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	<title>Christian Journal .org</title>
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	<description>For Christ is worthy so worthy ...</description>
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		<title>Sound doctrine is useless</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sound doctrine is useless! (J.C. Ryle, &#8220;Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots&#8221; 1879) &#8220;The doctrine which is according to godliness&#8221; Sound doctrine is useless&#8211;if it is not accompanied by a holy life! It is my firm impression that we need a thorough revival of Scriptural holiness. I have had a deep conviction for many years, that practical holiness and consecration to God are not sufficiently attended to by modern Christians. Worldliness has eaten out the heart of vital piety in too many of us! The subject of personal godliness has fallen sadly into the background. The standard of Christian living has become painfully low in many quarters. The immense importance of &#8220;adorning the doctrine of God our Savior&#8221; (), and making it lovely and beautiful by our daily habits and tempers&#8211;has been far too much overlooked! The details and particular ingredients of which holiness is composed in daily life&#8211;ought to be fully set forth and pressed on believers. True holiness does not consist merely of believing&#8211;but of doing and a practical exhibition of the active and passive graces. Our tongues, our tempers, our natural passions and inclinations, our conduct at home and abroad, our dress, our employment of time, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/sound-doctrine-is-useless.html</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[The New Genesis - R.C. Sproul Without the presence of the Spirit there is no conviction, no regeneration, no sanctification, no cleansing, no acceptable works . . . Life is in the quickening Spirit. — W A. CRISWELL BIRTH and rebirth. Both are the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit. Just as nothing can live biologically apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, so no man can come alive to God apart from the Spirit’s work In His discourse with Nicodemus, Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3) To be “born again” is to experience a second genesis. It is a new beginning, a fresh start in life. When something is started, we say that it is generated. If it is started again, it is regenerated. The Greek verb geniauo that is translated as “generate” means “to be,” “to become,” or “to happen.” Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is a change. It is a radical change into a new kind of being. To be regenerated does not mean that we are changed from a human being into [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/318.html</link>
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		<title>Two Views of Regeneration</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; One of the most prevalent problems with most modern day evangelism is the overlooked doctrine of regeneration. Eph 2 and many others must be considered. The scriptures must be held up instead of human reasonings Two Views of Regeneration by John Hendryx Monergism: In theol., The doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in regeneration &#8211; that the human will possesses no inclination to holiness until regenerated, and therefore cannot cooperate in regeneration. The Holy Spirit, who joins us to Christ, quickens us through the outward call cast forth by the preaching of His Word, disarms our innate hostility, removes our blindness, illumines our mind, creates understanding, turns our heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Only then do we apprehend the beauty and excellency of Christ. This gracious Spirit wrought work in the heart gives rise to a delight in His Word &#8212; all that we might, with our renewed affections, willingly &#38; gladly embrace Christ. Monergism is when God conveys that power into the fallen soul whereby the person who is to be saved is enabled to receive the offer of redemption. It refers to the first step (regeneration) which has causal priority [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/two-views-of-regeneration.html</link>
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		<title>Free Will-Free Grace</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;If the natural man has a free will to believe the gospel, then why does he need grace? If his will is naturally free then it would do away with the need for grace altogether.&#8221; &#8220;To teach that the natural man has a free will overthrows the gospel &#8230; it is precisely because man is in bondage that he needs Christ to set him free.&#8221; (John 8:34, 36) &#8220;Free-will or Free-grace?; The Bible says that men are born again, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13); that it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy (Rom 9;16); the work of faith is the operation of God according to the exceeding greatness of his power, who works in man both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.&#8221; (Phil 2:13) &#8220;Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace.&#8221; - C. H. Spurgeon &#8220;All the passages in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/free-will-free-grace.html</link>
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		<title>What is the Gospel?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Lorraine Boettner Edited by Steve Pribble &#160; The Gospel is the good news about the great salvation purchased by Jesus Christ, by which He reconciled sinful men to a holy God. The purpose of this booklet is to set forth, in plain language and in terms easily understood, the basic differences between the Calvinistic (Reformed) and Arminian understanding of the Gospel, and to show what the Bible teaches concerning these subjects. An accurate understanding is crucial; the harmony that exists between the various doctrines of the Christian faith is such that error in regard to any one of them produces more or less distortion in all the others. There are in reality only two types of religious thought: the religion of faith, and the religion of works. The author is convinced that what has been known in church history as Calvinism is the purest and most consistent embodiment of the religion of faith, while that which has been known as Arminianism has been diluted to a dangerous degree by the religion of works and is therefore an inconsistent and unstable form of Christianity. In other words, Christianity comes to its fullest and purest expression in the Reformed faith. In [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/what-is-the-gospel.html</link>
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		<title>The Idol of Free-Will Owen</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; by John Owen Our next task is to take a view of the idol himself, of this great deity of FREE-WI LL, whose original being not well known. He is pretended, like the Ephesian image of Diana[1], to have fallen down from heaven and to have his endowments from above. But yet considering what a nothing he was a this first discovery in comparison of that vast giant-like hugeness to which now he is grown, we may say of him as the painter said of his monstrous picture, which he had mended or rather marred according to every one’s fancy, “It is the issue[2] of the people’s brain.” Origen[3] is supposed to have brought him first into the church; but among those many sincere worshippers of divine grace, this setter forth of new demons found but little entertainment. It was looked upon but like the stump of Dagon with his head and hands laid down before the ark of God without whose help he could neither know nor do that which is good in any kind, still accounted but “a fig – tree log, an unprofitable piece of wood.” The fathers of the succeeding ages had much debate to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/the-idol-of-free-will-owen.html</link>
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		<title>All Men Saved</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Matt Slick &#160; Predestination is the doctrine that God alone is the One who chooses who is saved, that He ordains the means, the time, and the circumstances of salvation and that without His predestination, no one would ever be saved. In part this is because human nature is so completely corrupted by sin that no person is capable of choosing God unless God first regenerates that person. But any Bible student will soon discover there are verses which say God wants all men to be saved. For example, &#8220;This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth&#8221; (1 Tim. 2:3-4, NIV). The question, then, is if God predestines only some to salvation, why are there verses that say God wants all to be saved? The answer is simple: The &#8220;all&#8221; are the Christians. Now, before you toss this paper aside, please try to be open-minded. I will prove that the &#8220;all&#8221; in at least three important verses that deal with salvation means the Christians. To do so, I would like to examine 2 Cor. 5:14, 1 Cor. 15:22, and then Rom. 5:18 where [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/all-men-saved.html</link>
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		<title>Predestination</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re a Christian, you&#8217;ve heard of predestination. You must have because the Bible uses the word and teaches the idea. But what is predestination? How does free will fit in? What about man&#8217;s sinfulness and God&#8217;s sovereignty? Is predestination a fair doctrine or does it make God out to be dispassionate and tyrannical? In this paper, I will attempt to answer those questions. Predestination is the doctrine that God alone chooses (elects) who is saved. He makes His choice independent of any quality or condition in sinful man. He does not look into a person and recognize something good nor does He look into the future to see who would choose Him. He elects people to salvation purely on the basis of His good pleasure. Those not elected are not saved. He does this because He is sovereign; that is, He has the absolute authority, right, and ability to do with His creation as He pleases. He has the right to elect some to salvation and let all the rest go their natural way: to hell. This is predestination. In response to this definition, some will protest, &#8220;Unfair!&#8221; It may seem so at first, but you will see that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/predestination.html</link>
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		<title>True Repentance</title>
		<description><![CDATA[True Repentance! From Spurgeon&#8217;s sermon, &#8220;APART&#8221; True repentance is always accompanied by sorrow. Repentance is a deep, radical, fundamental, lasting change; and you will find that, whenever you meet with it in Scripture, it is always accompanied with sorrow for past sin. And rest assured of this fact&#8211; that the repentance which has no tear in its eye, and no mourning for sin in its heart, is a repentance which needs to be repented of. In such false repentance, there is no evidence of conversion, and no sign of the existence of the grace of God. The man who knows that his sin is forgiven, does not cease to mourn for it. No, brethren, his mourning becomes deeper as his knowledge of his guilt becomes greater. His hatred of sin grows in proportion as he understands that love of Christ by which his sin is put away. In true believers, mourning for sin is chastened and sweetened, and, in one sense, the fang of bitterness is taken out. But, in another sense, the more we realize our indebtedness to God&#8217;s grace, and the more we see of the sufferings of Christ in order to effect our redemption, the more do [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/true-repentance.html</link>
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		<title>The Doctrine of  Repentance 3 Thomas Watson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Thomas Watson, 1668 Reasons which enforce repentance 1. God&#8217;s sovereign command. &#8220;He commands all men everywhere to repent&#8221; (Acts 17:30). Repentance is not optional. It is not left to our choice, whether or not we will repent—but it is an indispensable command. God has enacted a law in the High Court of heaven—that no sinner shall be saved, except the repenting sinner—and he will not break his own law. Though all the angels should stand before God and beg for the salvation of an unrepenting person—God would not grant it. &#8220;The Lord God, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished&#8221; (Ex 34:6-37). Though God is more full of mercy than the sun is of light—yet he will not forgive a sinner while he goes on in his guilt! &#8220;He will not leave the guilty unpunished!&#8221; 2. The pure nature of God denies communion with an impenitent creature Until the sinner repents, God and he cannot be friends: &#8220;Wash yourselves and be clean! Let me no longer see your evil deeds. Give up your wicked ways.&#8221; [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.christianjournal.org/the-doctrine-of-repentance-3-thomas-watson.html</link>
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