We finished up the conference last evening with a strong challenge for Peruvians to study to defend their faith in the marketplace of ideas. The excitement among all the people was contagious.
Dale Fincher closed out his time with us with a great seminar of the Gnostic Gospels: Phillip, Judas and Thomas. He did a great job with explaining why each of these was not included in the Bible and read some the material from these works. It is always helpful to actually read these works as they are quite fragmentary, incoherant, and doctrinally incompatible with both the Old and New Testaments.
My last challenged focused on the Jesus of the Bible as compared to the Jesus represented in the Da Vinci Code fiction.
Focusing on Jesus’ True Identity I shared a few of the following thoughts
- Son of God – Romans 1:4 - was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord
- Substitute for sin – John 1 – “Behold the Lamb of God – who takes away the Sins of the World”
- Savior -- But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…
- Sovereign King – He is King and Supreme over all of life, my life, your life.
His Kingdom is greater than all the Kingdoms of Men:
- Greater than great the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec Civilizations
- Greater than the Greek and Roman Empires
- Greater than the height of European Civilizations
- Greater than Communism
- Greater than Nationalism
- Greater than Democracy
- Greater than Capitalism
- Greater than Peru
- Greater than America
His Kingdom is one that unites people from every nation, from every place, into one new people. A people forgiven by God, called by God for worship, called by God to the Kingdom of Heaven.
His Kingdom is one of justice and a good ruler, a Kingdom of Love, and a Kingdom where the great enemies of death, disease, and destruction are forever vanquished.
Today we went and met with some young adult pastors from Lima who are leading the Christian Missionary Alliance in the country. These are all the men whom we partnered with for the conference on Saturday night. Originally I thought there were 500-600 people at the outreach, but today that was only in the packed main meeting room. Apparently 1200 people were at the event with ever classroom at the facility packed full and watching on closed circuit television. Amazing.
Tonight there is another outreach in another town called Los Olivos, I pray that God may open the eyes of many through this event.
Tomorrow is the University Open Forum where I will present and then handle any question. It should be a great time with some very tough questions - I can't wait.
Please pray for us...Out for now...