Berean Research reports:
Christendom’s premiere Emergent organization, Catalyst, is urging women to “exchange whispers with God” on its new Catalyst smartphone app, via featured teacher Lysa Terkeurst:
New Vatican document reflects on relations between Catholics, Jews
From Berean Research:
In a piece over at Catholic News Service – an important read – Cindy Wooden writes:
Catholics are called to witness to their faith in Jesus before all people, including Jews, but the Catholic Church “neither conducts nor supports” any institutional missionary initiative directed toward Jews, says a new document from a Vatican commission.”
How God will save the Jews if they do not explicitly believe in Christ is “an unfathomable divine mystery,” but one which must be affirmed since Catholics believe that God is faithful to his promises and therefore never revoked his covenant with the Jewish people, it says.
More in a moment.
Keep in mind that the apostate Roman Catholic Church (RCC) can say anything it wishes because they say that they alone have the right to interpret Scripture. The RCC “claims to be the one true Church as established by Jesus and His apostles. However, an examination of the doctrines upheld and taught by the RCC demonstrates that it stands in contrast with – and even in opposition to – biblical Christianity. (Source)
As you will see in this piece, it matters not to the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews that the Bible makes it abundantly clear that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The RCC conveniently ignores the Apostle Paul’s very words: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9, 10) And they ignore verse 13, where Paul confirms that the Old Testament promise that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even worse, the RCC also chooses to ignore the words of Jesus in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“No one” bears repeating.
Now, continuing where we left off:
Influence of Churches, Once Dominant, Now Waning in South
According to Jay Reeves of the Associated Press:
Prayers said and the closing hymn sung, tea-drinking churchgoers fill Marble City Grill for Sunday lunch. But hard on their heels comes the afternoon crowd: craft beer-drinking, NFL-watching football fans.
Such a scene would have been impossible just months ago because Sunday alcohol sales were long illegal in Sylacauga, hometown of both the actor who played TV’s Gomer Pyle and the white marble used to construct the U.S. Supreme Court building. While the central Alabama city of 12,700 has only one hospital, four public schools and 21 red lights, the chamber of commerce directory lists 78 churches.
Yet few were surprised when residents voted overwhelmingly in September to legalize Sunday alcohol sales. Churches lacked either the heart or influence to stop it.
Paris Conference Leaders Want You to Think the Planet Is Facing a Climate Change Crisis. That’s Not True.
According to Nicholas Loris of The Daily Signal:
Leaders from around the world, including President Barack Obama, have been saying that the COP21, also known as the Paris climate conference, is the last best hope to save the planet from catastrophic warming.
Evidence and observed data, however, suggest otherwise.
History shows us that this isn’t the only time international leaders have cried that the sky is falling when it comes to global warming.
French President François Hollande said last week that “[n]ever have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, since what is at stake is the future of the planet, the future of life.”
Bermuda Hotel Cancels Heritage Scholar’s Speeches on Same-Sex Marriage for Being “Anti-Diversity”
According to The Daily Signal:
A Bermuda hotel canceled two events this week because the organizers believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman.
Ryan T. Anderson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, was scheduled to speak on marriage at public forums Tuesday and Wednesday at the hotel in Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. But the hotel canceled the events, calling Anderson and others who hold his views “anti-diversity.”
God’s New Sound
From Berean Research:
Kudos to Herescope’s researchers for their willingness to tackle topics many discernment ministries won’t touch. After reading “Part 11: The Physics of Heaven* A Serial Book Review & Theological Interaction” penned by Pastor Larry DeBruyn, you’ll understand why some researches shy away from esoteric topics such as the so-called “physics of heaven.” This is no easy concept to grasp. Even so, pastor DeBruyn does a stellar job conveying what it all means and why we should not take this sort of thing seriously. The book was written by Larry Randolph. Randolph embraces New Apostolic Reformation’s highly unbiblical theology. His teaching is utter nonsense. Take a look at a couple of quotes from the article:
Obama Apologizing to the World for US on Climate Is Ridiculous
Economist Nicholis Loris of The Daily Signal writes:
President Obama’s opening remarks at the Paris climate agreement were effectively an apology for industrial progress. At the kickoff of the talks, Obama remarked, “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem; we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.”
Obama should not be apologizing for the economic growth that dramatically improved Americans’ and much of the world’s quality of life. Instead, the president should apologize for pushing costly and ineffective climate policies that will make us worse off and trap the world’s poorest citizens in poverty.
Bullets For All
“What painful irony!” notes Peter Jones of truthxchange. “Spiritually-ignorant young people, foolishly worshiping “the great Satan,” singing as they die; “I will love the Devil and his song,” butchered in cold blood by religiously-driven Islamist jihadists claiming to serve Allah destroying the “great Satan,” in actions of clearly Satanic inspiration.”
Dr. Jones writes:
What distressing symbolism. The gruesome scene of 89 young Europeans mercilessly gunned down in a Paris theatre by equally youthful radical Muslim assassins will forever be etched on our minds, for it provides an ominous image of our global future.
I am reminded of a recent book by a personal friend, the Anglican Evangelical Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, whose Pakistani family has roots in both Islam and Christianity. The title of his book is truly prophetic: Triple Jeopardy for the West: Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islamism and Multiculturalism (Bloomsbury, 2012). These three elements all came together with astounding clarity on that woeful night of November 13, 2015 in what now clearly represents a “triple jeopardy for the West.”
Obama Apologizing to the World for US on Climate Is Ridiculous
The Daily Signal reports:
President Obama’s opening remarks at the Paris climate agreement were effectively an apology for industrial progress. At the kickoff of the talks Obama remarked, “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.”
Obama should not be apologizing for the economic growth that dramatically improved Americans’ and much of the world’s quality of life. Instead, the president should apologize for pushing costly and ineffective climate policies that will make us worse off and trap the world’s poorest citizens in poverty.
University president rebukes “self-absorbed, narcissistic” students
Todd Starnes, host of Fox News & Commentary, has the story:
A chapel sermon on love left a student at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU), feeling “offended” and “victimized.”
But instead of capitulating to the offended young scholar at the evangelical Christian university of the Wesleyan Church, OKWU President Everett Piper pushed back with a blistering rebuke of what he called “self-absorbed and narcissistic” students in a blog post on the university’s website.
Banning the Lord’s Prayer from cinemas is nonsense on stilts
In a piece over at theguardian, columnist Giles Fraser declared: “So a peaceful Christian ad can’t accompany the new Star Wars film? The whole thing stinks of bureaucratic and commercial cowardice.”
He writes:
In the 2001 census, 390,000 people identified their religious conviction as Jedi. By the time of the 2011 census, that number had dropped by over half to around 177,000. Perhaps the new Star Wars film will boost their number – after all, this film is subtitled “the force awakens”.
But when this film is released in the runup to Christmas, the executives at the UK’s leading cinemas have decided in their wisdom that an advertisement featuring the Lord’s Prayer is to be banned from their screens. Apparently, the Jedi religion is fit for the big screen, but the Christian one is not.
Focus on the Family Gives Tips on How to Get “Safe” Abortion
Pulpit & Pen has the story:
Focus on Family, the media organization founded by James Dobson, has produced a booklet entitled The Abortion Pill. Although the date on that pamphlet is from 2014, social media has been abuzz with revelations from that pamphlet, which heretofore have gone unnoticed (or so it seems) by most. In no uncertain terms, the Focus on the Family literature gives advice on how to use the abortion pill safely.
The Work of Pastors Is To Build Up the Church
The work of the ministry is to build up the body of Christ. It is the business of the ministers to build up the Church, not to build up themselves! Alas! they have far too often built up themselves, and we read of princes of the Church living in positions of great wealth and pomp. What an utter travesty that is of Paul’s teaching! Let us note also that ministers are called to build up; not to please and to entertain. The way in which they are to do this is summed up perfectly in that most lyrical passage in Acts 20. The Apostle Paul was bidding farewell to the elders of the church at Ephesus, at the seaside, and this is what he said: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (v.32). ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16,” pg.202
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Mainstreaming Mystic Mindedness
This piece by Gaylene Goodroad is posted on Herescope. Christians who are involved in Eastern mysticism will read this, see the danger, and leave it. The Christian who chooses to participate in any sort of pagan practice is in rebellion against God.
Eastern Meditation as the Universal Cure-All
“For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with influences from the east….” (Isaiah 2:6)
BEATLEMANIA AND EASTERN MYSTICISM
When the Beatles helped to bring Transcendental Meditation (TM) into vogue in the 1960s, few could imagine then that the mystical Hindu practice would endure beyond the hippie generation and become commonplace today from the elementary school classroom to the Christian church.
What modern meditators might not know is that the “Fab Four” learned Eastern meditation from Hindu guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Upon his death in 2008, a CBS News article recapped the Maharishi’s dark contribution to the world:
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old… Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control known as transcendental meditation gradually gained medical respectability. He began teaching TM in 1955 and brought the technique to the United States in 1959. But the movement really took off after the Beatles attended one of his lectures in 1967. Maharishi retreated last month into silence at his home on the grounds of a former Franciscan monastery, saying he wanted to dedicate his remaining days to studying the ancient Indian texts that underpin his movement…. With the help of celebrity endorsements, Maharishi – a Hindi-language title for Great Seer – parlayed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multi-million-dollar global empire. His roster of famous meditators ran from Mike Love of the Beach Boys to Clint Eastwood and Deepak Chopra, a new age preacher. After 50 years of teaching, Maharishi turned to larger themes, with grand designs to harness the power of group meditation to create world peace and to mobilize his devotees to banish poverty from the earth.
Steven Furtick Gladhands TD Jakes’ Church – Gives $35,000 To Jakes
For those who are unfamiliar with Steven Furtick, he is among those the late Ken Silva dubbed: Evangelical Ecumenical Magisterium (EEM) which is comprised of megachurch pastors.
In a blog post entitled Steven Furtick and the Second Great Embarrassment, Silva quipped: “Furtick is the spiritually nefarious prophet-leader of the highly influential multi-site megachurch known as Elevation Church, who is without a doubt a leading member of this EEM along with e.g. James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll.”
So with this in mind, Pulpit & Pen has the latest on prophet-leader Steven Furtick.
Ronnie Floyd and IHOP Now Bringing Catholic Track
Southern Baptists will not be amused at what their president is doing. Seems he is leading that denomination down a very slippery slope. The Pulpit and Pen has the report:
Last week I reported on Southern Baptist president, Ronnie Floyd, participating in the Onething Conference put on by the apostate IHOP (International House Of Prayer) Church, founded by New Apostolic Reformation “prophet” Mike Bickle. I even went out on a limb and speculated that he may be attempting to unite the Southern Baptist Convention with the organization, since he has a similar religious worldview with them. Just when I thought this rabbit hole couldn’t go any deeper, it has been brought to my attention that this event will be strongly pro-Roman Catholic.
It’s as though we Southern Baptists are in a twilight zone of sorts. Martin Luther, John Calvin–all the men who put their lives on the line, or martyred themselves to separate from Rome–these great Protestant men would be turning over in their graves. It’s bad enough that prominent SBC pastor Rick Warren, and ERLC leader Russell Moore took to the Vatican last year to participate in a largely political event backed by co-belligerence. I, along with most Protestants, strongly opposed that too, but that is small potatoes compared to this.
Catholic Church Facilitates Foreign Invasion
Most Americans are unaware that the RCC receives millions of taxpayer dollars to settle refugees in the U.S. Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy In Media has the story:
In the face of President Obama’s veto threat, members of Congress may not be able to pass legislation suspending or upgrading the program permitting refugees from Syria, the Middle East and North Africa to settle in the U.S. But the Republican Congress certainly has the power to hold hearings into the millions of taxpayer dollars being funneled through Catholic and other church groups to bring them here. Many Catholics and non-Catholics alike would like to know how “religious compassion,” using federal money, is increasing the potential terrorist threat to America.
You may recall that Pope Francis promoted the Obama administration’s pro-immigration policies during his visit to the U.S. Left unsaid was the fact that the American branch of the Roman Catholic Church is getting millions of taxpayer dollars to settle refugees. According to their financial statement for 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops received over $79 million in government grants to provide benefits to refugees.
Simply stated, Congress can expose how the money is being spent and cut it off.
IHOP-KC’s Mike Bickle: Powerful evangelist for contemplative prayer
John Lanagan of My Word Like Fire offers many reasons Bible believing Christians should not practice contemplative prayer or have any involvement in Christian mysticism which has its roots in Roman Catholicism, as you will see.
According to International House of Prayer founder Mike Bickle, “God is calling everyone. Everyone in the Body of Christ is called to live in the contemplative lifestyle—everyone.’”
Is Bickle’s promotion of contemplative prayer a problem? Very much so.
Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing, warns, “Contemplative prayer is presenting a way to God identical with all the world’s mystical traditions. Christians are haplessly lulled into it by the emphasis on seeking the Kingdom of God and greater piety, yet the apostle Paul described the church’s end-times apostasy in the context of a mystical seduction. If this practice doesn’t fit that description, I don’t know what does.”
Wesley Seminary Students Commemorate “Transgender Day of Remembrance”
H/T to Glenn Chatfield over at The Watchman’s Bagpipes blog for this one. This piece contains unbridled blasphemy that will raise the blood pressure of Bible believing Christians. Jeffrey Walton of Juicy Ecumenism reports that “During the communion liturgy, Wesley [Theological Seminary] Professor and Episcopal Priest Sathianathan Clarke proclaimed: ‘It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, O Father and Mother, creator of all things old, new and in transition.’”
“In transition” refers to transgender people who have convinced themselves that God made a mistake when He made them male and female. Sadly, these people have the ridiculous idea that male-to-female transsexuals are actually females trapped in male bodies, and vise versa.
So, let’s begin at the beginning of what Chatfield refers to as “blasphemy of great proportions”:
Students at United Methodist-affiliated Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC gathered Thursday for a special service to commemorate the lives of persons who identify as transgender.
The noontime “Transgender Day of Remembrance” service held November 19 at Wesley’s Oxnam chapel was sponsored by Of Sacred Worth, a student organization established to promote understanding of LGBTQ people in the church.
Are unrepentant sinners worthy to be baptized?
Berean Research has the story of a transgender Lutheran who is about to be ordained. Be sure to watch the video:
She says she is “worthy” and “deserving.”
She’s a he. He’s transgendered (calls himself She). He’s about to be ordained in the “Lutheran” “Church” (both in bunny ears) He says he is worthy and deserving to be baptized, and worthy of the promises of God. Unfortunately, God promises wrath to those who do not repent of their sin and believe on Jesus, who washes all sin clean by His shed blood.
The Reformation Project’s Matthew Vines is sharing this man’s testimony and speech from the RP’s recent Kansas City conference: Nicole Garcia lit up the room with a fiery, heartfelt, and theologically grounded keynote address on our opening night,” says Vines, who launched a campaign to get all churches (especially the theologically grounded ones) to stop calling homosexuality a sin and to embrace gay members and gay marriage. (See our White Paper on the Homosexual Agenda.)
Here is a snippet of the speech, which you can watch on YouTube in its entirety:
Is it any wonder that I identify with this story? A person of color. A person who is not of the dominant culture. A person who does not fit into the gender binary systems. I really see the world through the eyes of the Ethiopian eunuch. For I, too, believe that Christ Jesus suffered, died, and rose from the dead in order that I may have eternal life in his kingdom—that I am worthy of baptism, I am worthy of the promises of God. I have been recreated, justified, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Republished with permission (Source)
Our Church, Our Children and the “Sinner’s Prayer”
Amy of Berean Research shares a letter she received from a mom who learned that, while she attended a Bible study, the children’s leaders were “cheerfully working to coerce the children into praying the Sinner’s Prayer.” But is reciting a prayer out loud or in our heads even biblical? Some say yes, others say no. Amy believes “it is biblical to pray to Jesus to ask Him to forgive us our sins. But without true repentance, there can be no regeneration.” Thus, “it is not biblical to say someone is saved ‘because of reciting the Sinner’s Prayer.’ We must put our trust, hope, and faith in Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, but to give someone assurance of salvation based on reciting a prayer, or thinking the words in our heads as someone else says them, does not produce saving faith.”
Hebrew Roots: About that Cepher “Bible”
Berean Research reports on WND’s promotion of a heretical Bible. We should not be surprised as WND promotes all sorts of unbiblical things, as you will see:
Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of advertisements for The Cepher Bible, a new translation of sorts brought to you by WND, where editor Joseph Farah sells Cepher alongside The Harbinger, The Rabbi Who Found Jesus, the Mystery of the Shemitah and other questionable books.
WND is a source to mark and avoid for discerning Christians, as I discovered several years ago when I first learned that the site sponsored Sid Roth’s hour-long video tutorial on how to do the New Age Soaking prayer.
But with the growth of the dangerous Hebrew Roots Movement, there is concern that WND’s powerful readership numbers may be aiding and abetting false teachers to reach a whole new audience. Christian Answers for the New Age author Marcia Montenegro recently alerted her readers:
Leaving Lysa: Why You Shouldn’t Be Following Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries
Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley is a Berean. “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11 Michelle does not take pleasure in exposing teachers who are not doctrinally sound. You need only to visit her blog to know that. In this blog post she takes a popular teacher and author to task for not rightly handling the Word of God (2 Tim 2:15) thus misleading women — and some men. No doubt she will receive a lot of flack for exposing a beloved Christian celeb, so pray for her. Listen to Michelle explain why leaving Lysa is a good idea. She writes:
According to her web site, “Lysa TerKeurst is president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the New York Times best-selling author of The Best Yes, Unglued, Made to Crave, and 16 other books.” She also blogs prolifically and speaks at numerous Christian women’s conferences.
Lysa is charming, friendly, and down to earth- the type of person I would probably want to be friends with if I knew her personally. We have several things in common: a big family (she has 5 kids, I have 6), women’s ministry, we’re even just a couple of months apart in age (which shocked me, since she looks so much younger!).
I first became familiar with Lysa a year or so ago when her name, articles, and memes of her quotes (and those of Proverbs 31 Ministries) began appearing in my news feed on Facebook. What I was seeing sounded good, and I hoped against hope that she was a doctrinally sound teacher of God’s word that I could recommend to my friends and readers. In fact, I resisted vetting her for a while because I was afraid of being disappointed by another popular Christian women’s author and teacher who seemed biblical on the surface but turned out not to be.
Sadly (and I genuinely mean that- I was sad), that is exactly what I found when I began to research Lysa TerKeurst at the request of several of my friends and readers. It’s my prayer that Lysa will repent of the areas in which she is acting against Scripture, learn biblical hermeneutics so she can rightly handle God’s word, and have a tremendous doctrinally sound – impact on the thousands of women who love her so much. I would love nothing more than to give her a virtual “high five” and highly recommend her to others if she would do so.
Until such time, I regret that I must recommend that women not follow Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries (including the other women who write for and are leaders in this ministry) for the following reasons:
Starbucks’ red cup brewhaha
There’s a big brewhaha going on over the Starbucks holiday coffee cup. Seems some people are incensed that the cups are plain red, with no recognition of Christianity, when there could have been. This is surprising in light of the fact that Starbucks has never paid tribute to the reason for the season on its cups. Since 1997 the left-leaning company “has told a story of the holidays by featuring symbols of the season from vintage ornaments and hand-drawn reindeer to modern vector-illustrated characters.” The company logo is “a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid, or Siren,” which is clearly pagan. One would think that professing Christians would find it offensive to see a pagan logo on one side of the cup and the baby Jesus on the other side.
So anyway, apparently the outside of the cup artists Starbucks’ employs ran out of ideas, threw caution to the wind, and went with an all red cup…and you know the rest of the story.
So to add some perspective to the brewhaha, listen to what Albert Mohler had to say in The Briefing:
Without doubt this does point to the larger secularization of the culture and that means that corporate interests and advertisers no longer feel like they have to give a tip of the hat to Christianity during the time of Christmas, as well as other holidays of the season. One explanation of this just might be religious diversity in the United States. I don’t actually think that’s the big story. I think the bigger story is the loss of cultural Christianity and the fact that major corporations no longer feel that they actually have to give any kind of tacit tip of the hat to Christmas or to Christians during the holiday season.
To read the rest of Dr. Mohler’s comments, scroll down to Transcript.