Archive for June, 2016

June 29, 2016

Watchman Fellowship Profile Notebook

Watchman Fellowship Profile NotebookStatus: Available for reference in library only.

Book Description:

Arlington, Texas based counter cult educational and evangelistic ministry, Watchman Fellowship, provides this custom notebook which contains every Profile published by Watchman Fellowship bimonthly since 1993 — over 450 pages!

These Profiles are 4-page briefings on new religious movements, the occult, cults, New Age spirituality, and related doctrines and practices. New Profiles will be added to the Notebook six-times per year as they continue to be published on an ongoing basis.

Watchman Fellowship is largely staffed by traditionalist Southern Baptists who subscribe to a Dispensational Premillennial view of eschatology. Not every view espoused by Watchman Fellowship necessarily reflects the views of the session of Mid-Cities Presbyterian Church.

Source: Watchman Fellowship Profile Notebook Page

About the Author:

Watchman Fellowship is an independent Christian research and apologetics ministry focusing on new religious movements, cults, the occult and the New Age.

David Henke founded Watchman Fellowship in Columbus, Georgia in 1979. Today, Watchman Fellowship has grown to several offices in the United States.

Watchman Fellowship serves the Christian and secular community as a resource for education, counseling, and non-coercive intervention and evangelism training. We accomplish these tasks through our church presentations, personal counseling, this website, and other activities. We have served almost every denomination including Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Assemblies of God, Church of God, Lutheran, Nazarene, non-denominational, etc., as well as schools, law enforcement agencies, and civic groups.

Concerning a person’s right to choose, we believe that a real choice is one based on access to all the information, and understanding both or all sides. The counterfeit groups typically try to block their members and the public from having access to this information. We have found that most cults will use deception, control, cover up, and dishonesty with their own members and the people they are trying to convert. This deception includes some or all of the following: the group’s history, false prophesy, false scholarship, a distortion of true church history and doctrine, and destructive practices of the group.

Our name, Watchman Fellowship, is often confused with the Watchtower Society title used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, we are in no way affiliated with them. Our name is taken from the Old Testament book of the Bible, Ezekiel.

“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me.” (Ezekiel 33:7)

As Christians, we do believe that “we are our brother’s keeper.” Like the watchman on the wall (Ezekiel 3:17), we have the responsibility to sound a warning against the deception and destructive spiritual abuse practiced by counterfeit groups. In sounding such warning Watchman Fellowship also has a principled commitment to accuracy.

Source: About Us Page

Book Details:

450+ Pages
Publisher: Watchman Fellowship
Publication Date: 2016

Source: Watchman Fellowship Profile Notebook Page

Library patrons who have read this book are invited to share their comments, reviews, questions or criticisms for discussion in the comments below this post.

June 27, 2016

Foundations of the Christian Faith

Status: Available

Foundations of the Christian Faith CoverBook Description:

In one systematic volume James Boice provides a readable overview of Christian theology. Students and pastors will both benefit from this rich source that covers all the major doctrines of Christianity.

With scholarly rigor and a pastor’s heart, Boice carefully opens the topics of the nature of God, the character of his natural and special revelation, the fall, and the person and the work of Christ. He then goes on to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in justification and sanctification. The book closes with careful discussion of ecclesiology and eschatology.

In this revised edition of a formerly four-volume work, Boice maintains a remarkable practicality and thoroughness that will make this a standard reference and text for years to come.

Source: InterVarsity Press

James Montgomery BoiceAbout the Author:

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) was a successful inner city pastor and articulate spokesman for the Reformed faith in America and around the world. He was the pastor of Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church (1968-2000) and his teaching continues to be aired on The Bible Study Hour radio and Internet broadcast. In 1996 he brought The Bible Study Hour, God’s Word Today magazine, Philadelphia Conference of Reformation Theology, and other Bible teaching ministries under the umbrella of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Under Dr. Boice’s leadership, Tenth Presbyterian Church became a model for ministry in America’s northeastern inner cities. When he assumed the pastorate of Tenth Church there were 350 people in regular attendance. At his death the church had grown to a regular Sunday attendance in three services of more than 1,200 persons, a total membership of 1,150 persons. Under his leadership, the church established a pre-school for children ages 3-5, a high school known as City Center Academy, a full range of adult fellowship groups and classes, and specialized outreach ministries to international students, women with crisis pregnancies, homosexual and HIV-positive clients, and the homeless. Many of these ministries are now free-standing from the church.

Dr. Boice gave leadership to groups beyond his own organization. For ten years he served as Chairman of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, from its founding in 1977 until the completion of its work in 1988. ICBI produced three classic, creedal documents: “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy,” “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics” and “The Chicago Statement on the Application of the Bible to Contemporary Issues.” The organization published many books, held regional “Authority of Scripture” seminars across the country, and sponsored the large lay “Congress on the Bible I,” which met in Washington, D.C., in September 1987. He also served on the Board of Bible Study Fellowship.

He founded the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals in 1994, initially a group of pastors and theologians who were focused on bringing the 20th and now 21st century church to a new reformation. In 1996 this group met and wrote the Cambridge Declaration.

Dr. Boice was a prodigious world traveler. He journeyed to more than thirty countries in most of the world’s continents, and he taught the Bible in such countries as England, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, Guatemala, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. He lived in Switzerland for three years while pursuing his doctoral studies.

Dr. Boice held degrees from Harvard University (A.B.), Princeton Theological Seminary (B.D.), the University of Basel, Switzerland (D. Theol.), and the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church (D.D., honorary).

A prolific author, Dr. Boice contributed nearly forty books on a wide variety of Bible related themes. Most are in the form of expositional commentaries, growing out of his preaching: Psalms (1 volume), Romans (4 volumes), Genesis (3 volumes), Daniel, The Minor Prophets (2 volumes), The Sermon on the Mount, John (5 volumes), Ephesians, Phillippians, and The Epistles of John. And many more popular volumes: Hearing God When You Hurt, Mind Renewal in a Mindless Christian Life, Standing on the Rock, The Parables of Jesus, The Christ of Christmas, The Christ of the Open Tomb, and Christ’s Call to Discipleship. He also authored Foundations of the Christian Faith a 740-page book of theology for laypersons. Many of these books have been translated into other languages, such as: French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

He was married to Linda Ann Boice (born McNamara).

Source: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Book Details:

740 Pages
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Publication Date: June 1986
ISBN-10: 0-87784-991-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-87784-991-9

Source: InterVarsity Press

Library patrons who have read this book are invited to share their comments, reviews, questions or criticisms for discussion in the comments below this post.

June 16, 2016

Through Their Word (John 17:20-26)

Sermons JohnOn Sunday, June 12, 2016, Pastor Joe Troutman preached “Through Their Word” from John 17:20-26.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Jesus Christ unifies us, he secures us, he sanctifies us, and he sends us out by his word.

You and all members of Christ’s church must diligently preserve and pass along the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

1. Those Who Will Believe
2. That the World May Believe
3. I Made Known to Them

Listen to “Through Their Word” (John 17:20-26) at mcopc.org.

June 15, 2016

One Through the Word (John 17:11-19)

Sermons JohnOn Sunday, June 5, 2016, Pastor Joe Troutman preached “One through the Word” from John 17:11-19.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Jesus Christ unifies us, he secures us, he sanctifies us, and he sends us out by his word.

1. The Word Secures
2. The Word Sanctifies
3. The Word Sends

Listen to “One Through the Word” (John 17:11-19) at mcopc.org.

June 14, 2016

I Am Praying for Them (John 17:6-10)

Sermons JohnOn Sunday, May 29, 2016, Pastor Joe Troutman preached “I Am Praying for Them” from John 17:6-10.

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.”

The Son delights in the gift given to him by his Father, the church. He came for her, he died for her and he continues to pray for her.

1. The Father’s Gift
2. Manifesting the Name
3. Giving Knowledge
4. Praying for Them

Listen to “I Am Praying for Them ” (John 17:6-10) at mcopc.org.