Some interesting links for you.
False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church, A Conference Message by Mark Dever. Mark Dever diagnoses the problem of false conversions in the church and prescribes biblical solutions in his message from Together for the Gospel 2012.This link leads to an audio message.
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Reaction is growing to John MacArthur's upcoming Strange Fire conference. The conference's purpose is stated as follows:
"The Lord calls His people to honor Him, to treat Him as holy. Leviticus 10 pictures the consequences of not doing so—of offering to Him strange fire. For the last hundred years, the charismatic movement has been offering a strange fire of sorts to the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. And evangelical churches have chosen to be silent or indifferent on the matter. This hasn’t served the church or the Spirit of the church with honor. So what should be our response? Strange Fire is a conference that will set forth what the Bible really says about the Holy Spirit, and how that squares with the charismatic movement. We’re going to address in a biblical, straightforward manner what many today see as a peripheral issue. On the contrary, your view of the Holy Spirit influences your relationship with God, your personal holiness, and your commitment to the church and evangelism."
The Charismatics do not like this. Dr Michael Brown wrote two articles published in Charisma Magazine responding to the conference's purpose, here, and calling MacArthur out.
"John MacArthur, Strange Fire and Blasphemy of the Spirit”
and here
An Appeal to John MacArthur to Embrace God’s True Fire
Fred Butler wrote this on behalf of Dr MacArthur:
A Mess in the Maternity Ward?
Annnnd ... Dr Brown responded. Again.
Time to Talk, Not Fight: A Response to John MacArthur's Ministry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Proclaiming the Gospel has a great blog essay titled-
Christians are Exhorted to Judge
"Many Christians are unaware of their responsibility to judge and test all things. Paul exhorted: "I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:9-10). Christians need to take judgment seriously in this life because of the great responsibility that awaits us in the future."
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Iran: Armageddon at hand, prepare for war
"Iran is again asserting that Armageddon is at hand and that the Islamic regime’s followers, indeed all of Islam, must prepare for a monumental change in the world. Officials of the Islamic regime last month held their annual conference on the Mahdism Doctrine to prepare for the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam, Mahdi. ... Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said at the conference that, “I hope (Iran’s) Islamic Revolution is that of the righteous government before the coming,” according to Fars News Agency, the regime’s media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards. “Righteous government” is a key to Mahdi’s return, the Shiites believe."
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Mideast peace talks to begin this week. But why did Israel approve release of 104 terrorists?
"But why are they beginning with the Israelis agreeing to release 104 convicted Palestinian terrorists? Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas refused to agree to the talks unless Israel made a big concession. Abbas pressed hard for the release of convicted terrorists as one of those concessions. But why? Do you convince your interlocutors — or the rest of the world — that you really want peace by insisting on the release of Arabs who have murdered Israelis? Hardly. That said, it’s bad enough that Abbas insisted on such a thing, but why exactly did the Israeli government say yes?"
Society Magazine
