Many in the scientific community dispute the notion of climate change. So before climate change is blindly accepted, we must understand that not everyone who promotes it is well informed on the subject. Likewise, there are some climate change promoters whose motives are purely financial as a result of “green” technology. With that in mind, NBC 10 reports that Pope Francis “is preparing the first ever papal letter to the church’s bishops focused on the environment.”
Author Archives: Marsha West
White House Opens First ‘Gender Neutral’ Restroom, Urges Ban on Help for Homosexual Youth
According to Christian News Network:
The White House opened its first “gender neutral” restroom on Wednesday, the same day that an executive order took effect prohibiting federal contractors from doing business with those that “discriminate” based on sexuality or gender identity.
The restroom is located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the West Wing of the White House.
Review: ‘A.D.’ The Heresy Continues
Blogger Sunny Shell reviews A.D., the Bible Continues, a made for TV movie produced by New Age Catholics Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett. In Shell’s opinion, their work is deeply flawed and, in her words, “heretical.” “A more suitable title for what the television show conveys,” says Shell, “would be ‘A.D. The Bible As We’d Like It To Be’”.
This show is no different from not-“The Bible” miniseries and not-“The Son of God” movie. Just as these previous productions created new scenes and dialogue that are not found in the real Bible, with dramatic music and excessive, mystical imagery, ‘A.D.’ proves to flop in facts, but succeeds in fallacious depictions of Christ, His apostles, His disciples and other people who played a role in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the true Son of God.
Obama Calls Out ‘Less Than Loving’ Christians at Prayer Breakfast
NewsMax reports:
President Barack Obama veered in and quickly out of a national debate over religious freedom legislation, calling out Christians as “less than loving” at an annual Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday in Washington, Mediaite reported.
“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Obama told the group, gathered at the Washington Hilton hotel, turning from his scripted speech.
“And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned,” he said as the murmur in the crowd turned audible, Mediate said.
Business leads the way in the fight for LGBT rights
CBS News reports:
No group seemed to play a bigger role in convincing Indiana lawmakers to alter their religious freedom law to ensure it wasn’t used to discriminate against gays and lesbians than the business leaders who went public with their feelings.
Between Apple CEO Tim Cook’s op-ed decrying the law in the Washington Post and the Indianapolis-based Angie’s List putting a $40 million expansion on hold, the swift and stern reaction of the business community grabbed the attention of lawmakers.
Christian fights to clear name over ruling that she ‘bullied’ Muslim by praying for her
Express reports:
Victoria Wasteney claims she was branded a “religious nutcase” and suspended from her senior occupational therapist job in east London.
Her colleague Enya Nawaz, then aged 25, claimed in 2013 that the born-again Christian had tried to convert her.
Last year Miss Wasteney, 38, was handed a written warning by her employers. She still works for the East London NHS Foundation Trust – but not in her specialist field. Miss Nawaz has left the hospital.
NYT WRITER: CHRISTIANS ‘MUST BE MADE’ TO EMBRACE GAY LIFESTYLE
According to Britbart:
In the wake of the Indiana donnybrook over religious liberty, which somehow was transformed overnight into a question of gay rights, it couldn’t be long before the New York Times weighed in against Christians.
Yet who could have expected the draconian measures the Times would propose? Either Christians fully embrace the gay lifestyle, or you will be coerced into doing so.
Op-ed writer Frank Bruni, onetime Times restaurant critic and a gay activist, has written that Christians who hold on to “ossified,” biblically-based beliefs regarding sexual morality have no place at America’s table and are deserving of no particular regard.
Faith school fears as union says teachers must promote gay lifestyle: leaders call for “positive portrayal of same sex relationships” to be made “compulsory”
Daily Mail reports:
Schools should be forced to promote gay relationships in sex education lessons, union leaders say.
The National Union of Teachers has called for a ‘positive portrayal of same sex relationships’ in lessons to be made ‘compulsory’ under the next government.
It said MPs had a duty to tackle ‘homophobia, biphobia and transphobia’ in schools and create a ‘positive climate of understanding about sexuality’.
But critics accused the NUT of ‘thought control’ and said the ‘intolerant’ proposals risked ‘oversexualising’ children at a young age.
Religious conservatives are the targets of discrimination, lawyer says
Los Angeles Times reports:
Jordan Lorence is a veteran attorney who in 2006 represented a female photographer in one of the cases widely cited in the “religious freedom” law debate this week.
From his office in Washington, he has watched the events in Indiana and Arkansas and quickly reached this conclusion: Religious conservatives are the ones being discriminated against for their stance of conscience.
Lorence, the senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious-based legal lobbying group, represented a New Mexico photographer who declined to take photos for a gay wedding.
“Nobody has a religion that says they have to deny service to gay people, the way the other side portrays this issue,” he said. “That completely distorts reality and makes this seem like a segregated lunch counter in the South.”
LGBT group: revoke churches’ 501(c)3 status
According to Conservative Colorado:
Today, in a stunning statement, Jeran Artery, Chairman of Wyoming Equality argued that churches who do not support same sex marriage should lose their tax exempt status.
“Churches that lobby to have freedoms and rights taken away from ANYONE should absolutely have their 501(c)3 status revoked!!”
‘Hope for Iowa’: Iowa churches to distribute Bibles to every home in city
Christian News Network reports:
Nearly twenty Iowa churches will work together this weekend to distribute Bibles to every home in their city—an effort that they say may be the first of its kind.
First Baptist Church of Marshalltown has announced that it, along with 17 other churches, will place 12,000 Bibles in 12,000 homes on Saturday, April 11.
Movie Director Comes to Christ While Filming South Korean Pastor Who Saves Abandoned Babies
Christian News Network reports:
The producer of an acclaimed documentary that recently hit theaters across the country and is currently being shown in churches nationwide is sharing his story of how he came to Christ as a result of his work on the film.
Brian Ivie, 24, is the director of the film “The Drop Box,” a documentary that tells the story of South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak, who is credited with saving countless abandoned babies who might have otherwise have died after being left on the streets by their mothers.
Robert Schuller, Crystal Cathedral megachurch founder, dies
Media outlets are reporting that televangelist and motivational speaker Robert Schuller has died. According to Fox News:
Schuller died early Thursday at a care facility in Artesia, daughter Carol Schuller Milner said. In 2013, Schuller was diagnosed with a tumor in his esophagus that had spread to his lymph nodes and began treatment.
The evil Easter Bunny is going to sacrifice your kids to a pagan goddess, so let’s show the world that we’re not happy that Jesus rose from the dead
This article will no doubt spark a bit of controversy. In it, Stephen John addresses the claims that Easter is pagan in origin. therefore Christians should not celebrate Easter Sunday:
This piece is not about how evil and pagan the Easter bunny and Easter are,” John clarifies. “Or that Easter eggs, especially the red-painted ones, constitute full-blown devil worship and offerings to strange goddesses. Boo! And it’s not about whether or not born-again believers should or should not celebrate Easter—that is your decision. This piece was written from a born-again believer’s perspective and looks at some other Easter-related issues. But please note that you’re not going to get your obsessive, fanatical, and unbiblical anti-Easter fix here. For that, try the Hebrew Roots Movement cult, the Sacred Name Movement cult, your local branch of the Anti-Easter League, the We-Are-All-Jews-Now fan club, or, sadly (in many cases), your local church. Close your mouth.
Planned Parenthood received $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds from 2010–2012
Indiana’s Mike Pence: “We’re not going to change the law”
Controversy stirs as “prophet” Chuck Pierce bestows “mantle” on Mormon Glenn Beck
Christian News Network reports:
Controversy is stirring over reports that “prophet” and speaker Chuck Pierce of Glory of Zion International Ministries ceremonially gave a “mantle” to popular radio host, author and speaker Glenn Beck, who identifies as a Mormon.
Beck appeared at Pierce’s Global Spheres Center in Corinth, Texas this past Sunday, as Falma Rufus, a black civil rights speaker, had reportedly asked Pierce if he would host her family and Beck’s. Pierce posted a photo of Beck’s appearance later that day, which showed Beck being imparted with a spiritual “mantle” as a Jewish tallit was wrapped around him and his wife.
“We were so honored to have Glenn Beck and his family with us at Global Spheres Center this morning!” Pierce wrote. “Here is Glenn receiving his new mantle for the future!”
Christian book chain pulls “Heaven visitation resources” over sufficiency of Scripture resolution
Christian News Network reports:
One of the nation’s largest Christian bookstore chains has announced that it has pulled all of its “Heaven visitation resources” following the passage of a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolution surrounding the “sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife.”
Children’s book about abortion: my sister is “happy ghost”
Here we have another abomination from a far-left advocate of abortion on demand, this time in a children’s book by Mary Walling Blackburn, assistant professor of art at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts. In her book, Blackburn portrays an aborted child as a “happy ghost.” NewsBusters columnist Katie Yoder writes:
The story follows Lee as he (or “she,” as the author stressed) searches for his sister – who might be an apple, a pig, or somewhere in a tree. Lee later decides “Sister is a happy ghost!” and explicitly says he’s glad Sister isn’t around to inconvenience his parents.
Pitiable Capitulating Pro-family Leaders, part 1
By Marsha West
Religious Right, Christian Right, religious conservatives, “values voters” and evangelicals are a few of the titles given to the social and or political groups that wish to hang on to the “traditional family values” (TFV) that are passed on from one generation to the next. These values are defined as “the moral and ethical principles traditionally upheld and transmitted within a family, [such as] honesty, loyalty, industry, and faith.” How they go about this maintenance effort varies drastically. The most radical of these believe they have a mandate from God to occupy all secular institutions and dominate the political process until Christ returns. Unfortunately many evangelicals are participating in this seemingly godly effort, unaware of what’s going on behind the scenes. They’re blindly following Christian Right (CR) leaders down some very dangerous paths.
All In The Family
TFV has its roots in the Bible and is derived from the Ten Commandments. So for Christians there’s nothing wrong with having a desire to hang on to family values, especially when it comes to adopting ethical principles taught in Scripture. In our post-modern culture, however, a growing number of liberal Americans are moral relativists. For these folks there are no moral absolutes and culture, not the Bible, determines right from wrong.
The moral freefall America’s now in stems from the culture war of the 1960s. Expressions such as “anything goes” “if it feels good do it” “sex, drugs and rock and roll” describe the mind-set of the hippie generation. The counter culture movement grew legs in the 1960’s, sprinted into the 21st Century, and continues to gain momentum to this day. The 60’s revolution was actually America’s rebellion against the God of the Bible. Unfortunately much of what was generated then lives on today. I’ll touch on that in a moment.
The problem isn’t with the folks who care about TFV; it lies with some—not all– of the organizations that are fighting on the front lines of the culture war battlefield. In their zeal to defeat liberalism and to bring a modicum of sanity back to America, the CR joined forces with outright heretics, blurring the line that separates orthodoxy from heresy. At one time evangelical was used to differentiate Protestantism from Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity.
In today’s culture evangelicals are identified with far right Republicans. It is true, this might be an accurate comparison for some, but by definition an evangelical is a believer who holds that Scripture is the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God and the authority by which they live their lives; likewise evangelicals believe in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, what the Bible says about sin, and of course salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. (Ephesians 2:8) In other words, evangelicals held to the fundamentals of the faith. They shared the Gospel of Christ with the lost as they were commanded to do. (Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8, 1 Peter 3:15) They believed that people are dead in their sins and in need of a Savior. As I implied, for some self-professed evangelicals, these actions are no longer part of their mandate. I say self-professed, mainly because the name evangelical has been hijacked by liberals who say they’re Christians even though they reject many of the fundamentals of the faith. Liberals would never “push their religious views” on someone else. You might ask why they choose not to share the gospel. From their point of view, Christians don’t have a personal responsibility to share their faith because they believe it’s possible for the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, etc., to remain in his/her religion and still be saved. My point is, when someone says they’re an evangelical in today’s world, it doesn’t really tell you anything.
God Forbid!
“This is a revolutionary age,” said Ray Stedman several decades ago. “The hurricane winds of change are blowing everywhere in our world. The race seethes with unrest and lawless rebellion. What are Christians to do in this hour? Should we surrender the greatest revolutionary message the world has ever heard, which can come to it from no other source, and content ourselves with doing what any worldling can do?
“Shall we become nothing more than another political action group or succumb to the fallacy that change, any kind of change, represents progress? God forbid!”
Stedman went on to say that as Christians we must “heed our calling…renew our commitment to the Lord, who is behind all things, to become individually responsible to tell this radical, revolutionary, life—transforming good news throughout society; that we should invade commercial and industrial life, education and learning, the arts and family life, morals and government with this tremendous, unequaled message.”
The pro-family movement has closed its collective ears to prophetic voices such as Ray Stedman’s. What they’ve done instead is invade society with the not so transforming gospel of pragmatism.
Pro-family Movement Teaming With Wolves
So in essence isn’t the pro-family movement spreading this unequaled message Stedman referred to so long ago? To a limited degree yes, but the sacrifices they’ve made to achieve their goals are significant. Pro-family groups are rife with wolves in sheep’s clothing. Some of them are celebrities who have, not only name recognition that draw crowds to events, they also have oodles of money that they generously share…especially when it comes to mustering additional support for their own private agendas.
Scripture has plenty to say about cavorting with false teachers. The Lord Jesus went after them, calling them “white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones,” even worse “ravenous wolves.” He made it clear that His followers are to have nothing to do with wolves. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). Rather than exposing evil doers, many pro-family leaders promote their unfruitful works as well as pray with and even pal around with them.
They’ve obviously forgotten the Apostle Paul’s warning:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-8).
Don’t think pro-family leaders are unaware that they’re playing with fire. They know! In fact, they’ve been warned countless times. They’ve been challenged. They’ve been chastised. They’ve been clobbered by discernment bloggers who’ve tried to get them to look at evidence that clearly demonstrates that they’ve joined forces with ravenous wolves, ironically to “Reclaim America.”
I have a question for “evangelical” leaders who say they represent “values voters”: Have you ever read Isaiah 6:1-8? No? Well, I’ve provided a link to it. After you’ve finished reading it, some of you may fall on your faces and cry, “Woe is me…” Why? Because you haven’t had a clear picture of the God you claim to serve. If you understood His holiness – His power and might and radiant glory–you’d heed His command: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” ( 2 Corinthians 6:14) Anyone who knowingly invites wolves into the sheep pen is walking in darkness – woe to you! “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones sums it up this way:
The real motive for living the holy life should be that it pleases God, and that sin is displeasing to Him. I must not set up my own little standard of holiness and rectitude and my little moral code, and pride myself that I am a man who always keeps his word and lives up to his own code and standard. That is ultimately unChristian. The world acts frequently from such a motive. The only true motive for holy living is that it grieves God and offends Him when I am not holy. My desire must be to please Him; not simply to obey the divine law, but to give joy to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. That should be the motive in all our actions and activities. (H/T Glenn E. Chatfield)
Before I shed light on what’s at the root of the collapse of evangelicalism and why the pro-family movement is partly to blame for insisting on aligning with apostates and cultists who teach a false gospel, perhaps some background would be helpful.
I’m not a fan of Wikipedia, however for purposes of defining the Christian Right they’ve done an excellent job. To paraphrase: CR evangelicals are Bible believing Christians; as such they oppose abortion on demand, euthanasia, human embryonic stem cell research, both eugenics and human enhancement (transhumanism), and hold to the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Thus, CR opposes the expansion of civil marriage for same-sex couples and same-sex child adoption. CR also opposes the legalization of drugs and prostitution. They support censoring pornography, obscenity, indecency, the death penalty, the rule of law, and a defense of “Western civilization from the challenges of modernist culture and totalitarian governments.”
So you can see that evangelicalism is the antithesis of the Secular Humanist religion (yes, it’s a religion, the religion of atheism). Those who identify as secularists are vehemently non-theistic. Without getting too far afield, under the guise of separation of church and state, they’ve made great strides in pushing their godless religion and values on society. The way they see it, organized religion is the enemy of freedom – the freedom to do anything you wish “as long as you’re not hurting anyone.” The anti-God crowd has been chipping away at the “free exercise of religion” guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution for decades.
Collapse Of Evangelicalism
The media as well as evangelicals have been snookered by Social Justice Christians (SJC) who have put on the cloak of evangelical Christianity. Social justice is a euphemism for socialism. And whether SJC realize it or not, they’ve bought into a belief system that’s deeply rooted in Marxism. These so-called evangelicals desire to see people free of starvation, sickness and suffering. To that end, they think it’s necessary to level the playing field. In other words, redistribute wealth. To put it in the common man’s vernacular, robbing Peter to pay Paul. Biblical Christianity has nothing in common with socialism, as it’s a wicked system. Likewise, biblical Christianity has nothing in common with liberalism. In fact, “liberal Christian” is an oxymoron in the same way that original copy…awfully good…gay Christian is an oxymoron.
The media and evangelicals are also unaware that many “Christians” in the social justice movement reject the fundamentals of the faith! For example, some reject Jesus Christ as the only Savior of the world (John 14:6); salvation as God’s free gift to those who believe in Christ apart from good works (Romans 3:24, 28) and the inspiration and authority of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). Because of these and many other decidedly unbiblical beliefs, those who buy into this movement are no more Christians than a wolf wearing fleece is a lamb.
As I previously said, Biblical Christianity is all about sharing the gospel of Christ and discipling the lost. (Matthew 28:18-20)
So – why are professing Christians drawn into unbiblical movements like social justice? For the reason that they don’t read/study their bibles to see what God says. Instead they get their marching orders from sinful men. And because of their willful ignorance and their willingness to cast the Bible aside and fall in line behind personalities, a growing number of evangelicals don’t know enough about their faith to share what they believe and why they believe it with someone who asks them probing questions. The term I coined to describe professing Christians such as these is “low-information evangelical” (LIE). Space does not allow for a detailed explanation of LIE, so those who wish to know more will find my articles here. I’ll use variations of LIE such as LIE-celeb throughout the remainder of this series.
Who are the LIE-celebs by name and how have they gone wrong? I’ll name names in part 2.
Resources:
The Religious Right uniting with Religious Renegades (naming names)—By Marsha West
Christian leaders: It’s about time you test false teachers (naming names)—By Marsha West
Copyright 2015 by Marsha West
Possible evidence for Noah’s flood found at bottom of Atlantic Ocean
Christian News Network reports:
Scientists exploring the Atlantic Ocean have discovered mysterious metallic nodules on the ocean floor that may provide telltale evidence of the Great Flood.
Last month, a German research team announced the discovery of dense clusters of manganese nodules on the ocean floor. Using a mesh net intended to scoop up marine life, the researchers accidentally brought up balls of manganese ore from over three miles below the water’s surface.
Michael Reagan: brother’s atheism ad a slap to father
News Max reports:
Michael Reagan, a political commentator and son of former President Ronald Reagan, says a recent ad that his brother, Ron Reagan, is in, touting his atheism, is a slap in the face of his father.
“For Ron to do the ad is one thing, but the way he ends the ad was, ‘I’m Ron Reagan, I’m not afraid to burn in hell,’ just slaps our father in the face in a terrible, terrible way…”
Megachurch leader drops celibacy requirement for ‘gay’ members – as long as sex is within ‘marriage’
Christian News Network reports:
The leader of a megachurch in San Francisco has announced that it will no longer require members who struggle with feelings toward the same-sex to remain celibate—as long as the sexual activity is within “marriage”—an announcement that has led to
“Our pastoral practice of demanding life-long ‘celibacy,’ by which we meant that for the rest of your life you would not engage your sexual orientation in any way, was causing obvious harm and has not led to human flourishing,” Fred Harrell of City Church, the largest professing evangelical church in San Francisco, announced in a letter on Friday.
Jeb Bush just hired an adviser with extensive ties to the religious right
According to Business Insider:
Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise PAC has hired an evangelical Christian legal advocate, Jordan Sekulow, as a senior adviser. The move could be a crucial step in Bush’s outreach to the religious right as he tries to win over dubious voters in the conservative grassroots ahead of the 2016 GOP presidential primary.
Sekulow is the Executive Director of the conservative legal advocacy group American Center for Law & Justice. The group was founded by televangelist-turned-university-president Pat Robertson in 1990 as a conservative alternative to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Brian Houston & Mark Driscoll: the ‘disgraceful’ invites the ‘disgraced’ to further disgrace Christ and Christianity
Church Watch Central pulls no punches in bringing to light what’s going on with celebrity preachers:
When you have popular leaders of movements who appear to HATE God’s Word by rejecting what God says the qualifications are for leaders/elders, you have unrepentant men in positions of power. Both Brian Houston and Mark Driscoll (among others speaking this year) are serious threats to the global Christian Church unless people start voting with their feet on issues of Christian integrity.