Commentary, analysis and opinion.

A Royal Wedding: How Bishop Michael Curry’s Sermon Was Not Royal Enough

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(Gabriel Hughes – Junction City) So there was a royal wedding this weekend. Did you know that? You’ve probably had little contact with the outside world in the last several weeks if you hadn’t at least heard about it. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan Markle, an American actress, were proclaimed husband and wife yesterday during a fairy-tale wedding at Windsor Castle in the English county of Berkshire.

As you might expect, it was quite lavish: the bride wore a 16-foot veil, the couple rode in a 1968 Jaguar E-Type Concept Zero converted to electric, and they had a wedding cake worth more than I’ve ever made in a year. An estimated 1.9 billion people tuned in to watch worldwide. Yet I was not one of them. Continue reading →

Pope Says God Makes People Gay

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(Rod Dreher – The American Conservative)  “But if the Pope means that homosexuality is a matter of moral indifference, then Catholics have a very serious theological problem on their hands with this Pope, who has just blown a hole into Catholic moral theology with regard to sexuality.”

Via Eponymous Flower, one of the molestation victims of a Chilean priest tells the Spanish daily El País what Pope Francis said to him in their recent meeting:

“Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like that and he loves you like that and I do not care. The Pope wants you like that, you have to be happy with who you are.”

Continue reading →

Transgender Woman Sues After Muslim Refuses Body Waxing Service

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(Amanda Prestigiacomo – Daily Wire)  An unnamed male-to-female transgender is suing a spa in Canada after a female Muslim employee refused to wax him, citing religious grounds.

According to the filed complaint, the trans woman tried to get a body waxing at Mad Wax beauty spa in March but was turned away when no one was available to perform the waxing. The employee who typically waxes male customers was out on sick leave, and the other employee working, a Muslim woman, refused, as she will not make physical contact with any male she is not related to. View article →

Let’s Stop Calling It Liberalism

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(Yosef Cohen – American Thinker) “…if we are to move forward during the Trump presidency and when it comes to its close, men and women of dignity across the land must abandon the words “liberal,” “progressive,” and “Democrat.”  Yes, a linguistic turn is that important.  To continue with misleading propaganda is to carry forth in darkness, when we have been given one last chance at the light.”

America is being made great again in the wake of Obama’s failed presidency, which in hindsight already appears as nothing more than the absurd climax of affirmative action gone off the rails.  Trump has wiped the floor with his legacy while building an incredible one of his own. Continue reading →

Sharing Faith Is Increasingly Optional to Christians

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(Barna) “Christians today, more than 25 years ago, perceive social barriers to sharing their faith. They are more likely to agree that faith-sharing is only effective when they already have a relationship with the other person (47% vs. 37% in 1993) and to admit they would avoid a spiritual conversation if they knew their non-Christian friend would reject them (44% vs. 33%).”

When was the last time you had a conversation about God? For most people, the unfortunate and surprising answer to that question is not very often. Spiritual conversations are exceedingly rare for most Americans, and even for Christians, who are at best reluctant to have them. Continue reading →

Discernment: A Spiritual Battle, Not a Logical One

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When it comes to convincing a professing Christian that their doctrine is unbiblical or that a teacher they follow is actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley reveals how she deals with this issue:

“My job is not to argue my friend into believing that Joel Osteen or Beth Moore or Benny Hinn or Christine Caine is a false teacher.  My job is to lovingly present what Scripture says, demonstrate how the teacher is in conflict with it, leave it on the table, walk away, and continue to pray for my friend. My job is done. It is now the Holy Spirit’s job to open my friend’s eyes and change her heart.” Continue reading →

Should I Stay Home from Church When Life Gets Hard?

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(Eric Davis – The Cripplegate) A wise man once said, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The “many,” “tribulations,” and “must” combine to make life really, really hard at times. Pain seems to crash upon its victims with inhumane force. It comes in all forms—physical, spiritual, relational, some excruciating combination. There are times when it just seems impossible to continue another moment.

Thankfully however, we have a loving God who is sovereign over suffering. He’s not pushing buttons from a distance, but intimately walking through it with us. What a great thing it is to have the Lord as our shepherd. He cares for us, not by always sparing us from sorrow, but leading us through it. He binds us up through various means; the word of God, prayer, corporate worship. Continue reading →

‘I Kissed a Girl’ Katy Perry Speaks About Transcendental Meditation at Vatican Conference

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(Heather Clark – Christian News) Pop singer Katheryn Hudson, who goes by the stage name Katy Perry and is known for her lesbian experimentation song “I Kissed a Girl,” recently spoke on transcendental meditation alongside her mentor at the Vatican’s “Unite to Cure” conference. Her appearance, along with others, such as Deepak Chopra and Dr. Mehmet Oz, have raised concern about ongoing ecumenism at the Vatican in joining together all kinds of beliefs and practices under one banner.

“Bobby was able to teach me meditation in India,” Hudson told those gathered during the talk entitled “Impacting Children’s Health Through Meditation Globally.” “The stillness that I found is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.” Continue reading →

Che Ahn: ‘The 1994 revival in Toronto restored the office of the apostle’

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(Churchwatch Central)  One of the reasons why we are publishing a lot of particular articles at the moment is to lay the groundwork in order to expose Dr. Michael Brown’s attempt to mainstream the New Apostolic Reformation’s teaching on the ‘new apostolic paradigm’ of restored offices of apostle and prophet. To do this, we need to acknowledge the top leaders of this movement and how they perceived the revivals of the 1990s – and how they read that in light of the developments of the New Apostolic Reformation.

In this article, we look at the work of Che Ahn, a leading NAR leader who openly talks about the New Apostolic Reformation and calls it the ‘Apostolic Reformation’ or the ‘apostolic movement’. Continue reading →

Andy Stanley’s Modern Marcionism

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(Wesley Hill – First Things)  Walk into one of the old Episcopal churches on the East Coast, and once your eye has adjusted to the light slanting in through the clear glass windowpanes onto plain white walls, one of the first things you’re likely to notice is the writing on the eastern wall behind the pulpit. Step closer and you’ll see it’s a placard with the Ten Commandments in flowing script. In 1604, this placarding of the Decalogue became a canonical requirement for Anglican parishes. A posting of the Commandments was to be “set up on the East end of every Church and Chapel, where the people may best see and read the same.” Right above the communion table, in view of all sermon-hearers, the Commandments were to issue their silent implication: These ancient words remain the word of God for the people of God. Continue reading →

Artificial Intelligence Summoning Demons According To Tech Genius – ‘No One Is Paying Attention.’

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(Ruby Henley – InvestmentWatchBlog) “I think we had better start to pay attention.  This must be way more advanced than what we know, so we must be aware of what is most likely another great deception.”

When I watched this video, I had to do a second take.  I thought I had misunderstood this man’s words, but I was not mistaken.  I am still amazed at what he said to the audience in trying to explain the sinister facets of artificial intelligence.  As Elon Musk had said at an earlier time, “we are summoning the demon.” Continue reading →

Mormon, Mitt Romney, Throws Fit that Baptist Preacher Led Prayer at Jerusalem Embassy Opening

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Pastor Robert Jeffress

(Pulpit & Pen) Mormon ex-presidential candidate and current U.S. Senate candidate has spoken out in anger about Baptist preacher, Robert Jeffress, praying at the opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. Calling Jeffress a “religious bigot,” Romney took exception that the pastor would be given the honor of praying at today’s opening of the embassy, by invitation of the President of the United States. The embassy had previously been located in Tel Aviv, and although other presidents have pledged to move the embassy to Jerusalem in a symbolic overture noting that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, until President Trump, no one has followed through on the promise. The embassy opened today amidst protest by Palestinians and at least one Mormon in Utah.

See Rromney’s tweet on the site Continue reading →

For Our Kids’ Sake, Responsible Adults Have to Raise the Bar on Sexual Behavior

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(Meg Meeker, MD – LIfeZette) “We must use these scandals as an opportunity to confront a toxic sexual culture that confuses our children, ushers numerous diseases into their lives (if you doubt me, check out the latest data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website), and stand firmly against the foul sexual messages pushed out by the media.”

Powerful men often fall short in their personal lives. We’ve all seen Matt Lauer, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and many others fall — scandalously. Continue reading →

What is the ‘Apostolic Commission’?

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(Churchwatch Central) Is your local apostle equipping or empowering you to manifest God himself as a ‘New Breed’? Is your local apostle trying to get your church to manifest the God-man? The ‘One New Man’? If so, your local apostle is fulfilling the ‘Apostolic Commission’.

Rick Joyner was recognized as a prophet but is, to this day, treated and regarded as an Apostle. Joyner is most famous for his book series ‘The Call’ and ‘The Final Quest’. In this series, he claims to have received greater visions and revelations than prophets and apostles of the scriptures, bringing new teaching of God’s end-times church. Because of his claims, many Christians literally take his work to be scripture. (We’ve personally noted this in a number of friendships, churches and denominations.) Continue reading →

‘Modern Liberalism Is a Religious Movement’ to Replace Christianity

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(Breitbart) Wednesday night on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson declared “modern liberalism” a religious movement.

Partial transcript as follows:

CARLSON: In the wake of Eric Schneiderman’s resignation as attorney general of New York, some of his long-time friends on the left are professing shock.

You’ve heard them. We just can’t believe it, they say. How can a man so publicly committed to feminism beat women? It just doesn’t make sense. Continue reading →

Gnat-straining, Camel-gorging

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Are you one of those gnat-straining, camel-gorgers? Not sure? Eric Davis of The Cripplegate has a few examples of what he means by this professing Christian may want to consider:

Jesus is the word-picture Jedi. No one commanded communication so colorfully. But he didn’t do it to merely entertain. There is substance; an eternally-mattering goal. Often that goal was piercing.

The seven woes, recorded in Matthew 23, are no exception. “White-washed tombs.” “Serpents, brood of vipers.” “Twice as much a son of hell.” “Blind guides.” But one of the more tragically comedic is verse 24: “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” Continue reading →

The Current Downgrade of the Evangelical Church

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(Steve Evans – Pulpit & Pen) “Many of us belong to churches that have a low view of sin, but will have a very high view of love and grace. And then some of us are privileged to belong to churches where the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is declared weekly, where people are being called to repentance and pointed to the cross.”

Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.  –II Thessalonians 2:3

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 turned aside to fables. –II Timothy 4:3-4 Continue reading →

A No Holds Barred Response to Beth Moore’s ‘A Letter to My Brothers’

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“I had no personal aspirations to preach nor was it my aim to teach men. If men showed up in my class, I did not throw them out. I taught.”

Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley was asked the following question:

Did you see Beth Moore’s recent blog post “A Letter to My Brothers“? What do you think about what she said?

Michelle was in no rush to respond, so her reply is very well-thought-out. As you will see, she offers her overall impressions and then addresses a few of Moore’s statements from the letter she penned. Michelle also provides us with a biblical assessment of Beth Moore’s teaching and calls her to task for throwing out “unsubstantiated, generalized accusations against a wide swath of nameless Christian men and churches.”

Now to Michelle Lesley’s no holds barred response: Continue reading →

Scaling the NAR language barrier: ‘Local Church’ means ‘One City-wide Church Government’.

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(Churchwatch Central)  “[Brian] Houston and others in Hillsong have recounted again and again that God said to Houston, “I will give you this city.” Obviously Houston was influence by the ‘Kingdom Now!” thinking of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s where it was popular to take “the city for God”. “

Cult expert Walter Martin was a master in understanding ‘cultspeak’, warning people to realize there is a language barrier between Christians and cultists. He stated, Continue reading →

The Holiness of God and the Sinfulness of Man

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(R.C. Sproul – Ligonier Ministries) One word that crystallizes the essence of the Christian faith is the word grace. One of the great mottos of the Protestant Reformation was the Latin phrase sola gratia—by grace alone. This phrase wasn’t invented by the sixteenth-century Reformers. Its roots are in the theology of Augustine of Hippo, who used it to call attention to the central concept of Christianity, that our redemption is by grace alone, that the only way a human being can ever find himself reconciled to God is by grace. That concept is so central to the teaching of Scripture that to even mention it seems like an insult to people’s intelligence; yet, if there is a dimension of Christian theology that has become obscured in the last few generations, it is grace. Continue reading →

‘Show pornography in sex ed lessons’, C4 presenter

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(The Christian Institute) “Parents would be in outcry, but so what.”

Pornography being shown in sex education would be “very helpful” for children, a doctor and TV presenter has alleged.

Dr Christian Jessen, who presented Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, made the claim during an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

He called for parents to make their kids “cringe and squirm” by watching pornography with them, and said it would also be helpful in sex ed lessons.  View article →

A Letter Back to Beth Moore from Seth Dunn

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Beth Moore took a selfie with uber false teacher Joyce Meyer while promoting unbiblical unity on Meyer’s show.

From Seth Dunn to Beth Moore:

Dear Beth, 

Today you wrote a letter to your brothers in Christ.  Allow me to respond. 

Be silent.  You are not a good Bible teacher.  You preach and write about yourself all the time as is if you were a character in the Biblical story.  You’re not.  You are a character in the farcical and cruel story of the evangelical industrial complex. I read Believing God recently; it was one of the worst Christian books that I have ever read.  It pains me to know that so many women erroneously think that you are a good source for biblical teaching.  You are not.  Let me be clear, you aren’t a terrible Bible teacher because you are a woman, you are a terrible Bible teacher because you are not good at teaching the Bible.  That you are a woman is irrelevant. Continue reading →

When Psychological ‘Science’ Defines Ultimate Cosmology

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(Peter Jones – truthXchange) “The great danger is that the state, in classic Marxist fashion, and in the name of psychological science, will take on the religious role of defining the “true” mystery of human life and will impose that definition on other religious views of human life, punishing by the power of the state those who disagree. A totalitarian state always claims religious authority.” 

Assembly member Evan Low (D-Cupertino), Chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, has recently introduced Assembly Bill 2943, declaring “homosexual conversion therapy” a fraudulent and therefore unlawful practice in the state of California. Continue reading →