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

The Stars Are Aligning for Trump’s Inauguration

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According to Lifezette:

Despite vicious rumors that Donald Trump’s transition team was having trouble securing top-tier musical talent for next week’s inauguration ceremonies, the stars are lining up to help with the peaceful transition of power.

Performing at the pre-inauguration concert in Washington, D.C., the night before the inauguration will be country music star Toby Keith and rock band 3 Doors Down. The concert will be called, “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration,” as the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Friday. Other performers will include Lee Greenwood, Jennifer Holliday, the Piano Guys, and the Frontmen of Country.

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Silenced: DC Radio Station Pulls Pro-Life Ad Off Air

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Breitbart has the story:

The Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) says Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP has pulled its paid-for ad off the air after receiving complaints from listeners. The national pro-life organization’s paid advertisement urges the redirection of taxpayer funds from abortion business Planned Parenthood to other federally qualified healthcare centers that provide more comprehensive care.

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European Parliament committee proposes granting legal status to robots

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So now advanced robots will be considered “electronic persons” with rights and obligations so that they can be regulated? If the European Parliament committee has their way, this is going to happen.  According to RI, the committee voted in favor of a draft report that proposes granting legal status to bots:

The draft report, approved by 17 votes to two and two abstentions by the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs, proposes that “The most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons with specific rights and obligations, including that of making good any damage they may cause.”

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Russian yoga fans alarmed at arrest of teacher under new law

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The Guardian reports:

A yoga teacher in Russia has been charged with illegal missionary activity under a controversial new law designed to fight terrorism.

Computer programmer Dmitry Ugay was detained by police in St Petersburg in October while giving a talk at a festival about the philosophy behind yoga.

Ugay says he was stopped 40 minutes into his discussion, put into a car and taken to a police station without being informed of his apparent offence.

The 44-year-old now faces a fine for allegedly conducting illegal missionary activity, an administrative offence under the new Yarovaya law, a package of legal amendments intended to fight terrorism that is named after its author, the MP Irina Yarovaya.

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Roman Catholicism: Idolatry and Bondage

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What happens if a person wishes to break communion with the Roman Catholic Church?  Glenn E. Chatfield of The Watchman’s Bagpipes explains:

Indulgences, those things made up by the Roman Catholic Church to fill their coffers and/or for continuing to scare their followers with the invented place called “Purgatory,” are being offered by the Pope to those who celebrate the anniversary of the demonic apparition pretending to be Mary at Fatima, Portugal.

Here are the three ways you can get rewarded by the Pope:

You an make a pilgrimage to the shrine at Fatima and participate in the occultic celebration and rituals.

You can pray before any statue of “Our Lady of Fatima” — bow before and pray to an idol, as well as doing the same rituals.

What You Never Knew About Teens and the Pill

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According to Lifezette:

Since they debuted in the 1960s, oral contraceptives have become the most commonly used form of birth control. But now a new generation of users is questioning the pill’s impact on mental health.

The pill has had many makeovers through the years, with some varieties containing both female hormones, progesterone and estrogen, and some only progesterone. The oral version has been joined by implanted devices and injections. Either way, the combination of hormones interfere with ovulation, or the production of an egg from a woman’s ovaries.

Physical side effects such as bleeding and even cancer have been researched, but a recent study about a possible link between the pill and depression and anxiety has many rethinking its use. The study look at 1 million Danish women who used hormone-based contraception for an average of six years.

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RZIM Speaker, Editor at The Gospel Coalition Compares Jesus to a Transgender

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Brandon Hines of Pulpit & Pen has the story:

Sam Allberry, an editor for The Gospel Coalition and a global speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), recently wrote an article at The Gospel Coalition entitled, What Christianity Alone Offers Transgender Persons. The only acceptable answer that could have been provided in the article would be, “forgiveness for the sin of transgenderism as well as all other sins and eternal life in Jesus Christ.”

That, sadly, was not what was included in the article. As Pastor Justin Pierce remarked,

Not once did the author mention repentance, a broken heart over the sin that destroys us and breaks our fellowship with God. Not once did he say placing one’s faith in Christ and learning to mortify the flesh and identify with Christ and we fight the wicked sin that He overcame.

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Fasten Your Seat Belt for the Health Care Ride

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According to Lifezette:

At the top of Donald Trump’s White House priority list is a better and stronger health care system at a more affordable price for Americans. There are many questions as to what will change, how it will change, and how American households of all sizes and shapes will be affected.

As the Trump transition team and others work on a viable plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, how might the average health care consumer prepare for the years ahead?

Many experts take the long view. “Nothing is really going to happen until as early as 2019 as far as changes to the [health care] system,” according to Paul Moyer, author of SavingFreak.com and licensed insurance agent in Anderson, South Carolina. Moyer explains it takes a lot of legislation, which is often then delayed, to turn the tide of one of the country’s biggest industries.

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The Hopelessness of ‘Contending For Miracles’

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Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen examines what the Bible says about miracles. We all know that God can, has and does perform miracles.  But what’s the purpose of His miracles?

Often times we find ourselves in a dire situation that we can’t manage on our own. It may be a frantic financial situation. It may be a devastating blow to our health. It could be any number of things, but time and again we seek a divine intervention into whatever circumstances we face–a quick fix. A miracle.

A popular worship song by Chris Tomlin summarizes the miracle seeker’s sentiments thus:

Water You turned into wine Opened the eyes of the blind There’s no one like you None like you

. . . .

Our God is greater, our God is stronger God You are higher than any other Our God is Healer, awesome in power Our God, Our God

These lyrics, while true, actually embellish the work of the Holy Spirit by distorting the purpose of miracles. There is a serious error penetrating the walls of Christ’s church that is leading people away from the true gospel into a false gospel of hopelessness. There are preachers and teachers who suggest that divine miracles are the primary purpose of the Christian faith and that contending for them should be our mission. This view is prevalent in the Word of Faith (WoF) and Prosperity Gospel camps. The carrot of hope in temporal miracles sells–it sells books, music, and speaking engagements. Notable proponents of this theology include Steven Furtick, Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, and many others. Biblical passages that are descriptive of a historical event are regularly twisted into a prescription for all people who will “activate” their faith in some way. Miracles, as opposed to Christ, then become the quintessential element of faith.

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Fake News: BuzzFeed Runs ‘Unverifiable’ Trump-Russia Claims

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According to Brenden Kirby of Lifezette, left-leaning news outlets have abandoned “all journalistic ethics in publishing explosive dossier.” He writes:

The online news site BuzzFeed on Tuesday published a letter containing salacious allegations — which even the left-leaning outlet acknowledged are unverified — against President-Elect Donald Trump.

The letter, purporting to come from a retired British intelligence agent, details Trump’s alleged relationship with Russia and contends that the Kremlin has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years.

It alleges that Russians have been feeding Trump intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, for years. It also details Trump’s alleged “personal obsessions and sexual perversion.”

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‘I Got Gay Married. I Got Gay Divorced. I Regret Both.’

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Homosexuals accomplished what they set out to do — legalize same-sex marriage. It was a hard-fought battle.  Yet for many gay people the victory is bitter sweet.  According to Denny Burk, Professor of Biblical Studies at Boice College, “Legal marriage has not transformed gay unions.” However, “Gay unions have fundamentally redefined marriage.”  What are some of the casualties of the battle? Burk reveals what they are:

Meredith Maran had an interesting essay in The New York Times over the weekend: “I Got Gay Married. I Got Gay Divorced. I Regret Both.” In it, she describes her “marriage” to her lesbian partner in 2008 and the subsequent dissolution of their relationship in 2013. She regrets her gay marriage and divorce, but it is not because she is against gay marriage in principle. Rather she says this:

In many cities over many years, my wife and I had marched for marriage equality. We’d argued with the haters and we’d argued with the gay people who said that legal marriage would co-opt us, diminish us, turn us into a caricature of “normal” married people. We swore we could enjoy the rights only marriage conferred and still have our gender-fluid commitment ceremonies, our chosen-family configurations, our dexterity at turning friends into lovers and vice versa.

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The futility of gender-neutral parenting

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In an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Debra W. Sou, sex writer and sexual neuroscientist at York University in Toronto, admits that when it comes to male and female, biology matters.  She writes:

In steadfast pursuit of gender equality and to promote nonconformity, it’s become popular in some social circles to start early, very early, by raising young children in a gender-neutral way: not revealing the baby’s sex at birth, dressing them and their bedroom in various shades of oatmeal, encouraging them to play with gender-neutral toys. There’s also pressure on corporations to help; parental complaints led Target to stop sex-segregating its toys, for instance.

Offering kids the opportunity to pursue what they’d like, freed from societal expectations, is an undeniably positive thing — whether it has to do with toys, clothing, or their future aspirations. But the scientific reality is that it’s futile to treat children as blank slates with no predetermined characteristics. Biology matters.

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ACLU Files Suit as Kentucky Governor Signs Bill Requiring Ultrasound Prior to Abortion

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Christian News reports:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has signed a bill requiring that women obtain an ultrasound prior to proceeding with an abortion, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to file suit.

Bevin signed H.B. 2 on Monday, which requires not only the abortionist or technician to conduct the ultrasound, but to also display the images for the abortion-minded mother and allow her to hear her baby’s heartbeat.

“[T]he physician who is to perform the abortion or a qualified technician to whom the responsibility has been delegated by the physician shall … display the ultrasound images so that the pregnant woman may view the images [and] ascultate the fetal heartbeat of the unborn child so that the pregnant woman may hear the heartbeat if the heartbeat is audible,” the bill reads in part.

It provides an allowance for the mother to avert her eyes if she does not wish to see her child. The abortionist may also turn off the sound of the heartbeat at her request.

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Married lesbian couple to lead prominent D.C. Baptist church

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Washington Post reports:

Calvary Baptist Church, a progressive Baptist landmark in the heart of downtown Washington, has named a gay couple as co-pastors.

Sally Sarratt and Maria Swearingen were presented to the congregation during worship services Jan. 8 and are set to begin their new jobs Feb. 26.

A spokeswoman for the congregation said she didn’t know whether a gay couple leading a church was a first for Baptists.

“We look for the best people in the world and that’s who they were,” said Carol Blythe. “We’re very excited.”

The 155-year-old church severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2012: It was at loggerheads with the group on several issues, including the SBC’s stance against homosexuality. Calvary Baptist still affiliates with American Baptist Churches USA.

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Rep. Devin Nunes: We’ve Been Warning Administration About Russian Hacking ‘And They Did Nothing’

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According to CNSNews, Rep. Davin Nunes, Chairman of the House intelligence committee, said the following during an interview on Fox News Sunday:

Photo credit: Business Insider

We’ve known that Russia is a very sophisticated bad actor in the cyber realm.  Many members of Congress, not just members of the House Intelligence Committee, have been warning the Obama administration about Russia’s continued cyber attacks on this country, and they did nothing.

And so, now, as you look forward, you know, they lose an election, and then it appears like they want to change this narrative into somehow that Russia was responsible for Hillary Clinton losing the election.  And I just don’t buy that.

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Pastrix Paula White to Wax Eloquent Against Critics Avoiding Fundamentals of Scripture

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Amidst claims that she’s a heretic, “Pastor” Paula White, who’s a word-faith/health & wealth/name it and claim it teacher, appeared on CNN to let the world know that her critics are mistaken and that the views she holds are orthodox. Richard Haas of Pulpit & Pen sets aside White’s heretical teaching and instead tackles her credentials to pastor a church.  According to Haas, Pastrix Paula should not be Trump’s spiritual adviser because a woman is unqualified to hold the position of pastor. He writes:

Speaking on CNN, this past Thursday, January 5th, 2016, Paula White, spiritual adviser to Trump and Senior Pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida defended herself against accusations of being a Trinity-denying false teacher and preaching the false gospel known as the “Prosperity Gospel.”  Over the past years, much criticism has been rightly raised by those in Orthodox Evangelical circles about Pastrix Paula White’s validity due to her heretical theological stance on core essentials of the Christian faith. In the past at Pulpit & Pen, our authors and contributors have raised much concern over Paula White and her false teachings.

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Maybelline Becomes Next Cosmetic Company to Utilize Male Makeup-Wearing Model

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Christian News reports:

The cosmetic giant Maybelline has become the next company to utilize a male makeup-wearing model to help sell its products.

25-year-old Manny Gutierrez, also known as Manny Mua, has three million followers on Instagram, as well as over two million subscribers on YouTube, where he conducts tutorials on “boy beauty.”

“I believe makeup is GenderLESS and has no rules!” he writes in the description section of his YouTube page. “Honestly I believe that men can wear makeup, teach makeup, and vlog about it just as much as girls can and I am fighting for that equality with my channel.”

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Three Women Become First Female Marines to Serve Ground Combat Roles

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Christian News reports:

Three women have become the first female Marines to be permitted to serve ground combat roles—a move that some Christians have stated is contrary to God’s created order.

The women, who reported on Thursday to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment at Camp LeJuene in North Carolina, will serve as rifleman, machine gunner and mortar Marine. Their names have not been released.

Several female Marines in leadership roles were to be placed in the unit to help with acclimation.

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Evangelicals should be deeply troubled by Donald Trump’s attempt to mainstream heresy

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Donald Trump & Paula White. Photo credit: Christian Today

The liberal Washington Post has an excellent piece by Michael Horton who is an author, speaker and J. Gresham Machen professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary.  Dr. Horton expresses his concern that Donald Trump’s inauguration will help to mainstream the heretical Word of Faith (WOF) movement. He points out that “Trump has surrounded himself with cadre of prosperity evangelists who cheerfully attack basic Christian doctrines. The focus of this unity is a gospel that is about as diametrically opposed to the biblical one as you can imagine.” According to Dr. Horton, WOF is “another religion.” Clearly, WOF is not historic, orthodox biblical Christianity for the reason that in the Faith system man is glorified and the God of the Bible is humiliated.

Now listen as a Christian theologian examines WOF teaching and reveals the reasons evangelicals should be alarmed by the people President-elect Trump chose to pray during his inauguration.  Dr. Horton writes:

Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration will include Paula White and possibly other members of his inner circle, Darrell Scott, “Apostle” Wayne T. Jackson and Mark Burns. They’re all televangelists who hail from the “prosperity gospel” camp. They advocate a brand of Pentecostal Christianity known as Word of Faith.

Inaugurations are always curious rituals of American civil religion. It would not be surprising to see a non-Christian religious leader participating. But what’s problematic for me as an evangelical is how Trump’s ceremony is helping to mainstream this heretical movement.

The prosperity gospel — the idea that God dispenses material wealth and health based on what we “decree” — is not just fluff. It’s also not just another branch of Pentecostalism, a tradition that emphasizes the continuation of the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues. It’s another religion.

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Hillary Gains Grassroots Support for Mayoral Run

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According to Newsmax:

New York City’s Democratic activists are clamoring for Hillary Clinton to take on Mayor Bill de Blasio in a primary election this year, saying she’d represent the change the city needs, The New York Post reported Friday.

“Hillary would have been the first female president,” the Rev. Patrick Young, pastor of First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst, Queens, told The Post. 

“She would be the first woman mayor in the history of New York City. She would be better at working with people and engaging people. She would be a breath of fresh air. We have a cloud over our leadership right now.”

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How NOT to follow the Holy Spirit

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Jeff Hagan of Pulpit & Pen has listed the ways the Holy Spirit does not lead the believer. For example, the Holy Spirit does not direct a person to sin. To “hear men in charismatic circles say that ‘God told’ them to divorce their wives and marry the woman they’ve been having an affair with” isn’t all that unusual for him. He admonishes: “That’s nothing but foolishness and selfishness. According to Scripture that is clearly sinful, it is wrong.”

So now to Hagan’s tips on how not to follow the Holy Spirit.  He writes:

Do you ever wonder if maybe you made a mistake and missed out on a blessing because you resisted it thinking perhaps it was some kind of temptation from the enemy? At times, when we let our emotions get too involved in something, it makes it more difficult to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit — especially when we, in our flesh, don’t like the way He seems to be heading. Sometimes our flesh battles against God’s Spirit (Gal. 5:7). But when we surrender ourselves to God’s will, when we look to His Word and live accordingly, recognizing the Spirit’s lead becomes easier as we grow in Christ.

Now, with that being said, there are definitely some ways in which the Holy Spirit does not lead. False teaching, being ignorant of His ways, being spiritually lazy, and over-emphasizing the so-called “miraculous” have deceived many into being led to follow the world, or the flesh, or even the enemy while thinking it was the Holy Spirit. And, as one can imagine, this has brought about an incredible amount of pain and heartache into people’s lives. I have listed a few things to be cautious of, some ways the Holy Spirit does not lead us.

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What Happens When America Has No More Stores?

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According to Deirdre Reilly of LifeZette, brick-and-mortar shopping may soon be a “remember when …?” proposition. She writes:

Moms and dads loyal to Macy’s are distressed over the news that the company has either closed or plans to close 68 of its retail stores. Shoppers now go online more often to buy goods for their families, and the shift has taken its toll.

The holiday numbers for Macy’s are reportedly a factor in the decision.

“I just love Macy’s and this makes me sad,” mother of three Kelly Driscoll of Reading, Massachusetts, told LifeZette. “I love browsing through their store, and they offer coupons and sales. You can get a real deal if you’re smart about when and what you buy.”

The decision to shutter the stores will affect some 6,200 jobs. “We continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted,” Terry Lundgren, Macy’s CEO, said in a statement. As for the store closings, Lundgren noted, “We are closing locations that are unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations due to changes in the local retail shopping landscape … These are never easy decisions.”

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How and When Will House Defund Planned Parenthood? Ryan: ‘Legislation Will Be In Our Reconciliation Bill’

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CNSNews reports:

When asked how and when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would pass legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said “Planned Parenthood legislation will be in our reconciliation bill,” but provided no further information.

CNSNews.com asked Ryan at his weekly meeting with reporters about defunding the nation’s largest abortion provider, which annually receives millions of dollars in government health services grants and reimbursements–$528.4 million in the year that ended on June 30, 2014, according to Planned Parenthood’s annual report.

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Review: Louie Giglio’s Simple Pursuit: A Heart After Jesus (A Daily PASSION Devotional)

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Bud Ahlheim of Pulpit & Pin reviews seeker-mergent guru Louie Giglio’s daily devotional that targets millennials. According to Ahlheim, Giglio often plucks verses out of context, “presumably because of their particular importance to the unidentified author and exposited in a Scripturally-illicit ‘what’s this verse mean to me’ sort of manner.” Pulling verses out of context and applying a meaning never intended by the author so that young adults will see themselves in the scriptural narrative only reinforces their view that the Bible really is all about them. And “Pastor” Giglio’s certainly aware of that! Learn more about this popular preacher buy following the links below.

Now to Bud Ahlheim’s review of “Simple Pursuit”:

Simple Pursuit is a daily devotional book that comes out of Louis Giglio’s Passion Movement.  Merely containing an introduction by Giglio, with brief commentaries by “Christian celebrities” Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, and Matt Redman, the daily devotionals are written by 68 “Contributing Writers” drawn from the book’s target millennial audience of 18-25 year olds.

Following Giglio’s brief introduction, the book issues its “268 Declaration,” a five-pointed mission statement for the Passion Movement that is sourced in Isaiah 26:8.  The crux of the statement is drawn from John Piper’s Christian Hedonism theme, “The heart of Passion is God’s glory, and God is most glorified in us when we live lives that are fully satisfied in Him.”  The outlined five points of Passion are:

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Related:

Louie Giglio is no hero to be admired by Ken Silva

See Berean Research’s White Paper on the Purpose Driven Church

 

We ‘Refuse to Be Baited’: ‘Fixer Upper’ Host Speaks After Controversy Over Church’s Marriage Beliefs

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Christian News reports:

One of the hosts of the popular HGTV show “Fixer Upper” has written a blog post that some are interpreting as a response to the recent controversy over the church the couple attends, which holds to biblical beliefs on marriage and homosexuality.

“Jo and I refuse to be baited into using our influence in a way that will further harm an already hurting world,” Chip Gaines wrote on his wife’s blog on Monday. “This is our home. A house divided cannot stand.”

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