Here the length, and breath of Christianity!
To Be A True Christian Will Cost You
J.C. Ryle was a bishop of Liverpool. He has many amazing writing that one would enjoy. He was a prolific writer on many levels and leader in the church. One of my favorite quotes is
quote pulled from http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/christian-life/the-cost-of-being-a-true-christian-by-j-c-ryle/ church, is cheap and easy work. But to hear Christ’s voice, follow Christ, believe in Christ, and confess Christ, requires much self-denial. It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease, and our worldliness. All must be given up. We must fight an enemy who comes against us with thousands of followers. We must build a tower in troubled times. Our Lord Jesus Christ would have us thoroughly understand this. He bids us “count the cost.” – J.C. Ryle
pulled from http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/christian-life/the-cost-of-being-a-true-christian-by-j-c-ryle/
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The reader of this volume will probably observe that some of the thoughts
and ideas are occasionally repeated. They will kindly remember that this
arises from the sermons which comprise it having been delivered at different
places, and at long intervals. I have thought it best and wisest, for many
reasons, to reprint them without alteration.
J C Ryle
Stradbroke Vicarage, August 1867
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If any one asks me what my prophetical opinions are, I am quite ready
to give him an answer. Cautious and doubtful as I feel on some points, there
are certain great principles about which I have fully made up my mind. I
have held by them firmly for many years, and have never had my opinion
shaken about them. I have lived in the belief of them for more than a third of
a century, and in the belief of them I hope to die.
The older I grow, the more do I feel convinced of their truth,
and the more satisfied am I that no other principles can explain the state of the Church and the world.
One thing only I wish to premise, before making my statement.
The reader must distinctly understand that I do not put forth my prophetical
views as articles of faith, but only as my private opinions. I do not say that
nobody can be saved who does not agree with me about prophecy. I am not
infallible. I am very sensible that holier and better men than myself do not
see these subjects with my eyes, and think me utterly mistaken. I condemn
nobody; I judge nobody. I only ask liberty to hold and state distinctly my
own views. The day will decide who is right. It is the new heart, and faith
in Christ’s blood, which are absolutely necessary to salvation. The man who
knows these two things experimentally may be wrong about prophecy, but
he will not miss heaven.
The following, then, are the chief articles of my prophetical creed:
1.
I believe that the world will never be completely converted to Christianity
by any existing agency, before the end comes. In spite of all that can be
done by ministers, churches, schools and missions, the wheat and tares
will grow together until the harvest; and when the end comes, it will
find the earth in much the same state that it was when the flood came in
the days of Noah (Matt. 13:24-30; 24:37-39).
2.
I believe that the widespread unbelief, indifference, formalism and
wickedness, which are to be seen throughout Christendom, are only
what we are taught to expect in God’s Word. Troublesome times, departures
from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love waxing cold, are
things distinctly predicted. So far from making me doubt the truth of
Christianity, they help to confirm my faith. Melancholy and sorrowful
as the sight is, if I did not see it I should think the Bible was not true
(Matt. 24:12; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3: 1, 4, 13).
3.
I believe that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather
out of the world an elect people, and not to convert all mankind. It
does not surprise me at all to hear that the heathen are not all converted
when missionaries preach, and that believers are but a little flock in any
congregation in my own land. It is precisely the state of things which I
expect to find. The gospel is to be preached ‘as a witness’, and then shall
the end come. This is the dispensation of election, and not of universal
conversion (Acts 15:14; Matt 24:14).
4.
I believe that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is the great
event which will wind up the present dispensation, and for which we
ought daily to long and pray. ‘Thy kingdom come’, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’,
should be our daily prayer. We look backward, if we have faith, to Christ
dying on the cross, and we ought to look forward no less, if we have
hope, to Christ coming again (John 14:3; 2 Tim. 4:8; 2 Peter 3:12)
5.
I believe that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ will be a real,
literal, personal, bodily coming; and that as He went away in the clouds
of heaven with His body, before the eyes of men, so in like manner He
will return (Acts 1:11).
6.
I believe that after our Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the earth shall be
renewed, and the curse removed; the devil shall be bound, the godly shall
be rewarded, the wicked shall be punished; and that before He comes
there shall be neither resurrection, judgment, nor millennium, and that
not till after He comes shall the earth be filled with the knowledge of the
glory of the Lord (Acts 3:21; Isa. 25:6-0; 1 Thess. 4: 14-18; Rev. 20: 1 etc).
7.
I believe that the Jews shall ultimately be gathered again as a separate
nation, restored to their own land, and converted to the faith of Christ,
after going through great tribulation (Jer. 30:10, 11; 31:10; Rom. 11:25, 26;
Dan. 12:1; Zech. 13: 8, 9).
8.
I believe that the literal sense of the Old Testament prophecies has been
far too much neglected by the Churches, and is far too much neglected
at the present day, and that under the mistaken system of spiritualising
and accommodating Bible language, Christians have too often completely
missed its meaning (Luke 24: 25, 26).
9.
I do not believe that the preterist scheme of interpreting the Apocalypse,
which regards the book as almost entirely fulfilled
or the futurist scheme,which regards it as almost entirely unfulfilled
, are either of them to beimplicitly followed. The truth, I expect, will be found to lie between the two.
10.
I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the great predicted apostasy
from the faith, and is Babylon and Antichrist, although I think it highly
probably that a more complete development of Antichrist will yet be
exhibited to the world (2 Thess. 2:3-11; 1 Tim. 4:1-3).
11.
Finally, I believe that it is for the safety, happiness and comfort of all true
Christians, to expect as little as possible from churches or governments
under the present dispensation, to hold themselves ready for tremendous
convulsions and changes of all things established, and to expect their
good things only from Christ’s second advent.
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The student of prophecy will see at a glance that there are many subjects
on which I abstain from giving an opinion.
About the precise time when the present dispensation will end, about
the manner in which the heathen will be converted, about the mode in
which the Jews will be restored to their own land, about the burning up
of the earth, about the first resurrection, about the rapture of the saints,
about the distinction between the appearing and the coming of Christ, about
the future siege of Jerusalem and the last tribulation of the Jews, about the
binding of Satan before the millennium begins, about the duration of the
millennium, about the loosing of Satan at the end of the thousand years, about
the destruction of God and Magog, about the precise nature and position of
the new Jerusalem, about all these things, I purposely decline expressing my
opinion. I could say something about them all, but it would be little better
than conjecture. I am thankful that others have more light about them than I
have.
For myself, I feel unable at present to speak positively. If I have learned
anything in studying prophecy, I think I have learned the wisdom of not
‘making haste’ to decide what is true.
I am well aware that the views I have laid down appear to many persons
very gloomy and discouraging. The only answer I make to that charge is this:
Are they scriptural? Are they in accordance with the lessons of history and
experience?
To my mind they certainly are. I see human failure and human
corruption stamped on the conclusion of all dispensations preceding our
own. I see much in the present state of the world to make me expect that the
present dispensation will not end better than those which have gone before.
In short, there seems an inherent tendency to decay in everything that man
touches. There is no such thing as creature perfection. God is teaching that
lesson by all His successive modes of dealing with mankind. There will be no
perfection till the Lord comes. The patriarchal, the Mosaic and the Christian
dispensations all tend to prove this. Those words of Scripture shall yet be
verified, ‘I will overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose
right it is; and I will give it Him’ (Ezek. 21:27). When the Lord Jesus comes
back to earth, and the tabernacle of God is with men, then will there be
perfection, but not till then. God will have all the glory at last, and all the
world shall confess that without God, man can do nothing. God shall be ‘all
in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28).
The one point on which I desire to fix the eyes of my own soul, is the
second personal coming of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To that ‘blessed
hope and glorious appearing’, I wish, by God’s help, to direct all who read
this volume. God forbid that anyone should neglect present duties!
To sit idly waiting for Christ, and not to attend to the business of our respective
positions, is not Christianity, but fanaticism.
Let us remember in all our daily employments, that we serve a Master who is coming again
If I can only stir up one Christian to think more of that second coming, and to keep it more prominently before his mind, I feel that the volume will not have been published in vain.
If any one ask me why I have chosen this particular period for the
republication of these prophetical tracts, I think it is sufficient answer to
point to the times in which we live. I do not forget that we are poor judges of
our own days, and are very apt to exaggerate their importance. But I doubt
much whether there ever was a time in the history of our country, when
the horizon on all sides, both political and ecclesiastical, was so thoroughly
black and lowering. In every direction we see men’s hearts ‘failing for fear,
and for looking for those things that seem coming on the earth’. Everything
around us seems unscrewed, loosened and out of joint. The fountains of
the great deep appear to be breaking up. Ancient institutions are tottering,
and ready to fall. Social and ecclesiastical systems are failing, and crumbling
away. Church and State seem alike convulsed to their very foundations, and
what the end of this convulsion may be no man can tell.
Whether the last days of old England have really come, whether her
political greatness is about to pass away, whether her Protestant Church
is about to have her candlestick removed, whether in the coming crash of
nations England is to perish like Amalek, or at length to be saved, and escape
‘so as by fire’, all these are points which I dare not attempt to settle: a very
few years will decide them. But I am sure there never was a time when it
was more imperatively needful to summon believers to ‘cease from man’, to
stand on their watchtowers and to build all their hopes on the second coming
of the Lord.
Happy is he who has learned to expect little from Parliaments
or Convocations, from Statesmen or from Bishops, and to look steadily for
Christ’s appearing! He is the man who will not be disappointed.
By: Diane Sori and Craig Andresen / RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS
It’s time to provide some answers.
There are two old adages that come to mind... first...all good things must come to an end, and regrettably that is the case with cprworldwidemedia.com. Due to the serious nature of the network’s CEO’s health concerns, he is no longer, at least at this time, able to keep the station up, running, and active.
Several of us, in his absence, did all we could to keep CPR a viable entity but at the end of the day, we simply lacked the proper resources or the necessary protocols to continue. Sadly, last week, we were left with no choice but to allow the lights to be turned off, the doors to be locked, and the station to go dark.
We can’t thank you enough for your support and dedication throughout the RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS run on CPR and we know we speak for all involved, from the other talk show hosts to our music DJ’s, when we say that you, the listeners, have meant the world to us.
Yes, CPR had its detractors, petty small-minded people consumed with hate and jealousy whose primary concern was trying to disrupt the day to day business of operating a radio network but compared to the Obama regime, assorted jihadis threatening us with fatwas, and the ilk of the Jordanian King’s efforts to silence not only RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS but CPR as a whole, those individual detractors were mere pests to be shooed away like gnats at a picnic.
Having CPR’s doors shuttered and the station dark, at least for now, is a blow in that it takes away an avenue of truth from us to the general public.
Diane and Craig, the RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS, along with Darren Lee, Bobby Brown, Scott Legler and Dennis Vespi, have decided to take our skill set and launch a whole new online radio network, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
All of us involved bring unique skills to the table. Diane Sori brings a women’s perspective, her investigative talents, and her insightful op-ed style to bear; while Darren Lee adds his business acumen and an international flair from 'down under' to the mix. Dennis Vespi is a consummate interviewer whose featured music/talk program has become a fan favorite. Bobby Brown’s talents can be found in two arenas...he’s an IT specialist, and in the world of internet radio his abilities are most coveted, and he also works the DJ booth bringing great music and entertainment with him on this new journey. Scott Legler, a businessman with a keen sense of priority, is also a fantastic DJ doing shows and live mixes that are always a party. And then there’s Craig Andresen...our resident 'King of Snark'...whose hard hitting articles and commentary are intermixed with just the right taste of biting sarcasm to drive even the most absurd point home. Craig also has a 12-year stint in 'terrestrial' radio under his belt which serves this new venture well.
There is much to do and we have set ourselves a target date of January 2, 2016 to launch our network. The website is being built, the servers are in hand, we are lining up a schedule that will include 24/7/365 News, Conservative Talk, and Music Shows, with some of your old favorites now getting on board. We will also have a new FB group up and running soon.
A few notes of importance...first...American Patriots Broadcasting Network is NOT blogtalk radio...we are a full-on 24/7/365 internet network, fully licensed, and ready to deliver the highest quality listening experience to our audience. Second...our website, currently under construction, will be second to none with news, articles, our program schedule and player, all easily navigational and fully operational. Third...our sponsors are already lined up and ready to roll out with us in just a couple of weeks. And lastly...we will be endeavoring to bring new talk and live music shows on board very soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-grug4CzMQ&feature=youtu.be
Ladies and gentlemen...THE TRUTH IS COMING BACK!!!