Naga Christian Church

35th Lord's Day| September 01, 2024
"Whoever isolates himself from the church, i.e., from Christianity as a whole, from the history of dogma in its entirety, loses the truth of the Christian faith. That person becomes a branch that is torn from the tree and shrivels, an organ that is separated from the body and therefore doomed to die. Only within the communion of the saints can the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of Christ be comprehended."
~ Herman Bavinck

NCC Debate| August 25, 2024

Topic: "Pamatud-an gamit ang Bibliya lamang nga ang tawo makasulod sa Langit o maluwas gikan sa silot sa Impyerno pinaagi sa pagtoo lamang"

Affirmative Side: Elder Herms Belo -
Naga Christian Church
Negative Side: Ralph Carlyle, Catholic Faith Defender (CFD), Cebu City Chapter

Mark 2:10
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins - he said to the paralytic.

Galatians 1:8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

34th Lord's Day| August 25, 2024
✓Sunday School Topic: Assurance of Salvation
Teacher: Elder Herms Belo
✓Biblical Message:
Text: 1 Timothy 2:11-14
Title: The Role of Women in the Church: Learn in Silence with all Submissiveness | Elder Bacalso Enemesio
I. Reference
II. Reasons
III. Rebuttal
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Prayer Meeting

33rd Lord's Day| August 18, 2024
✓Sunday School:
Topic: Sola Fide
Teacher: Elder Herms Belo
✓Biblical Message:
Text: Romans 4:1-12
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Prayer Meeting
✓NCC Women's Fellowship
✓Dinner Fellowship

"What water am I walkin' on and what's my sea to part..." - Come Up Here (Bethel Music).
You may argue that I'm nitpicking and that these words are just metaphorical, but Bill Johnson teaches that Jesus came to model the miraculous and that we can emulate, and even perform greater miracles than Christ. Worship songs don't merely reflect the theology of a church, they can shape the theology of the church. Theology, in turn, determines practice, hence the delusional "risks" and exploits by Bethelites who have attempted to walk on water, walk through walls, and raise the dead. Theresa Dedmon spent 19 years on staff at Bethel, and at one point was the overseer for Bethel's school of supernatural ministry. In her book Born to Create, she writes:
"I have tried walking on water in my bathtub. Though I haven’t yet gotten a toe to float, it doesn’t mean it is not possible - it only means I haven’t experienced it yet."
You cannot separate worship from the truth (John 4:24), and the truth is found in the scriptures. It's the scriptures, the word of Christ that must dwell in us - they are the foundation for our worship:
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16).
The mystical and man-centered teachings of Bill Johnson and the New Apostolic Reformation always lead to error. In fact, Bill Johnson knows that Bethel Music can manipulate his false church into becoming (theology and practice) what he envisions: "I actually told our musicians several years ago, I said what do you want the church to look like in 5 years? Write a song about it now, and we'll sing our way into it."
Bill Johnson knows that the subjective and mesmerizing effects of "worship," can sway a person:
"Music bypasses all of the intellectual barriers, and when the anointing of God is on a song, people will begin to believe the things they wouldn't through teaching." - Bill Johnson quote posted on Worshipu Instagram page (In Bethel's case, this means the infallible truth contained in scripture alone, makes way for new revelations/lies).
In essence, Johnson is saying that the Holy Spirit is powerless to illuminate the truth for the believer. That's a puny god.
Regardless of how their music makes you feel, if you love the truth you will mark & avoid Bethel, AND Bethel music.
"For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough" (2 Cor 11:4).
Famine in the land

~Yuna Jaymilee Pante

NCC Evangelism| August 11, 2024
It is very just that we should labor...to further the progress of the gospel. It is our duty to proclaim the goodness of God to every nation.
~ John Calvin

1 Timothy 2:11-14
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

32nd Lord's Day| August 11, 2024
✓Sunday School Topic: Su***de and Salvation| Elder Herms Belo
✓Biblical Message: The Role of Women in the church: Learn in Silence with all Subjection| 1 Timothy 2:11-14| Elder Bacalso Enemesio
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Prayer Meeting: All Saints, NCC Elders, and, Government.
✓NCc Evangelism

“The god of modern religion is a damnable idol of man’s imagination. Any god who died for everybody, or sent jesus to die for everybody, who is trying desperately to save everybody and cannot save anybody unless and until they give him permission is a damnable idol. That is not the God of Scripture. The God of Scripture is an Almighty Sovereign Who absolutely saved His people, called them unto Himself, redeemed them, actually redeemed them by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And anything less than that is not the God of Scripture.” ~ Kenny Dyess

31st Lord's Day| August 04, 2024
✓Sunday School: Heidelberg Catechism| Q1. What's your only comfort in life and death?
Answers:
1]: That I am not my own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
[2]: but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death (Rom. 14:7-9).
[3]: to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:23; Titus 2:14).
[4]: He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 2:2).
[5]: and has set me free from all the power of the devil (John 8:34-36; Heb. 2: 14-15; 1 John 3:8)
6]: He also preserves me in such a way( John 6:39-40; John 10: 27-29).
7]: that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head (Matthew 10:29-31; Luke 21: 16-18).
[8]: indeed, all things must work together for my salvation (Rom. 8:28).
9]: Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14).
[10]: and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him (Rom. 8:14).

30th Lord's Day| July 28, 2024
✓Sunday School: Heidelberg Catechism| Bro Michael Larrobis
1). What is your only comfort in life and death?
✓Biblical Message: The Office of Deacons| Acts 6: 1-7| Elder Bacalso Enemesio
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Prayer Meeting: Government, Elders, & Saints

29th Lord's Day| July 21, 2024

Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Who is Marcion and why the church today should reject his heresy and any modern interpretation of his teachings.

(This maybe lengthy but for the sake of your spiritual life, please read)

Marcion of Sinope was an early Christian theologian, born around 85 AD in Sinope, a city on the Black Sea coast (northen Turkiye). He started a movement known as Marcionism in the mid 2nd century and was excommunicated from the Roman church around 144 AD due to his controversial beliefs. Marcion's teachings created a clear split between the God of the Old Testament, whom he viewed as a lesser, vengeful deity, and the God of the New Testament, revealed through Jesus Christ as loving and forgiving. He rejected the Old Testament entirely and formed his own version of the Christian Bible, including only an edited version of Luke's Gospel and ten of Paul's letters, removing what he saw as Jewish influences.

Marcion is often linked with Gnosticism because of similarities like rejecting the Old Testament God and believing in a higher, benevolent deity shown by Jesus Christ. However, his teachings aren't strictly Gnostic. Gnosticism typically involves secret knowledge for salvation and a dualistic view of matter and spirit, with complex beliefs about a series of divine emanations. Marcion didn't focus on secret knowledge but rather on a straightforward division between law and grace, Old and New Testaments, and flesh and spirit. His view of the material world and the Old Testament God as inferior aligns with Gnostic themes but without the detailed cosmology and soteriology.

Considered a heretic because of his teachings, Marcion went against the universally adhered to Christian understanding of Scripture and God's nature. His extreme separation of the Old and New Testaments challenged the continuity of God's revelation. Early church fathers like Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Justin Martyr wrote extensively against Marcion's ideas. Tertullian's "Adversus Marcionem," Irenaeus's "Against Heresies," and Justin Martyr's writings all defended the consistency of God's nature and the unified message of the Scriptures. Biblically, verses like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 emphasize the inspiration and unity of all Scripture, and Matthew 5:17 highlights Jesus' role in fulfilling, not abolishing, the Old Testament, affirming its continuity with the New Testament.

The Bible clearly presents Yahweh as the one true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and sovereign over all. Some important verses affirming this include Deuteronomy 6:4, which says, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one," and Isaiah 45:5, where God declares, "I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God." Additionally, John 1:1-3 emphasizes that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through Him, all things were made.

Early church fathers strongly affirmed the unity and continuity of God's revelation through both the Old and New Testaments. Justin Martyr defended the divine nature of Christ and the unity of God's revelation. Irenaeus emphasized the consistent revelation of one God through both covenants, seeing Christ as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Tertullian argued against Marcion’s separation of the Testaments, affirming that the same God authored both.

Church fathers like Tertullian, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Hippolytus strongly opposed Marcion's teachings. Tertullian condemned Marcion for altering the Gospel and spreading falsehoods. Irenaeus called Marcion's teachings blasphemous and accused him of mutilating the Scriptures. Justin Martyr pointed out Marcion's influence and warned against his belief in a god greater than the Creator. Hippolytus highlighted Marcion's belief in two gods, one good and one evil. These early defenders of the faith vigorously refuted Marcion’s attempt to separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament and alter the Christian canon.

What does the church fathers say about Marcion and his heresy?

Tertullian

"Marcion of Pontus presumes to alter the Gospel according to Luke, seeking to establish his own gospel as a part of the Christian canon. By his reckoning, everything that belongs to God the Creator must be expunged from the Christian faith."
Against Marcion, Book I, Chapter 1

"Marcion, better understood as the murderer of truth, has laid waste to the Gospel, which he has cut and mutilated to suit his own purposes. He has taken away from its body much that is true and added to it much that is false."
Against Marcion, Book I, Chapter 2

Irenaeus

"Marcion of Pontus advanced the most daring blasphemy against Him who is proclaimed as God by the Law and the Prophets. He declared that the God proclaimed by the Law and Prophets is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but a different God, a Demiurge, a judge and creator of the world, who made things of naught, contrary to the best principles of the laws.”
Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter 27, Section 2

"Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some books at all, and curtailing the Gospel according to Luke and the epistles of Paul, they assert that these alone are authentic which they have themselves thus shortened."
Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter 12, Section 12

Justin Martyr

"And there is Marcion, a man of Pontus, who is even at this day alive, teaching his disciples to believe in some other god greater than the Creator. And this man many have believed, as if he alone knew the truth, and laugh at us when we say that God has anything to do with this earth."
First Apology, Chapter 26

Hippolytus

"Marcion, following the tenets of Empedocles, was of opinion that there are two gods, one good and the other evil. Marcion of Pontus supposes that there are two gods, one of whom is a far greater deity than the other, whereas the other deity is the creator of the universe and the one who gave the Law to the Israelites.”
Refutation of All Heresies, Book VII, Chapter 18

To pastors and teachers, brethren, who are being, or might be influenced by Marcion’s ideas, it's vital to reconsider the foundational Theological and scriptural basis of Christianity. Marcion’s teachings were rightfully condemned as heretical because they contradicted the universally adhered to Christian understanding of Scripture and the nature of God. The integrity of the Christian faith depends on recognizing the continuity and fulfillment of God’s revelation from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I appeal to you and and everyone who read this to pray and go back to Scriptures.
~Rondell

Sola Scriptura.

28th Lord's Day| July 14, 2024
✓Sunday School| Elder Herms Belo
✓Biblical Message| Elder Bacalso Enemesio
"The Office of Deacon| 1 Timothy 3:8-12"
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Prayer Meeting

27th Lord's Day| July 07, 2024
✓Sunday School Topic:
Heidelberg Catechism| Bro Michael Larrobis
Q1: What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answers:
1]: That I am not my own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
[2]: but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death (Rom. 14:7-9).
✓Biblical Message: 2 Corinthians 8:1-5| Elder Herms Belo
✓Lunch Fellowship
✓Corporate Prayer Meeting
✓Celebrate Lord's Supper
✓Dinner Fellowship

𝗦𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺.
James D. Quiggle

So, you hate Calvinism. Do you even understand what you hate? What is Calvinism?

1. The Bible is inspired, inerrant, infallible, sufficient, and authoritative. In the original writings every word was inspired (verbal inspiration), every word was equally inspired (plenary inspiration), and every word accurately presents the authentic words (inerrancy) of God, holy and fallen angels, men and women. (John 15:26–27; 16:13–15; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21; 1 Pet. 1:10–12; Heb. 1:1; Eph. 2:20; 3:5).

2. The tri-unity (Trinity) of the One God, whose personal name was revealed in the Old Testament as YHWH, and in the New Testament as Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Godhead is one essence/substance with three personal subsistences/persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is a unity, not a union, meaning each Person in the Godhead is consubstantial, coequal, and coeternal with the other Persons, being the same one substance or essence: God. (Matt. 28:19; 3:16–17; John 10:30; 16:16–18, 26; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16; Gen. 1:2; Heb. 10:5; Php. 2:7; Luke 1:35; Matt. 3:16–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; Isa. 53:6, 10; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:14; Rom. 6:4; John 10:17; Rom. 8:11.)

3. God the Son is a genuine Person in unity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, being of the same one essence/substance with them, consubstantial, coequal, and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus the Christ is the God-man, who will for eternity be Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, God the Son. (John 1:1; 1 John 5:20; Hebrews 2:14, 16–17; Luke 1:27, 31, 35.) (Calvin created from Scripture the threefold view of Christ as prophet, kingdom priest that is in common use today.)

4. God the Holy Spirit is a genuine Person, being of the same one essence/substance with God the Father and God the Son, consubstantial, coequal, and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son. (John 14:26; 15:26; Rom. 8:16; Psalm 139:7; Gal. 5:22; Gen. 1:2; Titus 3:5; Eph. 1:13–14; 1 Cor. 12:1–11, 13; Eph. 2:22; 4:3; John 16:8–11). (Calvin created from Scripture what is accepted today as the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.)

5. For human beings to be saved God must convict the sinner of his/her sin and give the sinner his gift of grace-faith-salvation, Eph. 2:8. For a person to be saved he/she must respond to God-given conviction of sin and believe God and God’s testimony as the means by which God’s grace in salvation is to be accessed. Every salvation is by grace through faith, without personal merit (works) but Christ’s merit alone, Eph. 2:8–9.

6. Adam was created sinless, but afterward self-originated a sinful desire to rebel against God, thereby adding the principle of rebellion, sin, to his otherwise perfect human nature. The addition of the sin attribute reprioritized all the attributes of human nature to serve self not God. Adam procreated his sinful human nature, Gen. 5:3 in his sinful likeness and image. (Gen. 1:11-12, 21, 24, 28; Gen. 5:3, Rom. 5:12–14; Rom. 6:23a; Heb. 9:27.)

7. Sin is the evil principle of rebellion against God resulting in rejection of God's will and disobedience to God's commandments. Sin is the moral violation of God’s holiness by failure to conform to the image and likeness in which he created human nature, and sin is the legal violation of God’s laws by disobedience. Sin is any thought or action that does not conform to the essence, personality, character, attributes, or purpose of God. Scripture uses the word “sin” to indicate both the evil life principle sin (the sin attribute) and acts of human nature as influenced by the sin attribute.

8. A believer is permanently positionally justified in Christ: God declares the believer in Christ “not guilty,” of the crime of sin, Rom. 8:1. In salvation the believer is freed from the penalty of sin, the dominion (power) of sin, the desire for and pleasure of committing sin, and at death will be freed from the presence of sin.

9. Sanctification is the right standing before God resulting from the salvific experience. The believer is permanently positionally sanctified in Christ: God declares the believer dedicated to God and separated from sin (declared holy) in Christ. A believer is called to experiential sanctification: personal holiness and righteousness of life; to perform and maintain good works which God has prepared beforehand (Eph. 1:4; 2:10; 2:21; 5:26; Rom. 12:1; Titus 2:14; 3:8).

10. The local church is an organism composed of individuals joined together so that each can make vital contributions to the work and welfare of the whole body, a community of persons who strive to please God in celebrating his worship. (Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 11:23–26; 1 Tim. 3:1–13; Titus 1:6–9; 2 Tim. 4:5; Acts 8:4; 10:42; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Cor. 6:14–18; 1 John 4:1–3; Jude 3, 16–23)

11. Christ will return bodily to the earth as the Messiah-King. (1 Thess. 4:13–18; 5:1–5; 2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9; Rom. 5:9; Rev. 20:4–6, 11–15.)

12. There is an eternal judgment, eternal heaven, and eternal hell. The saved will be judged and rewarded for their works done as believers and then will enjoy eternal happiness in heaven in the presence of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:11–15; Rom. 14:10–12).

13. The angels are created, sentient, immaterial spirit-beings. They were created before Adam was created. They live in the second heaven, an immaterial domain God created as a habitation for immaterial spirit-beings. God’s messengers are divided into two groups: the holy messengers who never sinned against God; the fallen messengers who did sin against God. (Job 38:7; 1:6–7; Isaiah 14:12–14; Ezekiel 28:13–18; Revelation 4:6–8; 5:11–12; 12:7, and many other scriptures).

Still hate Calvinism? Amazing how every fundamental biblical doctrine you believe is stated in Calvinism. Calvinism: a theology encompassing the entirety of what Scripture teaches about God, Christ, and human beings.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Romans 3:10-18
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways

NCC Evangelism
Matthew 9:36-38
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.