Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Religion?

Christians in A.A. may not see it this way, but they are in agreement with a belief system that lifts up strange gods (Amos 3:3). In Alcoholics Anonymous all gods are called the “higher power,” thus relegating Christ our King to commonality, as if He were simply one nameless deity among many.

I am the Lord, that is My name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to idols. Isaiah 42:8

In 1941, Jack Alexander of the Saturday Evening Post wrote the article that provided A.A. its first national publicity. Describing A.A.’s “higher power,” Alexander noted the alcoholic “may choose to think of his Inner Self, the miracle of growth, a tree, man’s wonderment at the physical universe, the structure of the atom, or mere mathematical infinity. Whatever form is visualized, the neophyte is taught that he must rely on it and, in his own way, to pray to the Power for strength.” View article →

Planned Parenthood Urges Students to Share Their Sex-perience

Most Americans are unaware that National Condom Week has been an annual occurrence since the 1970s, commencing the week of 14 February. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) did not give out the customary flowers and chocolates; instead, they distributed condoms to students at universities in the Pacific Northwest. In its effort to promote safer sex, the organization launched WhereDidYouWearIt.com and passed out 55,000 condoms wrapped with smartphone-scannable QR codes that link to the site, so that students can ‘check in’ to their booty call locations. View article →

Harvard Hosts Born This Way Foundation Launch Event

The Guardian writes that ‘Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey are among the luminaries lending their egos to the Born This Way Foundation launch event at Harvard today’:

We’re getting set to live blog the launch event of the Born This Way Foundation, a youth empowerment project started by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta. As youth outreach goes, this is way beyond after-school-special territory: BTWF is big. Oprah-big. Plus Harvard. Attending today’s launch at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre are Ladies Gaga and Winfrey; Deepak Chopra and the US health secretary, among other luminaries.

Participating in the foundation are Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment.

View article →

Women Pastors, Priscilla Shirer, And The Southern Baptist Convention

Apprising Ministries continues to point out growing syncretism with the mainstream evangelical community in unparalleled ways.

The mainstreaming of Word Faith prosperity preachers, e,g, T.D. Jakes, opens the door for the next push, which will be for women pastors.

In this new well-documented article see just how close this is getting even to the ostensibly conservative SBC. View article →

Was Rabbi Ralph Messer Called in to Re-Establish a Struggling Eddie Long?

The Christian Post reports:

Nearly a month after a video showing Rabbi Ralph Messer, who leads the Simchat Torah Beit Midrash congregation in the Denver metropolitan area, “crowning” Atlanta megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long went viral and earned both men a storm of criticism, Messer’s ministry is still evoking questions.

Most recently, a local Messianic Jewish community has officially renounced Messer, who has given the impression that he is a Messianic Jew. View article →

Is it Deceit or the Product of Being Unequally Yoked?

Μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες ἀπίστοις· τίς γὰρ μετοχὴ δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀνομίᾳ, ἢ τίς κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; 2 Corinthians 6:14, NA27

Do not become unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14, Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1

As many of you have know, there has been much news and rumor about the “Historic Interfaith Document” between Saddleback Valley Baptist Church in Orange County, California and the many Muslim communities there. As usual, the absolute worst place to get the truth about something like this is in the opinion polls of “Twitter,” which are like popularity contests with only your best friends. What should our position be about this? We should always come down on the side of sharing the gospel with those outside of Christ, but not if is some sort of “social engineered gospel” meant to offend no one nor be robbed of the right view of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It must also be clearly defined in terms of the Orthodox position of the fall of man and his need of redeemer as the only means of redemption, hence, the need of a perfect, sinless, propititiation, that is, God himself, who is the second person of the Holy Trinity, God the Son. Yes, the gospel we give to these Muslims must at least start there. View article →

Rick Warren, Islam, And Jim Hinch

Apprising Ministries sums up some of the CRN coverage of this still developing story and brings you the latest in this post.

I also share what I learned as a result of my phone conversation with reporter Jim Hinch who broke the story. View article →

Misrepresented by Leading Pastor – Ken Ham Responds to Tim Keller

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis writes:

Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York. He attended Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.

He is known as a good Bible teacher and has a heart for evangelizing New York City. Redeemer Presbyterian’s Hope for New York outreach program seeks to satisfy the spiritual and material needs of those in the community. Hope for New York does sets a high standard for Christian participation in the larger community. But …

In a new article posted this past week, he has grossly misrepresented what I believe and teach. But first of all, let me give you some background.

View article →

Largest Protestant Denomination in America Considering a New Name

The Southern Baptist Convention is going through a time of transition it appears with the proposal of a name addition, it being Great Commission Baptists. What are we to do with this idea of name changes?

Just changing a name doesn’t fix an image. This can apply across the board to many names that have a stigma attached to them. Take for example, the Walt Disney name. When Walt was alive, there was a family oriented sense to it and the theme parks were geared around that concept. Now Disney is synonymous with putting out films – even cartoon ones – with questionable material at best. The Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules – all contain examples of risqué dress and promoting mythological figures for our children to look towards. If Walt Disney saw that his theme parks were turned into a money marketing plethora of these types of characters, we dare say he would not agree. They now support gay pride day at the parks in which his original innocent characters such as Chip and Dale are now paired up in a jaw dropping event. View article →

Bigoted and Un-American? Mitt Romney, Richard Land & Evangelical Politics

Are Southern Baptists bigoted and un-American? On more than one occasion Richard Land, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has stated that raising questions about a presidential candidate’s religion is both bigoted and un-American. Yet, most of the Southern Baptists whom I know are very concerned about this matter. It seems ungrateful at best for Land to take the contributions.

This is the  question that was running through my head when I recently attended a  forum at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, entitled, ‘The  Grindstone: Sharp, Theological Discussions On Topics That Matter’. The  topic for the evening was ‘The Christian and Politics’ and it featured  special guest panelist Richard Land.  View article →

Casino Culture and the Collapse of Character, By Albert Mohler

The casino stands as the great and most visible monument to the massive scale of the Gambling Industrial Complex in America. Just look across much of the American landscape, and you will see the glaring and garish lights of the casinos that serve to attract gamblers. It was not always so.

Indeed, for all but the last decade of the twentieth century, casinos were basically non-existent, except for those found in the state of Nevada. All that changed when states began to license and draw revenue from casino gambling. As Earl L. Grinols of the University of Illinois has commented: “Most areas of America had no legal casino gambling before 1990.”  View article →

Are we all Catholics now, as Glenn Beck wishes us to believe?

In his piece “Why we are all Catholics now” Glenn Beck is making yet another attempt to mainstream the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aka Mormonism.  Mormonism is not Christian, as Beck would have us believe. Rather the LDS Church is a theological cult.  Right off the bat Beck affirms,

I am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but today, I call myself a Catholic. Why? Because the state is telling the Catholic Church to violate its principles and teachings. So if you are a person of faith, you must call yourself a Catholic. View article →

Got Meat? By Marsha West

Sue’s a self-professed Christian who attends church and a Bible study regularly and sings with the praise and worship team. Sue also practices yoga, consults a psychic medium, plays the Ouija Board game with friends and believes in reincarnation.

Sue and her boyfriend sleep together in the apartment she shares with two friends from church. No one questions what goes on behind closed doors. Sue and Tim, who’s an atheist, plan to marry someday so she believes God will overlook this “sin.” Her roommates are on the same page.

Because Sue is skilled at assessing a person’s character and motives—and she’s usually right—she boasts that she has the “gift of discernment.” Her roommates agree. View article →

Pentagon announces removal of all barriers preventing women from combat

The National Review has posted a piece entitled ‘Grace Under Fire’:

The Defense Department has announced the opening of some 14,000 new “combat related” roles to women in the military, another incremental win for those seeking to erode the protections that have long kept women out of the most dangerous assignments.

Supporters believe the move, and the eventual removal of all barriers preventing women from combat, represents a great advance in “equal opportunity.” That belief is dubious, but more to the point, it is irrelevant. The purpose of the military is to fight and win wars. Personnel policies should be based, first and last, on combat effectiveness. If putting female soldiers on the front line had even a small adverse impact on combat effectiveness, it would outweigh whatever other, political or symbolic benefits might accrue. View article →

Straightening Out Beth Moore On Discernment

Apprising Ministries highlights the lack of discernment evidenced by popular Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore in her teaching on…discernment. Apprising also highlights Moore’s heretical view that the Roman Catholic Church is part of the Body of Christ. View article →

John MacArthur Rebukes Joel Osteen

Apprising Ministries warns that the next heretical Word Faith preacher who is going to get a pass into mainstream evangelicalism is Joel Osteen. John MacArthur tells it precisely as it is and demonstrates the proper Christian reaction to Osteen. View article →

Your “Spiritual-but-not-Religious” Neighbor, by Peter Jones

When I came to the States in 1964, the great enemy of the Christian Faith was Marxism, with “Commies behind every bush.” My wife recently told me that as a child she would lie awake at night worrying that she would give up her faith when persecuted by godless Soviet commissars. In 1966 at Seminary, I studied the “Death of God” theology, which, we were told, represented the final triumph of secular humanism.

For a century and a half secular humanist scholars predicted the demise of religion, which Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud dismissed respectively as the opiate of the people, and a mental illness. But the materialistic utopia never materialized. Instead, people have awakened to “spirituality.” Not God but materialistic secular humanism is dead. View article →