According to Christian News Network:
Two Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have introduced a bill that would interpose against June’s same-sex “marriage” ruling and defend the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as being the union of one man and one woman.
Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Woodruff, and Rep. Mike Burns, R-Taylors, recently filed Bill 4513 in the General Assembly, otherwise known as the South Carolina Natural Marriage Defense Act.
Discernment Research Group has a piece on the best-selling Christian New Age book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. Buyer beware! According to the article, Jesus Calling devotions are similar to horoscopes or a “fortune” in a fortune cookie. The devotions are ambiguous. The way they’re worded is open to several meanings or interpretations. Sadly, many professing Christians, especially women, are reading this occult book.
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Jesus. Which Jesus?
How can someone open the door to the knock of any voice claiming to be Jesus? Why is it so easy for people to listen to another Jesus? How can a person so readily follow this Jesus?
Well, what if this Jesus appealed to you in the following way. . . wouldn’t you be tempted to open the door to him?
Jesus is a soft, fluffy, comfortable Jesus who is your best friend. He is always there to share the burden of your troubles, wipe away your tears, give you peace, and keep you feeling warm and comfortable inside. To experience the presence of Jesus you need to do things such as remember him, whisper his name, trust him, and turn to him when you are in need.(RUN! p. 70)
It seems that millions of people are now listening to this “soft, fluffy” Jesus. If it is so comforting to listen to this comfy Jesus, it explains how easily people will follow an imposter Christ, an anti-Christ who appears at their door wearing “warm and comfortable” sheep’s clothing (Luke 21:8; Matt. 7:5).
Christian News Network reports:
In his first-ever video declaring what is known as his “prayer intentions,” the Roman Catholic leader Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, called for dialogue and collaboration among those of the various world religions on Tuesday, who he asserted were simply “seeking or meeting God in different ways.”
“Most of the planet’s inhabitants declare themselves believers,” he states in the production released on the Feast of Epiphany. “This should lead to dialogue among religions. We should not stop praying for it and collaborating with those who think differently.” The video then features clips of those from different world religions declaring belief in their various deities.
According to CNSNews:
A top Marine general predicts that the Defense Department’s vows to maintain the same standards for women and men in combat jobs won’t last, saying the military will eventually be pressured to lower the qualifications so more women can serve in jobs like the Marine infantry.
The public comments by Gen. John Kelly, head of U.S. Southern Command, underscored how strongly the Marines opposed Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s plans to fully integrate women into all combat jobs, including the Marine Corps and special operations forces like Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets. A new, high-level disagreement is erupting over whether the Marine Corps must also fully integrate its 12-week recruit training program at Parris Island in South Carolina.
Christian News Network reports:
The governor of Texas has proposed a Constitutional Convention of States that would amend the U.S. Constitution in an effort to take back states’ rights and override federal decisions with a majority vote.
In an address on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott, introduced what he called “The Texas Plan,” which seeks to strengthen founder’s original intent of the Tenth Amendment, which declares, “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
This new study will not surprise those who have a biblical worldview. Scripture tells us that God’s intention from the beginning is for children to have both a mother and a father who are married to each other. The Telegraph has the full report:
Strong fatherly involvement in their early life can also improve a child’s future career prospects, the research shows.
Academics at the University of Newcastle, who carried out the study, also found that men tended to pay more attention to their sons than their daughters.
The researchers warned that it was not enough for parents to live together, but that a father should be actively involved in a child’s life to benefit their development.
The study looked at more than 11,000 British men and women, born in 1958.
The scientists asked their mothers how often the father of their child took part in activities with them, including reading, organising outings and general “quality time”.
According to CNSNews:
Rep. Chris Smith, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, said on the House floor on Wednesday that Planned Parenthood is “Child Abuse, Incorporated,” and that the group “dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every 2 minutes.”
In its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood said its affiliates performed 323,999 abortion procedures in fiscal 2014 (which ended on Sept. 30, 2014). Given that there are 525,600 minutes in a 365-day year, that means Planned Parenthood’s 323,999 abortions in fsical 2014 averaged one every 1.62 minutes.
Elizabeth Prata of The End Time examines the ministry of beloved apologist Ravi Zacharias. The things she reveals about Ravi will not sit well with many Christians, some may even choose to go on the attack. Now, I’m the fist to admit that I don’t like it when someone is critical of a Christian leader I hold in high esteem. My tendency is to hit the denial button and place my head in the sand. “Noooooo, this can’t be true!” But in these troubling times in which we live, more often than not we discover that the charges are true for the reason that information, both negative and positive, is easily gleaned from the Internet. Continue reading
Boston Globe reports:
In a decision being called the first of its kind nationally, a state judge has ruled that an all-girls Catholic school in Milton discriminated against a gay man when it rescinded a job offer after learning he was in a same-sex marriage.
Matthew Barrett accepted a position as food services director at Fontbonne Academy in 2013, but the school withdrew the offer days later after Barrett listed his husband as an emergency contact on an employee form, according to a 21-page court ruling issued Wednesday.
Matthew Barrett accepted a position as food services director at Fontbonne Academy in 2013, but the school withdrew the offer days later after Barrett listed his husband as an emergency contact on an employee form, according to a 21-page court ruling issued Wednesday.
Barrett’s lawyer, Ben Klein of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the decision marks the first time a judge has rejected a religious organization’s assertion that it had a constitutional right not to hire employees because they were spouses in same-sex marriages.
“Marriage equality has been the law of Massachusetts for over a decade and is now the law of the land,” Klein said. “But you can’t have equality if you can get married on Saturday and fired on Monday.”
According to Christian News Network:
Officials at a prominent Christian-identified university in Illinois have moved to fire an associate political science director who was placed on leave after she declared in a self-initiated campaign to fight “Islamophobia” that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
As previously reported, professing Christian Larycia Hawkins posted to Facebook two photos of herself wearing a hijab last month, and stated in a lengthy explanation that she planned to wear it everywhere she goes during the Advent—including at the Christian college and to church.
“I stand in human solidarity with my Muslim neighbor because we are formed of the same primordial clay, descendants of the same cradle of humankind—a cave in Sterkfontein, South Africa that I had the privilege to descend into to plumb the depths of our common humanity in 2014,” Hawkins wrote.
Looks like WND will publish a book by noted conservative historian David Barton that the publisher, Thomas Nelson, quickly pulled from the shelves for the reason that “basic truths just were not there.” World Magazine has the story:
David Barton’s controversial The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed about Thomas Jefferson will soon be back. Thomas Nelson published it in April 2012 and then pulled it from bookstore shelves as historians criticized its accuracy. WND Books, publishing arm of the conservative website World Net Daily, will re-release the book on Jan. 16.
Barton, founder and president of the WallBuilders organization, was for several decades a popular Christian history writer and lecturer, but his reputation took a major hit during the summer of 2012 when the History News Network voted The Jefferson Lies as the “Least Credible History Book in Print.” Shortly after that, several prominent conservative Christian scholars began to question the scholarship behind Barton’s work.
The Marco Rubio campaign announced a couple of “evangelicals” who will be advising Rubio on religious issues as well as reaching out to the religious community. Pulpit & Pen has the story:
We’ve been reporting for quite some time now that evangelicals, especially Southern Baptists, have been fawning over staunch Roman Catholic (the one who knows and fully agrees with Roman Catholic doctrine), Marco Rubio. Many Southern Baptists have gone as far as to say they believe he is saved (See here, and here). The SBC’s lead ethicist, Russell Moore, has all but officially endorsed Rubio. In fact, Marco Rubio even enlisted the ecumenist, and director of the Manhattan Declaration, Eric Teetsel as part of his campaign to “reach out to evangelicals.” And apparently he has succeeded in doing so.
Recently announced was a host of new “evangelicals” who have volunteered to “advise” Marco Rubio on religious issues, and reaching out to the religious community. Interestingly enough, all but one are names you would expect to find working for a Roman Catholic.
From Berean Research:
In the headlines for several days is Burns, a small town in rural Oregon where a standoff between an armed militia and the United States Federal Government is in progress. The leader of the militia is Ammon Bundy, along with his brother Ryan and several other militia members who are believed to be from Arizona and Nevada.
When the the Bundy militia took up arms against this nation, they declared the United States to be irredeemable and its government to be illegitimate.
Yesterday on The Briefing, Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, commented:
what many in the media have missed is what is there right before our eyes, and that is this, there is a very interesting theological dynamic and a theological worldview behind this militia and its members. The first key, the first clue to understanding this, is the fact that the spokesman for the militia identifies himself as Captain Moroni. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with the book of Mormon, with Mormon history and theology will recognize immediately the name Moroni.
Mohler points us to a piece John Sepulvado wrote for Oregon Public Radio where we learn just who this Captain Moroni is and what’s behind the militia’s worldview. Sepulvado writes:
According to Christian News Network:
The Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to strike down new abortion regulations in Texas that some say would close most of the abortion facilities in the state. The brief was one of 45 filed by entities from across the country, including members of Congress and various state attorney generals.
Many Christians don’t realize that in Alcoholics Anonymous all gods are called a “higher power” which reduces the Lord Jesus Christ to just another nameless diety among many. Does Jesus teach what A.A. teaches? No, says John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire. In this piece Lanagan reveals how A.A. actually denies the true gospel of Christ:
“We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe.”– A.A. Big Book, (the A.A. “bible”), pg.75 (bold mine)
The above quote is just one of the references to a “broad” path of spirituality in the A.A. Big Book.
Here is another:
“We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of the Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men. When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.” –From the A.A. Big Book, pp.46-47 (bold mine)
Berean Research takes on women’s ministry celebs and their counterfeit conferences where women who attend leave spiritually famished because they were not fed the Word of God. Do these sorts of events help women grow spiritually? Not so much says Amy. She writes:
Not to sound too needy, but we women are hungry, and we want to be fed often, and now!
If I may speak just for a second for the whole group: most of us don’t know why we are starving or what we are hungry for.
The problem is, we’re likely to get a good rush from experiences and feelings. But those things aren’t real food. They’re like the Oleo our moms and grandmas used; a cheap counterfeit that’s dangerously bad for your health – even in small quantities.
Unfortunately that’s what most mega conferences for women are all about. Cheap thrills from famous ladies I’ll call “celebritistas,” who’ve made a lot of money serving up empty promises of a better life than you’re living now. Chills that go up your spine, a liver shiver or two, and then it’s over. You’re left with the usual conference confetti of expensive books and endless email ads inviting you to the next experience.
Christian News Network reports:
The U.S. Postal Service has provided a preview of its new stamp designs for 2016, which include a stamp commemorating the Islamic holidays Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
While Islamic holiday stamps are not new, being first released in 2001, the design for the 2016 stamp is among those revamped for the new year.
Christian Examiner has the story from Belfast:
After a lengthy trial in which a prominent Islamic cleric came to the defense of an Irish pastor’s free speech rights, the pastor has been cleared of insulting Islam, the BBC has reported.
James McConnell, now retired, was found not guilty of “grossly offensive” remarks about Islam he made during a sermon at Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast in 2014. According to prosecutors, McConnell violated the 2003 Communications Act, which prohibits irreverent speech about other races, genders, sexual orientations or religions, when he referred to Islam as “Satanic” and “heathen.”
According to the Associated Press:
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday the idea of religious neutrality is not grounded in the country’s constitutional traditions and that God has been good to the U.S. exactly because Americans honor him.
Scalia was speaking at a Catholic high school in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana. Scalia, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 is the court’s longest serving justice. He has consistently been one of the court’s more conservative members.
Christian Nets Network reports:
Scientists who have long been puzzled by the origins of Earth’s water are beginning to believe it originated deep inside of the planet—just like the Bible describes.
Where did our planet’s water come from? This question remains a hotly-debated issue among geologists and astronomers, who concede that it is still largely a mystery. Evolutionists who believe the Earth was originally a hot molten sphere abounding with toxic gases have struggled to make sense of the abundance of water currently on our planet.
According to The Jerusalem Post:
An agreement signed last year making the Vatican’s de facto recognition of a Palestinian state in 2012 official has come into effect, the Holy See said on Saturday.
The Vatican signed its first treaty with the “State of Palestine” last June when it called for moves to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and backed a two-state solution.
“… the Holy See and the State of Palestine have notified each other that the procedural requirements for (the accord’s) entry into force have been fulfilled, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday.
The Washington Times reports:
With same-sex marriage now legal nationwide, lawmakers in numerous states are preparing for a new round of battles in 2016 over whether to grant discrimination protections to LGBT people or religious exemptions to nonprofits and businesses that object to gay marriage.
The tussle over civil rights and religious freedoms is one of several hot-button issues that could drive states in opposite policy directions, as lawmakers seek to appeal to voters during a year in which more than 5,800 state legislative seats will be up for election.
Christian News Network shares a Reuters story:
Nearly 200 workers, mostly Somali immigrants, have been fired from a meat-packing plant in Colorado after staging a walkout to protest what they said were insufficient prayer accommodations, the company and Islamic advocacy groups said on Thursday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the workers were treated in a “discriminatory manner” by managers at the Cargill Meat Solutions [CARGIL.UL] facility in Fort Morgan, about 75 miles northeast of Denver.
From Berean Research:
Elizabeth Prada of The End Times reports that Bible teacher and author Beth Moore, a Southern Baptist, will make her debut on a weekly television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. TBN was founded by Word of Faith heretics Paul and Jan Crouch. Many high-profile Christians choose not to appear on TBN because they believe that doing so would be akin to dancing with the devil.
So it is curious that Beth Moore will be doing a weekly show on TBN. Prada fills us in on the details.
From Berean Research:
C.H. Fisher of TruthKeepers has a challenge for professing Christians: Don’t let this be the generation that sits idly by while evil darkens every sacred truth with lies.
If anyone believes that it is easy to maintain a stand against the encroaching darkness, let me offer a bit of testimony here. It is not easy at all. Oh, it’s easy to make the stand, but maintaining it is quite another matter. I’ve been at this for 35 years, and it has not gotten easier. I’m not going to get into all the details lest someone thinks that I’m setting the table for a pity party. I just want people to know that they are to expect the opposition to be fierce when they stand for truth and righteousness. That’s why many have quit standing and many more will not even make an attempt to stand.
However, one day we will all be called before God’s Judgment Throne to give an account of our lives here on earth. There are all sorts of doctrines that people can hide behind to avoid being alarmed at that prospect. However, Christ clearly said that “whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33) In my opinion, not to oppose the evil that denies Him before the masses makes the guilty Christian culpable with that denial.