Theology Learned in the Flames of Adversity

Luther maintained that theology is not learned only in the safety of a lecture hall, but in the flames of adversity. In fiery trials, one is humbled and broken. It is then that a leader is made most teachable. In difficult times, the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit often shines brightest. Broken hearts make for receptive minds.”

(Steven Lawson – Ligonier Ministries)  In 1527, Martin Luther experienced a trial so severe that church historian Philip Schaff described that year simply as “the disastrous year.” It was the time of Luther’s “severest spiritual and physical trials.” As the leading figure of the Reformation, Luther paid a high price in the struggle for truth, and his physical condition deteriorated under the movement’s mounting demands…. Continue reading

Bethel Church Does Damage Control over ‘Grave Sucking’- Fails Miserably

Jeff Jensen of Bethel Church “grave sucking”

“Talk about spin and playing down what was actually said.”

(Protestia) As Bill Johnson and the apologists of Bethel Church continue to directly confront controversies in YouTube Web series titled “Rediscover Bethel,” courtesy of in-depth Q&A that addresses some of their beliefs and distinctive, they come to the question of “grave soaking” and whether or not this is a normative practice for the biblically illiterate Bethelites.

In the linked clip the Dean of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, Dann Farrelly, explains that he’s been with Bethel and Johnson for 25 years, and that “we never taught uh this experience that I see described on the web that’s grave sucking. Never taught it, never done it.” Continue reading

A Clear Message from the 48th General Assembly of the PCA

“In the weeks and months ahead you will no doubt be hearing a lot of criticisms of Overtures 23 and 37. Indeed, the vitriol displayed on social media by the critics of the overtures has been swift and furious. It’s understandable. Those who opposed 23 and 37, while making up a clear minority in the PCA, are passionate in their opposition.”

(Todd Pruitt – Reformation 21)  The 48th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America was held in St. Louis last week (June 29-July 1) and so far, the dust has not yet settled…. Continue reading

JD Greear Admits to Purchasing Sermon Material to Make Himself ‘Look Good’

“[The] pastors who use this service don’t actually spend time exegeting the text and letting the text shape their own theology–rather, they have presuppositions to the text, and this research group will prepare sermons for them based on their own doctrinal beliefs…”

(Reformation Charlotte) In the midst of the exposure of the largest Evangelical plagiarism scandal in modern times, it has become increasingly clear that the vast majority of the leadership in the Evangelical world are frauds…. Continue reading

New Emails Raise New Allegations of Influence Peddling By Hunter Biden And Direct Knowledge Of President Biden

“The new emails contain additional information directly contradicting President Biden. In addition to earlier pictures from golf trips and references to his involvement or knowledge, new material refers to a notable dinner arranged in Washington, D.C.”

(Jonathan Turley – We have previously discussed the concerted and often embarrassing blackout in the media on stories involving Hunter Biden’s influence peddling during his father’s tenure as Vice President. That includes the burying of the laptop story and the growing contradictions over his father’s denial of any knowledge or involvement in his shady business dealings…. Continue reading

Study: Rising CO2 IS a Deadly Problem — in Kids’ Bodies — Because of Face Masks

“In the study, researchers asked forty-five kids between the ages of six and 17 to wear face masks for a very short period of time in a controlled environment. Within just three minutes, they found that kids were inhaling carbon dioxide up to more than six times the acceptable limit for adults. The younger the children, the higher the concentration of carbon dioxide.” 

(Selwyn Duke – The New American)  Will we one day view masking children as akin to giving them, as was once done, radium candy? It increasingly seems so, and now yet another study has found that putting kids in masks to prevent COVID-19 is not only unnecessary, but highly dangerous to their health. Continue reading

To Eradicate Critical Theories in K-12 Parents Need to Know about the Invisible Layer of Control

“Cognia, the company who decides if your child’s school is up to snuff, has a business model that’s tough to beat: A non-governmental organization supported by government funding. Put another way, Cognia lives off the taxpayers’ teat, but is accountable to no one. Not bad work if you can get it.”

(Stacy Lennox – PJ Media) The battle over curriculum using critical theories in the K-12 classroom is raging nationwide. Legislatures have taken up the issue in some states, either mandating or prohibiting these curriculums…. Continue reading

Defund the FBI

While the U.S. southern border remains wide open for drug and human smugglers and neighborhoods in inner cities resemble Third-World war zones each night, the country’s top law enforcement agency, with an almost religious zeal, is hunting down sightseeing grandmothers, disabled veterans, and other Americans. There’s even valid  speculation the FBI isn’t just working this operation from the outside but from the inside, too.

(Julie Kelly – American Greatness)  t’s been a gold star week for the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nearly six months after the events of January 6, the FBI, under the direction of Joe Biden’s vengeful Justice Department, is accelerating the nationwide manhunt for anyone involved. Since June 23, agents have arrested 17 people from Florida to California…. Continue reading

PCA is on track to be another denominational domino to topple

“If religious feeling makes confessional truth subservient to the changing aspect of our communities, then it should be no real surprise that what we are seeing happen in the “current” sexual revolution is redefining of what is means to be confessional based on the religious experience of the moment. This is what the PCA is up against and, well, all of us together as believers in Christ.”

(Chris Gordon – Freidrich Schleiermacher, the PCA, and Side B Christianity)

The struggle in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) over confessional identity is a microcosm of the macrocosm. The current discussions reveal that the PCA is on track to be another denominational domino to topple along with the mainline churches who have embraced theological liberalism…. Continue reading

Why the Coming Split in the Southern Baptist Convention Is Inevitable

“Here’s the bottom line that the SBC’s “woke” leaders better wake up to (no pun intended): Most of the 14 million Southern Baptists in the denomination’s churches will not sit and be propagandized with CRT or any other false gospel much longer. Keep it up and the SBC will soon be just another dying Protestant has-been.”

(Mark Tapscott – Something is very rotten in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which represents America’s largest Protestant denomination, and it is only a matter of time before it goes the sad way of the mainline Methodists and Presbyterians. Continue reading

Has the Military Lost Middle America?

“Our top officers, active and retired, reveal inconsistent views on recommended readings, ideological indoctrination, and the use of federal troops during domestic crises. They are similarly selective and partisan in shrill criticism of particular presidents. Some blast political opponents with inflammatory comparisons to the Nazis and fascists.” 

(Victor Davis Hanson – American Greatness)  Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. military’s greatest defender. Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets…. Continue reading

Tolkien Society Goes Woke, ‘Finds’ Transgenderism, ‘Antiracism,’ and Queer-ness in The Lord of The Rings

“Perhaps the Tolkien Society is acting on the assumption that no one will be able to speak on behalf of J.R.R. Tolkien to express what would certainly have been his utter disgust at having his works twisted to support the LGBT agenda.”

(Tyler O’Neil – PJ Media)  This weekend, the Tolkien Society is hosting a virtual Summer Seminar, a short academic conference on a theme pertaining to scholarship about J.R.R. Tolkien, the British scholar and author of The Lord of the Rings…. Continue reading

Justification by Association

“Justification by association is a doctrine that has developed as a result of fuzzy theology. Fuzzy theology is not dogmatic, and it is not established by the unchanging Word of God; rather, it consists of theology formulated by compromise. Fuzzy theology has a fundamental principle: We can believe whatever we want to believe as long as what we believe does not offend anyone, as long as it affirms nice things about Jesus, and as long as it doesn’t divide.”

(Burk Parsons – Ligonier Ministries) Over the past few years I have grown increasingly concerned about the state of evangelicalism. There has been a rapid decline of doctrinal integrity, and evangelical churches throughout the country have lost their theological bearings, especially regarding the doctrine of justification…. Continue reading

Is God really the one behind ‘The Chosen,’ as the creator of the series declares?

(Marsha West – Christian Research Network)  Thousands of people, including many Christians, have tuned in to watch the series The Chosen. The series is about Jesus Christ and His disciples, both before and after their ministry began. The Chosen has been a great success and as a result another season is in the offing. In her piece The Chosen  and The Shift, Ingrid McCullough warns that it’s not just a show:

Mr. Jenkins is involved in writing study guides and devotionals that go along with his portrayal of Christ and His followers. Churches and small groups will be watching episodes of The Chosen and using the accompanying materials for the sake of spiritual growth. He argues that The Chosen doesn’t replace Scripture but He does claim that God is the one behind it, wanting to use the series to bring people closer to Christ. This same line of reasoning is used by the LDS to promote the Book of Mormon…

And herein lies the problem and the reason for this article. My chief concern is that most people don’t realize that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a.k.a Mormonism, is involved in producing the series. And that should give Christians pause.

There are a whole host of pseudo-Christian cults around the globe. One of the most well-known cults is Mormonism.  No doubt some will find my assertion that they are caught up in a cult humorous, while others may find it disturbing that I would even suggest such a thing. However, as a Christian I’m not called to be nice; I’m called to speak the truth in love; likewise, I’m called to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Continue reading

Is Joe Biden the reincarnation of Emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned?

“Mr. Biden’s speech on violent crime last week was bizarre and disturbing. He didn’t even mention the defund the police movement.  Or no bail laws.  Or drug gangs who are murdering thousands in cities like Chicago and New York.”

(Joe Biden, Life in the Slow Lane – Bill O’Reilly)  As part of reporting on President Biden, we list his “official” White House schedule on the No Spin News every day.  We do this so Americans can understand that old Joe has a very soft day much of the time. Continue reading

To My Fathers and Brothers: A Plea From Your Sister In the Pew

I need men who unabashedly profess the whole doctrine of God, all of Scripture, who are not ashamed of its direct language. I need pastors who exegete these difficult and sometimes uncomfortable passages, who explain the entirety of God’s Word plainly to me and to my children without embarrassment. I need in my pastors’ examples of personal piety; men who do not shy away from words like purity or are bashful about devoutness. I need pastors who pursue holiness, not charisma. In short, I desperately need Jesus.

(Sarah Morris – The Aquila Report) A few weeks ago, I sat propped up in bed with an embarrassing number of pillows, Tums® bottle in hand, feeling unfathomably huge and wretchedly pregnant. While scrolling through social media in order to distract myself from my own uncomfortable enormity, I stumbled upon an open letter anonymously written by a group of Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) elders self-described as those “who minister where the sin and sadness of a fallen world intersects with the good news of the gospel” to another group of men who were apparently needlessly concerned, “divisive,” and engaged in scaremongering and spreading misinformation in the form of “alarming reports” within the PCA. Continue reading

81,000 Words!? An Analysis of Steven Furtick’s Last 10 Sermons Should End His Career

Stay far away from this deceitful man who rejects God’s word for his own popularity.” 

(Protestia)  An analysis of the 10 hours of ‘Pastor’ Steven Furtick’s sermons has revealed woeful unfaithfulness to the scriptures and a watered-down message of sin and repentance, according to YouTuber Colin Miller.

Using a software program, Miller uploaded nearly 10 hours of audio into an application that could detect and extract all the usages of certain words and phrases from his teaching, enabling him to track his usage and do a word analysis in order to see what sort of things are important, or in this case unimportant to Elevation Church. Continue reading

Buckle Up, Democrats. The Biden Border Backlash Is Coming, and CRT Will Make It Worse

(Tyler O’Neil – PJ Media)  While President Joe Biden may want to distract Americans from the border crisis and downplay the threats of Marxist critical race theory (CRT) and inflation, Americans know better. Most Americans recognize the border crisis as a serious issue, blame Biden’s policies for exacerbating it, and say Biden should return to former President Donald Trump’s policies on the border. Americans also worry about the threat of inflation and oppose CRT in schools. Continue reading

Enneagram Divination: Evidence of an Evangelical Paradigm Shift

“Many evangelicals are no longer standing upon objective facts, biblical truth and rational science. There is a tendency to be emotion-driven, living in the subjective realm. Many are falling into the shifting sands of cultural relativism, media narratives, peer pressures and pseudo-science (2 Tim. 3:62 Cor. 11:3. Many have opened themselves to alternate pathways to “truth”, which now includes the Gnostic, occult and New Age worldview of esoteric and deep secret knowledge (gnosis).” 

(Sarah Leslie – Herescope) It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The graphic exhibit above is from the Winter 1998 issue of Gnosis magazine, which billed itself “A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions.” This is an occult periodical titled with the ancient word gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge.[1] Gnosticism was a potent heresy in the early church, and it has shown up in many guises throughout church history. Continue reading

Why Are They Woke? The systemic con behind wokeism.

“When our elites are clueless about national debt, inflation, illegal immigration, crime, soaring gas prices, and a global pandemic, they reassure themselves that at least they can cancel out Father Junípero Serra or knock down another statue of Robert E. Lee.” 

(Victor Davis Hanson – American Greatness)  There are lots of reasons why wokeism spread like wildfire once America lost its collective mind during the pandemic, quarantine, self-induced recession, and rioting of 2020. Continue reading

The Spiritual Damage Caused By the Rebellion of Women Preachers in the Church

“Is damage being done by the promotion of female preachers? Yes. Historically, women preachers have tended to stress the sensate and the mystical over and above rational, sound doctrine. In other words, the trend among them has been to emphasize spiritual experience over dogmatic and exegetical theology. And, with this trend has come the suggestion — either tacitly or directly — that spiritual experience itself is self-authenticating, and ought not to be challenged or disbelieved.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  Man’s natural wisdom is perpetually pitted against the wisdom of Almighty God. And, this opposition to God’s wisdom is most commonly disguised as pragmatism. In fact, numerous heresies frequently began as ‘pragmatic’ decisions…. Continue reading

Deprogramming of January 6 Defendants Is Underway

“Shaner’s legal captives are learning the hard way what the government will do when one resists their commands to comply. Not only have their personal lives been shattered, finances depleted, and reputations destroyed by an abusive Justice Department investigation, Shaner’s clients must be indoctrinated with leftist propaganda about America’s alleged systemic racism.”

(Julie Kelly – American Greatness)  My lawyer has given me names of books and movies to help me see what life is like for others in our country. I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.” Continue reading

Leaked Docs: Critical Race Theory Seeks to Undermine Equality and the Constitutional Order

“This training is hard proof that Critical Race Theory is being used as a POLITICAL weapon specifically targeting Republicans. This is NOT education. It is political vengeance using the federal education system. They are starting with our children – even in DARK RED STATES.”

(Bryan Preston – PJ Media)  In its own words, critical race theory seeks to overthrow America’s system of government. Leaked mandatory training documents from Iowa’s Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency (MBAEA) make this clear. Continue reading