Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, February 18, 2010
13 Evangelical Phrases That Produce False Conversions
1. "Make Jesus your Lord and Savior." We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior. We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.
2. "Ask Jesus into your heart." Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, "How does He get in there?" It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.
3. "Just believe in Jesus." The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.
4. "You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it." We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.
5. "Accept Jesus." Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.
6. "Make a decision for Jesus." Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver's seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver's seat…where He demands.
7. "It is easy to believe." While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It's hard.
8. "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.
9. "Come to Jesus just as you are." We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.
10. "Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage)." Jesus didn't promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.
11. "Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace." Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.
12. "Jesus is the missing piece." Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.
13. "Jesus is better than fame and fortune." That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.
Original article by Todd Friel
2. "Ask Jesus into your heart." Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, "How does He get in there?" It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.
3. "Just believe in Jesus." The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.
4. "You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it." We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.
5. "Accept Jesus." Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.
6. "Make a decision for Jesus." Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver's seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver's seat…where He demands.
7. "It is easy to believe." While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It's hard.
8. "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.
9. "Come to Jesus just as you are." We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.
10. "Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage)." Jesus didn't promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.
11. "Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace." Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.
12. "Jesus is the missing piece." Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.
13. "Jesus is better than fame and fortune." That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.
Original article by Todd Friel
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sins Are Like Grapes
Sins Are Like Grapes
Topic: Dealing With Sin
Sins are like grapes; they come in bunches. This explains two things that often mystify parents or teachers, but allow me to explain.
Often a child gets into a blue funk, bad attitude, the works. Demeanor surly, nothing helps, you know the drill. This can be seen most clearly in little children, who do not yet know how to disguise the condition of their souls. They have not yet matured to the level of the adult hypocrite, who approaches such things a little differently. Then, the child commits some clear infraction, and there is some appropriate discipline, and as if by magic, the entire mess is cleared up. The sin that was disciplined was simply the representative sin -- sort of a covenant head. And when it was cleansed, there was also a cascading cleansing everywhere else. The air is completely cleared.
And this phenomenon explains the second mystery, usually manifested with older children. This occurs when the sinning child is old enough to know about this cascading effect, and is serious about resisting it. When someone has got a backlog of unconfessed sin, true confession of just one sin is often like breaching the dam. The child knows that confession of other sins will follow, and if the cost of confessing those sins is too high, then they will do all in their power to avoid confessing the obvious one -- the one that would breach the dam.
As I said, this is far morely likely with older kids, and when there has been time and opportunity to build some sort of a double life. Say that a child is caught in something, open and shut, nothing ambiguous about it, and yet he stubbornly refuses to deal with it. This is not because extraordindary stubbornness is being embraced for its own sake. In this scenario it is not because of the "humbling" that will occur if he admits, say, that he took five dollars from his brother's dresser. It is because he (and he alone) knows that he has been stealing a lot more than that for years, or that he is deeply involved in pornography, or that he is engaged in homosexual behavior with a teacher at school. If he gives way at this point, the one sin everyone can see, then all hell will break loose. He knows the true costs of this confrontation, and nobody else does. Because of this, and because the human heart is a slippery devil, someone in this position can actually come to believe that he is sacrificing for others by hiding his sin -- that he is protecting the reputation of his family, for example. He is willing to suffer secret torments so that, for example, his father will not have to step down as an elder in the church.
If parents or teachers suspect that something like this is going on, the one thing they should not do is to start speculating, or asserting, or making baseless accusations. I believe that I have mentioned before that one of the verses I memorized very early on as a youngster was Num. 32:23 -- "be sure your sin will find you out." This was not because of spiritual industry at a young age, but rather because my mom quoted it all the time. If parents know this truth, and believe it, and if they understand that they have the authority to ask God to bring hidden things to light, then they can pray with assurance. "God, if there is anything here that we need to know as parents, but which we do not know, we ask You in Jesus' name to reveal it to us." That is a prayer that is in line with Scripture, and within the will of God. The hidden things will be brought to light, and the parents will then be dealing with the real issue.
Posted by Douglas Wilson - 4/6/2009 9:44:50 AM
Topic: Dealing With Sin
Sins are like grapes; they come in bunches. This explains two things that often mystify parents or teachers, but allow me to explain.
Often a child gets into a blue funk, bad attitude, the works. Demeanor surly, nothing helps, you know the drill. This can be seen most clearly in little children, who do not yet know how to disguise the condition of their souls. They have not yet matured to the level of the adult hypocrite, who approaches such things a little differently. Then, the child commits some clear infraction, and there is some appropriate discipline, and as if by magic, the entire mess is cleared up. The sin that was disciplined was simply the representative sin -- sort of a covenant head. And when it was cleansed, there was also a cascading cleansing everywhere else. The air is completely cleared.
And this phenomenon explains the second mystery, usually manifested with older children. This occurs when the sinning child is old enough to know about this cascading effect, and is serious about resisting it. When someone has got a backlog of unconfessed sin, true confession of just one sin is often like breaching the dam. The child knows that confession of other sins will follow, and if the cost of confessing those sins is too high, then they will do all in their power to avoid confessing the obvious one -- the one that would breach the dam.
As I said, this is far morely likely with older kids, and when there has been time and opportunity to build some sort of a double life. Say that a child is caught in something, open and shut, nothing ambiguous about it, and yet he stubbornly refuses to deal with it. This is not because extraordindary stubbornness is being embraced for its own sake. In this scenario it is not because of the "humbling" that will occur if he admits, say, that he took five dollars from his brother's dresser. It is because he (and he alone) knows that he has been stealing a lot more than that for years, or that he is deeply involved in pornography, or that he is engaged in homosexual behavior with a teacher at school. If he gives way at this point, the one sin everyone can see, then all hell will break loose. He knows the true costs of this confrontation, and nobody else does. Because of this, and because the human heart is a slippery devil, someone in this position can actually come to believe that he is sacrificing for others by hiding his sin -- that he is protecting the reputation of his family, for example. He is willing to suffer secret torments so that, for example, his father will not have to step down as an elder in the church.
If parents or teachers suspect that something like this is going on, the one thing they should not do is to start speculating, or asserting, or making baseless accusations. I believe that I have mentioned before that one of the verses I memorized very early on as a youngster was Num. 32:23 -- "be sure your sin will find you out." This was not because of spiritual industry at a young age, but rather because my mom quoted it all the time. If parents know this truth, and believe it, and if they understand that they have the authority to ask God to bring hidden things to light, then they can pray with assurance. "God, if there is anything here that we need to know as parents, but which we do not know, we ask You in Jesus' name to reveal it to us." That is a prayer that is in line with Scripture, and within the will of God. The hidden things will be brought to light, and the parents will then be dealing with the real issue.
Posted by Douglas Wilson - 4/6/2009 9:44:50 AM
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
What a Good Boy!
I am constantly lavishing praises on my poor beagle. Whenever he catches my eye or captures my attention, he gets a pat or a kiss on the head, and I invariably find myself saying "What a good boy!" For some reason, the repetitiveness of this task never becomes tiresome for me (or him!), nor do I ever stop to question the absurdity of attributing moral perfection to an animal incapable of eternal life.
As ridiculous as my behavior is, I thank God that my dog is the only one to which I do this. Telling a dog he is a good boy is harmless. Telling a person that he or is a "good boy" is the ultimate act of cruelty.
Surprisingly, at one time in my life, I would have favorably compared the relationship between my dog and myself to my relationship with God. I considered myself, like my dog, loyal and affectionate to my Creator, and, even though I liked to eat and sleep a lot, I could instantly be friendly when called upon. I think the reason that this analogy can work so well is because there is so little that we require of our pets -- we are extremely easy to please, per se. But it is not so with the God of Creation! He is a righteous and Holy God. He is so completely and utterly UNable to be in the presence of sin that even the smallest offense is capable of sending us to eternal damnation.
A more appropriate comparison, although still desperately lacking in degree, would be this: When walking in your house to greet your dog, he promptly bites you on the leg. After removing his death grip from your calf, and securing him in a cage, you look around and see that not only has he chewed up all the pillows on your bed, but he has rifled through your pantry, broken your grandmother's vase, and has defecated and thrown up on your carpet. No amount of training on your part will entreat your dog to change his behavior and you are faced with the same gloomy prospect, day after day, of his bent towards aggression and his insistence on destroying your property.
To a much greater degree, we are the same rebellious, stubborn subjects of a Holy God. We have heaped up our sins towards him when we have lied -- even if it has been a small lie, or it was done long time ago in the past. We have offended Him every time we have stolen, whether it was a candy bar or a paper clip. We all have committed adultery in some way, whether it was by sex outside the sanctions of marriage or by a lingering, lustful look at a stranger or friend. In God's eyes we have even murdered, when we display bitterness or hatefulness towards others. And those are only four of the Ten Commandments. But most of all, we have not given God the honor He deserves by knowing Him and worshipping Him for who He is, and He has every right one day when we face His judgment to send us to Hell for our sins.
The good news is God sent his Son so that the punishment you deserve would be upon Him. He paid a great price for you by suffering and dying on the cross. He defeated death by rising from the grave, so that you could experience eternal life. Once you humbly realize your depravity before God, your mind can be changed. "For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." (Galatians 6:3) You can repent (turn away from your sin), trust in God to save you, and God will give you not only the strength and the will to follow Him, but He will give you eternal life! "God's precious and magnificent promises, along with His divine power grant to us everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Pet. 1:3, 4)
Then, and only then, can the Master lavish His love on us by saying, "You are a good boy!" , not of ourselves, but because we are wearing the robes of righteousness that Jesus has given us. "In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete." (Col. 2:9, 10).
Monday, March 9, 2009
Poem by John Newton
I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow
I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with his own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?’
‘Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.
‘These inward trials I employ
‘From self and pride to set thee free;
‘And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
‘That thou may’st seek thy all in me.’
-John Newton-
I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.
I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with his own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?’
‘Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.
‘These inward trials I employ
‘From self and pride to set thee free;
‘And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
‘That thou may’st seek thy all in me.’
-John Newton-
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Calvin Helped Me Repent of "Christian" Psychology
On March 24, 1974, the day after our wedding, my wife, Marla, and I rented a rowboat at Lake Arrowhead, California. Being a cheapskate, my intention was to rent the boat for only one hour. I planned to row out into the lake for about 20 minutes, sit and bask in the presence of my bride for about 20 minutes, and row back in time to avoid the charge for the second hour.
When I got to the point where I planned to sit for 20 minutes, I lined myself up with two separate points on shore to make sure I wasn't drifting too far from my spot. Every so often, I rowed back to where I thought the two points lined up. But when it was time for the 20-minute row back to the rental place, I was in for a surprise. I discovered that in spite of my precautions, we had drifted much farther out into the lake than I had thought. To get us back to shore in time, I had to row like an Olympic crew member!
I have found that spiritually, it's easy to think that you�re on course when actually, you're drifting. For years in my pastoral ministry, I thought I was giving my people solid biblical principles to live by. I had graduated from a seminary whose motto, emblazoned in the original Greek at the front of the chapel, was, �Preach the Word� (2 Tim. 4:2). I had been trained in how to exegete Scripture, how to prepare and deliver biblically sound sermons, and how to counsel people from the Bible.
Like most of my evangelical pastor-comrades, my preaching was often flavored by the latest insights of psychology. Of course, I would never use psychological insights unless they were in line with Scripture. But, at the same time, I had been taught in seminary, "All truth is God's truth. If a psychologist stumbles across some biblical principle, why not use it? Doesn't the Bible teach proper self-love, as long as I'm not proud (love your neighbor as yourself) Matt. 22:39)? Isn't God's love for me the basis for proper self-esteem? Aren't parents supposed to build their children's self-esteem?
So I preached sermons such as "Feeling Good About Yourself" and "Developing a Sense of Self-Worth", based on Scripture (so I thought), laced with insights, quotes, and stories from the leading Christian psychologists, whose books and articles I read. I attended conferences where these men provided training in various aspects of pastoral ministry, counseling, and communication. I used videos by Christian psychologists to help train people in things like child-rearing and marital relationships. I took church people with me to a marriage seminar led by two popular Christian psychologists. In the early 1980's, I tried to publish a book on the Christian and emotions, which I thought at the time was solidly biblical. I'm thankful now that it never found a publisher.
Although we did not have support groups in our church (because I was too busy to organize them), I was open to using programs like A. A. to help minister to hurting people. After all, the 12 Steps sounded biblical, many large evangelical churches used them, and they seemed to help people. I had an associate pastor who wanted to start such a group in the church, and initially I was agreeable to the idea.
But then, after about 13 years in the pastorate, God graciously whacked me on the side of the head with a two-by-four to show me where I had drifted off course. At the time, I wasn't unhappy with my view of the Christian life. I would have argued that I was solidly biblical, that I only used psychology to illustrate or supplement scriptural principles, and that I was communicating in terms that my congregation could relate to.
God sovereignly brought together several factors to confront me with the need to change. One of the most powerful was that for the first time I read completely through John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. At the same time, the elders of the church I pastored had assigned another elder and me the task of reading a Christian psychology book that the support group planned to use. The contrast between Calvin on the one hand, and the Christian psychology book on the other was like day and night. God drew a line in the dirt and pointedly said, "Which side are you on?" I couldn't straddle the line. I had to repent of the psychologized version of the faith I had drifted into and turn back to God-centered Christianity, founded on the all-sufficiency of Christ and the Scriptures.
That was in 1991, and since then I have grown more certain of the evil of blending Christianity and psychology. Just as in Israel of old, men both "feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations" (2 Kings 17:33), so I believe many American Christians have fallen into a syncretistic blending of Christianity and worldly psychology. But the two do not mix!
Before I look at some specific issues, let me emphasize that it took a while for these issues to come into focus for me. I began to have some concerns in the early 1980�s. But I continued to be supportive of using psychology to some degree up till April, 1991, when I came to a crisis point and I had to cross the line. Since then, I have grown more in my understanding of these matters. Some of you may disagree strongly with what I say. I don't expect everyone to agree with me instantly. But I do hope that I make you begin to re-think these matters in light of Scripture. I have to be very selective, but I want to present five areas where I believe so-called "Christian psychology" is at odds with biblical truth.
1. The Christian psychology movement is built on an inadequate view of salvation.
In the late 1980�s, it began to dawn on me in a greater way than ever before that there were many people sitting in my congregation every week who professed to be saved, but there was not much evidence of it in their lives.
In the fall of 1990, as I mentioned, the elders assigned to another elder and me to check out the book that the proposed Recovery Group led by my associate wanted to use. This elder and his wife had been on Campus Crusade's staff for about 20 years and he taught at their seminary (my church was near Crusade's headquarters and many of our people were on staff). His wife was one of the emotionally "hurting" people who wanted us to start these recovery groups.
The book we read was Henry Cloud's When Your World Makes No Sense [Oliver-Nelson, 1990]. I was told that it would help me understand these hurting people. I tried to give it every benefit of a doubt, but there was one part early in the book that troubled me, where Cloud asserts that for these hurting people, the "standard Christian answers" (dealing with sin, faith, obedience, time in the Word and prayer, etc.) did "not work". He compares such things to the counsel given by Job's friends, calling it "worthless medicine". Then he proposes his solution, which is essentially a baptized version of developmental psychology.
As this elder and I were discussing Cloud's approach, he told me that people like his wife who were from dysfunctional homes could not relate to my preaching because I emphasize obedience to God's Word. Because they had strict, cold, authoritarian fathers, they don�t relate well to authority. I replied that I thought that I also put a strong emphasis on God's grace as the motivation for obedience. But he responded that his wife couldn't even relate to God's grace -- it went right by her. I was a bit taken aback, and so I said, "You mean that the many times I have spoken on God's grace, she didn't hear me?" He said yes, in her 20 years on Crusade staff, never once had she felt God's grace and love on a personal level.
I thought about what he had said and asked some clarifying questions to make sure I understood him. Then I responded, "If your wife has never felt God's love and grace, she is not converted!! I had been reading Jonathan Edwards' classic, A Treatise on Religious Affections, in which he makes a strong biblical case that saving faith is not mere intellectual assent to the gospel, but that it affects the heart. This elder got very upset with me. But I stuck to my guns then and do so now, that if a person can sit in church for 20 years and never be moved by God's grace and love as shown to us at the cross, then that person is not truly converted.
As I thought about what this elder, my associate, Henry Cloud, and others in their camp were saying, I realized that, in effect, they were saying that the transforming power of the gospel, which has sustained the saints in and through every conceivable trial, was not sufficient to deal with the emotional problems of these late 20th century Christians. And, I came to realize that the psychologized approach to Christianity was built on the inadequate theology that equates conversion with making a decision to invite Christ into your heart. But the two are not necessarily synonymous.
Biblically, conversion is the supernatural act of God whereby He imparts spiritual life to a person who is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-5). It is not something that man can effect at all (John 1:12-13). As Calvin (and Edwards) helped me to see, invariably God has revealed to the truly converted person something of His awesome majesty and holiness. Instantly, like Isaiah after his vision of God, the sinner is struck with his utter defilement of heart in the presence of this unapproachable light, and he cries out, "Woe is me, for I am undone!" Rather than feeling better about himself, he feels much worse as he realizes his true condition before the Holy God. Like the man in Jesus' story, he is even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but he beats his breast and cries out, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" (Luke 18:13). And, of course, God is merciful to all who truly call on Him.
Psychologist Henry Cloud (p. 16) contends that any approach that makes the hurting person feel like he is to blame for his pain - whether due to a lack of faith in God or a lack of obedience, or whatever is "judgmental" and only causes "untold damage". But Calvin starts out The Institutes in quite the opposite direction:
For, as a veritable world of miseries is to be found in mankind, and we are thereby despoiled of divine raiment, our shameful nakedness exposes a teeming horde of infamies. Each of us must, then be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God. Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and-- what is more -- depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves (1.1.1).
I believe that there are many people in evangelical churches who have been told, �Peace, peace, when there is no peace. They think they're right with God because they went forward or prayed a prayer, but they have never known anything of their own corruption of heart through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. They do not feel, as Spurgeon put it, the noose around their neck, and so they do not weep for joy when the Savior cuts the rope. In many cases, they have not been truly converted. I believe that the Christian psychology movement is built on this faulty view of salvation that minimizes depravity and makes conversion something the sinner can do by deciding for Jesus.
2. Christian psychology focuses people on self, not on God and His glory.
One of the most pervasive errors to flood into the church in the past 25 years is that the Bible teaches that we need to love ourselves and grow in self-esteem. I was influenced toward this view in part by reading James Dobson�s, Hide or Seek [1974], sub-titled "Self-Esteem for the Child". He contends that there is an epidemic of low self-esteem in our society that is responsible for many of our social ills. His opening illustration is about Lee Harvey Oswald, and how this poor man constantly was put down. The only thing he could do well was shoot a rifle, so he finally was driven to do something where he could feel good about himself: he shot President Kennedy. The clear message is that if somehow this man had felt better about himself, maybe he wouldn�t have done this terrible deed. Dobson also wrote, What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women [Tyndale, 1975], in which he asserts that low self-esteem is the number one problem plaguing America's Christian women (p. 22).
This notion pervades dozens of popular Christian books. In Worry-Free Living [Thomas Nelson, 1989], Frank Minirth, Paul Meier, and Don Hawkins state that a lack of self-worth "is the basis of most psychological problems" (p. 140). They say that the reason David could defeat Goliath but Saul could not is that David had good self-esteem, whereas Saul did not (p. 139). They also say that the ten spies who brought back a negative report on the giants in Canaan suffered from a negative self-concept, whereas Joshua and Caleb had a positive self-concept and respected themselves (p. 136).
I received a brochure from the Rapha Treatment Centers, founded by Robert McGee, author of The Search for Significance. There are glowing endorsements from Billy Graham, Charles Stanley, Dawson McAllister, D. James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, and Beverly LaHaye. The brochure explains, "Part of Rapha's success is found in the unique ability to target and resolve problems of low self-esteem. At the core of all emotional problems and addictive disorders is low self-worth. It is never the only problem; but it is so major an issue that, if not dealt with adequately, one is kept from experiencing lasting, positive results".
I had never gone that far in teaching self-esteem. I was "more balanced"! I taught that too much self-love was pride, but that we must have a proper amount of self-love so that we can have enough confidence to function in life and to serve God. I had used the truths of our position in Christ to support this, along with the command to love your neighbor as yourself.
Then I read Calvin! In discussing original sin, he shows how by fallen nature we all are prone to flatter ourselves because of innate self-love. He states (2.1.2),
Nothing pleases man more than the sort of alluring talk that tickles the pride that itches in his very marrow. Therefore, in nearly every age, when anyone publicly extolled human nature in most favorable terms, he was listened to with applause.
He goes on to say that such building up of fallen human nature teaches us to be satisfied with ourselves, but that "it so deceives as to drive those who assent to it into utter ruin."
Later, in discussing our need to love our neighbor as the fulfillment of the law, he states (2.8.54),
Obviously, since men were born in such a state that they are all too much inclined to self-love -- and, however much they deviate from truth, they still keep self-love � there was no need of a law that would increase or rather enkindle this already excessive love. Hence, it is very clear that we keep the commandments not by loving ourselves but by loving God and neighbor; that he lives the best and holiest life who lives and strives for himself as little as he can, and that no one lives in a worse or more evil manner than he who lives and strives for himself alone, and thinks about and seeks only his own advantage.
Indeed, to express how profoundly we must be inclined to love our neighbors [Lev. 19:18], the Lord measured it by the love of ourselves because he had at hand no more violent or stronger emotion than this.
He goes on to refute certain men in his day who taught, as many modern Christian psychologists teach, that we must first learn to love ourselves before we can love God and others.
As opposed to self-love, Calvin repeatedly emphasizes humility as the chief virtue. In a chapter dealing with the bondage of the will in sin (2.2.11), he cites Augustine, �When anyone realizes that in himself he is nothing and from himself he has no help, the weapons within him are broken, the wars are over. But all the weapons of impiety must be shattered, broken, and burned; you must remain unarmed, you must have no help in yourself. The weaker you are in yourself, the more readily the Lord will receive you. Calvin concludes, "But I require only that, laying aside the disease of self-love and ambition, by which he is blinded and thinks more highly of himself than he ought [cf. Gal. 6:3], he rightly recognize himself in the faithful mirror of Scripture [cf. James 1:22-25]".
Also, Calvin has a wonderful chapter titled, "The Sum of the Christian Life: The Denial of Ourselves" (3.7). As I read Calvin's solidly biblical treatment of the nature of man and sin, I realized that I had erred greatly by falling into the "proper self-esteem" teaching of Christian psychology. I realized that Christian psychology served to build man up in his sin and to pull God down as our good buddy who loves us unconditionally so that we can accept ourselves. But the Bible lifts God up as holy and glorious, while it strips man of his pride and self-righteousness and lays even the most righteous man on earth in the dust so that he proclaims, "I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?... I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 40:4; 42:6).
Stemming from the wrong view of self and of God, I also began to see that Christian psychology does not direct people toward the proper focus of glorifying God and living to please Him, no matter what the personal cost. Rather, it uses God and the Bible for the selfish ends of happiness and inner peace. The Christian psychology/self-help books invariably quote numerous Scriptures and, at times, even expound on them. This gives these books the veneer of sounding biblical. But the heart of their approach is using God to make self happy or fulfilled, rather than submitting to God to glorify Him because He alone deserves it.
It took a while, but I finally came to see that this was the problem with the popular 12 Step programs that have also invaded the church. When I was looking for some way to help these hurting people in my church, a man gave me a video and workbook that was being used in Chuck Swindoll's thriving Fullerton Evangelical Free Church. I respected Chuck and had benefited from his preaching ministry, so I was hopeful that I could use the material.
But as I examined it, I became disturbed. It used Scripture references often, but it wove in all the familiar stuff about low self-worth. It said that the cure to our emotional problems comes when we learn to focus on ourselves, to love ourselves and build our self-esteem, which is the missing ingredient in our personalities. I realized that the 12 Step programs are simply using God (however you conceive him to be!) to make self happy.
In contrast to Christian psychology, Jesus states that if you want to follow Him the very first thing is to deny yourself and take up your cross daily (Luke 9:23). The two approaches cannot be blended. Either you repent of self-love and pride and die to self so as to live for the glory of God and His purpose, or you vainly try to use God to further your own happiness. To follow Jesus, self must constantly be dethroned.
3. Christian psychology denies the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Henry Cloud, in the book mentioned earlier, states flatly, "I tried the standard Christian answers for myself and others, and I came to the same conclusions that Job reached: they are worthless medicine" (p. 17). These standard answers are to tell people that they are in sin, that they don't have enough faith, that they don�'t spend enough time in the Word or in quiet times, or that they are in some other way to blame for their pain (p. 16). In other words, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are not enough. You need the insights of psychology to deal with your emotional struggles.
But the Bible is clear that the living Lord Jesus Christ is everything to the believer. "In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete" (Col. 2:9, 10). Furthermore, He has not left us alone, but has freely given us His Holy Spirit to indwell and empower us. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh and His fruit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control will characterize our lives (Gal. 5:16, 22, 23). I contend that these qualities describe a psychologically mature, whole person. Being fruit, these qualities take time to develop. They are not attained without effort and struggle. But the Bible does not say that these qualities are available to everyone from fairly normal backgrounds, but those from dysfunctional homes will have to wait for psychotherapy to come along to attain them! It promises this fruit to every believer who will walk in dependence on the Holy Spirit.
I am not suggesting that for the believer, life is effortless and easy, where we are never down, we never struggle with feelings of despair, depression, anxiety, or fear. The Bible shows us godly men and women who wrestled with overwhelming emotions as they went through horrible trials. Paul himself said that he was burdened so excessively that he despaired even of life. But did he go visit his therapist and learn to feel better about himself? No, he says that the point of his awful trial was so that "we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).
I contend that one of the main purposes of trials is to teach us that same lesson, not to trust ourselves, but to trust even more fully the all-sufficiency of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes trials also teach us that we need one another in the body, to bear one another�s burdens. So when I talk of the all-sufficiency of Christ, I am not excluding the need for fellow believers to listen and care and counsel. But we should be helping one another to appropriate Christ, not the latest techniques of self-focused psychotherapy.
4. Christian psychology undermines the sufficiency and authority of God's Word.
This is related to the sufficiency of Christ and the Holy Spirit, of course. But it extends to all of Scripture. Christian psychology tells us that the Word is fine, as far as it goes, but that it does not deal with all the complex problems we face nowadays. The Bible is fine for dealing with spiritual matters of salvation, but when it comes to grappling with emotional problems, you need a trained therapist.
For example, Christianity Today [2/10/92, p. 28] pontificated, "Myth: A pastor is competent to counsel his parishioners. Fact: Most pastors are armed with only a meager knowledge of behavioral therapies. A pastor's calling is, primarily, a spiritual one, helping people to find strength in God's presence and a sense of divine direction in the midst of difficulty. Psychological adjustment is a different matter, and when it requires serious attention, pastors should find ways of partnering with professional counselors or psychiatrists.
Sadly, even R. C. Sproul, whose teaching I usually appreciate, buys into the view that Scripture is not sufficient for the believer. In his �Tabletalk� magazine [2/94], he ran an article by John Coe from the Rosemead School of Psychology. Coe develops the argument that Scripture is only part of God�s revelation. He calls Thomas Aquinas to testify that God not only speaks to us through the Word, but also in nature. Coe contends, �Only when all forms of revelation are taken together can we speak of the sufficiency of revelation. He says that "the Bible provides the divine interpretation of aspects of history and nature. But alone it is insufficient." He states that the author of Ecclesiastes �is conscious of both the insufficiency of the Bible alone as well as of natural wisdom alone."
Coe is trying to establish that we need the wisdom gained through psychology to supplement Scripture, because "all truth is God's truth." The Bible doesn't tell us all we need to know about medicine or mathematics. Even so it is foolish to ignore the "wisdom" of modern psychology.
But these arguments are fallacious and detrimental to the authority of Scripture. The real issue is, how do we determine what truth is, especially in the psychological realm? Psychology encroaches on issues that are dealt with quite clearly in the Bible: anger, lust (�sexual addiction�), bitterness, anxiety, abusive speech, depression, and many other areas. The whole Bible is aimed at helping us to have healthy relationships (�love your neighbor�). The Bible speaks to some medical issues, but that is not its focus. But it clearly tells us how to deal with the very problems psychology purports to help us resolve. And psychology invariably takes a different approach than Scripture, because it is self-focused and not concerned with pleasing God. Furthermore, it is fallacious to assume that psychology is a science on a par with modern medicine. There are literally hundreds of competing psychotherapies that do not have any scientifically established validity. If there are psychological �truths,� then they will line up with Scripture, in which case psychology is superfluous.
One of the things that strikes me in reading Calvin is that through Scripture alone he was able to extricate himself from the monolithic influence of Roman Catholicism. Because he was steeped in the Word Calvin lived a godly life in spite of almost constant bodily illness and in spite of intense opposition to his teaching. His universal test for everything was, What does Scripture say? As a pastor, he helped his people deal with all the trials of that time by preaching and counseling strictly from God's Word. The Bible claims that it will equip the man of God for every good work. A psychologically or emotionally impaired person is not so equipped. God's precious and magnificent promises, along with His divine power grant to us everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3, 4). What more do we need to face life's problems? Certainly not worldly psychology!
5. Christian psychology minimizes the biblical view of sin and personal responsibility.
If you�ve read any of the popular Christian psychology literature, I won't need to prove for you that the Christian psychology movement greatly minimizes the biblical view of sin and personal responsibility. The movement consistently uses medical terminology that implies that the person is not responsible for his problems. He is "a sexual addict," not enslaved to lust. He is an alcoholic, not a drunkard. He is in recovery, not repentance. A workbook called, "The Twelve Steps for Christians," used by Chuck Swindoll's former church in Fullerton states,
For Christians who suffer from an addictive disease, or who are the product of a family with addictive traits, the Church�s judgmental messages can be especially troublesome. They can keep a person from seeking recovery. . . .
As we become willing to admit our dysfunction to ourselves and others in recovery, we will see that this process is healing and rewarding. . . .
It goes on to tell us that we need "to acknowledge and even befriend our negative or repressed nature." We will learn "to accept our unwanted tendencies such as anger, inappropriate sexual behavior, hostility or aggression."
Did you notice, there was no mention of sin, corruption, repentance, or God's undeserved favor? A few pages later the manual lists some milestones in recovery. One is that we "generally approve of ourselves." Another states that "we are recovering through loving and focusing on ourselves." "We feel comfortable standing up for ourselves when it is appropriate." "We love people who love and take care of themselves." "We have a healthy sense of self-esteem."
I could go on and on citing examples of the psychobabble that has flooded the church. It simply echoes the current cultural emphasis on victimization and self-acceptance, no matter how terribly a person has sinned.
In stark contrast, Calvin is refreshingly humble in classing himself and all believers as sinners. In his great chapter on repentance, he states (3.3.10), �We ... teach that in the saints, until they are divested of mortal bodies, there is always sin; for in their flesh there resides that depravity of inordinate desiring which contends against righteousness. Later in the same chapter (3.3.20), he calls us to a life of "continual effort and exercise in the mortification of the flesh, till it is utterly slain, and God's Spirit reigns in us. He states, "Therefore, I think he has profited greatly who has learned to be very much displeased with himself, not so as to stick fast in this mire and progress no farther, but rather to hasten to God and yearn for him in order that, having been engrafted into the life and death of Christ, he may give attention to continual repentance."
In his chapter on "Self-denial" (3.7.4; you will find no biblical treatment of self-denial in the Christian psychology books), Calvin writes most insightfully of our sinful nature:
For, such is the blindness with which we all rush into self-love that each one of us seems to himself to have just cause to be proud of himself and to despise all others in comparison. If God has conferred upon us anything of which we need not repent, relying upon it we immediately lift up our minds, and are not only puffed up but almost burst with pride. The very vices that infest us we take pains to hide from others, while we flatter ourselves with the pretense that they are slight and insignificant, and even sometimes embrace them as virtues. If others manifest the same endowments we admire in ourselves, or even superior ones, we spitefully belittle and revile these gifts in order to avoid yielding place to such persons. If there are any faults in others, not content with noting them with severe and sharp reproach, we hatefully exaggerate them. Hence arises such insolence that each one of us, as if exempt from the common lot, wishes to tower above the rest, and loftily and savagely abuses every mortal man, or at least looks down upon him as inferior. . . . But there is no one who does not cherish within himself some opinion of his own pre-eminence.
If I were not feeling well, I would want the doctor to tell me the truth about my condition. He may give me hugs and tell me that I'm the most wonderful guy in the world. He may assure me that my problem is minor and tell me that I should ignore how I feel and tell myself how terrific I am. But if I've got cancer, all of his hugs and reassuring talk are worthless. I need to face the hard truth about my condition. Only then is there any hope that I will take the cure, as painful as it may be, and get better.
We don�t do sinners a favor by glossing over the serious, pervasive nature of their pride, lust, greed, jealousy, and self-centeredness. We only truly help sinners when we lovingly but honestly help them to see the truth as revealed in God's Word. The closer anyone draws near to the unapproachable light of God�s holy presence, the more he sees the contamination of sin in his own heart. If he truly knows Christ as his Savior from sin, he will hate the sin he sees within, make efforts to root it out, and thankfully appropriate God's abundant grace and forgiveness.
Conclusion
I hope that you can see how far from biblical truth today's "Christian" psychology movement has drifted so that you will completely renounce it. I hope you'll also see how sound Calvin's doctrine of the Christian life is so that you will begin to read him.
Some of you may be thinking, "Aren't you being kind of extreme? Aren't you throwing the baby out with the bath water? Isn't there some good to be gained from psychology?"
Not much! There may be some useful insights in the same vein that Reader's Digest offers some interesting observations once in a while. But psychology does not offer anything necessary for life and godliness that is lacking in the Bible. If a problem is due to organic or chemical dysfunction in the brain, a person may need a medical solution (although I urge caution with regard to the use of psychiatric drugs). But in terms of offering solutions to the emotional and relational problems we face, psychology has nothing to offer the believer, and it has much to deceive and confuse.
In a letter I asked James Dobson if he could name just one problem for which the Bible has no answer, but psychology does. His form-letter reply was that we need Christian psychologists to help parents determine if a six-year-old boy is emotionally and physically ready to enter the first grade; to help the parents of a gifted or retarded child cope; to help a man whose wife became schizophrenic and ran screaming down the street; to give counsel to a man thinking about mid-life career change; and, to help an adolescent who was extremely rebellious and resentful of his father.
Educational or vocational counseling is far different than the psychotherapeutic nonsense that is flooding the church, thanks to Dobson and others like him. Why do we need psychologists to help parents cope with a difficult child? Doesn�t the Bible give us wisdom for dealing with such trials? In the case of the schizophrenic woman, if her problem is organically caused, she needs a medical doctor. If not, she definitely does not need a psychologist, and neither does her husband. He needs to learn to love her as Christ does the church. She needs to deal with whatever sinful thoughts and behavior are behind her breakdown and to learn to trust in the sufficiency of Christ. The last thing a rebellious teenager needs is to hear a psychologist tell him that he needs to build his self-esteem!
For thousands of years the Bible has been adequate to equip the saints to go through tragedy, to face persecution and even martyrdom. Why are we so insistent on turning from our all-sufficient Lord, the fountain of living waters, to hew cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13)? We don�t need psychology. We need the Lord and His Word. I thank the Lord for His servant, John Calvin, who helped me to repent of so-called "Christian" psychology!
Steven J. Cole, 1998 (Permission to publish this article has been granted by the author)
Since May, 1992, Steven Cole has been the pastor of Flagstaff Christian Fellowship, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Contact:
Website: http://www.fcfonline.org/site/
scole@safeaccess.com
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Is God Petty? (Tough Answers for Atheists)
by Ray Comfort
I watched a short video (presumably presented by an atheist) called "Tough Question for Christians" recently. He began his tough question, by saying that he had videotape evidence that you dented his car. He gave you 24 hours to apologize, and if you didn’t, he was going to throw gasoline on you and burn you alive. That is tough.
He then compared his analogy with the message of Christianity, saying that sinning against God was like denting a car, and that God will burn people in Hell for "not believing in Him" and for any other "little, tiny thing" they may have done.
Let’s look at a more applicable analogy. The police discover the grisly scene of six mutilated bodies of teenage girls, who were tied up, tortured, viciously raped, and then had their throats cut. They have your fingerprints on the knife, your DNA at the crime scene, and videotape of you boasting to a friend about how terrified the girls were, when you slowly cut their throats. you thought that was funny.
The judge finds you guilty of the heinnous crimes of rape and murder of the six girls, and sentences you to death by the electric chair. You react by saying, "My crime was petty. It was no big deal. This judge is evil."
The atheist’s mistake is to think that the God he doesn’t believe in, has the same moral standards as humanity. Yet, the God he must face on Judgment Day is morally perfect and utterly holy. He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder. We are told in Scripture that lying lips are an abomination to Him. He killed a husband and wife (in the Book of Acts) simply because they told one lie. Lying is so serious to Him, the Bible warns that all liars with have their part in the lake of fire. Sin is not about "little, tiny things" that we have done. It is deadly serious.
Yet, God is rich in mercy towards us. Isn’t that true? More than likely you have lied, looked with lust, stolen, blasphemed His name, etc., and yet He hasn’t treated you according to your sins and struck you dead. Well, not yet. But it will happen one day, and then you have to face Him for all those unspeakably serious crimes against His Law.
The other mistake the atheist made was to think that people will end up in Hell, for not believing in God. That’s just not true. Plenty of people who believe in God will end up in Hell. Among them will be the many religious hypocrites, and millions of others, who were warned of the reality of Hell, but refused to repent and trust the Savior.
God has no pleasure in your death. If you find yourself in Hell, you will have no one to blame but yourself. The Bible warns that our damnation is just. Justice will certainly be done, if His mercy is spurned.
I watched a short video (presumably presented by an atheist) called "Tough Question for Christians" recently. He began his tough question, by saying that he had videotape evidence that you dented his car. He gave you 24 hours to apologize, and if you didn’t, he was going to throw gasoline on you and burn you alive. That is tough.
He then compared his analogy with the message of Christianity, saying that sinning against God was like denting a car, and that God will burn people in Hell for "not believing in Him" and for any other "little, tiny thing" they may have done.
Let’s look at a more applicable analogy. The police discover the grisly scene of six mutilated bodies of teenage girls, who were tied up, tortured, viciously raped, and then had their throats cut. They have your fingerprints on the knife, your DNA at the crime scene, and videotape of you boasting to a friend about how terrified the girls were, when you slowly cut their throats. you thought that was funny.
The judge finds you guilty of the heinnous crimes of rape and murder of the six girls, and sentences you to death by the electric chair. You react by saying, "My crime was petty. It was no big deal. This judge is evil."
The atheist’s mistake is to think that the God he doesn’t believe in, has the same moral standards as humanity. Yet, the God he must face on Judgment Day is morally perfect and utterly holy. He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder. We are told in Scripture that lying lips are an abomination to Him. He killed a husband and wife (in the Book of Acts) simply because they told one lie. Lying is so serious to Him, the Bible warns that all liars with have their part in the lake of fire. Sin is not about "little, tiny things" that we have done. It is deadly serious.
Yet, God is rich in mercy towards us. Isn’t that true? More than likely you have lied, looked with lust, stolen, blasphemed His name, etc., and yet He hasn’t treated you according to your sins and struck you dead. Well, not yet. But it will happen one day, and then you have to face Him for all those unspeakably serious crimes against His Law.
The other mistake the atheist made was to think that people will end up in Hell, for not believing in God. That’s just not true. Plenty of people who believe in God will end up in Hell. Among them will be the many religious hypocrites, and millions of others, who were warned of the reality of Hell, but refused to repent and trust the Savior.
God has no pleasure in your death. If you find yourself in Hell, you will have no one to blame but yourself. The Bible warns that our damnation is just. Justice will certainly be done, if His mercy is spurned.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Eight Rules of Interpretation
So many Christians are Biblically illiterate - relying more on the insights of their favorite teachers than on their own diligent study of God's Word. Any truth-seeking christian should, with great fervency, follow what legal experts have used for over 2500 years, the Eight Rules of Interpretation to protect them from heresy:
Rule of Definition.
Define the term or words being considered and then adhere to the defined meanings.
Rule of Usage.
Don't add meaning to established words and terms. What was the common usage in the cultural and time period when the passage was written?
Rule of Context.
Avoid using words out of context. Context must define terms and how words are used.
Rule of Historical background.
Don't separate interpretation and historical investigation.
Rule of Logic.
Be certain that words as interpreted agree with the overall premise.
Rule of Precedent.
Use the known and commonly accepted meanings of words, not obscure meanings for which their is no precedent.
Rule of Unity.
Even though many documents may be used there must be a general unity among them.
Rule of Inference.
Base conclusions on what is already known and proven or can be reasonably implied from all known facts.
Rule of Definition.
Define the term or words being considered and then adhere to the defined meanings.
Rule of Usage.
Don't add meaning to established words and terms. What was the common usage in the cultural and time period when the passage was written?
Rule of Context.
Avoid using words out of context. Context must define terms and how words are used.
Rule of Historical background.
Don't separate interpretation and historical investigation.
Rule of Logic.
Be certain that words as interpreted agree with the overall premise.
Rule of Precedent.
Use the known and commonly accepted meanings of words, not obscure meanings for which their is no precedent.
Rule of Unity.
Even though many documents may be used there must be a general unity among them.
Rule of Inference.
Base conclusions on what is already known and proven or can be reasonably implied from all known facts.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Preaching As Concept Creation, Not Just Contextualization
by John Piper at www.desiringGod.org website
As we think seriously about contextualizing the message of the Bible, let’s remember that we must also labor to bring about, in the minds of our listeners, conceptual categories that may be missing from their mental framework. If we only use the thought structures they already have, some crucial biblical truths will remain unintelligible, no matter how much contextualizing we do. This work of concept creation is harder than contextualization, but just as important.
We must pray and preach so that a new mental framework is created for seeing the world. Ultimately, this is not our doing. God must do it. The categories that make the biblical message look foolish are deeply rooted in sinful human nature. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1Corinthians 2:14).
Part of what the Spirit does in overcoming human resistance is to humble us to the point where we can let go of ingrained patterns of thought. But the Spirit does this through preaching and teaching. “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom [that is, through its cherished ways of thinking], it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).
God brings about this new seeing and understanding and believing. But he uses us to do it. So we should give as much effort in helping people have new, biblical categories of thought as we do in contextualizing the gospel to the categories they already have.
Here are a few examples of biblical truths that most fallen minds have no conceptual categories for conceiving. May the Lord raise up witnesses to his truth who don’t distort it by over-zealous contextualizing, but awaken a place for it in converted minds which have new Spirit-created categories.
1. All persons are accountable for their choices, and all their choices are infallibly and decisively ordained by God.
[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Ephesians 1:11)
On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. (Matthew 12:36)
2. It is not sin in God to will that there be sin
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it [the evil acts of Joseph’s brothers] for good. (Genesis 50:20)
3. What God decrees will come to pass is not always the same as what he commands that we do, and may indeed be the opposite.
For example, he may command, “Thou shalt not kill,” and decree that his Son be killed: “It was the will of the Lord to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10).
4. God’s ultimate goal is the exaltation and display of his own glory, and this is at the heart of what it means for him to love us.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5)
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” (John 17:24)
5. Sin is not primarily what hurts man but what belittles God by expressing unbelief or indifference to his superior worth.
My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
6. God is perfectly just and orders the complete destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan.
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? (Genesis 18:25)
But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. (Deuteronomy 20:16)
7. The key to the Christian life is learning the secret of acting in such a way that our acts are done as the acts of Another.
Walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
Put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. (Romans 8:13)
8. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)
9. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” (Matthew 1:23)
10. “Before Abraham was I am.” (John 8:58)
As we think seriously about contextualizing the message of the Bible, let’s remember that we must also labor to bring about, in the minds of our listeners, conceptual categories that may be missing from their mental framework. If we only use the thought structures they already have, some crucial biblical truths will remain unintelligible, no matter how much contextualizing we do. This work of concept creation is harder than contextualization, but just as important.
We must pray and preach so that a new mental framework is created for seeing the world. Ultimately, this is not our doing. God must do it. The categories that make the biblical message look foolish are deeply rooted in sinful human nature. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1Corinthians 2:14).
Part of what the Spirit does in overcoming human resistance is to humble us to the point where we can let go of ingrained patterns of thought. But the Spirit does this through preaching and teaching. “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom [that is, through its cherished ways of thinking], it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).
God brings about this new seeing and understanding and believing. But he uses us to do it. So we should give as much effort in helping people have new, biblical categories of thought as we do in contextualizing the gospel to the categories they already have.
Here are a few examples of biblical truths that most fallen minds have no conceptual categories for conceiving. May the Lord raise up witnesses to his truth who don’t distort it by over-zealous contextualizing, but awaken a place for it in converted minds which have new Spirit-created categories.
1. All persons are accountable for their choices, and all their choices are infallibly and decisively ordained by God.
[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will. (Ephesians 1:11)
On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. (Matthew 12:36)
2. It is not sin in God to will that there be sin
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it [the evil acts of Joseph’s brothers] for good. (Genesis 50:20)
3. What God decrees will come to pass is not always the same as what he commands that we do, and may indeed be the opposite.
For example, he may command, “Thou shalt not kill,” and decree that his Son be killed: “It was the will of the Lord to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10).
4. God’s ultimate goal is the exaltation and display of his own glory, and this is at the heart of what it means for him to love us.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5)
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” (John 17:24)
5. Sin is not primarily what hurts man but what belittles God by expressing unbelief or indifference to his superior worth.
My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
6. God is perfectly just and orders the complete destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan.
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? (Genesis 18:25)
But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. (Deuteronomy 20:16)
7. The key to the Christian life is learning the secret of acting in such a way that our acts are done as the acts of Another.
Walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
Put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. (Romans 8:13)
8. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)
9. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” (Matthew 1:23)
10. “Before Abraham was I am.” (John 8:58)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Wrath of God
by A. W. Pink "The Attributes of God" (see Outstanding Christian Links to the right)
It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight, they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him. His own challenge is, "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me" (Deut. 32:39-41). A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; And because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner: Psalm 7:11.
Now the wrath of God is as much a Divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if "wrath" were absent from Him! Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His "severity" (Rom. 9:12) toward it? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as Heaven is. Not only is there no imperfection in God, but there is no perfection in Him that is less perfect than another.
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as the Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.
That Divine wrath is one of the perfections of God is not only evident from the considerations presented above, but is also clearly established by the express declarations of His own Word. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven" (Rom. 1:18). Robert Haldane comments on this verse as follows:
It was revealed when the sentence of death was first pronounced, the earth cursed, and man driven out of the earthly paradise; and afterwards by such examples of punishment as those of the Deluge and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain by fire from heaven; but especially by the reign of death throughout the world. It was proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression, and was intimated in the institution of sacrifice. In the 8th of Romans, the apostle calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject to vanity, and groaneth and travaileth together in pain. The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proclaims that He is the Enemy of sin and the Avenger of the crimes of men . . . But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the Divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.
Again; that the wrath of God is a Divine perfection is plainly demonstrated by what we read of in Psalm 95:11, "Unto whom I sware in My wrath." There are two occasions of God "swearing": in making promises (Gen. 22:16), and in denouncing threatening (Deut. 1:34). In the former, He swares in mercy to His children; in the latter, He swares to terrify the wicked. An oath is for solemn confirmation: Hebrews 6:16. In Genesis 22:16 God said, "By Myself have I sworn." In Psalm 89:35 He declares, "Once have I sworn by My holiness." While in Psalm 95:11 He affirmed, "I swear in My wrath." Thus the great Jehovah Himself appeals to His "wrath" as a perfection equal to His "holiness": He swares by the one as much as by the other! Again; as in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9), and as all the Divine perfections are illustriously displayed by Him (John 1:18), therefore do we read of "the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:16).
The wrath of God is a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate. First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God’s detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and His frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness. Second, to beget a true fear in our souls for God: "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:28,29). We cannot serve Him "acceptably" unless there is due "reverence" for His awful Majesty and "godly fear" of His righteous anger, and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that "our God is a consuming fire." Third, to draw out our souls in fervent praise for having delivered us from "the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10).
Our readiness or our reluctancy to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of how our hearts’ really stand affected toward Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in Him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us? Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on his guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old the Lord complained, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21), If we rejoice not "at the remembrance of His holiness" (Ps. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon coming Day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath, by taking vengeance on all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, on the way to the everlasting burnings.
"Rejoice, O ye nations (Gentiles) His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries" (Deut. 32:43). And again we read, "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God; For true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said Alleluia." (Rev. 19:13). Great will be the rejoicing of the saints in that day when the Lord shall vindicate His majesty, exercise His awful dominion, magnify His justice, and overthrow the proud rebels who have dared to defy Him.
"If thou Lord, shouldest mark (impute) iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3). Well may each of us ask this question, for it is written, "the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (Ps. 1:5). How sorely was Christ’s soul exercised with thoughts of God’s marking the iniquities of His people when they were upon Him! He was "amazed and very heavy" (Mark 14:33). His awful agony, His bloody sweat, His strong cries and supplications (Heb. 5:7), His reiterated prayers ("If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me"), His last dreadful cry, ("My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?") all manifest what fearful apprehensions He had of what it was for God to "mark iniquities." Well may poor sinners cry out, "Lord who shall stand" when the Son of God Himself so trembled beneath the weight of His wrath? If thou, my reader, hast not "fled for refuge" to Christ, the only Saviour, "how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5)?
When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful world. If a prince hath an enemy got into one of his towns, he doth not send them in provision, but lays close siege to the place, and doth what he can to starve them. But the great God, that could wink all His enemies into destruction, bears with them, and is at daily cost to maintain them. Well may He command us to bless them that curse us, who Himself does good to the evil and unthankful. But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus; God’s mill goes slow, but grinds small; the more admirable His patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and unsupportable will that fury be which ariseth out of His abused goodness. Nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into a tempest, nothing rageth more. Nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as His wrath when it takes fire. (Wm Gurnall, 1660).
Then flee, my reader, flee to Christ; "flee from the wrath to come" (Matt. 3:7) ere it be too late. Do not, we earnestly beseech you, suppose that this message is intended for somebody else. It is to you! Do not be contented by thinking you have already fled to Christ. Make certain! Beg the Lord to search your heart and show you yourself.
It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight, they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him. His own challenge is, "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me" (Deut. 32:39-41). A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; And because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner: Psalm 7:11.
Now the wrath of God is as much a Divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if "wrath" were absent from Him! Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His "severity" (Rom. 9:12) toward it? How could He who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, loathe and hate not that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite as Heaven is. Not only is there no imperfection in God, but there is no perfection in Him that is less perfect than another.
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as the Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.
That Divine wrath is one of the perfections of God is not only evident from the considerations presented above, but is also clearly established by the express declarations of His own Word. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven" (Rom. 1:18). Robert Haldane comments on this verse as follows:
It was revealed when the sentence of death was first pronounced, the earth cursed, and man driven out of the earthly paradise; and afterwards by such examples of punishment as those of the Deluge and the destruction of the Cities of the Plain by fire from heaven; but especially by the reign of death throughout the world. It was proclaimed in the curse of the law on every transgression, and was intimated in the institution of sacrifice. In the 8th of Romans, the apostle calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation has become subject to vanity, and groaneth and travaileth together in pain. The same creation which declares that there is a God, and publishes His glory, also proclaims that He is the Enemy of sin and the Avenger of the crimes of men . . . But above all, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven when the Son of God came down to manifest the Divine character, and when that wrath was displayed in His sufferings and death, in a manner more awful than by all the tokens God had before given of His displeasure against sin. Besides this, the future and eternal punishment of the wicked is now declared in terms more solemn and explicit than formerly. Under the new dispensation there are two revelations given from heaven, one of wrath, the other of grace.
Again; that the wrath of God is a Divine perfection is plainly demonstrated by what we read of in Psalm 95:11, "Unto whom I sware in My wrath." There are two occasions of God "swearing": in making promises (Gen. 22:16), and in denouncing threatening (Deut. 1:34). In the former, He swares in mercy to His children; in the latter, He swares to terrify the wicked. An oath is for solemn confirmation: Hebrews 6:16. In Genesis 22:16 God said, "By Myself have I sworn." In Psalm 89:35 He declares, "Once have I sworn by My holiness." While in Psalm 95:11 He affirmed, "I swear in My wrath." Thus the great Jehovah Himself appeals to His "wrath" as a perfection equal to His "holiness": He swares by the one as much as by the other! Again; as in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9), and as all the Divine perfections are illustriously displayed by Him (John 1:18), therefore do we read of "the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:16).
The wrath of God is a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate. First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God’s detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and His frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness. Second, to beget a true fear in our souls for God: "Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:28,29). We cannot serve Him "acceptably" unless there is due "reverence" for His awful Majesty and "godly fear" of His righteous anger, and these are best promoted by frequently calling to mind that "our God is a consuming fire." Third, to draw out our souls in fervent praise for having delivered us from "the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10).
Our readiness or our reluctancy to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of how our hearts’ really stand affected toward Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in Him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us? Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on his guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old the Lord complained, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21), If we rejoice not "at the remembrance of His holiness" (Ps. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon coming Day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath, by taking vengeance on all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, on the way to the everlasting burnings.
"Rejoice, O ye nations (Gentiles) His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries" (Deut. 32:43). And again we read, "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God; For true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said Alleluia." (Rev. 19:13). Great will be the rejoicing of the saints in that day when the Lord shall vindicate His majesty, exercise His awful dominion, magnify His justice, and overthrow the proud rebels who have dared to defy Him.
"If thou Lord, shouldest mark (impute) iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3). Well may each of us ask this question, for it is written, "the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment" (Ps. 1:5). How sorely was Christ’s soul exercised with thoughts of God’s marking the iniquities of His people when they were upon Him! He was "amazed and very heavy" (Mark 14:33). His awful agony, His bloody sweat, His strong cries and supplications (Heb. 5:7), His reiterated prayers ("If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me"), His last dreadful cry, ("My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?") all manifest what fearful apprehensions He had of what it was for God to "mark iniquities." Well may poor sinners cry out, "Lord who shall stand" when the Son of God Himself so trembled beneath the weight of His wrath? If thou, my reader, hast not "fled for refuge" to Christ, the only Saviour, "how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5)?
When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful world. If a prince hath an enemy got into one of his towns, he doth not send them in provision, but lays close siege to the place, and doth what he can to starve them. But the great God, that could wink all His enemies into destruction, bears with them, and is at daily cost to maintain them. Well may He command us to bless them that curse us, who Himself does good to the evil and unthankful. But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus; God’s mill goes slow, but grinds small; the more admirable His patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and unsupportable will that fury be which ariseth out of His abused goodness. Nothing smoother than the sea, yet when stirred into a tempest, nothing rageth more. Nothing so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as His wrath when it takes fire. (Wm Gurnall, 1660).
Then flee, my reader, flee to Christ; "flee from the wrath to come" (Matt. 3:7) ere it be too late. Do not, we earnestly beseech you, suppose that this message is intended for somebody else. It is to you! Do not be contented by thinking you have already fled to Christ. Make certain! Beg the Lord to search your heart and show you yourself.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Great Preaching from an Athiest (who eventually committed suicide)
Hobart Mowrer, from "Sin, the Lesser of Two Evils,"
"For several decades, we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus, and acclaimed our liberation from it as epic-making. But at length we have discovered that to be free, in this sense to have the excuse to being sick rather than being sinful, is to court the danger of also becoming lost.
This danger, I believe, is betokened by the widespread interest in existentialism which we are presently witnessing. In becoming a-moral, ethically neutral, and free we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood, and identity. And with neurotics themselves, we find ourselves asking, who am I, what is my deepest destiny, and what does living really mean?"
"For several decades, we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus, and acclaimed our liberation from it as epic-making. But at length we have discovered that to be free, in this sense to have the excuse to being sick rather than being sinful, is to court the danger of also becoming lost.
This danger, I believe, is betokened by the widespread interest in existentialism which we are presently witnessing. In becoming a-moral, ethically neutral, and free we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood, and identity. And with neurotics themselves, we find ourselves asking, who am I, what is my deepest destiny, and what does living really mean?"
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
List of Islamic Terror Attacks in the Past Two Months
Date Country City Killed Injured Description
2009.01.18 Pakistan Swat 4 2 Two brothers murdered in their home are among four people taken out by Mujahideen.
2009.01.17 Afghanistan Nangarhar 1 2 A civilian is taken down by a Fedayeen suicide bomber in a minivan.
2009.01.17 Afghanistan Kabul 4 23 A woman and child are among four civilians killed outside the German embassy when a Holy Warrior detonates beside them.
2009.01.17 Iraq Baghdad 1 1 Jihad bombers kill the driver of a municipal vehicle.
2009.01.17 Iraq Mosul 2 0 Two innocent guards at a cell phone tower are gunned down by Sunni extremists.
2009.01.17 Pakistan Miranshah 1 0 An Afghan civilian is murdered by the Taliban.
2009.01.17 Pakistan Matani 1 0 A faith healer is abducted and beheaded by Islamists.
2009.01.17 Somalia Mogadishu 2 9 al-Shabab militants take out two civilians during an attack on African peacekeepers.
2009.01.17 Algeria Miliana 1 0 A man has his throat slit by Islamic fundamentalists at a fake roadblock.
2009.01.16 Iraq Mosul 1 0 The local Christian owner of a car repair shop is brutally murdered by Islamic terrorists.
2009.01.16 Iraq Mosul 1 2 Mujahideen storm a home and murder a woman inside.
2009.01.15 Pakistan Miranshah 1 0 A 30-year-old civilian is abducted and murdered by Islamic radicals.
2009.01.15 Somalia Kismayo 1 0 Islamists assassinate a former statesman after 'sentencing' him to death.
2009.01.14 Iraq Mosul 2 4 A Holy Warrior takes out two Iraqis with a suicide belt.
2009.01.14 Pakistan Quetta 4 0 Four Shia are ambushed and killed by Sunni militants with automatic weapons.
2009.01.14 Somalia Mogadishu 6 18 A half-dozen civilians are killed due to an Islamist mortar attack on the presidential palace.
2009.01.13 Thailand Narathiwat 1 4 A local soldier succumbs to shrapnal injuries following a Religion of Peace bombing attack.
2009.01.13 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two village chiefs are shot to death in Muslim drive-by attacks.
2009.01.13 Pakistan Matta 3 4 A beheaded rickshaw driver is among three people killed in separate terror attacks.
2009.01.13 Pakistan Miranshah 1 0 A civilian is abducted and brutally beheaded by religious radicals.
2009.01.13 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two civilians are shot to death by Mujahideen.
2009.01.12 Pakistan North Waziristan 2 0 Two brothers are abducted and brutally murdered by Mujahideen.
2009.01.12 Iraq Baghdad 8 31 Eight Iraqis are burned or blasted to death in three Jihad bombings.
2009.01.12 Somalia Mogadishu 13 30 At least thirteen people are killed in a brutal mortar attack by Islamic militia.
2009.01.12 Pakistan Hangu 5 21 Five more people are killed in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia.
2009.01.12 Ingushetia Nazran 1 1 Islamic snipers pick off a local soldier.
2009.01.11 Pakistan Mohmand 6 7 Taliban militants overrun a military base, killing at least six local soldiers.
2009.01.11 Algeria Merine 2 2 A mother and child are gunned down by armed Islamists at a fake roadblock.
2009.01.11 Somalia Guriel 30 50 al-Shabaab hardline fundamentalists attack a rival group, leaving about thirty people dead.
2009.01.11 Thailand Yala 3 2 Two Buddhists are among three farmers shot to death by Islamic terrorists.
2009.01.11 Iraq Mosul 5 4 Five Iraqis are murdered by Islamic militants in two attacks.
2009.01.11 Pakistan Swat 4 0 A father and son are among four civilians shot to death by Taliban militants in three attacks.
2009.01.11 Pakistan Bajaur 0 4 Religious extremists abduct and then chop the ears off of four private security guards.
2009.01.10 Pakistan Hangu 47 60 A Muslim group attacks a rival funeral, setting off Sunni-Shia violence that leaves nearly fifty dead over the next four days.
2009.01.10 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A 54-year-old civilian is gunned down by Mujahideen.
2009.01.10 Pakistan Sibi 2 0 Two Shias are assassinated by Sunni terrorists.
2009.01.09 Israel Rehovot 0 1 A Muslim yells 'Allah Akbar' and strikes a Jewish teen with an axe.
2009.01.09 Afghanistan Nimroz 10 3 A Shahid blows himself up in a fruit shop, taking out ten patrons and employees.
2009.01.09 Somalia Gedo 1 5 Islamic militants assassinate a local mayor with a rocket.
2009.01.09 Iraq Baghdad 9 15 A child is among nine Iraqis taken out be Jihadi bomber in three attacks.
2009.01.09 Pakistan Lahore 0 5 Fundamentalists bomb movie theaters accused of showing 'anti-Islamic' films.
2009.01.09 Pakistan Swat 2 0 Two locals are abducted and butchered by Islamic militants.
2009.01.08 Afghanistan Kandahar 3 21 A Holy Warrior takes out three civilians with an explosives belt.
2009.01.08 Iraq Jalawla 6 7 Six Iraqis are blown up in a Jihad bomb attack.
2009.01.07 Somalia Yubsan 1 0 A humanitarian worker and father of five is shot to death in cold blood by Islamic terrorists.
2009.01.07 Somalia Yaqshid 4 2 Four local soldiers are killed when Islamists stop their vehilce with a roadside bomb, then toss a grenade at the survivors.
2009.01.07 Pakistan Swat 2 0 Two civilians are shot to death by terrorists in separate incidents.
2009.01.07 Pakistan North Waziristan 2 0 Two Afghan civilians are kidnapped and brutally executed by religious radicals.
2009.01.07 Pakistan Hungu 4 1 Four policemen die from burns and shrapnel during a Taliban rocket attack.
2009.01.07 Pal. Auth. Gaza 6 0 Three brothers are among six people shot to death by Hamas militants.
2009.01.06 Iraq Mosul 2 6 A Shahid successfully kills two civilians with a suicide bomb.
2009.01.06 Iraq Baghdad 4 6 Four Iraqis are taken out by roadside bombers.
2009.01.06 Thailand Pattani 1 0 An Islamic terror attack leaves a 47-year-old security man dead.
2009.01.06 Pakistan Mingora 6 0 Six local cops are kidnapped and brutally executed by Sunni radicals.
2009.01.05 Iraq Baghdad 3 6 Jihadis plant a bomb outside a soccer stadium, killing three Iraqis.
2009.01.05 Pakistan Quetta 2 0 Two Shia civilians are shot to death by Sunni militants.
2009.01.05 Afghanistan Kandahar 3 1 Religious extremists attack a police post, killing three local officers.
2009.01.05 Pakistan Swat 2 0 Two persons are murdered by Mujahideen in separate attacks, including a woman in her home.
2009.01.05 Afghanistan Kandahar 1 0 A pro-government mosque leader is taken out by Islamic gunmen
2009.01.05 Pakistan Bannu 3 0 Three family men are abducted and executed by the Taliban.
2009.01.05 Thailand Narathiwat 1 1 Religious radicals gun down a 51-year-old cop.
2009.01.05 Thailand Yala 1 2 A villager is shot to death by Mujahid while standing with his neighbors.
2009.01.05 Thailand Narathiwat 1 1 Islamists shoot at a married couple with automatic weapons, killing the husband and injuring his wife.
2009.01.04 Pakistan Swat 2 0 Muslim fundamentalists abduct and brutally execute two police officers, beheading one and hanging his head from a pole.
2009.01.04 Thailand Pattani 1 1 Muslim gunmen murder a Buddhist man and injure his wife as they are riding in their vehicle.
2009.01.04 Pakistan Di Khan 10 25 Islamic bombers blast at least ten people to death in an attack at a college campus.
2009.01.04 Iraq Baghdad 36 72 Dozens of women and children are blown to bits by a Shahid suicide bomber targeting a crowd of Shiite pilgrims near a shrine.
2009.01.04 Pakistan Matta 3 0 Three persons are murdered by suspected Taliban gunmen.
2009.01.04 Pal. Auth. Gaza 35 75 The Islamic terror group, Hamas, 'executes' thirty-five rivals and maims over seventy others over the course of several days.
2009.01.03 Iraq Baghdad 4 16 Shia pilgrims are among the victims of two Sunni bombing attacks.
2009.01.02 Pakistan Bajaur 1 0 Muslim terrorists shoot a tribal elder to death.
2009.01.02 Iraq al-Yusufiyah 23 110 A Fedayeen suicide bomber wades into a lunch crowd at a reconciliation meeting between Sunni and Shia leaders, killing twenty-three.
2009.01.02 Pakistan Swat 3 0 Three civilians are shot to death in two attacks.
2009.01.02 Pakistan Balogram 2 0 Two policemen are abducted by Islamists and gruesomely tortured to death.
2009.01.02 Somalia Mogadishu 9 0 Two soldiers and seven civilians are killed in an Mujahid bombing and the ensuing fire fight.
2009.01.02 Pakistan Mingora 1 0 A local dancing girl is quickly gunned down by Islamists after her husband kicks her out of the house.
2009.01.02 Somalia Mogadishu 1 0 A local cleric is shot to death by al-Shabaab radicals in his home in front of his blind mother.
2009.01.01 Somalia Baidoa 1 0 A member of a reconciliation committee is murdered by Islamic militia.
2009.01.01 Pakistan Swat 1 0 Militants drag a man out of his home and cut off his head in a public square.
2009.01.01 Somalia Mogadishu 2 0 Two local officials are assassinated by Mujahideen.
2009.01.01 Pakistan Ghania 2 0 A young man chops his mother and daughter into pieces after they ignore his warning to end an illicit affair with a local man.
2009.01.01 Pakistan Peshawar 3 6 Three policemen are killed by two Religion of Peace bombs.
2009.01.01 Pakistan Swat 3 0 Three people are shot to death by Islamic terrorists in separate attacks.
2009.01.01 Pakistan Bajaur 4 16 Four civilians are killed when Mujahideen fire rockets into an office complex.
2009.01.01 Iraq Mosul 3 5 A Shahid takes out three Iraqis.
2009.01.01 Somalia Afgoye 1 0 A journalist is killed during an attack by Islamic militia.
2008.12.31 Pakistan Darra Adamkhel 4 6 Three women and a child are killed when Muslim terrorists fire a rocket into their home.
2008.12.31 Denmark Odense 0 2 A Muslim shoots two Jewish vendors at a shopping mall.
2008.12.31 Somalia Baidoa 1 0 A woman is shot to death by Islamic fundamentalists over an 'illicit' relationship.
2008.12.31 Pakistan Mir Ali 1 0 A 28-year-old man is kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban.
2008.12.31 Philippines Bagong 1 0 Moro Islamists gun down a civilian.
2008.12.31 Philippines General Santos 0 22 Moro Islamists toss a grenade into a New Years Eve celebration, injuring over twenty.
2008.12.31 Afghanistan Helmand 21 0 A mother pleading for her son's life is among twenty-one persons shot in cold blood by the Taliban.
2008.12.31 Iraq Baghdad 14 66 Four members of a religious minority are among fourteen killed by Islamists in four attacks.
2008.12.30 Iraq Jalawla 1 0 Suspected al-Qaeda gun down a tribal leader.
2008.12.30 Philippines Esperanza 1 0 A 17-year-old Christian taxi driver is killed by a bomb planted by Muslim radicals.
2008.12.30 Pakistan Mingora 1 0 A local official is assassinated by Muslim militants.
2008.12.29 Israel Ashkelon 1 7 Hamas rockets hit an Israeli home, killing a resident.
2008.12.29 Afghanistan Kabul 2 17 Two Afghan civilians are blown to bits by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2008.12.29 Israel Ashdod 1 1 A mother of four is killed by a Palestinian rocket.
2008.12.29 Iraq Mosul 1 0 A Shahid suicide bomber takes out a shopper at a grocery.
2008.12.29 Iraq Mahaweel 3 0 A mother and daughter are among three people killed by Sunni bombers.
2008.12.29 Pakistan Gwalirai 2 0 Two men, abducted days earlier, are murdered in captivity by the Taliban.
2008.12.29 Thailand Pattani 1 1 A woman is shot to death on her way to work by Muslim terrorists. Three others are killed elsewhere.
2008.12.29 Iran Saravan 2 10 Two police officers are killed by a Sunni suicide bomber.
2008.12.29 Somalia Mogadishu 5 10 At least five civilians are killed, including a young child, when Islamists bomb a market.
2008.12.28 Thailand Yala 1 0 Islamic gunmen murder a man in a tea shop.
2008.12.28 Iraq Fallujah 4 10 Four Iraqis are murdered in two Jihad bombings.
2008.12.28 Afghanistan Khost 16 58 Fourteen children on their way to school are deliberately murdered along with two adults by a suicidal Sunni bomber.
2008.12.28 Pakistan Miranshah 3 0 Three young civilians, including an 18-year-old, are kidnapped and hung by Taliban militants.
2008.12.28 Pakistan Buner 43 16 Religious extremists take out over forty people at a polling station with car bombs. Five children are among the dead.
2008.12.28 Iraq Mosul 4 20 A 12-year-old boy is among four civilians taken out by a suicide bomber on a bicycle.
2008.12.27 Israel Netivot 1 4 Hamas rockets kill an Israeli man and injure four others.
2008.12.27 Afghanistan Kandahar 5 5 Five Afghans are blown up by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2008.12.27 Afghanistan Kabul 3 0 Three teenage sisters are crushed to death by a Taliban rocket barrage.
2008.12.27 Iraq Baghdad 24 45 Women and children are among two dozen people blasted to death by Jihadi car bombers.
2008.12.26 Pal. Auth. Beit Lahiya 2 0 Two young girls are killed when a Palestinian rocket hits their home.
2008.12.26 Pakistan Gilgit 5 0 A child is among five people shot dead in a sectarian ambush.
2008.12.26 India Kishtwar 1 0 Mujahideen abduct a man, then murder him in a wooded area.
2008.12.26 Pakistan Bajaur 1 9 A child is killed during a Taliban rocket attack.
2008.12.26 Iran Mashhad 2 0 Two men are buried up to their waists and stoned to death for adultery.
2008.12.25 Iraq Baghdad 4 24 Sunni extremists bomb a restaurant, killing four patrons.
2008.12.25 Iraq Muqdadiyah 3 12 A Fedayeen suicide bomber takes out three other people.
2008.12.25 Iraq Bishkan 1 1 A 13-year-old is murdered in her home by Jihadi invaders.
2008.12.24 Pakistan Lahore 1 4 Muslim bombers take out a woman along a city street.
2008.12.24 Philippines Kalamansig 1 0 Moro Islamists fire at a motorboat, killing a passenger.
2008.12.24 Iraq Fallujah 3 4 Three children are killed in a suspected al-Qaeda roadside attack.
2008.12.23 Pakistan Mingora 2 0 A beggar woman and her daughter are gunned down at point-blank range by Holy Warriors.
2008.12.23 Thailand Pattani 1 7 An Islamist shooting and bombing leave one dead and seven injured.
2008.12.23 Iraq Kifl 1 0 A man is kidnapped and tortured to death by Religion of Peace militants.
2008.12.23 Iraq Mosul 2 6 A child and doctor are murdered by Islamic terrorists.
2008.12.23 Iraq Tarmiyah 5 4 A man and his wife are among two people blasted to death by Jihad bombers.
2008.12.23 Philippines Sultan Kudarat 9 8 Moro Islamists storm two villages and shoot nine civilians to death.
2008.12.23 Pakistan Swat 4 0 A man and his wife are among four people murdered by Mujahideen in three attacks.
2008.12.23 Philippines Isabela 0 26 Abu Sayyaf members toss two grenades into a group of people enjoying a musical performance.
2008.12.22 Somalia Mogadishu 7 22 Seven civilians are killed during an attack by Islamic guerrillas
2008.12.22 Pakistan Swat 6 8 Two women are among six civilians killed by Mujahideen in three incidents.
2008.12.22 Afghanistan Ghazni 3 4 A suicide bomber takes out three civilians.
2008.12.22 India Baramulla 2 0 Two local soldiers are shot to death at close range by Muslim assassins at a market.
2008.12.21 Pakistan Bannu 2 0 Islamic militants rocket a government building, killing two people.
2008.12.21 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A 50-year-old civilian is murdered by Muslim gunmen on his way home.
2008.12.21 Pakistan North Waziristan 2 0 Two brothers are brutally kidnapped and murdered by Sunni extremists.
2008.12.21 Pakistan Swat 3 0 Mujahideen drag three people out of their home and shoot them in cold blood. The victims include a man and his son.
2008.12.20 Thailand Pattani 1 7 A woman standing outside a convenience store is murdered by Islamic bombers. Children are injured as well.
2008.12.20 Thailand Yala 1 0 A 49-year-old security guard is shot to death by Muslim radicals as he leaves his home.
2008.12.19 Iraq Baghdad 7 0 Islamists behead seven Iraqis.
2008.12.19 Somalia Mogadishu 1 10 A civilian is shot to death during an attack by Jabalu Islamiya terrorists.
2008.12.19 Pakistan Khyber 3 0 Three civilians are killed when Sunni militants open fire on an empty fuel tanker.
2008.12.18 Iraq Kirkuk 1 0 A female women's rights activist is beheaded in her home by Islamic terrorists.
2008.12.18 Pakistan Hangu 4 1 A child is among four peope shot to death by Islamists in three attacks.
2008.12.18 Iraq Diyala 2 17 Two Iraqis are taken out by roadside bombers.
2008.12.18 Philippines Iligan 3 47 Islamists detonate nail-packed bombs at two shopping malls in Christian areas, killing at least three people.
2008.12.17 Pakistan Kanju 2 0 A couple is murdered for having unmarried sex.
2008.12.17 Pakistan Jamrud 1 1 A woman is killed, and a child injured, in a Taliban rocket attack on a vehicle.
2008.12.17 Pakistan Wana 1 0 A civilian is shot to death by religious extremists.
2008.12.17 Pakistan Matta 2 0 Taliban militants abduct and kill two locals.
2008.12.17 Iraq Baghdad 18 53 Eighteen innocent souls are snuffed out by Jihadi bombers along a city street.
2008.12.17 Thailand Yala 1 0 A 16-year-old boy is shot to death outside of a 7-Eleven by Mujahideen.
2008.12.16 Iraq Baghdad 3 15 Jihadis place a bomb near a college campus, killing three people.
2008.12.16 Thailand Yala 3 1 Muslim terrorists shoot three people to death at a market, including a woman
2008.12.16 Iraq Mosul 8 16 Two suicide bombings leave eight Iraqis dead.
2008.12.16 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two young guards escorting a teacher are gunned down by Muslim radicals.
2008.12.16 Pakistan Swat 2 0 Islamic terrorists gun down two people in separate attacks.
2008.12.16 Iraq Baghdad 1 3 A 13-year-old child is taken out by Islamic bombers.
2008.12.15 Iraq Khan Dhari 9 31 Nine Iraqi police are blown apart by a Fedayeen car bomber at a checkpoint.
2008.12.15 Pakistan Swat 6 3 Six locals are murdered - two beheaded - by Taliban fundamentalists in three attacks.
2008.12.15 Iraq Tarmiya 1 1 A female suicide bomber takes out an Iraqi man and seriously injures his son.
2008.12.15 Thailand Yala 1 0 A 53-year-old man is gunned down in front of a food shop by Islamic terrorists.
2008.12.15 Iraq Sinjar 7 3 Women and children are among seven members of a religious minority sect slaughtered in their home by suspected Sunnis.
2008.12.15 Thailand Narathiwat 2 1 A 4-year-old child is among three people shot by Islamists in two attacks.
2008.12.14 Afghanistan Paktika 1 0 A musician is kidnapped and killed by Taliban fundamentalists for defying a ban on music.
2008.12.14 Pakistan Mandal Daag 9 3 Sunni extremists murder a rival cleric and eight of his followers.
2008.12.14 Pakistan Jamrud 2 1 Mujahideen shoot two tribal elders to death along a road.
2008.12.14 Afghanistan Kandahar 3 11 Three Afghans are murdered by a Taliban bomb hidden in a street vendor cart.
2008.12.13 India Doda 1 2 Mujahideen gun down a woman in her home.
2008.12.13 Pakistan Matta 4 0 Four tribesmen are shot to death by the Taliban.
2008.12.13 Pakistan Swat 5 0 Five civilians are killed in a terrorist landmine attack.
2008.12.13 Pakistan Miranshah 2 0 Islamists slit one man's throat and shoot another to death.
2008.12.13 Philippines Basilan 3 3 A woman is among three people murdered in their home by Moro Islamists.
2008.12.12 Thailand Pattani 1 2 Jihadis kill a man and seriously injure two others with a planted bomb in a karaoke bar.
2008.12.12 Thailand Yala 3 3 Three border guards are killed when Islamic militants open up on them with automatic weapons.
2008.12.11 Afghanistan Helmand 4 1 Religious extremists trick a 13-year-old boy into carrying explosives to British troops, which were then detonated remotely.
2008.12.11 Yemen Reida 1 0 A Jewish leader is gunned down by a Muslim shouting, 'Jew, receive the message of Islam.'
2008.12.11 Pakistan Matta 3 4 Tehrik-e-Taliban terrorists gun down three locals.
2008.12.11 Iraq Kirkuk 55 120 Fifty-five Iraqis are blown to bits at a restaurant by Shahid suicide bombers.
2008.12.11 Somalia Mogadishu 10 11 Children are among ten people killed during an attack by Islamic militia.
2008.12.10 Iraq Jalawla 1 2 A civilian is taken out in a Jihad bomb blast.
2008.12.09 Philippines Maguindanao 1 8 A local soldier is killed when Moro Islamists open fire on them with automatic weapons.
2008.12.09 Pakistan Buner 1 4 A 10-year-old child is murdered by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2008.12.08 India Bharatpur 2 0 A man reclaims his honor by shooting his daughter and her boyfriend after learning of their sexual relationship.
2008.12.07 Pakistan Peshawar 1 0 The Taliban murder a local security guard at a depot.
2008.12.07 Iraq Baquba 3 39 Jihadis kill three Iraqis with a bomb hidden in a shop.
2008.12.06 Iraq Kirkuk 1 15 A Fedayeen suicide bomber kills only one other person.
2008.12.06 Iraq Wajihiya 3 4 al-Qaeda gunmen attack a Sunni village, killing three people.
2008.12.06 Iraq Babel 4 0 Four children are killed by a landmine planted near a soccer field by suspected Sunnis.
2008.12.06 Afghanistan Kunar 4 2 Four local soldiers are killed when religious extremists attack their vehicle with a roadside bomb.
2008.12.06 Somalia Baidoa 3 0 An Islamic militia member tosses a grenade into a market, killing three civilians.
2008.12.06 Pakistan Swat 3 0 Three civilians are gunned down by suspected Taliban.
2008.12.05 Pakistan Orakzai 10 5 Religious extremists take out ten shoppers at a bazaar with a suicide blast.
2008.12.05 Pakistan Mir Ali 1 0 Sunni extremists abduct and murder an 30-year-old man.
2008.12.05 Pakistan Peshawar 34 131 Twenty-nine people at a marketplace are blown to bits by sectarian car bombers.
2008.12.05 Pakistan Bannu 2 3 Taliban militants kill two policemen with a rocket attack.
2008.12.05 Iraq Baghdad 2 2 Mujahideen bombers take out two Iraqis.
2008.12.05 Thailand Narathiwat 5 12 Five people are killed at a grocery by Islamic bombers.
2008.12.04 Thailand Pattani 2 0 A 60-year-old man is among two people gunned down by Muslim separatists.
2008.12.04 Pakistan Bahawalpur 1 0 A young girl is clubbed to death by her uncle on suspicion of 'illicit relations.'
2008.12.04 Dagestan Khasavyurt 1 0 A woman is killed by Islamic car bombers outside an apartment building.
2008.12.04 Iraq Albu Toma 25 0 Twenty-five al-Qaeda victims are found in mass graves.
2008.12.04 Iran Bluchistan 16 0 Jundullah terrorists kidnap and execute sixteen Iranian nationals.
2008.12.04 Afghanistan Khost 5 10 Five people are killed in two suicide attacks by Sunni extremists.
2008.12.04 Iraq Fallujah 15 147 Women and children are among fifteen Iraqis blasted to death by Jihadi car bombers.
2008.12.03 Pakistan Shabqadar 5 6 Five locals are killed by a Fedayeen car bomber.
2008.12.03 Chechnya Grozny 3 0 Three people are shot inside their home by suspected Mujahideen.
2008.12.03 Iraq Albu Toma 13 0 Thirteen victims of al-Qaeda kidnappings are found in a mass grave.
2008.12.02 Pakistan Sunpag 1 0 Religious extremists abduct a local official, keep him for a few days, then slaughter him and stuff his body in a bag.
2008.12.02 Pakistan Kabal 1 0 A civilian is shot to death by Islamic terrorists.
2008.12.02 Dagestan Makhachkala 1 4 Suspected Muslim militants gun down a cop.
2008.12.02 Iraq Tal Afar 5 30 Jihadis successfully kill five Iraqis with a car bomb.
2008.12.02 Iraq Mosul 4 12 Two young children are among four killed when Mujahideen place a bomb outside a school.
2008.12.01 Iraq Baghdad 16 35 Sixteen police recruits are murdered by two Jihad bombers at their academy.
2008.12.01 Iraq Mosul 15 25 A Fedayeen suicide bomber takes out fifteen civilians along a city street.
2008.12.01 Afghanistan Ghazni 1 0 A local official is assassinated by religious extremists.
2008.12.01 Pakistan Swat 11 66 Women are among the casualties of a horrific suicide attack on a traffic checkpoint. Eleven are killed.
2008.12.01 Afghanistan Musa Qala 10 25 Ten shoppers are blown up by a suicide bomber at a market.
2008.12.01 Thailand Yala 1 0 Muslim terrorists gun down a rubber tapper in his orchard.
2008.12.01 Pakistan Peshawar 2 0 Taliban militants attack a supply convoy, killing two drivers.
2008.11.30 Afghanistan Kabul 2 3 A streetsweeper is among two civilians blown up by a suicide bomber.
2008.11.30 Pakistan Bannu 6 5 Six local police are killed in two Taliban ambushes.
2008.11.30 Pakistan North Waziristan 1 0 The Taliban abduct and murder an Afghan civilian.
2008.11.30 Pakistan Peshawar 1 1 A local driver is killed when Sunni militants lob rockets into a terminal.
2008.11.30 Dagestan Makhachkala 4 0 Muslim gunmen shoot four people to death.
2008.11.29 Chechnya Enginoy 1 0 A woman is shot to death over suspected immoral behavior.
2008.11.29 Iraq Baghdad 3 12 Three people are murdered by an Iranian-made rocket fired by Mujahideen.
2008.11.29 Iraq Mosul 3 18 Two brothers are among three killed in an attack on a jewelry shop by Sunni terrorists.
2008.11.29 Iraq Albu Toma 38 0 Thirty-eight victims of sectarian violence within the Religion of Peace are found in a mass grave.
2008.11.29 Somalia Baidoa 2 10 Two people are killed in blasts by suspected Islamic milita.
2008.11.28 Iraq Mussayab 12 18 Twelve people at a mosque are blown to bits by rival sectarian bombers.
2008.11.28 India Mumbai 5 0 Five Jewish hostages, including a rabbi and his wife, are murdered by Islamists.
2008.11.28 Iraq Baghdad 2 10 A Fedayeen suicide car bomber kills two civilians.
2008.11.28 Pakistan Bannu 7 16 Six civilians and a cop are murdered by a suicide bomber along a city street.
2008.11.28 Iraq Kut 1 2 A child is killed when Muslim militants fire a rocket into a home.
2008.11.28 Pakistan Gharibabad 6 0 Three women and a child are among six member of a family murdered in their home by the Mujahideen.
2008.11.28 Nigeria Jos 6 0 Six Christian pastors are among hundreds killed when Muslim rioter stage a deadly church-burning rampage.
2008.11.28 Nigeria Jos 2 0 Two Christians are macheted to death after a cleric inspires his followers to 'kill unbelievers."
2008.11.27 Afghanistan Kabul 4 18 A suicide car bomber takes out four local civilians outside the US embassy.
2008.11.27 Afghanistan Badghis 13 11 Thirteen local security personnel are killed in an ambush by religious extremists.
2008.11.27 Pakistan Swat 6 0 Six people are shot to death by Sunni extremists in separate attacks, including a brutal abduction.
2008.11.27 Iraq Mosul 2 28 Suicide bombers successfully take out two Iraqi civilians.
2008.11.26 Iraq Diyala 23 0 Twenty-three victims of sectarian terrorists are found in a mass grave.
2008.11.26 Philippines Makir 1 3 Moro Islamists ambush a group of local soldiers guarding a highway, killing one.
2008.11.26 India Mumbai 178 370 Mujahideen throw grenades and machine-gun over one-hundred and fifty civilians and tourists to death as they attack several sites, including a hotel, cafe, market and train station.
2008.11.26 Russia Vladikavkaz 1 0 A mayor is assassinated by local terrorists, who call him an "enemy of Allah."
2008.11.26 Iraq Samarrah 6 0 Six people are murdered by local Jihadists.
2008.11.26 Dagestan Khasavyurt 1 2 A police officer is gunned down outside a mosque by Jihad terrorists.
2008.11.26 Chechnya Grozny 6 0 Six women are shot in the head and chest over suspected immorality in separate attacks.
2008.11.26 Pakistan Peshawar 2 6 Two residents are killed when the Taliban fire rockets into their home.
2008.11.26 Dagestan Makhachkala 1 0 A border guard is shot and killed by Muslim militants.
2008.11.25 India Mumbai 4 0 Islamic terrorists hijack a boat in Pakistan and kill the four man crew.
2008.11.25 Pakistan Shahdra 1 0 A Muslim lad hacks his stepmother to death with an axe over 'illicit relations.'
2008.11.25 Pakistan Kohat 0 0 Four persons, including a mother and child, are killed when sectarian Jihadis fire into a vehicle.
2008.11.25 Pakistan Hangu 4 9 Shia militants open fire in a hotel, murdering eight Sunni rivals.
2008.11.25 India Baramulla 1 2 A 14-year-old boy is killed when Islamists throw a grenade into a roadshow.
2008.11.25 Pakistan Matta 3 5 A butcher is among three people gunned down by the Taliban in separate attacks.
2008.11.25 Iraq Mosul 2 5 Two Americans are shot to death while handing out humanitarian aid.
2008.11.25 Somalia Baidoa 1 0 A local officer is shot several times in the chest by Islamists at a market.
2008.11.24 Pakistan Kabal 1 0 Mujahid assassinate a local political activist.
2008.11.24 Thailand Yala 3 1 Islamists gun down three civilians and severely injure a teacher in separate attacks.
2008.11.24 India Doda 1 0 A civilian is murdered in his home by Muslim terrorists.
2008.11.24 Iraq Baghdad 5 24 A female suicide bomber takes out five Iraqis.
2008.11.24 Iraq Baghdad 13 6 Women and children are heavily represented in the thirteen bus passengers massacred by Mujahideen bombers.
2008.11.24 Pakistan Mingora 1 0 Religious extremists execute a woman in her home for immoral behavior.
2008.11.24 Dagestan Karabudakhent 2 3 Muslim rebels open fire on a group of policemen, killing two.
2008.11.23 Ingushetia Nazran 1 0 Islamic militants kill an off-duty cop at a grocery store.
2008.11.23 Chechnya Sadovyi 5 4 Mujahideen murder five security personnel and a civilian in two attacks.
2008.11.23 Iraq Muwaylaha 9 0 Nine kidnap victims of an Islamic milita are found in a mass grave.
2008.11.22 Afghanistan Ghazni 1 0 A local civilian is captured and shot to death by Sunni radicals.
2008.11.22 Afghanistan Kunar 0 0 After being held in captivity for three months, the Taliban execute a local official when their demands are not met.
2008.11.22 Afghanistan Khost 2 15 A 15-year-old boy and a man are blown to bits when Holy Warriors bomb a vegetable market.
2008.11.22 Iraq Iskandariya 10 0 Two women are among ten people found executed in a mass grave in a Sunni stronghold.
2008.11.22 Somalia Mogadishu 15 75 At least fifteen civilians are killed in attacks by Islamic militias on security forces.
2008.11.22 Pakistan Mingora 1 0 Religious extremists burn down a video store and shoot a civilian to death.
2008.11.22 Ingushetia Nazran 1 0 A cafe worker is gunned down by Muslim rebels.
2008.11.22 Pakistan Hangu 5 8 Two children are among five killed when Islamists set a bomb off inside a rival mosque.
2008.11.22 Afghanistan Kabul 1 1 Sunni extremists kill a French de-miner with a landmine.
2008.11.22 Pakistan Bannu 3 0 A Taliban rocket attack on a police post leaves three dead.
2008.11.21 Afghanistan Zabul 3 4 Three civilians are blown to bits by a suicide car bomber.
2008.11.21 Iran Tehran 1 0 A 43-year-old businessman is tortured by police into a "confession" then executed as a spy.
2008.11.21 Pakistan Hangu 1 0 Religious extremists fire a rocket at a checkpoint, killing a policeman.
2008.11.21 Iraq Baghdad 3 15 Mujahideen take out three Iraqis with a roadside bomb.
2008.11.21 Pakistan Dera Ismail Khan 11 40 Radical Sunnis gun down a Shia cleric, then bomb his funeral, murdering eight others.
2008.11.21 Somalia Mogadishu 9 20 Five children are among nine civilians killed in a rolling series of attacks by Islamic militia in residential areas.
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