Fulfilling the Great Commission (part 1) - Using the Media
In the 21st century, every Christian has a duty to use the new media technologies available to them to preach the Gospel on a daily basis. In the past, the Great Commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations …” (Mat. 28:19,20) meant literally to physically go into all areas of the world, establish churches and make disciples. Of course, not everyone could be a missionary, but the church was commanded to raise up ministers and send missionaries to the ends of the earth. Each of us is commanded to go. If we are not called to be a missionary in our own country and our own city, then our job is to go to the nations and preach. The Great Commission isn’t only for apostles or “super-Christians,” it’s for every Christian.
With the advent of the printing press in the 1400s, we saw an explosion of missionary work and reformation of doctrine and culture. It became the duty of the Christian to learn to read so that the Gospel could be studied and understood without a mediator. This “Puritan hope” that the Kingdom of God would fill the whole world led to a universal literacy in colonial America, when less than one-third of Europeans were literate only a few decades before.
The availability of inexpensive personal computers in the 1990s then brought the power of publishing the printed word to the average person. The editor of Predvestnik, Alexei Salapatov, often spoke of how the Russian language Forerunner went into regions of the former USSR where no missionary had yet been. People devoured the message of this publication. It passed from hand to hand and copies were kept until they were literally “read into dust.” If you haven’t seen the new videos I posted on the Russian Forerunner, you should check them out.
But think of how the Internet has changed all this. While not every person in the world has a computer and high speed internet access, it is becoming more common even in third world countries. Within a short period of time, a simple hand held computer with wireless phone and Internet access will become as common and inexpensive as a cell phone. Apple will introduce the iPhone this summer and it will likely revolutionize the world of media once again.
Every American Christian who has been given great wealth compared to the rest of the world needs to be computer savvy and painstakingly learn to publish web pages, blogs and edit digital video. Again this technology has been put to greatest use in America. Christians need to realize that the reason we are the wealthiest nation in the world is not because of the industry of Bill Gates, but the fact that we are living off the accrued capital made from the resources given to the Puritans about 400 years ago. God has made us rich for a reason – not merely to give our children the latest version of Play Station – but to use these new computer resources to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
If you have a computer, a camcorder and live in an area where high speed internet access is available, God expects you to use it to His glory and not merely for your own edification and entertainment. If you don’t already do this, consider using Blogger.com or Myspace.com to start your own blog. If you own a camcorder, you can easily create a short Bible teaching and upload it to YouTube.com. The cool thing about these secondary publishing services is that you no longer need to know too much about web publishing or even have your own domain name or server. But I encourage Christians to maintain their own websites as well. For some it is a big learning curve, but I liken it to the Puritans who had to learn to read and teach their children in the 1600s.
As in the parable of the talents, God is going to reward or punish us in the ratio to whom “much was given.” And we American Christians have been given very much.
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The Silent Scream (DVD) Eight Languages
“When the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing.” – President Ronald Reagan to National Religious Broadcasters Convention, January 1981
Ronald Reagan became convinced of this as a result of watching The Silent Scream – a movie he considered so powerful and convicting that he screened it at the White House. More recently, it was by catching just a glimpse of what this film reveals that Planned Parenthood director and abortion advocate Abby Johnson turned and became a strong advocate for the pre-born.
The modern technology of real-time ultrasound now reveals the actual responses of a 12-week old fetus to being aborted. As the unborn child attempts to escape the abortionist’s suction curette, her motions can be seen to become desperately agitated and her heart rate doubles. Her mouth opens – as if to scream – but no sound can come out. Her scream doesn’t have to remain silent, however … not if you will become her voice. This newly re-mastered version features eight language tracks and two bonus videos.
“…a high technology “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” arousing public opinion just as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel ignited the abolitionist movement.” – Sen. Gordon Humphrey, Time Magazine
Languages: English, Spanish, French, South Korean, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese
Running Time: 28 minutes
$17.95 — ORDER NOW!
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The Real Jesus: A Defense of the Historicity and Divinity of Christ (DVD)
Who is the Real Jesus?
Ever since the dawn of modern rationalism, skeptics have sought to use textual criticism, archeology and historical reconstructions to uncover the “historical Jesus” — a wise teacher who said many wonderful things, but fulfilled no prophecies, performed no miracles and certainly did not rise from the dead in triumph over sin.
Over the past 100 years, however, startling discoveries in biblical archeology and scholarship have all but vanquished the faulty assumptions of these doubting modernists. Regrettably, these discoveries have often been ignored by the skeptics as well as by the popular media. As a result, the liberal view still holds sway in universities and impacts the culture and even much of the church.
The Real Jesus explodes the myths of these critics and the movies, books and television programs that have popularized their views. Presented in ten parts — perfect for individual, family and classroom study — viewers will be challenged to go deeper in their knowledge of Christ in order to be able to defend their faith and present the truth to a skeptical modern world – that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus of history — “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is the real Jesus.
Speakers include: George Grant, Ted Baehr, Stephen Mansfield, Raymond Ortlund, Phil Kayser, David Lutzweiler, Jay Grimstead, J.P. Holding, and Eric Holmberg.
Ten parts, over two hours of instruction!
Running Time: 130 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
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Dr. Francis Schaeffer - A Christian Manifesto (DVD)
That Swiss Hermit Strikes Again!
Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation’s moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America’s dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren’t looking.
Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns-and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ.
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
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Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism (DVD)
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Just what is Calvinism?
Does this teaching make man a deterministic robot and God the author of sin? What about free will? If the church accepts Calvinism, won’t evangelism be stifled, perhaps even extinguished? How can we balance God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility? What are the differences between historic Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism? Why did men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards and a host of renowned Protestant evangelists embrace the teaching of predestination and election and deny free will theology?
This is the first video documentary that answers these and other related questions. Hosted by Eric Holmberg, this fascinating three-part, four-hour presentation is detailed enough so as to not gloss over the controversy. At the same time, it is broken up into ten “Sunday-school-sized” sections to make the rich content manageable and accessible for the average viewer.
Running Time: 257 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
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The Abortion Matrix: Defeating Child Sacrifice and the Culture of Death (DVD)
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Is there a connection between pagan religion and the abortion industry?
This powerful presentation traces the biblical roots of child sacrifice and then delves into the social, political and cultural fall-out that this sin against God and crime against humanity has produced in our beleaguered society.
Conceived as a sequel and update to the 1988 classic, The Massacre of Innocence, the new title, The Abortion Matrix, is entirely fitting. It not only references abortion’s specific target – the sacred matrix where human beings are formed in the womb in the very image of God, but it also implies the existence of a conspiracy, a matrix of seemingly disparate forces that are driving this holocaust.
The occult activity surrounding the abortion industry is exposed with numerous examples. But are these just aberrations, bizarre yet anomalous examples of abortionists who just happen to have ties to modern day witchcraft? Or is this representative of something deeper, more sinister and even endemic to the entire abortion movement?
As the allusion to the film of over a decade ago suggests, the viewer may learn that things are not always as they appear to be. The Abortion Matrix reveals the reality of child-killing and strikes the proper moral chord to move hearts to fulfill the biblical responsibility to rescue those unjustly sentenced to death and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 24:11,12; 31:8,9).
Speakers include: George Grant, Peter Hammond, RC Sproul Jr., Paul Jehle, Lou Engle, Rusty Thomas, Flip Benham, Janet Porter and many more.
Ten parts, over three hours of instruction!
Running Time: 195 minutes
$19.95 — ORDER NOW!
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