him. He was crucified and buried and in accordance with scripture on the third day He was raised from the dead. And now through repentance and faith in Him, He offers us pardon for sin, life eternal, removal of all guilt and shame, and peace with God, our Creator.

This world is passing away and everything in it, but Jesus Christ offers life eternal, so that those who die in Christ, shall live in Him, by Him, for Him, and through Him. To those saved, He is our all in all.

To state that evolution is a scientific study of life after its origin, is similar to the proverbial antique watch which is found by an alien. Can we study the parts of the watch, and say with accuracy that we have proved its history of development without knowing the maker, the foundry, or its purpose? Can we be open-minded in studying this watch as to function, and not address the watch maker? Present evolutionary study stands as a set of ideas collected in a fashion which has a predetermined conclusion set by the evolutionist.  The accuracy of a report must also includes that which is omitted from the study. In conclusion, evolution is considered a science although it omits the following: origin of matter, origin of energy, origin of life, origin of space, origin of time. In fact some would even say there was no beginning.

But with a foundation of truth, as revealed and made known by the LORD, we can know this :

The wrath of GOD is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about GOD is plain to them because GOD has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse for although they knew GOD they did not honor Him as GOD or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became foolish and exchanged the glory of the immortal GOD for images resembling men.

If we would consider that God had created the universe, so that the human race he created in His likeness could learn more about Him by studying this universe, and all of the languages which lead us to knowledge are math, logic, physics, etc.

The alternative is to predetermine (without excuse), that there is no God and then dismantling all things to their subatomic parts and attempting t to reproduce all that we discover, thus always searching, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.