Author Archives: Marsha West

About Marsha West

Marsha West is the owner and managing editor of Christian Research Network, Apprising Ministries (the late Ken Silva’s blog) and On Solid Rock Resources. She is also co-founder of Berean Research. For two decades Marsha was the owner and managing editor of Email Brigade website as well as the EMB News Report, a bi-weekly email report for conservative people of faith. For many years Marsha was a regular contributor to several blogs including CRN, RenewAmerica, News With Views and Web Commantary as well as popular websites she no longer endorses: American Family Association, Worldview Weekend, Stand Up For The Truth, The Christian Post and Christian Headlines. Although Marsha still blogs, her primary focus is CRN. Marsha also writes Research Papers (White Papers) on various topics that are published on CRN, Berean Research and On Solid Rock Resources. Visit Marsha’s other sites: On Solid Rock Resources https://www.onsolidrockresources.com/ Apprising Ministries http://apprising.org Marsha’s RenewAmerica Column http://renewamerica.com/columns/mwest Marsha’s Facebook Page http://facebook.com/marsha.west.77

Glenn Beck Selling His Private Jet as His Media Empire Crumbles

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(Breitbart) Glenn Beck is reportedly downsizing his assets as his media empire dwindles, posting his private jet for sale for an undisclosed amount on a site that sells used aircraft.

The Daily Beast reported that Beck listed his 1966 DC9-15 aircraft–which he purchased for $1 million in 2015–for sale on Controller, a online retailer for used aircraft.

The jet’s registration number listed on the website, N8860, is the same Federal Aviation Administration registration number given to a jet belonging to Mercury Radio Arts—Beck’s radio production company. Continue reading →

Exorcism by cellphone: Beating the devil in the 21st century

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Catholics are not the only ones who make use of their Smartphones to communicate with spirits. While on stage in front of hundreds of (undiscerning) fans, Shawn Bolz, who supposedly has a prophetic and healing anointing, uses his phone to foretell a person’s future. He claims he can see deceased folks in heaven and pass down messages from them. If you’re thinking, “That’s spiritualism,” you’re right. Evidently Shawn Bolz isn’t aware that spiritualism is expressly forbidden by God. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)

But this is not about John Edward wanna be Shawn Bolz.

In a piece from Reuters we learn that some Catholics have taken to their Smartphones to perform exorcisms on people who are allegedly possessed by demons. Philip Puella has the story: Continue reading →

Benny Hinn’s Nephew Calls Bethel Church Leader Kris Vallotton ‘False Prophet’ Who ‘Deceives People’

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(Leah MarieAnn Klett – Christian Post) “In a recent interview with Justin Peters, Hinn further opened up about the extreme lifestyle his uncle kept while traveling the world to preach his prosperity gospel.”

Costi Hinn, the nephew of Benny Hinn who frequently speaks out against his uncle’s “prosperity theology,” called Bethel Church leader Kris Vallotton a “false prophet” who rakes in “easy money” by “deceiving people.”

Vallotton, senior associate leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, recently shared a photo on his Facebook page showing where his luxury car had been keyed by an unknown assailant. Continue reading →

Two publishers suspend publication of books by megachurch pastor Hybels in wake of misconduct allegations

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(Manya Brachear Pashman – Chicago Tribune) Two Christian book publishers have suspended publication of books by Bill Hybels, the megachurch pastor and best-selling author who stepped down from the helm of Willow Creek Community Church amid allegations of improper conduct with women.

Tyndale House Publishers in Carol Stream has suspended its plans to publish “Everyone Wins When a Leader Gets Better,” which was scheduled for release in August. That month, Hybels was to have hosted the renowned Global Leadership Summit, a conference sponsored by the related nonprofit Willow Creek Association, but Hybels bowed out of that as well. Continue reading →

Embracing Christ’s View of Scripture

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(Terry Mortenson – Answers In Genesis) Most Christians at least give lip-service to following Christ. But what about His view of the Old Testament? How highly did He esteem its claims, both in His life and in His teaching, and do we embrace Scripture with the same zeal?

How extensively did Jesus trust and live by the Scriptures, which in His day were only the books of the Old Testament? How did He treat them in comparison to other claims of truth? After all, if Jesus is our Savior and Lord, shouldn’t we share the same view? Continue reading →

Boomerang: Since Left’s Boycott Began, Ingraham Viewership Up 20%

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(NewsBusters) A funny thing has happened since the Left began its campaign to drive Fox News host Laura Ingraham off the air: Her ratings are up, a lot — by more than 20 percent compared to her last week on the air before the current controversy began.

The leftist-organized advertiser boycott began on March 29, after Ingraham tweeted about Parkland high school anti-gun activist David Hogg, and continued in spite of Ingraham’s quick apology.

As of Friday, April 13, 27 companies had announced they would pull their advertising from the show, but one — Ace Hardware — announced it would resume its sponsorship of the Ingraham Angle, citing the “incomplete” information it had when it originally announced its withdrawal. View article →

Pope tells crying child that his atheist dad could be in heaven

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“He was a good man … he had a good heart” … “God surely was proud of your father” said the pope to the tearful little boy. Was the boy’s father a good man as the pope claimed? According to Romans 3:10:  “None is righteous, no, not one.” What does the Bible teach on salvation? “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 So, are there any atheists in heaven? The scriptures clearly teach that people are saved by faith alone in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the final judgment those who reject Christ are separated from God for all eternity … and sent to the lake of fire.

Now to Kathleen N. Hattrup’s report over at Aleteia: Continue reading →

Brian Houston: ‘Jesus became you, so that you could become Him…’

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(Churchwatch Central) Brian Houston recently made the claim that, “Jesus became you, so that you could become Him.” You can watch the footage below and read the transcript. Watch the clip in context and if you agree or disagree with us quoting him, ask yourself this question – why does he think this and why did he even say it? [The video is no longer available – it was pulled from Youtube, as often happens. So CWC did an update that includes Houston’s sermon podcast. Watch it here.]

What other biblically qualified teacher would say this?

The reality is that we have been waiting for Brian Houston to say something like this for a long time. Why? … Continue reading →

Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry – Normalizing Mysticism

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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry is nothing of the sort. It’s a sham. Just a way Bethel Church leaders have devised to get their hooks into people, especially undiscerning young people. If you’re unfamiliar with Bethel Church in Redding CA, the senior pastor is the notorious  “Apostle” Bill Johnson.  For reasons that will become clear, Bethel is considered by some to be a cult. (More on Bethel Redding here.)  Its leaders prey on those who are unschooled in the scriptures, as you will see in Rick Becker’s piece over at Famine In the Land. Becker begins with this warning: Continue reading →

The Four Terrible Things That Are Destroying Boys In Our Culture

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(Matt Walsh – Daily Wire) “He goes to school and his female classmates are dressed like strippers. He goes anywhere and that’s how the women are dressed. It seems that everyone is doing everything they can to make a degenerate and a creep out of him, even as they demand that he control himself.”

Our culture is very bad for boys. It’s bad for girls, too. It’s bad for everyone. But I think we fail to recognize and appreciate the unique struggles that boys face. Partly we fail to recognize it because we are too busy worrying about the Patriarchy’s persecution of women. Partly we fail to recognize it because, collectively, we just don’t care that much about boys. Partly we fail to recognize it because men are not as likely to talk about their own plight. And partly a man will not talk about it because everyone, even his fellow men, will only laugh at him and downplay the problem. Continue reading →

Tyndale Sued by Boy Who Didn’t Come Back from Heaven

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(Kate Shellnutt – Christianity Today) After growing up and retracting his controversial account of “coming back from heaven,” 20-year-old Alex Malarkey is now suing the Christian publisher who made his story famous, then infamous.

Malarkey, who was left paralyzed and spent two weeks in a coma after a 2004 car accident, filed a lawsuit this month against Christian publisher Tyndale House for associating his name with the controversial book coauthored with his father,The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, and not paying him for the story. Continue reading →

Remembering Elliot Miller

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(Eric Pement – Executive Director EMNR)  Former EMNR board member Elliot Miller passed into the presence of the Lord Jesus on April 11, 2018. Born in 1951, Elliot turned to Eastern mysticism and meditation during the Age of Aquarius in the 1960s, experimented with drugs and psychedelics, but in his confusion was confronted and converted by the real Christ during the Jesus Movement of the late sixties and early seventies. Southern California in that era provided many coffeehouses, cults, and communes, and Elliot lived for a while in one of the Christian communes in the west coast. I believe it was called Shiloh. Continue reading →

You Can’t Love Jesus with a Heart Full of Hate: 7 Reasons to Love and Forgive Your Enemies

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Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley offers 7 reasons God gives us in His Word to love and forgive our enemies. Here’s one example: You Can’t Love Jesus With A Heart Full Of Unforgiveness. The reason she gives is that “Your enemy – that person you hate and refuse to forgive because he hurt you – has sinned infinitely more against a holy and righteous God than he could ever sin against you.”  Sadly, most Christians never even consider that all sin is first and foremost against a holy God.

Now discover 6 more reasons Christians must forgive those who have sinned against them: Continue reading →

Drop in U.S. Catholic Church Attendance Under Pope Francis Sharpest in Decades

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(Thomas D. Williams – Breitbart) Catholic church attendance in the United States fell by six percent between the pontificates of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the sharpest drop in decades, a new Gallup poll has revealed.

An average of 39 percent of U.S. Catholics attended church weekly during the heart of the Francis papacy, from 2014 to 2017, Gallup found in a survey released April 9, which represents a significant drop from the 45 percent of Catholics who attended weekly Mass from 2005 to 2008, in the early years of the Benedict pontificate. View article →

Read Our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

God is holding on to you

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(Warren Peel – Gentle Reformation)  Over and over again God reassures his people that he is holding on to us by his right hand. In Isaiah 41.10, for example: ‘…fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’ That is a wonderful promise to comfort us—our heavenly Father will not let us go. Even if we might try to break free of his grip and let go of him, he is holding on to us tightly and keeping us safe.

This is one way of picturing the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Every true believer will inevitably make it safely home to glory because the Lord is preserving him or her. We persevere because he preserves us; we keep on going because he goes on keeping. The two halves of Psalm 63.8 reflect the two sides of the doctrine of perseverance: ‘My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.’ Our souls go on clinging to God in faith because his right hand is upholding us. View article →

‘Fake Weed’ Is Leading to Cases of Severe Bleeding

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(LifeZette) “Despite the perception that synthetic cannabinoids are safe and a legal alternative to marijuana, many are illegal and can cause severe illness.” 

Emergency rooms in Illinois are noticing a spike in synthetic pot users suffering from severe bleeding, and state health officials are warning the public to remain vigilant.

The Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) issued a statement on in March announcing that at least six people in northeastern Illinois had been hospitalized after using the man-made substance — also known as “fake weed,” “K2,” or “spice.” On Wednesday, the number of cases climbed to 118, including three deaths, the health department reported. View article →

I’m old enough to remember when ‘evangelical’ was a bad word

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According to Jesse Johnson “evangelical suffers from an ambiguity largely owning to its diversity. The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is different than the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, yet members of both would sign the Manhattan Declaration. If you believe the gospel and the fundamentals (inerrancy, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, personal conversion, etc.), does that make you evangelical? There is no clear answer to that question.”  But what is clear says Johnson is that “an evangelical is someone who says with their feet that Catholicism and liberalism are wrong, but they just would never say so with their mouths. They leave the Catholic church on Sundays, but turn around and call Catholics our brothers in the Lord on Tuesdays. This is evangelicalism’s squishy middle.” Continue reading →

Comey’s Book Deal Shows He’s ‘Grandstanding, Glory Seeker’

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(Randy DeSoto – The Western Journal)  Radio talk show host Ben Shapiro accused James Comey of being a “grandstanding, glory seeker” as the former FBI director began a publicity tour to promote his soon to be released book.

Shapiro tweeted on Thursday, “Serious question: if Comey isn’t a grandstanding glory-seeker, why wait a year and a book deal before telling the whole story?” (See Shapiro’s tweet on the site)

President Donald Trump fired Comey in May 2017, citing the FBI director’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein making the recommendation. View article →

Pro-Life Students Stage Nationwide Walkout to Protest Abortion

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(Deirdre Reilly – LifeZette) Two hundred high schools and 80 colleges participated in the pro-life walkout described below — but there was little or no local or national media coverage of these events.

Hundreds of pro-life high school and college students are walking out of their classrooms this morning for 17 minutes to protest abortion — and to honor the lives lost to the brutal procedure.

Inspired by California high school student Brandon Gillespie — a teen who was inspired to take a stand after teacher Julianne Benzel was suspended March 14 for posing a hypothetical question about a potential pro-life walkout — students from up to 200 high schools and 80 colleges indicated they would walk out of their classrooms, a spokesperson for the event told LifeZette. View article →

‘Chappaquiddick’ Star: ‘Everybody Gave [Ted Kennedy] a Pass’

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(Christian Toto – NewsBusters) Jason Clarke got quite the education after accepting the lead role in Chappaquiddick.

The movie, out April 6, follows the events surrounding the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Sen. Ted Kennedy (Clarke) was driving Kopechne, a campaign worker for his late brother Robert F. Kennedy, home on the Massachusettes island of Chappaquiddick when he crashed his Oldsmobile through a fence, landing the car in a pond. Continue reading →

How To Do Online Discernment Ministry, part 1

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Photo credit: 8:28 Ministries

“No matter if you are in your pew listening to a sermon, choosing a book at the Christian bookstore, or reading some essays online, you need discernment to determine if what you are absorbing aligns with God’s word or is a lie designed to incrementally steer you away from the narrow path.”

In this 2 part series, Elizabeth Prata of The End Time offers her perspective on assessing whether an online apologetics and discernment ministry is “operating appropriately within an edifying sphere of the gift, or is just a critical crank out to get someone or has an ax to grind.” Here’s part 1: Continue reading →

Ben Shapiro: Response to London Attacks ‘Demonstrates What Happens When an Entire Civilization Loses Their Mind’

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(Michael Morris – CNSNews) On his daily Facebook Live podcast “The Ben Shapiro Show” yesterday, host and Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro brought attention to the recent spike in murders in London, saying, London’s reaction to the recent knife attacks “demonstrates what happens when an entire civilization loses their mind.”

“Soon, we’ll end up all sitting in blank rooms with no furniture because anything can be used as a—maybe pillows, but no, we could use pillows for suffocation,” stated Ben Shapiro. … Continue reading →

Hybels steps down from Willow Creek following allegations of misconduct

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(Manya Brachear Pashman and Jeff Coen – Chicago Tribune)  Forty-two years after founding one of the nation’s most influential evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Bill Hybels told his congregation Tuesday night that he would step down from the helm of Willow Creek Community Church six months ahead of schedule.His departure comes less than a month after a Chicago Tribune investigation disclosed that Hybels had been the subject of inquiries by church leaders into claims that he ran afoul of church teachings by engaging in inappropriate behavior with women in his congregation — including employees — allegedly spanning decades. The inquiries had cleared Hybels. Continue reading →