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

Young Americans Are Killing Marriage

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Millennials are delaying marriage, having kids, and buying homes, but at least they’re educated.  Bloomberg has the story:

There’s no shortage of theories as to how and why today’s young people differ from their parents.

As marketing consultants never cease to point out, baby boomers and millennials appear to have starkly different attitudes about pretty much everything, from money and sports to breakfast and lunch.

New research tries to ground those observations in solid data. The National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University set out to compare 25- to 34-year-olds in 1980—baby boomers—with the same age group today. Researcher Lydia Anderson compared U.S. Census data from 1980 with the most recent American Community Survey 1  data in 2015.

The results reveal some stark differences in how young Americans are living today, compared with three or four decades ago.

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Ten thoughts about the ‘Billy Graham Rule’

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News recently broke that Vice President Mike Pence has a policy of never dining alone with a woman nor attending an event where alcohol is served unless his wife, Karen, is with him. (We reported the story here.)  Not surprisingly the liberal media ridiculed the VP for adopting the “Billy Graham Rule” to protect his marriage. So on the heels of this “scandal” Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, has come up with ten brief reflections on this particular discipline.  Here are Burk’s thoughts, which he says are “by no means everything that can or should be said about the so-called ‘Billy Graham Rule’:

1. We must take sexual holiness seriously because God takes sexual holiness seriously. To reject God’s purpose of holiness in our lives is to reject God altogether. For this reason, we must be blood-earnest about holiness.

  • “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
  • “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality… Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thess. 4:3).
  • “But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints… For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:3-5).

2. The Bible commands us not only to avoid sexual immorality but to avoid situations in which we know that we are vulnerable to temptation.

  • “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13)
  • “Flee youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22).
  • “Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:14).

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Appeals Court Rules ‘Sexual Orientation’ Applies as Sex Discrimination Under Civil Rights Act

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Christian News reports:

A federal appeals court has ruled that “sexual orientation” can fall under the interpretation of sex discrimination in the federal Civil Rights Act, a decision that the dissenting judges found to be a stretch.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded 8-3 on Tuesday that while Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1967—which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex or national origin”—does not include the term “sexual orientation,” the existing inclusion of “sex” can apply because the discrimination surrounds a person’s actions not being normative for their sex.

“The logic of the Supreme Court’s decisions, as well as the common-sense reality that it is actually impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without discriminating on the basis of sex, persuade us that the time has come to overrule our previous cases,” the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.

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The Irrelevant Christine Caine … A Dingo Ate My Legacy?

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Ed Stetzer is a prominent evangelical with considerable credibility.  But when it comes to spiritual things Stetzer has shown time and time again that he lacks discernment.  If he had an ounce of spiritual discernment would he spend his valuable time interviewing Word of Faith pastrix Christine Caine regarding her new partnership with Wheaton College, a Christian institution?  Not surprisingly Ed Stetzer did just that.  In a piece over at Pulpit & Pen, Bud Ahlheim addresses the Stetzer-Caine interview and Caine’s baffling arrangement with Wheaton. He writes:

In Revelation 2:20, Christ chided the church of Thyatira in no uncertain terms.  “I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.”  Today, though, it isn’t just a single church tolerating just a single “prophetess;” it’s a large swath of the evangelical church embracing a legion of false teaching sirens, none of whom are actually named Jezebel.

One, in particular, is Christine Caine.

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There’s a New Cancer Treatment in Town, and It’s Here to Fight Tough

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LifeZette reports:

It used to be science fiction. Harnessing your body’s own immune system to fight cancer. But what was once the fruit of a wild imagination is today a reality.

Rather than killing cancer cells directly with traditional approaches like radiation or chemotherapy, immunotherapy harnesses the immune system’s power to eliminate the cancer or slow its growth and ability to spread. Research shows immunotherapy is improving outcomes and survival rates for some patients, including kidney and lung cancer. In fact, research from the American Association for Cancer Research shows that for advanced-melanoma patients, survival rates are improving thanks in part to these new treatment options.

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Islam set to become world’s largest religion by 2075

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According to a new study, populations with no religion will shrink while the number of Muslims and Christians will grow.  The Guardian has the story:

The number of babies born to Muslims is expected to overtake those born to Christians within two decades, making Islam the world’s largest religion by 2075, according to new analysis of data by the Pew Research Center.

People with no religious affiliation are set to shrink as a proportion of the world’s population as a result of their declining birthrate and growing numbers of Muslims and Christians.

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Turnstile Churchianity

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What is the evidence that God is blessing a church? Is it the size of the crowd, the total amount of people who have an emotional response to an emotional appeal and a large number of baptisms? In this piece over at Pulpit & Pen, Michael Hall addresses the downgrade caused by the Purpose Driven Church and Life agenda. He writes:

I can’t remember when I last went to a baseball game.  I love sports and always enjoyed a day at the ballpark, except for the overpriced concessions.  As you would walk up to the ticket taker at the turnstile there was usually someone there with one of those handheld clickers that they used to count how many people came through the gates.  I always thought it was redundant but maybe it was their backup system.  But their desire behind was to get as accurate a count as possible for their attendance records.  The numbers are what mattered.

The seeker-driven church is no different.

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US Ends Funding for UN Population Fund Over Complicity in Chinese Forced Abortions

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According to Christian News:

The Trump administration has ended government funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) over concerns about its complicity in China’s one-child/two-child policy—an accusation that the organization denies.

According to reports, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker received a letter this week from the U.S. State Department advising him of the development.

“This determination was made based on the fact that China’s family planning policies still involve the use of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization, and UNFPA partners on family planning activities with the Chinese government agency responsible for these coercive policies,” the letter read.

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Transgender Ideology Defeated in North Carolina ‘Bathroom’ Debate

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Breitbart reports:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association will end its economic boycott against North Carolina, handing a huge strategic defeat to the gay and transgender groups which are seeking to erase single-sex bathrooms and other useful legal and civic distinctions between men and women, girls and boys.

The win, announced April 4, came when the NCAA’s university leaders “reluctantly voted” to end its boycott of the state, which began when the North Carolina legislature passed a law in March 2016 which reaffirmed the long-standing practice of keeping separate public bathrooms for men and women. Last week, the state legislature eliminated the 2016 law but passed a new law, HB142, which preserves the legality of single-sex bathrooms and shower rooms.

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Joyce Meyer’s ‘Have a Great Day’ Theology: Book Review

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Lisa Leavens of Soldiers 4 Truth has written a review of (adept Scripture twister) Joyce Meyer’s new book “20 Ways to Make Every Day Better.” Leavens’ take on the book is that it provides 20 ways to distract us from spending time in our bibles. Here’s her review of Meyer’s book:

If just reading the Bible isn’t giving you the peace and happiness you desire, worry no more! Joyce Meyer claims that with her new book, you will “experience a new level of joy, contentment, and excitement about your life.” 20 Ways to Make Every Day Better will hit store bookshelves on April 4th and there is a sample available on JoyceMeyer.org that includes the introduction and the first two chapters. However, if the sample is any indication of what we can expect from the rest of the book, I’m willing to bet that it is full of twisted scriptures and total nonsense from beginning to end.

Joyce starts out her introduction talking about the problem with bad days saying, “I don’t believe for one moment that you have to go through life held hostage by your circumstances.” Then later in the same paragraph she says, “Your hope and happiness is not dependent on the world,” along with a bible passage, “He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The problem with her use of this passage is that 1 John is not talking about a bad day or our happiness, but it is talking about false teachers, which I find to be both interesting and ironic.

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Rice ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Associates Could Mean Legal Jeopardy

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Experts say top Obama adviser engaged in ‘fishing expedition’ on incoming administration officials. Brendan Kirby of LifeZette has the story:

Steps reportedly taken by former National Security Adviser Susan Rice to “unmask” names of associates of President Donald Trump before he took office could put her in legal jeopardy, according to legal and national security experts.

Bloomberg on Monday cited two unnamed sources who said Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, discovered in February that Rice made multiple requests to learn the names of Americans whose names had been disguised in surveillance reports related to Trump’s transition.

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Trump Administration Considers Far-Reaching Steps for ‘Extreme Vetting’

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According to Laura Meckler of the Wallstreet Journal it’s going to get a whole lot tougher for a foreigner to enter the U.S. The Trump administration’s “extreme vetting” measures could even apply to France and Germany. Meckler writes:

Foreigners who want to visit the U.S., even for a short trip, could be forced to disclose contacts on their mobile phones, social-media passwords and financial records, and to answer probing questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials conducting a review of vetting procedures.

The administration also wants to subject more visa applicants to intense security reviews and have embassies spend more time interviewing each applicant. The changes could apply to people from all over the world, including allies like France and Germany.

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Shocking News: Steven Furtick Goes Full-On Prosperity

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Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen shares what’s going on with prophet-pastor Steven Furtick:

If it isn’t enough that Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation, the multi-campus megachurch in Charlotte, NC is a habitual twister of the Scriptures for the purpose of self-promotion and egotistical gain, it’s now abundantly clear that he’s gone full-on Prosperity Gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel is a false gospel that teaches that God promises to all believers who have “enough faith” a long life of good health and extraordinary wealth. Never mind that the proponents of this false gospel are regularly afflicted with various calamities, including death. Recently, Eddie Long, one of the most notorious proponents of the distorted gospel of health and wealth died after a long battle with cancer. Then you have others, like Jan Crouch, who died unexpectedly. Perhaps their faith failed them? Perhaps they did not ask therefore they did not receive?

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Three Reasons God is a Cessationist

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Jordan Standrich has some thoughts on cessationism vs. continuationism to help us think through this challenging topic. “An important part of cessationism,” says Standridge “is God Himself and what He has done in history.”

In this piece over at The Cripplegate, Standrich offers three reasons to bolster his argument that God is a cessationist and not a continuationist. He writes:

Lord I believe that Jordan will play in the NBA! No! I declare Jordan will play in the NBA!

That was a sentence that a guy prayed over me as we were leaving a basketball camp I attended in high school. He said that sentence as he alternated between speaking in tongues and speaking in English. I wanted to say, “have you not seen me play this whole week? I’ll be lucky to start on my high school team this year!” That was the first time I was exposed to the modern version of the gift tongues. Over the years I’ve had a chance to attend quite a few pentecostal churches and events but it wasn’t until I got to seminary that I really started gaining interest in Charismatic theology.

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Research: New Apostolic Reformation

 

Bayer Unleashes Army Of Re-Educated Farmers From GMO Training Program

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And you thought Bayer was in the pain killing business. According to NaturalBlaze:

Set to become the world’s largest seed technology company, if it is successful in acquiring Monsanto – Bayer’s Adrian Percy, a global head of Research and Development with Bayer, has publicly bemoaned the fact that consumers in Europe are staunchly resisting genetic engineering and even stated that he believes that the battle over GMOs in Europe is over.

“To be honest,” he said. “I think that battle is probably lost.”

Percy says that countries like France and Germany are simply not going to budge when it comes to GMOs and that there is no point in fighting it. But that doesn’t mean that Percy, Monsanto or Bayer are actually giving up. In fact, they’re simply gearing up for a new fight, this time, with more “educated” “scientists,” “farmers” and “consumers.”

The company is planning to push for a new form of genetic engineering known as gene editing. And this time, the corporation wants consumers pacified before the fight even starts.

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You Might Be a Pharisee If . . .

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Those of us who are involved in online discernment ministries (ODM) regularly take on Scripture twisters and outright heretics.  Professing Christians who’ve fallen into false teaching come back at us with “take the log out of your own eye,” as if bringing truth to light means we’re judging. ODM’s have been labeled “Heresy Hunter,” “Legalist,” “Pharisee” and we’re charged with “quenching the Holy Spirit” for doing what we’re commanded to do: “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1) False prophets hate being tested.  So their response is to turn the tables and make ODM’s out to be the villain. I mean, how dare commoners judge Christians who’ve reached rock star status, right?

Over at Grace to You, Cameron Buettel tackles this very subject.  He lays out three biblical earmarks of a Pharisee, beginning with the person who supplements Scripture with all sorts of man-made rules.  He writes:

The odds are good that someone, somewhere, at some point has called you a Pharisee. The odds are even better that you’ve slapped that label on someone else.

It’s no surprise that the name “Pharisee” carries a leprous stigma. They’re the villains virtually every time they appear in the pages of Scripture. Jesus never had anything good to say about them. And their heavy-handed, legalistic authority made them a scourge to all of Israel—even other pious Jews.

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The aim of AIM and the World Race

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Berean Research reports:

Some red flags to warn you about regarding a popular missions trip for youth called AIM- Adventures in Missions, and an event called the World Race,  in which students travel to 11 countries in 11 months.

Young people have been exposed to the New Apostolic Reformation, along with contemplative spirituality and New Age mysticism.

One of my readers contributed her testimony to my series, Leaving the NAR Church, in which she writes:

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Mike Pence will not meet alone with a woman, so the online left flips out?

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Julia Duin of Get Religion has the story:

When does a rather ordinary news profile turn into a mass-media panic?

When it’s in a Washington Post feature about Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence.

I covered this two days ago in that finally – after zillions of fawning pieces about Hillary and Michelle – a major newspaper had profiled the Second Lady. I had no idea that one sentence in the story would create a Twitter mob scene. Part way down the story, a Post reporter mentioned that Mike Pence has a policy of never dining alone with a woman nor attending an event where alcohol is served without Karen by his side.

Ka-boom. The mockery began.

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Christian son of American Atheists founder says Netflix film about his mother is ‘full of errors’

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The Christian Times reports:

William J. Murray, the only surviving son of American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair, has said that the new Netflix film about his mother is full of errors, omissions and distortions.

The film titled “The Most Hated Woman in America,” which debuted on Netflix last week, tells the life story of O’Hair, who founded the American Atheists in 1963 and spent half of her life fighting for the separation of church and state.

O’Hair filed a case against the Baltimore City Public School System in 1960 to prevent her son from taking part in Bible readings in school. She won the case in 1963 with a Supreme Court decision that banned prayers in classrooms.

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Why calling Rick Warren a ‘General’ is significant

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Berean Research responds to the question many in the Christian community are asking: How do I know if my church is part of the New Apostolic Reformation?  Here’s their says:

What’s in a name? When the name and title of “General” is used in a church leadership context, it’s a rank that ought to be a red flag for you.  After reading this article, I hope it will be in the future.

First, the photo. Hillsong’s Brian Houston posted this on his Facebook profile:

The rank title in this case may be easily dismissed as nothing more than just a friendly term of endearment. But did you know that “General” is code word for Apostle within the New Apostolic Reformation movement?

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Santa Is a Gay Man in an Interracial Relationship in This New Picture Book

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Yes, you heard that right.  A controversial children’s book depicts Santa Clause as an African American gay man who’s married to Mr. Clause.  TIME has the story:

Photo credit: TIME

A new picture book will depict Santa as a gay man in an interracial relationship, publisher Harper Design confirmed Tuesday.

The book, Santa’s Husband, goes on sale Oct. 10 and tells the story of a black Santa Claus and his white husband who both live in the North Pole. Santa’s spouse frequently fills in for his husband at malls, according to a description of the book Harper Design provided to TIME.

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Your browser history can now be sold to advertisers without your consent

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According to MarketWatch:

Corporate tracking of your online activity is about to get even more invasive.

Internet service providers will soon be automatically able to collect information on browsing habits, health information, and other sensitive data from its users after the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a repeal of protections put in place under the Obama administration. On a 215-205 vote, largely along party lines, the House voted undo these Obama-era broadband privacy rules that govern the behavior of internet service providers.

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Visible Church In An Accelerating Apostasy

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Apprising Ministries has an excerpt of a lecture Dr. Walter Martin did in the 1980’s entitled The Cult of Liberal Theology, which is just as true today:

Let me tell you something that I have learned; I know the liberals. I know them well; I was one of them. And they are the most dangerous, insidious, and all-pervading cult that’s loose in the United States right at this moment.

They make the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Mormons, and all of the Mind Sciences, and the Occult, look like Sunday School teachers. Do you know why? Because these other people are outside the Church; and these devils are in it! And they’re doing it in Jesus’ Name.

They do not believe the Trinity; they do not believe the Deity of Christ; they do not believe the Virgin Birth; they do not believe the vicarious atonement; they do not believe the Bodily resurrection, and they have grave doubts about whether Jesus will ever come back again, and that the Bible is itself the Word of God. Yet I could give you a list of them that infest—and that’s the proper word—infest our theological seminaries; and our church related schools, and our denominations.

And this theological flea infestation is ruining the lifeblood of the Church, which is evangelism. And, you think these are very strong statements; I intend to back them up in—if necessary—excruciating details. For any person who does not know that today in the United States,  and in denominational structures world-around, we are in an accelerating apostasy does not know—I repeat—does not know what’s going on…

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Where Do We Go When We Die?

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In this piece over at The Watchman’s Bagpipes, Glenn Chatfield examines what the scriptures teach about the soul after death.  He writes:

Many teachings about where we go when dead can be totally unbiblical, including the ideas of “soul sleep” and annihilation, as promoted by cults such as the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as by many individual false teachers.  Along with these teachings is usually the claim that there is no hell (as the place of eternal torment and separation from God).
If the scripture tells us the abode of the soul after death, that it is still conscious and aware, then the idea of the soul sleeping until resurrection is proven wrong, as is the idea that the souls of unbelievers are annihilated.  One could actually write a whole book on the topic in order to cover what the Bible says about the grave, the afterlife before and after Christ, etc, but here I can only highlight the most important and concise arguments against the “anti-Hell”, “soul sleep” and “annihilation” teachings.

The Biggest New Cheat in Professional Women’s Sports

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LifeZette reports:

Fallon Fox, transgender fighter in MMA

The East German women’s Olympic teams were known for doping their way to victory. Their cheating, long suspected, took longer to be discovered. But today there is a new cheat happening in the world of women’s sports, only this time it’s perfectly legal. It is transgender women — biological men, in other words — who are dominating in women’s sports.

While still rare, a growing number of sports organizations are allowing men who identify as women to compete against women in sports such as weightlifting, mixed martial arts, and basketball. To no one’s surprise, these individuals are winning.

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