CCF College » All Posts https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/Hangouts/general-chat/feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 02:43:48 +0000 https://bbpress.org/?v=2.6.14 en-US https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/be-alert-be-available/#post-12612 <![CDATA[Be alert/Be available]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/be-alert-be-available/#post-12612 Tue, 06 Feb 2024 05:04:40 +0000 jtmounger Hey all I just wanted to encourage everyone to keep each other in prayer. Do not hesitate to reach out in need. We are all family. I have no desire to waste any of this time with any of you. Remember the enemy is a liar, a thief of joy, a destroyer. Have a wonderful week.

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-your-education/#post-10768 <![CDATA[What are you going to do with your education?]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-going-to-do-with-your-education/#post-10768 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 03:29:38 +0000 Chris Torres Gentlemen:
When you applied for shepherd school. Did you ask yourself “why am I applying to shepherd school?”. Have I been called to Pastoral Ministry, Asst Pastor, deacon. If you know for sure, that’s awesome. If you don’t know for sure we all hope and pray this is has been revealed to you through this time in class, and the last two years of the best education your going to get. As you are getting closer to wrapping up shepherd school. What are going to do with it now? Are you going to apply this to fulfilling your calling or just go home and say I went to shepherd school. I hope and pray its not the latter. I want to encourage you guys to fulfill your calling and make yourself available for the Lord to use to the utmost. You have been equipped, you have been educated by some of the best teachers the Lord has called . I am a Pastor of 5 years and have launched two churches not on my own strength, but by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Satan wants you to go home and sit down and do nothing, don’t be that guy that has taken himself out of the game before he got started. Don’t let the enemy have an easy win now Go out and fulfill your calling brothers. Love brother in Christ Chris Torres

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/possessed-man-or-men/#post-7129 <![CDATA[Reply To: Possessed Man or Men?]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/possessed-man-or-men/#post-7129 Tue, 12 Dec 2017 04:47:08 +0000 Michael Hey Keith,

Good question. There are no errors in the Bible since it is infallible so there must have been at least two men who were demon possessed. You have to remember that the Gospels were the eye witness accounts of the apostles who wrote them and the investigation of the witnesses by Luke. Which means there were righting them from differing perspectives and in their own characteristics. For example Luke was a physician so we get some of the best medical details in the Gospels from him.

Imagine you are a police officer headed to a traffic accident. Both drivers are still present and you have five eye witnesses. As the officer, your job is to listen and ask pertinent questions of each of drivers and eye witnesses. None of the people at the scene of the incident know anyone else there. Do you think you are going to get the exact same story from each of them? Most likely you will not. If you did then you might start think that all there was something very wrong and might need to do further investigation as to whether or not the incident was staged or some more mischievous was taking place.

Rather the stories will most likely have a lot of the same portions in them, but they will all be from different perspectives, views and directions. This way you could piece together the information to obtain the truth of the matter along with the physical evidence of the cars and road, at the incident. The Gospels were told in a similar fashion, with the exception that they were inspired in the men who wrote them by the Holy Spirit. So it is impossible for them to have errors. If they were all exactly the same, we should be properly suspicious of the accounts and whether the stories were conjured up by the men who wrote them instead of them be eye witness accounts inspired by the Holy Spirit. These variations in the Gospels only serve to make the Bible that much more authentic as eye witness accounts and that much more trustworthy.

Also, thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, we know that the Greek manuscripts, that we have thousands and thousands of copies of, are the same as the Greek manuscripts that the earlier church fathers had as well. So there are no changes from then to now.

Thanks for you questions Keith. I hope this assists you and your wife with your discussions through the Bible. Keep up the good work of washing her in the Word and discussing your findings.

Michael Thom
Bible College Director

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/possessed-man-or-men/#post-7128 <![CDATA[Possessed Man or Men?]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/possessed-man-or-men/#post-7128 Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:11:25 +0000 Keith Sedillo My wife and I have been discussing a few sections in scripture and we are wondering if there is a misprint in the Bible or if the authors did something intentionally. The verses in questions are Mark 5:1-20, Matt 8:28-34, and Luke 8:26-37. We are wondering why Mark and Luke say that one man is demon possessed but in Matthew he says there are two? Some commentaries suggest that a possibility is that one of the possessed men is not as severe as the other so Mark and Luke don’t mention him but Matthew does. Could this be an error? Or is there an explanation?

Keith

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/molinism-and-norman-geisler/#post-7014 <![CDATA[Molinism and Norman Geisler]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/molinism-and-norman-geisler/#post-7014 Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:59:23 +0000 Keith Sedillo I have been looking into a more balanced view between Calvinism and Arminianism and talking with Pastor Scott he mentioned the traditional view and or middle ground view. I am currently reading the book titled “Chosen but Free” by Norman Geisler. I agree with his views on extreme Calvinism and his view on extreme Arminianism. I don’t find any confusion on these two topics. However, I have gotten stuck on some of his views towards Molinism.
From what I understand traditional Molinism is that God has “Middle Knowledge,” meaning He knows even all of the “what if” scenarios. Molinism is also a way of explaining God’s sovereignty and free will. I recall William Lane Craig introduced us to this doctrine.
I am struggling with the view in the way that people who hold to it would say that, “God elects people based on His foreknowledge, that He knew who would choose Him before time began, so He elects them.” This doesn’t seem such a stretch to me, but after further study, I have questions concerning the salvation aspect.
Geisler proposes the following on the topic.
“Thus what God knows is not based on what He decides and what He decides is not based on what He knows. He knowingly decides and decidedly knows from all eternity all that will come to pass. Therefore, we cannot say that God’s predestination of some (the elect) to salvation was based on His foreknowledge, because there is no chronological or logical sequence in God’s thoughts. Whatever God knows—and He knows everything possible to know, including our future free choices—He knows intuitively and immediately, not sequentially or temporally.
Notice the connection and how careful the biblical language is—we are ‘elect according to the foreknowledge of God.’ (1 Peter 1:2). It does not say, “based on,” it says “according to.” Why because there is no sequence in God’s thoughts.”
Geisler continues…
“This eliminates the extreme free will view that predestination is based on God’s foreknowledge of who is going to believe and who is not going to believe. God’s eternal decisions are not based on anything in time—let alone on our decisions.”
From what I read from Geisler he appears to not follow the belief of Molinism on the salvation aspect, however, it does appear he believes God is all knowing and has middle knowledge. Geisler argues that God does not find out things sequentially but is all knowing from His very source of Being.
I am not throwing out Molinism nor am I throwing out Geisler because it seems that there is an aspect of Molinism that is not entirely correct?
Can I get clarification?

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6792 <![CDATA[Reply To: Module 005 and False Teachers]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6792 Fri, 21 Jul 2017 22:23:57 +0000 Keith Sedillo Michael,
Thank you for the follow-up. I have been running across lots of different Christians who consider John Hagee and Joel Osteen as solid Bible teachers. It’s hard to tell our brethren that some of the people they listen to are false. Especially when the false teacher has a generic one size fits all doctrinal statement, but their writing and teachings don’t match. What I find even more difficult is confronting those who we respect and who we consider brothers.

I found great comfort in the Norm Geisler teachings about the New Age and the other teacher on Post Modernism. I see where my Christian brothers are falling into the trap because the underlying scheme of satan is very clever. I will continue to pray for my Christian brothers.

Thanks Again!
Keith

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6788 <![CDATA[Reply To: Module 005 and False Teachers]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6788 Fri, 21 Jul 2017 01:58:07 +0000 Michael Hey Keith,

I’m glad that Arlene and Chris were able to step in an give you some help and discussion on the topic.

So in regards to where to draw the line, I would have to agree with Chris. We should be like the Bereans in that we are searching out what is said against the Word of God. If we see that they are have a heretical doctrine that they are teaching, you probably shouldn’t even be wasting your time with them. If they are just teaching a doctrine that is not heretical from and opposing viewpoint of your own, I think it can be safe to, take the best and chuck the rest. There are pastors that I listen to that I don’t always agree with on certain doctrines, but the rest of their teachings are fantastic and often the Holy Spirit has used them to cut me to the heart and teach me lessons I needed at those times.

You did phrase the questions in such a manner that I believe you are already onto the answer you are looking for. I believe I agree with those. Some may have discernment at a great capacity than your own and do use it to their advantage in regards to choosing who to listen to and who not to, but with the training you are receiving in the Shepherd School, I know you have that ability as well. You are already proving it by your questions. The things is, we are all different and we will all have differing opinions on all of the multitudinous topics of life, but we will also have our strengths in specific areas as well. Take advantage of those opportunities where people want to give away knowledge and wisdom on their areas of expertise, but that does not mean you have to agree with everything else they believe as well.

Blessings

Michael Thom
Bible College Director

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6760 <![CDATA[Reply To: Module 005 and False Teachers]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6760 Sat, 08 Jul 2017 00:33:45 +0000 Keith Sedillo Arlene,
The audio was very informative. I know a lot about most religions but Islam not so much. After listening to the audio I definitely felt like I need to learn more in evangelism with Muslims and about the belief in general. I know mostly surface information from the news or little things pastors say in sermons. I was shocked the most when he discussed the rate at which Islam is growing. “In 2020 Islam will be the largest religion in the world.” It seems like we don’t have an effective foothold of holding this at bay.

Thanks for the resource!

Keith

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6758 <![CDATA[Reply To: Module 005 and False Teachers]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6758 Fri, 07 Jul 2017 16:42:36 +0000 Arlene Hi! I was wondering what you thought of the podcast? What did you learn about their manuscripts and how to evangelize to Muslims?

]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6752 <![CDATA[Reply To: Module 005 and False Teachers]]> https://www.ccfcollege.com/forums/topic/module-005-and-false-teachers/#post-6752 Thu, 06 Jul 2017 02:26:07 +0000 Keith Sedillo Chris/Arlene,
Thank you! Excellent information. I didn’t know of some of these teachers that you shared. I also didn’t know the laughter movement was a movement. I have seen the videos at Bethel Church and IHOP where they do the fire tunnels and the laughter stuff.

An issue I take away from my experience with Christianity is that we as Christians or even Christian organizations are sometimes too afraid to draw a line in the sand. I feel like there are 3 categories. You have guys like MacArthur who will lump everyone into one category because they aren’t Calvinists and call them false. Then you have the people who follow guys like Joel O’Steen and the like. They will pretty much listen and accept anything even when it is plain to see the false teacher teaches and represents false doctrine. The third category is I guess where I am struggling because that’s where I find myself. We like to say “take the best and chuck the rest.”

The problem I find with this is that it may lead to unforeseen future problems. For example, rat poison contains a small amount of poison but it does the job. At what point do we draw the line and say “I will not LISTEN to or ENTERTAIN this teacher?” We can all go to a junkyard and find something we could use. It might take a while but we could, so why not chuck certain teachers and call them out and not entertain them? We can get better information somewheres else besides the rat poison and the junkyard?

Many times people use the defense that they have strong discernment. Perhaps they don’t if they are entertaining the false teacher?

Arlene,
Thanks for sharing CARM with me. I use to use that page all the time, I will look into it. I have never heard of Jay Smith but I will check him out and the link.

Am I missing the boat?

Keith

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