Russia's Final Doom

 The war in Ukraine, and the world response to it, is a matter of deep concern for serious Christians. One of the things said to be happening as a result, is a strengthening of NATO. Bible students understand that anything that smacks of a one world program is not of God. I see Bible prophecy as portraying a conflict between the revived Roman Empire (which could be easily represented as NATO and including the US - a system that will be under the hand of the Antichrist) and Gog and Magog (the Bear in the north - the communist countries and including Persia). Some sort of peace treaty is made between them, beginning the seven year Tribulation. In the middle of the seven years, The bear breaks the treaty and attacks Israel. God destroys the Bear and leaves Antichrist free to terrorize the world until, in the end of the seven years, Christ comes to destroy him and his one world system. I cannot say that this is going to happen today or tomorrow. Only God knows the day and the hour. I can say that Bible believers should be in a heightened state of watching and praying as never before. This is no time to be in spiritual stupor or to be self absorbed in worldly interests. Focus your life interests on the things that matter to God!

Bohannan McKenzie Teaching Baptist Polity

 Church Alignment Meeting

So many Baptist Churches fail to function the way the Lord intended because they do not understand Biblical church polity. This message uses simple Bible illustrations, as well as some real world ones, to outline the roles of the 

Pastor

Deacons

Church members

I REFUSE

I REFUSE

Hebrews 1:1-3 (KJV)

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE AS IF THERE IS NO GOD

God is

Therefore it is God’s role to tell me what is and my role to believe it as God has said.

“I don’t believe that.”

To claim to be a believer but to then turn around and demand that you do not believe what the Bible teaches is completely inconsistent. You have, on one side of your mouth said you believe God is but on the other side said that you do not believe what God has said.

Go ahead and admit it - you are a pagan

Pagans believe in god (s). 

Everyone believes in some form of god. 

Some people just don’t believe that they believe in god. 

Some people have only replaced what god said is true for what the devil said they could say is true.

To disbelieve any portion of the Word of God is to make ourselves to be gods

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The god who ultimately vies for first place is self will.

I reject the very thought that our thoughts might compare to those of God.

Isaiah 55:7-9 (KJV)

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I REFUSE TO LIVE (or behave) AS IF THERE IS NO GOD

God is

Therefore it is God’s right to inform me concerning issues of morality, direction and will.

Proverbs 14:12 (KJV)

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

To claim a thing to be the will of God without clear instruction from the Bible is completely contrary to the whole being of God.

• Noah was given a clear direction from God
• Abraham was given a clear direction from God
• Moses was given a clear direction from God
• David was given a clear direction from God
• Peter was given a clear direction from God
• Paul was given a clear direction from God

In every case God gave them multiple directions. Also, in every case they sometimes attempted to go a different direction and received correction from God.

I reject as bad Christianity that I am free to choose for myself right and wrong: morality, direction and will.

Isaiah 55:7-9 (KJV)

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I REFUSE TO SPEAK AS IF THERE IS NO GOD

God is

Therefore His Word is always true and appropriate to be spoken.

Romans 3:4 (KJV)

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

• I have no right, no authority to confirm a thing unless God has confirmed it.
• I have no responsibility to support a thing that is not approved in the Word of God
• I have no reason to pronounce God’s blessings on what I know God will not bless

2 Peter 1:21 (KJV)

… holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Trust the Science, Falsely So-Called

In an interview on the Today Show, December 29, 2022, Peter Alexander asked the Director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, why the American people should trust the recommendations of the CDC. His challenge was based on the brand-new guidelines the CDC has come out with, suggesting that those with COVID-19 now need only to quarantine for the first five days of infection. 

Alexander sounded incredulous. The CDC has changed its guidelines so frequently in the two years since the COVID-19 a person could wonder how they determine their guidelines. Based mainly upon information delivered to us by the CDC, the public has become so convinced that COVID-19 is a deadly threat that Americans are “masking up, vaxxing up, and, in many cases, freezing up, refusing to leave the isolation of their homes for anything but the absolute necessities. We’ve been told, and multitudes have believed it, that the way to end this pandemic is to isolate. Now the very people who convinced us that they knew the answer and that it was to hide from the bug tell us we don’t have to hide, even if we have COVID-19, after the fifth day. In the face of accusations that this new guideline is an economic compromise, Alexander asked Walensky, “Why should we trust the CDC?”

Director Walensky’s answer was more revealing than she knew and that most people caught. She said, in roughly her own words (I do not have the exact” quote, “The science concerning COVID-19 has constantly been changing and updated in the course of the two years of this pandemic.” The science, a word that the public has come to define as “the truth” has changed and been updated. But here’s the thing: it would not need to be changed and updated if it were true. 

I don’t have a problem with what she said. She was, in fact, accurate. Science needs to change and be updated constantly because science is the quest for knowledge and not knowledge itself. My problem is that the scientist portrays himself as a proclaimer of truth. To the academic world, he is what a preacher is in the religious world. A preacher who cannot be wrong would be crucified in the media these days. But the scientist, who told us he knew what was best for us two years ago, was wrong according to current science.[1]

Science, by very definition, fits into 2 Timothy 3:7.[2] However, it becomes “falsely so-called”[3] whenever it is elevated beyond a search for truth to being truth itself.

---

[1] Or else current science is wrong according to former science.

[2] 2 Timothy 3:7 (KJV)

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[3] 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV)

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Help! I’ve Lost My Kids

I heard from a parent (don’t worry, it’s no one in our church or that those I am closely connected with would know) who reached out for help. She said that she and her husband raised their four kids in church, and homeschooled them until they finished. But then she said, they lost them. They lost all of them. None of their children will allow them to speak to them about the things of God at all anymore. She reached out to ask if there is any hope.

This is one of the most heart-wrenching things I observe as a pastor. Further, it is something I have observed not only in church members but in the homes of many pastors. I do not want to speak poorly of anyone. Our children are individual souls and will give an account for their own choices. I would say, however, that I would be wary of a ministry whose own pastor has not led his children to faithful life for the Lord Jesus Christ. How is he possibly able to set an example for other parents if he has not led the way in his own home?(1) Some, not all but some, ministries are focused on the wrong sort of success. My wife and I determined, from the beginning of our ministry, that we had to make raising a family much more important than building a ministry. That said, allow me to make these observations:

1. Church cannot be optional

By the way, your children will discern when it is optional, even if it is high on your list of priorities. If it isn’t the highest priority, they will catch on. Church is not the answer. Church won’t make your kids a Christian or convince them to be faithful. Church is an act of devotion to the Lord.

2. Faith is from the heart not just talked about or lived out

Kids see through lip service when the heart(2) isn’t in it. Faith isn’t a lifestyle choice. It is a matter of a heart after the Lord. If Christianity merely serves to support your particular values it isn’t real enough to pass down to your children’s spiritual DNA. 

3. Get over yourself

Mom and Dad, you have to love one another, support one another, and love the Lord one as another. Please, don’t just try to hide your disagreements from your kids. Get over those disagreements. Figure it out. Love the “one flesh” that God has made you in marriage more than the one you see yourself to be. 

4. Invest in your kids

They must not be your idols, but they should be your most precious duty. 

There is no way to know how our kids will turn out. Although my children are fully grown, living for the Lord, and raising wonderful children, my wife and I know that the verdict is still out. The fact is, it is still out on even us. This world is tough, the devil is our adversary, and better than we have fallen. But I want to say this, if your faith in Christ is not real, you simply will not be able to pass it down.

(1)1 Timothy 3:4-5 (KJV)

One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

(2)Matthew 15:8 (KJV)

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Baptist Faith, Freedom of Conscience, and the Current Vaccine Mandate

 Opinion

 

Baptist Faith, Freedom of Conscience, and the Current Vaccine Mandate

 

The COVID-19 crisis has led to several mandates that are of deep concern to Americans and the liberties we enjoy through our nation’s Constitution. Notably, the forcing of employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine against their will, or potentially lose their job.

 

Freedom of conscience is a right guaranteed by our Constitution, enjoyed by American citizens throughout the two and one-half centuries of our history, and cherished by us all. Freedom of conscience, a Baptist would argue, is more than the right of an American. It is a biblical doctrine, and one our Baptist ancestors have suffered for all the way to the first three centuries of this current era.

 

Romans 14:5-12 (KJV)

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.   

 

The principle of freedom of conscience is this, each of us will give an account of himself to God; therefore, each of us must be free to choose for ourselves the best course of action for our life.

 

Provision:

We understand that our personal freedom of conscience must not infringe upon another’s same freedom.

 

Regarding the issue that this is a government and health-related mandate and not a religious one.

The earliest exercise of freedom of conscience had to do with the Roman government, which had taken charge of religious practice. Every government is, in some way married to religion (or the attempt to dismiss it). Because this vaccine is unproven, has credibly documented health risks, and is being forced up the population by “faith” we do hold that every man ought to have the right to either accept the vaccination and reject it of their own will and conscience.

 

Pastor Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

 

 

No New Revelation

 No New Revelation

I was challenged from the Bible study video I posted out of Acts 1:1. In that video, I make a slight remark that there is no new revelation today. A young Mormon missionary caught that, claimed that there were new revelations today, and offered to educate me on what he “knew to be true.”

I am not going to meet with him.

He isn’t going to school me

He doesn’t want me to school him either

But this does give a good opportunity to discuss the issue of new revelation. I would like to give three simple BIBLE reasons we know that there is no new revelation.

1. The Bible Assures us revelation and prophecies will cease

1 Corinthians 13:8 (KJV)

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

There will, according to the Bible come a time when those spiritual gifts will cease. The passage says it is when that which is perfect is come. I believe that to be the completion of the Bible.

2. The Bible tells us that the last revelation will come from Jesus Christ

Hebrews 1:1-2 (KJV)

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

God did speak through visions, revelations, and prophets, but that has all ended. Jesus was the last communication from heaven.

3. Jesus gave the final revelation in the final book of the Bible, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”

Revelation 1:1 (KJV)

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

Jesus finished that revelation with the words, Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV)

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

The revelation is finished. There is no new revelation. Everything that claims to be is false and is also cursed by God.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields