From the Australian group, "Sons of Korah". I just discovered this group recently and I am impressed with their musical skill and that they have done many of the Psalms, and they are all very wedded to the text of Scripture. The song covers Psalm 94:1-11. I don't know what their church background or specific theology is, but so far, of the songs I have listened to, they seem very good.
Psalm 33:1-3 - "play skillfully" (verse 3) to the Lord with a shout of joy !
Psalm 94
"O LORD, God of vengeance God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O Judge of the earth, Render recompense to the proud. 3 How long shall the wicked, O Lord, How long shall the wicked exult? 4 They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly; All who do wickedness vaunt themselves. 5 They crush Your people, O Lord, And afflict Your heritage. 6 They slay the widow and the stranger And murder the orphans. 7 They have said, “The Lord does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob pay heed.”
8 Pay heed, you senseless among the people; And when will you understand, stupid ones? 9 He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? 10 He who chastens the nations, will He not rebuke, Even He who teaches man knowledge? 11 The Lord knows the thoughts of man, That they are a mere breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O [j]Lord, And whom You teach out of Your law; 13 That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For the Lord will not abandon His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. 15 For judgment will again be righteous, And all the upright in heart will follow it. 16 Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness?
17 If the Lord had not been my help, My soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence. 18 If I should say, “My foot has slipped,” Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up. 19 When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul. 20 Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, One which devises mischief by decree? 21 They band themselves together against the life of the righteous And condemn the innocent to death. 22 But the Lord has been my stronghold, And my God the rock of my refuge. 23 He has brought back their wickedness upon them And will destroy them in their evil; The Lord our God will destroy them.
Dr. White keeps a good balance between the power of prayer and the power of the gospel for Muslims;
and
supporting just war/ self-defense principles against the evils of Islamic terrorism/Jihadism.
It is discouraging to see some Christians and conservatives to just have a response to Islam as "Bomb them all!"
We must keep our balance:
1. Pray for Muslims. Pray for God to make more and more Muslims disillusioned with Islam and all the violence and evil of the Global Jihadism, and that more and more regular Muslims will be drawn to the true Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 2:1 says "first of all" = our first priority should be to pray. "pray for all men" " 'υπερ παντων ανθρωπων" means "for all kinds of men/people". (see samples of videos below of prayer for different nations and countries and cultures.) We usually jump to the praying for leaders and those in authority, but first it says, "pray for all kinds of people".
Matthew 9:36-38 - Jesus' insides turned with compassion for the masses of people that were like sheep without a shepherd; and He exhorted us to pray for God, the Sovereign Lord of the harvest, to send forth more laborers (evangelists, pastors, missionaries, teachers, etc.) into the harvest.
2. We can be patriotic and desire justice and support just war principles against evil Muslim Jihadist types.
3. But the gospel is still powerful to reach Muslims, even some who are Jihadist types (though it rarely happens; as their hearts are very hardended; but Dr. White pointed out the guy named Saul in Acts 8-9 who was watching the coats and watching Stephen get stoned.); but more importantly the gospel is powerful to reach other Muslims who are not the Jihadist types; so don't avoid all Muslims and don't think they are all like the Jihadi types.
4. Don't let fear or anger or prejudice lead you into a heart attitude of "Bomb them all" and hatred and never being willing to reach out to a Muslim. Remember Matthew 5:21-26 - "If you have anger and hatred in your heart, you are guilty of murder, and liable to go to hell." "the anger of man does not achieve the justice/ righteousness of God" - James 1:20
By the way, it was Marie Harf who said the root cause of the violent Jihad is lack of jobs. That is not the root cause, (maybe a symptom of why some others join in with them, as in Iraq, the Sunnis were alientated and lost lots of jobs by the Malaki Shiite government, but is the not the root of the leadership of Jihadism, as many Jihadist leaders were rich people - like Ben Laden, Al Zawahiri, the doctors and engineers, who commit suicide bombings, etc.) but liberals in our USA government like to use it as a way of avoiding the religious motivations of people.
Some examples of prayer for other nations by national believers: It is neat to hear people from those countries praying for their own land. The point is to develop a burden and heart for people and praying for these nations held in bondage by Islamic culture.
Egypt (there are some Evangelical Coptic Christians)
Iran - many Iranians are disillusioned with Islam today.
You can pray for places like North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Lybia, Israel, Palestinians, Kurds, Russia, China, India, Ukraine, Nigeria, Somolia, Afghanistan, etc. in the same way.
In our apologetics and debating; it is helpful to come back to basics, such as prayer, repentance, brokenness over sin, humility.
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 51:17 "For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15 "The Place for Repentance in the Gospel" by John McArthur Luke 15:7; Luke 15:10 Luke 3:8 Luke 13:1-5 Luke 5:32 Luke 24:46-47 Acts 17:30 Acts 2:38 Acts 3:19 Acts 20:21 Acts 26:20 2 Corinthians 7:7-10 2 Timothy 2:24-26 Acts 11:18 Psalm 32 Psalm 51
"The message of salvation, by the way, can be fatally compromised by what is left out, by what is not said." John McArthur This also reminded me of the fact that the issue of the true meaning of repentance was Luther's very first point in the 95 Theses, against the Roman Catholic emphasis of centuries of "do penance" - doing an external act of dead ritual.
This is a nice documentary by Rick Steves on Iran. Tears came to my eyes when the man from his car said, "Your heart is very kind." and "We wish the relationship between Iran and America become good."
We should pray for Iran and the Iranian people. They have good family values, a rich and deep culture, amazing and beautiful architecture, art, profound poetry, and a glorious history. In my opinion, Iranians are the friendliest and most hospitable people in the world! They have very delicious food also!
خیلی خوش مزه (Khailee Khosh maze)
"Very delicious!"
Generally, Muslims fear and respect God and many of the non-fanatical Muslims have something similar to "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10) kind of worldview, within Islamic Monotheism, and have a basic kind of 10 commandments morality. (except for the day of worship) Most Muslims just don't know who Jesus really is and don't understand the gospel and don't understand true Christianity; and in fact have been taught the wrong meanings of phrases like "the Son of God" and the Trinity and the purpose of Jesus' atonement on the cross.
But in the past 30 years, many Iranian Muslims have become disillusioned with Islam and are open to Christ and His gospel. God is working in many hearts as never before in history in the Muslim world!
May God bless them and protect the people of Iran, and the people of Israel from whatever the governments decide to do.
Iranians have a very interesting saying,
"siyasat pedar o madar nadareh" سیاست پدر و مادر نداره
It means - "Politics has no father or mother"; meaning politics is illegitimate and mean and cruel and inhuman.
Pray also for the Jewish people and Israel. (Psalm 122; Romans chapter 11)
Pray for peace and that no war will happen. God is sovereign (Proverbs 21:1; Ezra 1:1-4, Psalm 47:8-9; Daniel 2:19-23), and we don't know the future as to what will happen, but we can still pray and hope for peace and no more wars in the Middle East. People are tired and weary of these wars after Afghanistan and Iraq.
Just as God moved the heart of great kings of Iran like Cyrus کورش, (in Ezra chapter 1, Isaiah 44:28-45:1 ff) Dariush (English: Darius) the Great داریوش کبیر , (Ezra chapters 5- 6; Zechariah 1:1, Haggai 1:1) and Artaxerxes اردشیر (Ardeshir) (the book of Nehemiah; Malachi) to be kind to the Jews in their empire, we pray that God would again move in the hearts of Iranian leaders today to be kind to the Jewish people.
Maybe I am too idealistic. The most idealistic prayer is to pray that the regime in Iran will change without any American or Israel intervention. I am not completely naive, even if that should happen, the government of Iran will still blame everything on USA and Israel and England.
Pray for the people of Iran to rise up and take matters into their own hands. (As they tried to in the apparently rigged elections in 2009.) Pray that Muslims will be disillusioned with Islam and seek out the Injeel (the NT) and the Bible and read it, and that the Spirit of God will work in their hearts and change hearts. (Acts 16:14) Muslims are people, created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28) who need the love of God in Jesus Christ.
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
اما خدا محبت خود را نسبت به ما کاملآ ثابت کرده است زیرا در آن هنگام که هنوز گناهکار بونیم مسیح بخاطر ما مرد. رومیان ۸:۵
(Romans 5:8 in Farsi)
Pray for wisdom for the government leaders of USA, Iran, and Israel. (I Timothy 2:1-5)
Israel is understandably concerned for its own existence. Israel is so small, one nuclear strike would be a very devastating event. Jewish people all over the world are reading from the book of Esther right now, as they celebrate the feast of Purim, where God used Esther to protect the Jews from the evil plots of wicked Haman. In the end, God's justice was done against evil Haman, and the Jewish people in the land of Israel were able to defend themselves. It is interesting that the result of the events of God's protection caused "many of the peoples of the land to become Jews" (Esther 8:17) Pagan peoples converted to the true God!
Even though it seems very improbable, by human standards as we look at the world and the events and politics and we hear of "wars and rumors of wars" (Matthew 24:6); we can still pray for the leaders of USA and Iran and Israel that somehow they might come to hear and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved. We wish God's blessing on them, that they might know true repentance and faith in Jesus Al Masih عیسی المسیح/ Yashua HaMashiakh ישׁוע המשׁיח (Jesus the Messiah) and come to know the true God, the God of the Bible, and have true peace (John 14:27; Romans 5:1-11). Salvation from sin and guilt and hell is God's greatest blessing. USA leaders need salvation in Christ also. We pray the somehow God will give them all wisdom on what to do.
Pray for the gospel to go forth with the power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 4:31) (2 Thessalonians 3:1-3)
Daniel 2:19-23
19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven;
20 Daniel said,
“Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever,
For wisdom and power belong to Him. 21 “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding.
22 “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And the light dwells with Him.
23 “To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise,
For You have given me wisdom and power;
Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”
Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.
Ezra 1:1-4
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:
2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 Every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’”
2 Thessalonians 3:1-3
"Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,
2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.
3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one."
Pray for the right priorities
We also pray that certain American churches and TV preachers will stop trying to predict the rapture and the Second coming of Christ, and instead focus on prayer, evangelism, missions, walking in the Spirit, sound doctrine, sober and careful exegesis of Scripture, and holiness.
Regarding His second coming at the end of time, Jesus clearly said, "no one knows the day or the hour" (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32)
Jesus said that the Father has fixed in His authority the future events. And Jesus said to the disciples "it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority . . . " (Acts 1:6-8)
Even after the resurrection, it seems the disciples thought that now Jesus was going to lead a military expedition against the Romans and "restore the kingdom to Israel". (Acts 1:6) Jesus said essentially, "no". Jesus clearly took the kingdom of God away from political and theocratic Israel in Matthew 21:43 - "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation producing the fruit of it." (see the whole parable in Matthew 21:33-46 and that the Pharisees and chief priests understood that Jesus was talking about them. Remember Jesus' words to Pilate: "My Kingdom is not of this world, if it was of this world, My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." (John 18:36)
"He that has ever so little examined the citations of writers cannot doubt how little credit the quotations deserve when the originals are wanting"
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“Let nobody suppose that he has tasted the Holy Scriptures sufficiently unless he has ruled over the churches with the prophets for a hundred years. Therefore there is something wonderful, first, about John the Baptist; second, about Christ; third, about the apostles...“We are beggars. That is true.” - Martin Luther
"It is true that the best apologetics can be given only when the system of truth is well known. But it is also true that the system of truth is not well known except it be seen in its opposition to error."- Cornelius Van Til
"But a most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men!"- John Calvin
"The Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living words of God were heard."- John Calvin
This is the best book available on Sola Scriptura. For Protestants, it will help you understand and defend sola scriptura. For Catholics, this book will help you understand exactly what Protestants mean by sola scriptura, rather than what you think it means. I highly recommend getting this book, it never leaves my desk, and serves as a valuable reference tool.
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