Blake Ratliff

@afamilyforjesus @Truth_matters20 Female babies were circumcised?

@Truth_matters20 Lots of babies circumcised though

Not a single baby was baptized in the Bible.

@VisionaryVoid His hair didn't grow in 311 days? They have barbers up there?

The Last Citizen of the Soviet Union. On May 18, 1991, Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev launched aboard Soyuz TM-12 for what was supposed to be a routine five-month mission aboard the Mir space station. While he floated 250 miles above Earth, the country that sent him into space quietly ceased to exist. The Soviet Union dissolved on December 26, 1991. His hometown of Leningrad became St. Petersburg. The newly formed Russian space agency, crippled by economic chaos, literally could not afford a return flight. Krikalev was stranded. To raise desperate funds, Russia began selling seats on supply missions to other nations, sending up an Austrian cosmonaut and a Japanese journalist, but Krikalev was told he had to remain on board to keep Mir running. His mission stretched on with no clear end date in sight. Finally, after 311 agonizing days in orbit, more than double his original plan, a German-funded mission provided the capsule needed to bring him home on March 25, 1992. When he stepped out onto Kazakh soil, he was still wearing a flight suit with the flag of a nation that no longer existed. He had left Earth as a Soviet citizen. He returned a year later as a Russian one.

1 Cor 13:3 "And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing." You can give it all and do everything all in the name of religion and Christianity. But if you dont have love it all means absolutely nothing. All of the effort is wasted. But its not love like the world defines it, its the love of God in Christ Jesus that defines and models that love that we are to express to others and bathe our own souls in.

Biblical illiteracy is destroying the Church. What’s ONE verse you wish every Christian knew and obeyed right now? Drop it below and tell me why.

@iamrjknight Amen

Father, we confess that we thank You for what is pleasant, but resist what is painful. We rejoice in the roses, yet we shrink back from the thorn. Forgive us for measuring Your goodness by our comfort and not by Your truth. Your Word teaches us what we often refuse to accept, that suffering is not outside Your purpose. “Consider it all joy… when we encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3). We do not naturally see it this way. Our hearts resist it. So we ask You to teach us. Teach us to see our cross rightly. Not as a burden to escape, but as a path You have appointed. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Form in us a willingness to follow Christ not only in comfort, but in suffering. We ask not for a lighter road, but for a truer heart. Let us not waste what You have allowed. “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4). Guard us from seeking compensation in this world. Fix our eyes where they belong. “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Teach us the value of what we would naturally reject. Let our trials humble us, purify us, and drive us deeper into Christ. Do not let us love the gift and despise the means You use to shape us. We do not ask to understand everything, but to trust You in everything. And in that trust, to follow You faithfully. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

@JordanStoryline Self Confrontation

Paging Biblical Counselors: I was asked a difficult question today and would love to hear from you: What is ONE book you would recommend to someone considering getting seminary-level training in biblical counseling? Not asking for a textbook-level book with tons of pages, but something easy to read and inspiring.

@Soteriology101 >Christians who have read Acts 9 > Leighton Flowers

Yep! And God freely chose to give you the responsibility to put your trust in Him or trade the truth in for lies. 🙂

@PastorHamilton8 You're misrepresenting Calvanism over the Infra/Supra Lapsarian debate. Which while a Reformed debate, but is not "Calvanism". Read more. Post less.

Calvinism is a false doctrine straight out of hell. To say God has ordained some people to hell and others to heaven is blasphemous. I have never met a Calvinist who believed them and their family were predestinated to hell. Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. 2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

@agirlnamedMary Do you feel like MDIV grads are getting something that you are not, but are also entitled to receive as a servant of the church?

Getting an MDiv and getting ordained are NOT the same thing. Achieving academic qualifications from a non-church entity and being called by a church as a pastor are NOT the same thing. This is true for women AND men. Why are we still putting extra-biblical restrictions on women?

@Biblicalman What? 1 Chronicles 20:5 clearly explain this. There is no contradiction.

Who killed Goliath? If you said David, your modern Bible says you're wrong. Open your ESV or NASB to 2 Samuel 21:19. It explicitly says Elhanan killed Goliath. Your Bible has a glaring contradiction in it. And your pastor is too much of a coward to talk about it. 🧵

@ProvisionistP And with that argument, you make the neccesity of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ unnecessary and inconsequential.

I literally made a logical argument for this the other day:

@TomHicks2LCF @jaredcwilson Obedience without love is legalism. Obedience with the love of God poured upon a born-again heart is gratitude.

@jaredcwilson Why not “yes law” and “yes gospel”?! The cross is perfectly about both!

Preacher, are you more “Yes, gospel, but LAW!” or “Yes, law, but GOSPEL!”? Where you more often put the “yes, but” matters.

@JohnCleese Jude 1:5 "Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe." Well look at that....a New Testament book talking about Jesus in the Old Testament.....

Hegseth is a perfect example of the sort of Christian who loves the Old Testament more than the New Testament- because Christ isn't in it

@ProvisionistP @jesus_is_issue Then you make the virgin birth of Jesus Christ inconsequential and unnecessary if you believe that there is an "age of accountability", as it were.

@jesus_is_issue @BlakeJRatliff “I was alive…and I died” This is passing from life to death, not being born “in sins”

• Personal sin requires moral agency. • Babies lack moral agency. • Therefore, babies lack personal sin. • Beings without personal sin are innocent. • Therefore, babies are innocent.

Horrible job at prooftexting. You cant even answer all 3 questions, but instead throw in a verse that "sounds" like it might fit. Paul is describing the moment the law exposes a person's sin, killing all self righteousness. It in no way infers an "imputation" of moral agency. But to entertain your argument; If that text proves what you say, then people whom the law never comes to are always alive. And Romans 1 clearly refutes that and insists all are accountable with no exception or age limit given.

@BlakeJRatliff @ProvisionistP Romans 7: 9

@benzornes Pineapple belong on pizza. All pizza. Sola Pineapple.

So X, what shall we be outraged about today?

@farmingandJesus @Protestia Thats the power of The Gospel!! And this is the same reason Paul said he was not ashamed of it in Romans 1.

“Don’t share your spouses testimony” My husband came from an addicted and broken home…He learned a lot about drugs and started drinking and smoking at 12 years old. He was also left in an abandoned house with his sister for weeks at a time as an elementary age child. He was made fun of for being the dirty smelly kid, got in trouble a lot and had a lot of issues. …when he left the military he became a heroin addict on skid row in LA and went to jail for drugs plenty before going to 30 detoxes and rehabs up and down the state of CA… to no avail. Tried all the religions and false gods to call his higher power and they had NO power. THE ONE TRUE GOD JESUS CHRIST made him clean in an instant after he got on his knees and begged the Lord to make him clean and save him.. he felt the weight of his sin and the holiness of God and dropped to his knees…. His Bible opened right up to this verse 👇🏻 Mark 1:40-41 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” He’s never used again…he’s patient and kind … a wonderful foster father and husband .. a man who submits to Christ. We will share our testimony as a one flesh union any time we can. He’s free to share mine and vice versa. The one thing he wouldn’t do as a man of God is shame anyone for their testimony because he has been forgiven much as has his wife! GLORY TO GOD.

@TomBuck All of Biblical Counseling boils down to a deficiency in these 2 things.

Faith and obedience cannot be separated. If I really have faith that God will do all that He promises to do, I will do all that He commands me to do - exactly and completely.

@mikevlach This is much needed.

My author-proof copy just arrived. Will be available to public on Tuesday! An offshoot of the flagship book—The Bible Storyline.

@MikeRiccardi_ @aspin3 Very well said

Your misunderstanding comes from a failure to distinguish between faith as ground versus faith as instrument. Justification is grounded upon the obedience and satisfaction of Christ; that is the “stuff” of the righteousness we receive from Him. Faith is merely the (sole) instrument by which we lay hold of His righteousness. If you construe faith as the ground rather than the mere instrument of justification—if the stuff of our righteousness is our believing—then you do make faith into a work and the Gospel into a new law. This is what Arminianism does. So, Flavel is right to call that a new popery, and the Reformed were right to see Arminianism as a retreat to Romanism. Arminianism can say, “Faith is not a work,” but in their system they make faith play the role that Rome gives to works. Arminianism is Romanism in disguise. If you’re inclined to hear (Prov 18:2), this excerpt from Horatius Bonar explains this distinction well. monergism.com/thethreshold/a…

“[Faith] does not justify us in the Arminian sense, [which claims that] the act of believing is imputed or accepted by God as our evangelical righteousness, instead of perfect legal righteousness. … Here you have refined Popery. “Let all Arminians know, we have as high an esteem for faith as any men in the world, but yet we will not rob Christ to clothe faith. … “We are willing to give [faith] all that is due to it, but we dare not despoil Christ of his glory for faith’s sake.” — John Flavel