Bio

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

Friday, January 27, 2017

1835 AND THE WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON IN 2017

Another sad symptom of the continuing decay of the Christian consensus in America occurred the day after the inauguration during the so-called "Women's March on Washington." The hundreds of thousands, mostly women, and those who brought their children carried the most vulgar of signs and placards; they listened to and cheered the most crass of hysterical speeches by Ashley Judd and Madonna. The New Times called Judd's vulgarity an "uninhibited speech," while "Variety" called Madonna's "fiery, expletive-laden."

EMBARRASSMENT AT CNN AND MSNBC

However, CNN and MSNBC apologized for airing their profane rants.

Madonna's foulness was so egregious that a CNN anchorman Brooke Baldwin issued the following statement: "I just need to apologize for the [language] by Madonna," he said after the network cut away from the coverage, after her hysteria aired unbleeped. “That happens, and we apologize here at CNN for that.”

MSNBC, which was streaming the speech live, also apologized. It's a bad sign that their speeches were what passes for reasoned discussion and discourse today, so disgusting that reporters apologize for broadcasting them. Millions of those watching or later reading about the event were embarrassed by it all, to say the least.

But there were no apologies from former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Although she didn't attend, after scrolling through the photographs of the event, she found the march to be "awe-inspiring," writing, “Hope it brought joy to others as it did to me.”
RETURN TO YESTERYEAR

But what does all this have to do with the decaying of the Christian consensus in America? Good question, and for the answer, let's go back to 1835 and the classic work, Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French statesman, historian, and social philosopher who wrote “Democracy in America." His work has been described as “the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.” According to Tocqueville, freedom and morality both found their American incarnation in Christianity.

WOMEN BACK THEN, BEFORE THEN, AND AFTER THEN

In the book, de Tocqueville writes about the women in America. Among the many things he observed, one stands out and has application to the Women's March on Washington. de Tocqueville wrote: "Because women primarily shape the mores of a society, the education of women [in America] is of great importance. Women in America are not brought up in naïve ignorance of vices of society; rather they are taught how to deal with them and they allow them to develop good judgment.

He goes assigns to women the task he thinks most necessary in the preservation of a democratic regime: women nurture, educate, and impart to the young the virtues which maintain the moral standards and integrity of a particular society.

The French author hit the nail on the head: women are the gatekeepers of virtue and morality in a society. It's primarily the mothers who educate and impart the moral standards and integrity to their sons and daughters. Who was the parent who taught us civility, decency, and respect for others? Think of your own moral training--from which parent did it mainly originate? Odds are that it was your mother.

de Tocqueville observed America during the administration of President Andrew Jackson; he was writing a long time ago, but what he observed held sway in America for almost 150 years. However today the dam has busted and the Women's March on Washington is a symptom of the floodwaters.

For a while now, our elites and educational system have convinced millions of mothers that there is no absolute morality to pass to the their children. They've been taught that there is no gate to keep, no absolute morality in which to educate their sons and daughters. A society can't enjoy the fruits of Christianity if it cuts the root.

Our television sets, schools, and movies have convinced millions of mothers that their children are the product of chance, a random collection of atoms and that any morality a society has is invented and therefore not absolute, but is only a means to oppress others.

Hundreds of thousands women, marching in D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, and Atlanta, gave us a look at a society in which women are no longer the gatekeepers of morality and it was one ugly sight.

Friday, January 20, 2017

A TRAGIC ENCOUNTER

The following is an account of a "gospel" presentation by one who is a Lordship salvationist:

"After we had talked for a couple of hours, the young man seemed to be prepared to trust Christ. My friend, no doubt sensing that, asked him a question: “In light of all we have talked about this evening, can you think of any reason why you should not become a Christian tonight?”

"The young man sat for a few minutes, then looked back at him and replied, “No, I cannot think of any reason.”

"I was excited by this, but to my amazement, my friend leaned across the table and said, “Then let me give you some!”

For the next few minutes, he began to explain the cost of being a Christian. He talked about the young man’s need to surrender his whole life, his future, his ambitions, his relationships, his possessions, and everything he was to God. Only if he was prepared to do this, my friend explained, could Christ begin to work effectively in his life.

"… My friend then leaned even further across the table and asked, “Can you still not think of any reason why you shouldn’t become a Christian tonight?”

"After another moment, the reply came, “I can think of some now.”

"My friend responded, “In that case, do not become a Christian until you have dealt with every one of those reasons and are willing to surrender everything to Christ.”

What a tragic encounter! It was a "gospel" of one work piled on top of another--surrender your life, surrender your future, surrender your ambitions, surrender your relationships, surrender your possessions, and surrender everything you are to God. 

Now, really, what unbeliever, dead in trespasses and sins, can do that?

MESSAGE DETERMINES METHOD

One’s view of the gospel and how its saving effects are appropriated by the sinner will determine not only the message of evangelism proclaimed but also its methods. The Lordship Salvation presentation of the gospel is necessarily more involved because of its message. Every Lordship salvationist has his lists and his steps to receiving the free gift of salvation, which render salvation costly.

J. I. Packer, one who advocates just such a message as stated above, said: “In our own presentation of Christ’s gospel, therefore, we need to lay a similar stress as Christ did on the cost of following Christ, and make sinners face it soberly before we urge them to respond to the message of free forgiveness.”

Wait a minute. Packer's statement doesn't make sense: let's look at it again. "We need to lay a similar stress . . . on the cost of following Christ, and make sinners face it soberly before we urge them to respond to the message of free forgiveness." First he writes that we need to stress the cost, then he finishes the sentence with "free forgiveness." How can the forgiveness be free if there's a cost to it? "Free" means no cost, doesn't it?

In George Owell's classic novel, "1984," he said that there would come a day when doublethink would hold sway over the minds of people. By doublethink, he meant the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. Packer's statement is an example of doublethink in the church.

Packer's comment illustrates the misunderstanding of Lordship Salvation--it mixes discipleship into the gospel and hence, all the requirements, all the lists that add to Paul's simple declaration of "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." 

Christ paid the cost of salvation. The cost the Bible talks about is the cost of following Christ, that is, the cost of discipleship. John 3:16 conditions eternal life on "whosoever believes," not on "whosoever surrenders their life, surrenders their future, surrenders their ambitions, surrenders their relationships, surrenders their possessions, and surrenders everything they are to God." 



Friday, January 13, 2017

THE STUFF, THE GUFF, AND THE SAND

John 3:16 is the most famous and beloved verse in the Bible, a text memorized around the world wherever the Bible has gone. It rolls from our tongues effortlessly, and rightly so. Adults memorize it as children and never forget it for the rest of their lives. It is one powerful text.

But the problem is that we quote it as a stand alone verse, out there all by its lonesome and we easily forget that it, like all the texts of the Bible, has a context, and, as we say, "Context is king." If we look at it from the standpoint of a stand alone verse, we can become easy pickings for those who come along and say, "The verse says nothing about the death of Christ, nor does it say anything about His resurrection, yet, you say that an essential part of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, but the verse you quote doesn't even mention those two events, so they must not be part of the gospel."

OH, WE BEG TO DIFFER

Let's go to the context, that is, let's look at John 3:14, just a scant two verses before 3:16: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." 3:14 is defining how "God gave His only begotten Son." Jesus explains that He's going to be "lifted up," an obvious reference to the cross, as the parallel text in John 12:32-33 confirms: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die." The death of Christ is right there in the context of 3:16.

The reader of the Gospel of John wouldn't have begun his reading with 3:16. He would have carefully been unrolling the scroll, beginning with what we call 1:1 and kept unrolling it until he came to 3:16, and by then, he would have realized that the book was declaring that Jesus is God (1:1), that Jesus is the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world (1:29), and that Jesus would be raised from the dead (2:18-22). 

Within the context of the scroll, the reader would have known a great deal of important information by the time he unrolled enough of the scroll to read 3:16.  

Side one of the contextual coin is that we state what is in in the specific verse and the specific context and that only. We don't import what's not there.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CONTEXTUAL COIN

But the problem is that there's this tendency to add to the context; to import stuff, guff, and sand into the context that just aren't there and we see this done to John 3:16 time and time again.

What does 3:16 say that the reader is to do? "Believe on Him." That's it; faith alone for eternal life. But there are those who add words, all that stuff, guff, and sand to the context.

An author, known worldwide for his gift of description and story-telling is one such person. In his book, 3:16--The Numbers of Hope, Max Lucado takes John 3:16 apart word by word. Yet when his analysis is all said and done, instead of leaving "whosoever believes in Him" alone, he adds the stuff, the guff, and the sand when he explains how we can have eternal life: "We can‟t get on board and not know it. Nor can we get on board and hide it. No stowaways permitted. Christ-followers go public with their belief. We turn from bad behavior to good (repentance). We stop following our passions and salute our new captain (confession). We publicly demonstrate our devotion (baptism). We don't keep our choice a secret."

Into John 3:16, he's added: turning from bad to good behavior, the stopping of the following of our passions, the saluting of our new captain, and the demonstration of our devotion. Or as he says, "repentance," "confession," and "baptism."

Strange, isn't it? John never ever uses the words "repent" or "repentance" in the entire book, yet there it is as a requirement for salvation. Imported into the context are such things as ceremonies (confession and baptism) to observe and good works to do (good behavior).

Beware of the stuff, the guff, and the sand. They change the gospel into a false one, one that has yet to save anyone.






 



Friday, January 6, 2017

ALL HAIL HALO 3!

It's 2007 and there is Halo 3. For those not in the know, Halo doesn't refer to a shining circle above someone's head in a Michelangelo painting in the Sistine Chapel. If that's what you think, you're a relic of the past and, as they say, "out of it, uncool."

Halo 3 is a video game, and a violent one at that; it can only be sold to those 17 and above. Halo 3 puts the gamer into the world of sniper fire and the thrill of the kill. It's so popular that in 2007, sales surpassed $300,000,000 in less than two weeks. (That would be $349,210,000.87 today.) That's some serious happy cabbage.

Like I said, it's 2007, and we're watching Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, as they sit in front of three TVs, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigate on-screen characters through lethal gun bursts. Tim likes the game: “It’s just fun blowing people up.”

"But wait a minute" you might be thinking, "I thought you said that Halo 3 was rated "M," 17 and up."

Yes, it is, but so what, that doesn't stop an adult or any 17 year-old from buying it for Tim and Chris to play it. As Tim and Chris are playing Halo 3, they're immersed in controlling Master Chief, a tough marine armed to the teeth who battles opponents with missiles, lasers, guns that fire spikes, energy blasters and other fantastical, mythological weapons.

WAIT A MINUTE

Wait a minute. Where are these youths, what parent is allowing this in their hearth and home? Or, are they sneaking an adventure with the "M" rated game of their big brother while Mom and Dad are away?

No. Tim and Chris are with a lot of other boys at their church with their youth minister. As a matter of fact, they're at the Colorado Community Church in Denver, Colorado.

Wait. What? Why?

Let's let the youth minister, Gregg Barbour, tell us what's going on: "They will stay for the Christian message. We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell," he says.

These kids aren't alone in 2007; churches all over the place started using Halo 3. In fact, hundreds of churches use Halo games to connect with young people. Again, let's let the churches speak for themselves: the Southern Baptist denomination sent e-mail messages to 50,000 young people about how to share their faith using Halo 3. Among the tips: use the game’s themes as the basis for a discussion about good and evil.

At Sweetwater Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., Austin Brown, 16, said, “We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson,” explaining that the pastor tried to draw parallels “between God and the devil.”

In another defense of Halo 3, as more than one youth minister points out, "They can also play in teams, and that allows communication and fellowship opportunities." Wait. What? Christian fellowship as you're blowing people up and enjoying the thrill of the kill? What is Christian fellowship, anyway?

Let's hear from a parent, this time from the year 2013:

"We have gone to 3 different churches now that have offered these types of things. The first church had kids playing video games while waiting for Sunday school to begin. The second church we tried was a friend's Church. They said the kids love it and they are growing in their faith. Not only was the service very uncomfortable, the children's area had video games, along with 'money' or a rewards system so you could purchase things from the 'store' they had there. 

"After the service, we asked our 6 year-old what he learned about God, and he couldn't remember a thing, but insisted he couldn't wait to return to 'buy' more from the 'store.'

"This past weekend we went to another church. They insisted their children were also growing in their faith at their new church, and invited us to join them. This place topped [the others] with the children's entertainment. They had a blow-up slide, and bounce house, video games, board games, etc! 

"After the service, we asked our son, what he learned. And again he couldn't remember; he remembered bits of a puppet show, but nothing about God. He said he wanted to go back because it was 'so fun.' 

"I explained to him that church is for learning about Jesus, and while that can include fun and games, if he is leaving and can't remember anything, then it's likely not a place we should return to. I asked him if he wanted to return because of God or because of the 'fun' and he said it was because it was 'fun.' 

"He then said, 'Mom, I think they just have that stuff there to get people to come to Church!'"

LET'S DISCUSS THIS

There are many things that people discuss concerning Halo 3, things such as the violence, blowing people up, the thrill of the kill. But what's neglected is the fact that the kids aren't really blowing people up and they aren't killing people. It's a fantasy; a game that puts them in a world of virtual reality, that is, "an artificial environment created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment."

And that presents a huge problem for the church. The church is immersing the kids into a fantasy world, a world that doesn't exist and then, the youth minister stops Halo 3, turns off the computer or the TV set and delivers the Christian message which is based in history, reality. 

Are they getting the impression that Christ's death, burial, and resurrection are fantasy, just like Halo 3? And how much time are they immersed in fantasy anyway? How much time are they immersed in Christ and Him crucified? And, in their minds, is the entire evening a fun adventure in fantasy worlds?