Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd: The Three Voices of Christian Cultural Engagement

“These voices are not enemies but allies. The church doesn’t need fewer voices, the church needs a unified voice that covers the full range of Christian witness. Prophets must keep speaking hard truths, evangelists must keep reaching the lost, and shepherds must keep tending the flock. But each must learn to appreciate the others. Each serves a different need, and the church suffers when one is elevated at the expense of the others.”

(Michael Clary – American Reformer) Christians need to have a strong voice in the public square, but different voices are needed for different moments. My aim here is to identify three different voices of Christian cultural engagement – prophetevangelist, and shepherd–show the pitfalls and opportunities of each and conclude with a call for greater unity on the Christian right.

For my purposes here, I’m assuming a faithful, Bible believing, conservative Christian audience. In other words, this is a friendly word to faithful leaders within my own circles. Continue reading

Don’t Beat Your Swords into Ploughshares Just Yet

(Robert Spencer – Front Page Magazine) Monday was a festive day, with the whole world seemingly celebrating the dawn of peace in the Middle East and hailing President Trump for bringing it about. The president himself, while speaking about the release of the hostages in his speech to the Knesset, promised a bright new world unencumbered by past hatred and animosities: “After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families. Twenty-eight more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time. And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace.” Continue reading

Froward (Perverse)

10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; 11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: 12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; 13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: Proverbs 2:10-15 (KJV)

This afternoon I took my youngest grandson Bible shopping at our local Christian bookstore. He excitedly kept telling me about what new Bible he wanted. I had given an ESV Study Bible to his older brother for Christmas this past year. He kept hinting that he wanted something like that, but then again, he really liked reading his other grandparent’s KJV bibles so I told him when we got there that I was going to look for a specific book by A.W. Tozer and he could browse the Bible section while I did that…. Continue reading

New Poll Show Churchgoers Are Caving To The Devil At An Alarming Rate

(Protestia) The Family Research Council (FRC), in collaboration with the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, surveyed over 1,000 monthly churchgoers on their views about marriage, family, and related moral issues, and the results are dispiriting, showing a sharp dip from even two years before. Key findings include:

  • Marriage and Family: 68% support marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but only 46% define ‘family’ as a husband, wife, their children, and relatives united by God’s design. Continue reading

Transgender Identity Numbers in Free Fall Among American Students

“Transgenderism is effectively over. We destroyed it. Clearest and most decisive cultural win that conservatives have ever achieved.”

(Rick Moran – PJ Media) A new survey of published polling data by Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom and an adjunct fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, shows a nearly 50% drop in the number of college students who identify as transgender. Kaufmann believes the data shows the gender identity trend is going “out of fashion.” Continue reading

Courage found to pray

27 For You, O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed in the hearing of Your slave, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore Your slave has found courage in his heart to pray this prayer to You. 2 Samuel 7:27 (LSB) 

There is a difference between how a genuine believer should pray and how most professing Christians actually pray. Our perception is that we pray as we feel or desire or as the result of viewing both our needs and other’s needs. What we often overlook is that God is heavily involved in all aspects of our sanctification and that includes leading us in prayer. God loves those who are His and blessing them is part of His expression of that love. Continue reading

Trump at Kirk Medal Ceremony: ‘I Wouldn’t Miss This for Anything in the World’

“Trump has awarded a string of presidential medals going back to his first term, including to golf legend Tiger Woods, ex-football coach Lou Holtz and conservative economist Arthur Laffer as well as to Yankees Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, the latter of which came during the 2020 State of the Union….”

(Newsmax) President Donald Trump on Tuesday posthumously awarded America’s highest civilian honor to Charlie Kirk, the assassinated leader who inspired a generation of young conservatives and helped push the nation’s politics further to the right. Continue reading

Pope Leo Puts a Muslim Prayer Room in the Vatican

“The papacy did it as a gesture of hospitality. Who can forget how they allowed a display with a keffiyeh on Baby Jesus in the Vatican? They are very hospitable.”

(Mary Dowling) Pope Leo supports the invasion of millions of Islamists into Western countries although their values and culture are at great variance from that of the West. Now, he is arranging for a prayer room in the Vatican for them. However, we are still waiting for Vatican City to take in migratory Islamists to live. Continue reading

After Unspeakable Darkness, a Time for Joy and Celebration

(Stephen Kruiser – PJ Media) This is going to be a quick one. Yes, commentary is my gig here, but we occasionally need to enjoy the good news without too many words; like the way Vin Scully handled Kirk Gibson’s home run in 1988.

OK, that was a bit off the rails with the pomposity, but you all know how I roll.

Once it was announced last week that Hamas had agreed to release the remaining living hostages and send home the bodies of those who died, I didn’t need to think about the other points of the peace plan…. Continue reading

Men and Women Need to Learn to Like One Another Again: Part I

(Emmy Griffin – The Patriot Post) We have often fretted about the devastatingly low U.S. birth rate and the fact that couples aren’t having many children. However, as podcaster Brett Cooper recently pointed out, the fundamental problem is really that men and women, especially younger ones, don’t really like one another. Women have slipped into a fantasy world wherein they don’t respect men (and yet men must do everything for them), and men have slipped into a fantasy world of pornography and Artificial Intelligence.

It’s almost like they never grew out of the “girls have cooties” or “boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider” phase of their lives. Continue reading

Salvation and transformation

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 translated from the NA28 Greek text)

The very first time I raised concerns about the Kansas City Prophets and the International House of Prayer over 25 years ago over their extra-biblical activities, I was rebuked by another professing Christian with this statement, “You just don’t understand what is going on. If people’s lives are being changed then God is working so you should just shut up.”… Continue reading

Protestants Must Navigate Today’s Biggest Challenges

As the Anglican priest Bart Gingerich has noted, “If you’re scared of upsetting people all the time and driving certain folks away because of clear moral stances that have political implications, lose that fear or stop pastoring.” While Christians shouldn’t simply be an appendage of the Republican Party—that is, they shouldn’t simply go along with whatever the party dictates—it’s obvious that the political Right is far closer to implementing the moral order that Christianity envisions than the Left. And it’s not particularly close.”

(Mike Sabo – American Reformer) Big Eva still doesn’t seem to know what time it is. Despite the obvious attempts at a rehabilitation tour, they are still mired in bad thinking and an inability to see political reality. From former SBC President JD Greear continuing to mouth platitudes that were already stale 15 years ago to an apparent case of church excommunication over a perfectly normal opinion on H-1B visas, they are proving yet again why new institutions, leaders, and pastors are needed to meet the needs of congregants in Protestant churches across America. Continue reading

Trump Proclaims Peace in Jerusalem: ‘Beginning of the Age of Faith and Hope’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump effusively for his support for Israel over the years — a “partial list” that included his role in the hostage deal; for recognizing Israeli rights in Judea and Samaria, for the Abraham Accords, and for opposing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and attacking Iran’s nuclear sites. Netanyahu added: “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”

(Joel Pollak – Breitbart) U.S. President Donald Trump told Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday that “This is not only the end of a war, but the end of an age of terror and death, and the beginning of an age of faith and hope.” Continue reading

Power to the Trumpers

(Bill O’Reilly) Let’s talk about presidential power.  It can cut both ways, and as a loyal American, you should be thinking about this because it directly affects your well-being.

In his first term, Donald Trump played the usual White House game until he lost reelection.  Then all hell broke loose.  But during the four years he occupied the Oval Office, Mr. Trump was a fairly standard leader trying to get things done in a traditional way.

He got hosed. Continue reading

Jonathan Cahn, Witches & Demons, and Charlie Kirk

“How does the biblical queen Jezebel fit into all of this? Indeed, Jezebel was an evil queen who was an evil, manipulative conniver and persecutor of God’s prophets, which we read about in 2 Kings. What did she have to do with any of this, especially since the story about hiring witches to do a hit on Charlie Kirk was a satirical response to “Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric over the years”? Nothing.”

(Don & Joy Veinot) The popular author and false prophet, Jonathan Cahn, put out two recent videos claiming to reveal the “proof that there were actually witches and the practice of witchcraft behind the assassination” of Charlie Kirk. Generally, we don’t follow Cahn very closely but this past week, someone sent us a link to a Jonathan Cahn video and asked what we thought about it…. Continue reading

Who is the antichrist?

18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us. 1 John 2:18-24 (LSB) Read verses 20-24 on the site.

The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church says that it is the only true church while all others are false. At the same time most solid evangelical Christians I know hold to the truth that the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is an “antichrist.”… Continue reading

Give Peace a Chance

(Stephen Kruiser – PJ Media) Apologies for evoking John and Yoko with the headline, but I wanted something pithy.

Much to the chagrin of various detractors, the peace deal that President Trump brokered between Israel and Hamas is going forward. Hamas has agreed to release all of the remaining hostages, and, as Matt Vespa reports over at Townhall, the Israeli government has approved the terms of the agreement.

There is a lot of skepticism about how this will play out in the long run…. Continue reading

The Word of God is the Sword of Politics Too

“The truth is, the average Christian’s life is political, and pretending otherwise is an act of pastoral malpractice. We live in a time when morality itself has been legislated, when rebellion is enshrined as a civil right, and when children are catechized in public schools to hate the God who made them.”

(The Dissenter) They say politics doesn’t belong in the pulpit—that the Church must stay “above” the fray, aloof from the rough-and-tumble of the public square. But what they really mean is that the Bible is too sharp to touch their idols. It cuts too close. It exposes too much. Continue reading

Candace Owens Releases Charlie Kirk’s Email Exchange

Watch the entire clip on the site. Is Candace’s claim falling apart?

(Mary Dowling) Candace Owens released an email exchange that was shared privately by Charlie Kirk shortly before he died. We will never know if he would have followed through on his statement that he has no choice but to leave the Jewish cause because he was murdered. The reason he texted he would leave the cause is he felt the donor or donors were bullying him to cancel Tucker Carlson…. Continue reading

God’s purpose in our discouragement

23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Genesis 40:23 (1599 Geneva Bible) 

My natural tendency is to heartily participate in self-pity, outrage, and unforgiveness thereby opening doors in my heart that Satan enters causing me to become discouraged. When this happens to me, I find that my circumstances drive me to become very negative and impatient. I suppose that this is one of my besetting sins which clings closely to me, ready to cut in on me causing me to drop out of the race God has set before me to run with endurance. (Hebrews 12:1-2)…. Continue reading

BREAKING: Trump Announces Israel-Hamas Peace Deal

“All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

(Matt Margolis – PJ Media) More than two years after Hamas unleashed hell on Israel with its brutal Oct. 7, 2023, terror assault — the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust — the war that followed may finally be coming to an end. Hamas has reportedly agreed to a peace deal brokered by President Donald Trump, one that would halt the fighting in Gaza and secure the long-awaited return of the remaining hostages. Continue reading

HarperCollins UK Apologizes to Melania Trump After Epstein Claims – Bans Original Version of Book from Distribution

“The Daily Beast recently published a story headlined ‘Melania Trump “Very Involved” in Epstein Scandal: Author’ based on an interview with Michael Wolff. Upon reflection, we have determined that the article did not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms,” The Daily Beast said in its statement.

(Jack Davis – The Western Journal) First lady Melania Trump has left a publishing giant crying for mercy as she battles fake news linking her to convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading

DOJ Announces Arrest for Palisades Fire

“Rinderknecht faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and potentially up to 20 years. According to the Department of Justice, he generated images of a burning city on ChatGPT.”

(Chris Queen – PJ Media) Authorities have made an arrest in the devastating Palisades fire, which burned tens of thousands of acres and killed 12 people in Los Angeles in January. CNN reports:

Florida resident Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is facing a federal charge of destruction of property by means of fire, according to Bill Essayli, the acting US attorney for Southern California.  Continue reading