WELCOME TO THE LION'S DEN SOCIETY'S BLOG !

Welcome to the Lion's Den Society, a small church with a big impact! Our mission is "THE WHOLE BIBLE, RIGHTLY DIVIDED." II Timothy 2:15 notes, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Please check out this web site and also, www.antichristinfo.blogspot.com, which is focused on End Time events and characters.

Your donations are welcome! Please send your tax deductible donation to:
Lion's Den Society
410 Yellowstone Avenue
Laurel, MT 59044.

You may also donate at Daniel's GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/DanielLionsDen or on Paypal using danieldeohara@gmail.com as the payment email address. If you wish to donate by Western Union, please contact Daniel by email to get details.

The Lion's Den Society, as a church, is not required to obtain a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service as other non-profits are required to do. If this is a concern to you, please call Daniel at 405-591-7291 or just make your check to Daniel O'Hara instead, if you prefer, which would not be deductible.  

God bless you as you trust God. Proverbs 16:20, "Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord."



"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Jesus in Matthew 6:34 NKJV

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" John 14:6 NKJV  

A REAL LIFE VIDEO OF A ROARING AFRICAN LION

Thanks to my friend Henk V. from Namibia, in southern Africa, for the lion video.


"A lion, which is might among beasts and does not turn away from any."  Proverbs 30:30 NKJV

"The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." 

False Hyper-Grace Teaching and Turning The Grace of our God into Lewdness....

 I saw this posting by Bible Loves Notes (biblelovenotes.blogspot.com) on Pinterest recently entitled, "Beware of Hyper-Grace Teachings" and I thought would comment a bit with corrections to each error in belief noted:

If you haven’t heard the term, "hyper-grace", you probably have heard some of its errors or hold them personally.

This contemporary error is indicative of what is described in II Timothy 4:3, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

Some of the “feel-good-about-yourself”, selfish teachings include :

1. God forgives my sins, past, present and future, so I don’t need to repent.

* Correcting verses to this error:  I John 1:9 (confessing sin cleanses from unrighteousness), James 5:15, Revelation 3:3 (exhortation to the church of Sardis to repent), I Corinthians 11:27-32 (examine self before receiving Communion) and Revelation 3:19 (urging church of Laodicea to repent). It is clear that repentance for sin is an ongoing process in a believer's life, not just once when converted or "born again."


2. When God looks at me, He sees Christ’s righteousness, not my sins.

* Correcting verses: Revelation 3:19, I Samuel 15:23 (rebellion and stubbornness are sin), Hebrews 12:6, Hebrews 12:14 (we are called to holiness) and Matthew 7:21-23. This is true if sins are confessed according to I John 1:9.


3. All sins are the same in God’s eyes, so who are we to judge the homosexual any differently than the gossip?

*Correcting verses: I Corinthians 2:15 ("a spiritual man judges all things"), Luke 12:47-48 (the principle that with knowledge comes greater responsibility), John 19:11 (Judas' sin compared to Pilate's), Mark 12:38-40 (religious scribes held to greater judgment) and Matthew 12:31 (sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven). The current Roman Catholic pope stated this error about homosexuality! Is it not just a desire to be accepted and heeded by a rebellious, unbelieving world according to I John 4:4-6.



4. In fact, it’s not our place to judge anyone....

Correcting verses: John 7:24 (Jesus urges us to judge with a righteous judgment), I Corinthians 2:15("the spiritual man judges all things..."), Galatians 6:1 (judging a fellow Christian), II Corinthians 13:5 (personal examination to see if you are in the faith), judging false teachers (the book of Jude, Matthew 7:15-20), discipline of sinning believers (Matthew 18:15-18), and the need to expose evil (Ephesians 5:8-17) are some cases where a righteous judgment is needed. 


5. God has no commands for Christians because we aren’t under the law.

Correcting verses: Matthew 7:21-23 (not all who say, "Lord, lord..."), Romans 8:12 and Galatians 5:19-21(it is possible to live fleshly lives), Philippians 2:12-23 ("work out your own salvation with fear and trembling..."), John 14:15 (Jesus said those who love Him would keep His commands) and Galatians 2:11-13 (Paul rebuked Peter for blatant hypocrisy). Ananias and Sapphira were struck down on the spot for lying in Acts 5:1-11. Jesus, Himself, commanded the disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 to make disciples of all nations, "...teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you..."

6. The Holy Spirit encourages Christians. He doesn’t convict them of sin.

Correcting verses: John 16:8 (The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin), John 16:13 (The Holy Spirit guides into all the truth) and Ephesians 4:30 (a warning not to grieve the Holy Spirit).


7. God’s love has absolutely no conditions.

It is a common theme that God's promises are often conditional. John 3:16 itself notes, "believes in Him..." suggests an ongoing obedience and belief, not just a one-time conversion experience. Colossians 1:23 and Hebrews 3:14 affirm the need for believers to cooperate and stand firm in the faith, "...provided that you continue in the faith." In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus makes it clear that not all who say they are believers, as "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

Jesus promises in John 10:27-29 that "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life..." Also, see Philippians 1:6.

These false and/or distorted statements are repeated so often today that even genuine Christians are accepting them. 

The only way to protect ourselves from these or any other false teaching is to carefully study God’s Word. Remember, according to Hebrews 4:12, "...the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword..." Furthermore, the path to being approved by God is, "...rightly dividing the word of truth" according to II Timothy 2:15. Indeed, this right division of the Word is that place where "competing" verses are in harmony, both are true.

John 1:17 is an example where the word of God is harmonized in one verse. Grace isn’t grace unless it is accompanied by truth! "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." 

Sewing Center for Christian women near Gojra, Punjab state, Pakistan - December 15,2021

December 15th was graduation day for this group of women at Jesus Christ Followers' Ministry's Sewing Center. Lion's Den Society supported this ministry financially through our partnership with Umair Iqbal in Pakistan.

 Umair Iqbal, founder of Jesus Christ Followers' Ministry with graduating women from the sewing center.

I NEVER KNEW YOU!

Jesus indeed told the Pharisee, Nicodemus, in John 3:3, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

Some, perhaps many, modern professing American Christians and others around the world, say this. Indeed, perhaps many were born again at one time or believe they were! This post really gets to the heart of the "once-saved, always saved" doctrine held by many Christians. 

In order to maintain consistency, many Christians say that a "fallen away' Christian was never saved at all! One of the key passages that seems to support this view, is found in Matthew 7:21-23.

This passage indicates that demonstrations of power and confessions of Jesus' name do not guarantee that a person knows God or ever knew God, therefore not being truly "born again."

In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." Jesus, amazingly details those who have cast out demons in His name, prophesied in His name and done many wonders, again in His name! However, Jesus replies, "I never knew you; depart from Me' you who practice lawlessness." It seems that the Lord God demands that professions of faith or proven in word, deed and heart condition.

This passage almost causes one to be sympathetic to those being denied eternal life and told, "...depart from Me..." by Jesus. It is almost like these people are blindsided and claim that the Lord is being grossly unfair, like He is playing a "head game" with such people. Much like how we treated pledges in my college fraternity! We made it so there was no way the plebes could win in their Hell Week and you get the same kind of hopeless disgust and despair from these people! 

But the analogy is not accurate! The folks in Matthew 7:21-23 were liars and frauds, ultimately they were more about personal gain and getting the world's approval that truly doing God's will. They were about outward expressions of piety (ala the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:5-7 who "...love the best places at feasts...) and not about a transformed, obedient heart that marks Jesus' true disciples (John 10:14, I Corinthians 8:3, Ephesians 3:17 and Revelation 3:17-13). I Corinthians 8:3 notes, "But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him."

Personally, this passage amazed me and I thought, who are such people? After closer study (knowableword.com has an excellent set of examples in its post, "Context Matters: I Never Knew You; Depart From Me" from April 26, 2019 by Peter Krol), the Bible provides many examples!

Perhaps the best is Jesus' own disciple, Judas Iscariot! Judas was authorized, along with the other eleven disciples by Jesus "to cast out demons", among other good works in Mark 3:14-19. Judas exposed himself ultimately in being more interested in worldly gain than following Jesus with his betrayal. Judas greeted Jesus with, "Greetings, Rabbi." Ultimately, Judas was a "bad egg," a phony, a thief, a Devil! 

We also find other examples in the Bible, like:

*Balaam, the Old Testament prophet, who initially blessed Israel in Numbers 23-24 but ended poorly in Numbers 31:8 and 16. 

*King Saul, ultimately rejected by God, for disobedience, was refreshed when David played the harp in I Samuel 16:23.

*Demas, one of Paul's assistants, left Paul, "...having love this present world..." in II Timothy 4:10. 

*those in Isaiah 29:13 who honored God with their lips but not their lips.

*....and the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:11, who were not prepared for the coming of the groomsmen!

LOVE & FAITHFULNESS

Proverbs 3:3-4 notes, "Let not love and faithfulness never leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.

This is a powerful verse! Some would ask, does it "always work." And, yes the Word of God always works!

Using the perfect example of Jesus Christ showing "love and faithfulness", surely He the ongoing, eternal favor of God the Father. Indeed, after Jesus had been baptized in Matthew 3:16-17, the Spirit of God descended like a dove on Him and a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

However, in Matthew 27:45, while hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out the prophecy of Psalm 22:1, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" At this moment, Jesus felt the full weight of mankind's sin! Jesus became a curse for us according to Galatians 3:13, which in turn cites Deuteronomy 21:23, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." He felt abandoned by God, separated from God. 

So, can we conclude that this meant that God's favor toward Jesus stopped at that particular moment? We could refer to God's timing in Ecclesiastes 3, which notes, "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven..." I would also add like when a father has to discipline his son doesn't mean the father's love ends so can the same be said about God the Father's love toward Jesus at that time.

This verse from Proverbs teaches us about timing, the need to "rightly divide the Word of truth", as well as favor!

MARKS OF A CULT

The four basic tests of a cult are:


1) Add to the Bible as equal spiritual authority. It could be a book like the Book of Mormon or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

2) Subtract from the divinity of Jesus Christ or add to the fallen nature of mankind. Again, Mormonism does this by subtly making Jesus Christ a created being and human beings born of spiritual beings.

3) Add good works apart from God's commands in some fashion to earn salvation. The Bible condemns the "filthy rags" type of good works noted in the book of Isaiah where human beings do good works to earn God's favor. I would disagree with Watchman Fellowship that any good works apart from receiving Christ as Savior is a dead work. Doing what Jesus commands in His Word requires faith such as tithing, doing His will, etc.

4) Divide loyalty of men between God and the organization in question.




*Modified from the tests developed by the ministry, Watchman Fellowship.

UMAIR MINISTERING IN KADRABAD & his wife and children with birthday cake for Daniel O'Hara

BANGLADESH CHURCH & ORPHANAGE.........

that the Lion's Den Society started supporting this April 2019.

DO WE REALLY KNOW HOW MUCH WE OWE JESUS CHRIST?

After having a few Twitter “discussions” this past week, it became clear to me how easy it is to take the focus of Christianity, i.e. our faith, away from Jesus Christ! It’s easy because our rebellious, arrogant sinful nature has a problem with having to rely on Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation. We would prefer to do it ourselves or at least use another human being or organization so we can derive some sense of importance or self-righteousness from them. I can sense this attitude rising up in myself at times…..it is from the pit of hell, by the way!

But the truth is, as I Timothy 2:5 notes, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” And as the prophet Isaiah notes, “all are righteous deeds are like filthy rags…”

The reality is…after the literal fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, human beings were without hope EXCEPT THAT….God’s pronounced judgment on the serpent (Satan), gave hope to humanity by promising a coming Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Genesis 3:15 notes, “And I will put enmity between your seed and her (Eve’s) Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden because they were deceived by Satan to believe God was holding out on them, because of fleshly lusts and because of our sinful desire to be righteous and wise without God.

The reality that humanity is condemned to eternity without God in hell is a given because of our sinful nature.

Indeed, John 3:13 is an eye opener. It notes, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man, who is in heaven.”  Even Abraham, our father in faith, was per Luke 16:24 held in a place apart from hell, a waiting place. However, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, the Old Testament prophets and others living righteously by faith alone were not admitted to heaven until Jesus died for their sins.

The truth is we owe Jesus an INFINITE THANKS, as well as praise and worship for dying to save our souls. No other man, church, organization, ritual, or sacrament can take Jesus’ place. Jesus is an integral part of these things but there is no one way to be saved apart from Jesus Christ. The fact that many don’t appreciate Jesus’ work for us is evidence of an “attitude problem” that will lead them to hell. From God’s perspective, HE offered His only begotten Son for our salvation, rejecting Jesus means YOU CHOOSE TO GO TO HELL, where God is not present!

Indeed, only Jesus IS THE WAY! John 14:6 notes, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.” On his show, “The Story of God,” actor Morgan Freeman said one of the things he learned was that everyone’s truth is their truth. COMPLETE NONSENSE! Pope Francis recently came out, in the name of peace, and said that both Muslims and Christians and anyone who worships a god, worship the same God. WRONG! BLASPHEMOUSLY WRONG! This is manifestly wrong and offensive to the true God, specifically Jesus Christ, since it wrongly removes Jesus Christ from the Godhead. You can’t “gloss over” the utterly essential role of Jesus Christ for human salvation. A proper view of God means viewing things from God’s perspective, not based on our own human wishful thinking! A Roman Catholic pope who has said Mass hundreds of times should know better and will have to answer for such blatantly false teaching, denying the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Religion isn’t about a Masonic global peace or appeasing pagans. It is about worshiping God in “spirit and in truth.” There is A TRUTH and you can know it! God isn’t about making human beings feel all “touchy-feely” and deceived that they are OK and the “everyone’s truth is their truth” nonsense. Does this apply anywhere else in human study or science? Sorry, but Christianity is fundamentally at odds with Islam and every other pagan world religion. They CAN NOT BOTH BE TRUE!

We owe our eternal salvation to Jesus Christ. He is worthy to be trusted as our Lord and Savior! Religion is not a democracy! God makes the rules. If no human beings were on God’s side, then “news flash”: the true God still wins! 

The bottom line really is….”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes (a very active, not a passive belief) in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. John 3:18 makes it clear, “…he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

If you would like to donate to my GoFundMe page please go to www.gofundme.com/DanielLionsDen or donate directly to my church, the Lion’s Den Society, by Paypal.com with danieldeohara@gmail.com as the payment email address. May God bless you per Genesis 12:3 as you give. I will pray God’s blessings on your life according to Psalm 23, Psalm 103 and John 10:10.

MEET UMAIR from the PUNJAB area of PAKISTAN

I hooked up with Umair in 2018, when he sent me a Friend Request on Facebook. Umair is doing the work of an evangelist and helping the poor and orphans in Gojra, Punjab state of Pakistan. It has been a joy to get to know Umair and chat with him regularly on WhatsApp. 

The Lion's Den Society helps to support Umair and his work financially in the Muslim-dominated nation of Pakistan. Also, Daniel O. helps Umair with Christian teaching & discipleship to increase his growth and understanding of the Word, as well as with financial management, budgeting, problem solving and planning for his efforts there. Daniel also helps Umair to increase his knowledge and understanding of English so he can outreach to Americans and others about his needs and share his story. 

Please contact the Lion's Den Society at 406-591-7291 (call or text) or email Daniel O'Hara at danieldeohara@gmail.com if you would like to support Umair directly. I can attest that Umair has a sweet, loving spirit and a genuine heart to do God's work in Pakistan-- a land beset with rampant and institutional discrimination against Christians. 

Umair with Amara, one of his young Christian sisters he ministers to in Pakistan. The Lion's Den Society supports Umair and these people in prayer and with monetary support. The situation of these people in Pakistan is quite harsh given the hostility and antichrist nature of Islam. According to Genesis 12:3, may the Lord "bless those who bless " His people and "curse those who curse them" in Pakistan and around the world in Jesus' name. Amen.

Umair with Naseem, one of the orphans he ministers to in the Punjab area of Pakistan.

Umair, eating with a group of orphan Christian children in Pakistan.

Pastor Umair preparing to baptize some new converts in a water tank in Pakistan.

Pastor Umair passing out gifts to orphan children he ministers to in Pakistan.

One of Pastor Umair's friends, doing some of the nasty work Christians in Pakistan end up doing in light of Muslim discrimination, cleaning sewers.