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

Democratic National Convention to Feature First-Ever “Transgender” Speaker

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Christian News Network reports:

The Democratic National Convention is set to feature its first-ever “transgender” speaker this Thursday as a man who identifies as a woman is scheduled to take the stage in support of Hillary Clinton.

Tim McBride, who goes by the name Sarah, serves as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and is also a volunteer on the steering committee of Trans United for Hillary.

McBride explained in 2012 that he felt he was transgender as a child, but buried his struggle with his identity in his love for politics.

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Bill Clinton’s big omission from his speech at the Democratic National Convention

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According to Benedict Brock of news.com.au:

Clintons 3It was a glowing tribute to his beloved wife, the woman who aims to make history by becoming President of the United States of America.

At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Bill Clinton was fulsome in his praise of Hillary, who has now officially received the party’s nomination for the top job.

But there was something big – something huge – missing from his speech.

The former Mr President described the potential Mrs President as the “best darn change-maker” he’d ever met and recounted how he tried three times to get her to marry him, in a speech designed to use his popularity to ingratiate his wife to Middle America.

He took the crowd on a journey through the years of their relationship. It was 1971, he said, when he met the girl with big blonde hair and glasses.

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District Attorney Dismisses All Charges Against Man Behind Planned Parenthood Expose’

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Christian News Network reports:

The Harris County District Attorney’s office in Texas has dismissed all of the charges against David Daleiden, the pro-life investigator who recorded undercover videos of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

As previously reported, Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) was indicted in January on a felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record” for creating a fake driver’s license in conducting his undercover investigation, as well as a misdemeanor count related to the purchasing of aborted babies.

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What the Wikileaks Hacks Exposes About Democrat Media Bias

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According to Philip Wegmann of The Daily Signal:

Debbie-Wasserman-SchultzLeaked emails seem to suggest that the Democratic National Committee maintains cozy relationships with mainstream media outlets but takes a more caustic approach with publications it believes to be conservative.

According to these emails, party officials stonewalled and blacklisted the Washington Examiner when editors approached the party in May to gather the names of delegates to the Democratic National Convention for publication in a souvenir edition of its magazine.

“I can send an alert to the state parties not to respond to this inquiry,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Eric Walker wrote in an email of May 10. “Examiner is a right wing rag.”

The episode came on the eve of Democrats’ convention this week in Philadelphia. The organization WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 hacked emails from seven party officials, revealing the inner workings of the national committee’s communications team.

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Priest murdered during Mass in terror attack on Catholic church in France

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Fox News reports:

Two knife-wielding attackers who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” slit the throat of an 86-year-old priest and critically wounded at least one other person during a Tuesday morning terror attack on a Catholic church near the Normandy city of Rouen, officials said.

The terrorists, who were later shot and killed by police, forced priest Jacques Hamel to kneel before they slaughtered him, and the Islamist attackers captured the bloody episode on film, according to a nun who escaped the assault.

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“Left Behind” Co-Author Tim LaHaye Dies After Suffering a Stroke

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Church Leaders reports:

Evangelical leader and co-author of the popular Left Behind Series, Tim Lahaye, has passed away at the age of 90. A few days ago, LaHaye suffered a stroke that he was not able to recover from.

Jerry B. Jenkins, who worked with LaHaye on the Left Behind Series and consequently got to know him very well, described him as being someone with “a pastor’s heart [who] lived to share his faith.” Jenkins says, “He listened to and cared about everyone, regardless of age, gender or social standing. If Tim was missing from the autograph table or the green room of a network television show, he was likely in a corner praying with someone he’d just met—from a reader to a part-time bookstore stock clerk to a TV network anchorman.”

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“Love the Way You Turn Me On” At North Point Community Church

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Museum of Idolatry informs us what Andy Stanley’s church has been up to:

CREDIT: Raymond McCrea Jones/CNN

Credit: Raymond McCrea Jones/CNN – 2012

Imagine you’re sitting in church on Sunday during an official worship service, and singers on stage are singing those lyrics. Would you really want to hear lyrics about how a girl turns a guy on because she has the right stuff baby? That’s what happened during a Sunday worship service at North Point Community Church-Andy Stanley’s church. They opened an official Sunday worship service with hits from the 1990s.

The Apostle Paul said, “We preach Christ and Him crucified,” but Stanley seems to be saying “we will put on an elaborate and worldly show to draw a crowd.”

Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ not good enough? Does it really need to be dressed up with cheesy boy band songs from the 90s? On top of that, can anyone imagine that any of those performers had any free time left to study God’s Word? This is a tightly choreographed and professionally performed medley of (secular) hits; it must have taken many hours of practice and rehearsal to accomplish this. Is this what a church should be encouraging its people to focus their precious time on? North Point and Andy Stanley have a gigantic effect on other churches in America; many smaller churches study their methods and try to emulate their “success.” Lord have mercy…

A video of the praise & worship segment is included.

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A Pastor Fights Against Government Restrictions on Political Sermons

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The Daily Signal reports:

When the Rev. Gus Booth found out the IRS was dropping its inquiry into Warroad Community Church where he preaches, he was actually disappointed.

“We wanted to go to court,” Booth told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This is the First Amendment vs. the IRS code. One standard of the law would win.”

The IRS has almost never fully enforced the Johnson Amendment, which the new Republican Party platform calls for getting rid of. The language of the platform is:

Places of worship for the first time in our history have reason to fear the loss of tax-exempt status merely for espousing and practicing traditional religious beliefs that have been held across the world for thousands of years, and for almost four centuries in America. We value the right of America’s religious leaders to preach, and Americans to speak freely, according to their faith. Republicans believe the federal government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from policing or censoring speech based on religious convictions or beliefs, and therefore we urge the repeal of the Johnson Amendment.

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HERE IT IS=> Detailed List of Findings in Wikileaks DNC Document Dump

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Gateway Pundit has published the findings:

DonkeyOn Friday Wikileaks released nearly 20,000 hacked emails it says are from the accounts of Democratic National Committee officials.

The documents were released just days before the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.

The hacked emails revealed the DNC’s hatred for Bernie Sanders and his movement. The documents reveal the party’s hidden ties with the liberal media. The emails reveal the heights of dishonesty of the party infrastructure.

Now there is a list of a few of the most shocking emails released by Wikileaks.

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6,726 Syrian Refugees Admitted to U.S. So Far in FY16–But Only 23 Are Christians

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CNSNews reports:

With ten weeks to go until the end of the fiscal year, the Obama administration continues to admit Syrian refugees at an accelerated pace, and has now exceeded two-thirds of President Obama’s target of 10,000 by September 30.

The proportion of Christians among those resettled continues to languish below half of one percent, while other non-Sunnis account for just over one percent.

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Robots to outnumber humans as “swarms” of machines are unleashed

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According to Jasper Hamill of The Sun, “researchers said the number of machines is likely to grow so large that humans will need to command armies of them.”  Hamill writes:

Human beings are set to be “outnumbered” by robots as massive armies of intelligent machines move into the home and workplace.

That’s the claim from leading American robotics experts, who are trying to work out how humans can control the vast numbers of intelligent machines which are expected to be unleashed in the coming years.

A team based at the University of Texas have unveiled a system which allows them to use “any device with a web browser to access and control a humanoid robot” – which means machines designed to act like real people.

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DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz Dropped From Convention After WikiLeaks Scandal

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Breitbart reports:

Debbie-Wasserman-SchultzDebbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee has been dropped from the party’s lineup of convention speakersfollowing WikiLeaks’ release of explosive DNC emails showing members of the organization actively working against the Bernie Sanders campaign.

A Democratic insider told CNN that Schultz has been dropped from the lineup to “keep the peace” within the party, amid calls from Sanders’ campaign manager for someone at the DNC to be “held accountable” for the anti-Sanders collusion seen in the leaked emails.

 

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Goats In The Pulpit; SBC & FBC Orlando Promote Apostasy (Part 1)

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Bud Ahlheim of Pulpit & Pen begins with a quote from Justin Peters:

Goats heading to churchWhat happened at First Baptist Church Orlando the night of June 14 was the theological equivalent of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a day of infamy. It was the day that a flagship church of the Southern Baptist Convention, quite literally, sold its soul to the devil and “trampled under foot the Son of God.”

In this hard-hitting series, Ahlheim demonstrates that FBC Pastor David Uth is apostate. What egregious act did the pastor commit to bring this charge from Peters, Ahlheim and others?  In part 2, Ahlheim reveals that the shepherd of the sheep invited “Pulse nightclub survivors, friends and relatives of those killed, and the ‘persecuted LGBTQ community’ at large to a prayer service.  Pay particular attention to this point … he hosted a prayer service … not for them … but with them.”

Moreover,

An array of guest speakers – some pastors, others lay leaders – from Orlando area churches were invited to take turns at the pulpit of First Baptist Orlando to offer spiritual encouragement to the “LGBTQ community,” offer a (Gospel-void) message of hope, and to pray with them for healing, hope, and peace.  And that they did, to a large audience gathered in FBC’s 4,500 seat main sanctuary, an audience comprised largely of members of that unregenerate “community.”

Justin Peters aptly noted that what Uth did in defiance to clear Scriptural commands, especially one that should be known and obeyed by a pastor of Uth’s prominence, was nothing less than “an absolute capitulation to today’s culture.”

With this background in mind, following is part 1 of Ahlheim’s piece.

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How “Pokemon GO” is taking tech into dangerous, uncharted waters

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According to Fox News:

Pokemon Go“Pokemon GO” may have taken the world by storm, but amid reports of the first fatal incident related to the craze, experts warn the game is taking tech into hazardous new terrain.

“Most people, apparently, are having a good time and nothing bad is happening to them, but I do think that it creates a lot of opportunity bad things to happen,” Roger Kay, president of tech research firm Endpoint Technologies, told FoxNews.com.

The free augmented reality game lets players ‘capture’ Pokemon, or digital creatures, at real locations using their smartphones, but has fueled fears over distracted pedestrians, dangerous trespassing and criminals preying on unsuspecting gamers. The “Pokemon GO” craze reportedly claimed its first fatal victim when an 18-year-old playing the game was ambushed in Guatemala. The teenager died after being shot, according to news reports. There have also been multiple reports of “Pokemon GO” players falling victim to robberies and assaults.

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The Difference Between Privacy Rights in Abortion and Same-Sex Locker Rooms Cases

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According to The Daily Signal:

When most Americans consider the right to privacy they think about the privacy they enjoy in their homes and person. They don’t think about killing unborn children in the womb.

But that is not true of liberal activists. To them, the right to privacy is all about abortion because seemingly everything is about abortion on demand: a non-negotiable doctrine of the secular-political faith.

So it comes as no surprise that ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser sees Alliance Defending Freedom’s simultaneous defense of young boys’ and girls’ right to privacy in school showers and locker rooms and strong and unwavering opposition to abortion as hypocritical.

But he misses the mark completely.

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First-Ever Human Gene Editing Trial To Commence In China

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Abigal Abrams of Time reports on CRISPR-Cas9  which is a “new method of genetic engineering that allows scientists to edit DNA with precision and relative ease.”

DNAA group of Chinese scientists will be the first in the world to use the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology on humns in a clinical trial set to begin next month.

The team plans to start by testing cells in people with lung cancer, the science journal Nature reported. The trial received approval from the ethical review board at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital in Chengdu on July 6.

CRISPR is a powerful technology that has the potential to change human lives by allowing scientists to remove or edit genetic mutations responsible for incurable diseases.

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The Republican Party Was Redefined on Thursday

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Breitbart reports:

Donald Trump 3On the Friday broadcast of “Fox & Friends,” Daily Caller editor and “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Tucker Carlson said Thursday’s Republican National Convention “completely redefined” the GOP on Thursday.

According to Carlson, the Republican Party is now a nationalist party that is focused on the middle class.

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Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: “There Is No Gay Gene”

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CNSNews reports:

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and former psychiatrist–in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has studied sexuality for 40 years, said it is a scientific fact that “there is no gay gene.”

“Environment,” however, “is very important,” said Dr. McHugh, author of The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. He also explained that the permissive sexual culture in the United States today has confused “desire” with “love,” and that homosexuality is a false or “erroneous desire.”

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TBN’s Holy Land Experience to unload furniture, statues amid financial turmoil

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Holy Land ExperienceNot surprisingly, Word of Faith prosperity teacher Jan Crouch, who started Trinity Broadcasting Network with husband Paul, had amassed a fortune.  News reports reveal that Mrs. Crouch was worth $50 million at the time of her death in May.  Now her Newport Beach house is on the market for $4.6 million. “Dubbed ‘Villa Cielo,’ the four-bedroom house sits on an ocean-view hilltop in guard-gated Harbor Ridge, and boasts Calacatta marble, two kitchens and a ‘secret room.'”

According to Orlando Sentinel, the Crouch’s theme park, Holy Land Experience, is “struggling with a sea of red ink in recent financial reports.” As a result, “hundreds of ornate couches, thrones, nativity statues, costumes — and even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle,” are up for sale.  Moreover, the Crouch family are also in the process of closing gift stores in Tennessee and California.

An attorney for the network, John Casoria, said in an email that the not-for-profit companies have experienced a drop in revenue as TBN voluntarily ended the practice of live telethons to raise money in 2012.

“We have had to do some belt-tightening as well, which gives rise to the auctions and the closing of unprofitable gift stores,” Casoria wrote.

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HT Apostasy Watch

Trump calls Cruz non-endorsement “no big deal,” senator defends decision

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During his speech on Wednesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz chose not to endorse Donald Trump for president and was booed by the crowd.  This morning Cruz, who is a professing Christian, defended himself at a breakfast with Texas delegates.  According to reports, he admitted that he still holds a grudge against Trump for “maligning” his wife and father.  Fox News has the story:

Donald Trump mostly brushed off the furor over Ted Cruz’s non-endorsement speech Wednesday night, calling the snub “no big deal” even as the senator himself doubled down – though the Republican standard-bearer used the dispute to warn voters that if Democrats win in November, their justices “will destroy us all.”

Trump blasted out a pair of tweets responding to the Cruz speech backlash.

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California Board of Education Votes to Include Homosexuality in Lessons Second Grade and Up

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According to Christian News Network:

Child blowing bubblesThe California Board of Education has voted unanimously to comply with a state law requiring homosexuality to be incorporated into history and social studies lessons from the second grade and up.

In 2012, California lawmakers passed the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, which requires the inclusion of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans” in history lessons, along with people groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, disabled persons and others.

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Bill Johnson’s Feelings Hurt For Being Called “False Teacher”

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Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen examines “Apostle” Bill Johnson of Bethel Church’s egregious heresy. According to Romans 16:17 believers are to “Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ…” In light of his false teaching, Bill Johnson is to be marked and avoided.

Wolf - Little Red Riding Hood

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. – 2 Peter 2:1

Recently, a member of our Facebook group alerted us to a review that she had written on Amazon about false teacher, Bill Johnson, to which he replied that he was “hurt” by her remarks.

1

His reply,

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The problem, however, is that we do know quite a bit about his relationship with Jesus. The Scriptures tell us that we will know false teachers by their fruits.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? – Matthew 7:16

So let’s examine some of Bill Johnson’s fruits, shall we?

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Founder of “Muslims for Trump” Delivers Prayer at Republican National Convention

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Christian News Network reports:

The founder of “Muslims for Trump” delivered a prayer at the conclusion of the second day of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, an inclusion that drew opposition from at least one member of the audience.

Sajid Tarar, a Baltimore-area resident who immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in the 1980’s, took the podium shortly before 11 p.m. local time to deliver the benediction.

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Here’s the Controversial Benediction Prayer from Last Night’s RNC

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Donald Trump’s pastor, Mark Burns, a Word of Faith prosperity preacher, is under fire for invoking blatantly partisan language. According to Relevant:

Last night’s Republican National Convention featured a lot of notable appearances throughout the evening (including speeches from Rudy Giuliani and Melania Trump), but one of the most talked-about moments came in the closing moments. Mark Burns, a televangelist and pastor of South Carolina’s Harvest Praise & Worship Center, was invited to the stage to deliver the benediction prayer. But, instead of the typical non-partisan prayers delivered at conventions, Burns ignited controversy by explicitly calling Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton “our enemy.” He said, “Republicans, we got to be united, because our enemy is not other Republicans—but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.”

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SCOTUS Sweeps Away Constitutional Liberties, Creates Nonexistent Rights

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According to CNSNews:

Three recent Supreme Court decisions reveal in the area of personal rights, most of the justices are applying rules unrelated to the U.S. Constitution. In two of the cases, the majority refused to protect rights expressly laid out in the Constitution. In the third, the majority strained to protect a “right” that does not appear there.

The First Amendment protects “free exercise” of religion. In 1993, the Court held—correctly, I believe—when government officials target particular religious beliefs, they violate the First Amendment.

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