Why Wasn’t Nabeel Qureshi Healed? (In Response to Dr. Michael Brown’s Article)

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From Berean Research:

Pastor Gabriel Hughes responds to a piece Dr. Michael Brown wrote on the recent death of Muslim turned Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi. “Heaven was hardly mentioned in Dr. Brown’s article,” Hughes noted. Not surprisingly a call to repentance by Brown wasn’t given at all. His message was basically, ‘Most people won’t be physically healed, and hardly anyone is ever healed of something major like stomach cancer, even by modern medicine, but pray as though they will be healed anyway, regardless of God’s will.'”

In his piece Brown made the following comment:

You might say, ‘Obviously, people who die of sickness don’t have enough faith.’ But that would also mean that the many people who prayed for Nabeel, including some used powerfully in healing, lacked faith, too. And if you have so much faith, why didn’t you successfully pray for his healing?

To which Pastor Hughes responded:

Yeah, looking at you, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Ken and Gloria Copeland, Todd White, and Bethel Church! Where was all the naming it and claiming it for Nabeel?

So with this background in mind, on to Gabriel Hughes’ response to high profile charismatic leader Michael Brown:

Nabeel Qureshi, best-selling author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, died of stomach cancer this past Saturday at the age of 34. I never met Nabeel, but I followed his ministry and believed him to be a dear brother in the Lord. Nabeel grew up a devout Ahmadi Muslim. His college roommate, David Wood, challenged his beliefs in the Quran, Muhammad, and Allah, and helped lead him to saving faith in the one true God, Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20).

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Rick Warren Hopes His Partnership With Roman Catholic Leader Will Become ‘Model’ for World

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A 2008 article in The Washington Post described Rick Warren, one of the most visible Southern Baptists in the world, as “a megachurch pastor and philanthropist who is courted by political leaders worldwide, says he thinks Christianity needs a ‘second Reformation’ that would steer the church away from divisive politics and be ‘about deeds, not creeds.’” (Source)  Clearly he has forgotten what the Protestant Reformation was about, as you will see in this piece over at Christian News:

Photo credit: Apprising Ministries

Megachurch leader Rick Warren, known for his best-selling book “The Purpose-Driven Life,” said in a recent interview that he hopes his partnership with a local Roman Catholic leader to collaboratively combat social ills becomes a “model” for others around the world. His remarks have drawn disagreement from those who believe that ecumenism with those who preach another gospel is unbiblical.

The Roman Catholic site Crux published the interview, which featured both Warren and friend Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange, on Sept. 14. They were asked by interviewer and diocese Chancellor Pia de Solenni to share about how their friendship formed and developed.

Vann recalled that Warren attended his installation as the bishop of Orange and also called to congratulate him. The two continued to communicate and soon also began praying together.

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See our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

Self-Righteousness vs Inward Cleanliness

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Matthew 23:24 (NASB) 

A huge trap that Christians can fall into is self-righteousness. It is a form of idolatry and that always causes spiritual blindness (Romans 1:24-25). Self-righteousness puts all effort towards godliness in the wrong place. It creates a form of piety that is all about outward appearances while putting little or no priority on matters of the heart. It is all about being concerned about appearances and what others think rather than being totally committed to abiding in Christ from within first. The self-righteous are consciously holy. However, that is not what we are called to be. Christians must be consciously repentant and unconsciously holy. The difference is huge for these are totally opposite walks. View article →

Kris Vallotton — Following the Bible is Small Minded

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What is “noted prophetic voice” Kris Vallotton up to now? Anthony Wade of 8:28 Ministries dissects his new teaching where he applies Scripture out of context to sell “carnal magic tricks.”:

He is at it again. Mega-heretic Kris Vallotton from the cesspool that is Bethel Church has written another blog post revealing further the depraved mind of a false teacher. Most false teachers you can pin down to a primary deception but Vallotton is a new breed who ascribes to nearly every false teaching there is and rolls them into his hybrid form of Christianity. A firm NAR adherent, Vallotton also ascribes to the prosperity gospel, false signs and lying wonders, word faith, and experiential Christianity; just to name a few. His enemy is the Bible and anyone who insists on reliance upon the Bible. This has never been more obvious than in the link above entitled, “I’m Tired of Small-Minded Christianity.” Let us reason together beloved again as we embark on a dangerous journey through this wicked mind that is leading so many people straight to hell. Do not lose sight of the fact that he seems to actually believe this garbage he writes.

“It troubles me that many people who claim to be Christians live with limited, powerless, finite thinking. How is this even possible? I mean, how do people who claim to have the Creator of the Universe living inside of them, the mind of Christ thinking through them, and the Spirit of God influencing the world around them even have the nerve to think small? I’d propose that we believers don’t have permission to live with limited mindsets!” — Kris Vallotton

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The Simon the Sorcerer Mentality – Jennifer LeClaire and Jeremy Gibson

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Is the Spirit of God a product up for purchase if only you will make the right sacrificial transaction? According to Is Not Satire, some charismatic leaders think so. Get a load of this:

Jennifer LeClaire and Jeremy Gibson are helping to bring the mentality of Simon the sorcerer from Acts 8 right into the 21st century church.

In Acts 8 Simon the sorcerer acted like the work of the Holy Spirit was something he could own and control if only paid the right price. Peter rebuked him, and informed Simon that his heart was not in the right place.

18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” (ESV)

Jennifer LeClaire and Jeremy Gibson have the same mentality about the work of the Holy Spirit. They treat the Holy Spirit’s activity and anointing like a possession to be owned, or a good to be obtained if only you will pay a price. Here are two recent Facebook posts.

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Sex diseases in US surge to record high

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Yahoo News reports:

Sexually transmitted diseases surged to a record high in the United States last year, with more than two million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis nationwide, officials said Tuesday.

This was “the highest number ever,” said the annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released today by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Most of the new cases — 1.6 million in 2016 — involved chlamydia, a bacterial infection that affects both men and women.

Gonorrhea also increased among men and women last year, but the steepest rise was among men (22 percent), said the report.

Nationwide, gonorrhea cases reached 470,000, with a large share of new gonorrhea cases among men who have sex with men.

These trends are “particularly alarming” because of the growing threat of gonorrhea becoming resistant to the last recommended treatment, according to the CDC report.

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Give Me Jesus

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Give Me Jesus

In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus Give me Jesus

You can have all this world But give me Jesus

And when I am alone Oh, and when I am alone And when I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus Give me Jesus

You can have all this world But give me Jesus

And when I come to die Oh, and when I come to die And when I come to die, give me Jesus

“Give Me Jesus” is a traditional Black Gospel song. The author is unknown and when it is performed reverently, with all focus on the Lord, not on self, I find myself worshipping and often weeping with joy. Many artists have recorded this song like Jeremy Camp and Fernando Ortega. I have both in my library. I seem to listen to Fernando’s version the most though there is nothing wrong with Jeremy Camp’s. In any case, this last Sunday in church we sang this song as part of our worship service. Man oh man! Everything came alive! Why? Our focus was on Jesus as our all-in-all! Who needs the nonsense this lost and dying world has to offer? Where is your treasure? If you are clinging to the stuff of this world as your treasure then you cannot sing this song and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Please mediate on this today and repent as the Lord leads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjTxnYiTAa8

Wm. Paul Young Teaches New Age Lie About Separation on TBN

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From Berean Research:

For those who haven’t yet heard, “The Shack” author, William Paul Young, is from a New Age/New Spirituality persuasion (like Oprah); likewise, Young rejects the Penal Substitutionary Atonement (that Jesus took the penalty for our sins on the cross). So with this in mind, it’s rather odd that he uses the term “Christian” to describe his religious beliefs.  A mouse in the cookie jar is not a cookie, brethren.

The truth is, Young is a first rate manure spreader. “The Shack,” purchased mainly by the Christian community (sadly) has nothing to do with biblical Christianity. The fact of the matter is that the book is riddled with the worst kind of heresy imaginable. (Read our coverage here.)

In a piece over at Lighthouse Trails, Warren B. Smith fills us in on Paul Young’s continuing effort to destroy the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3) He writes: 

On the March 12, 2017 episode 5 of Restoring The Shack television series on the TBN Christian television network, Shack author Wm. Paul Young stated it is a “lie” to believe that God is “separate” from His creation. Invoking a vision that was reputedly given by God to friend and fellow author C. Baxter Kruger, Young described this alleged lie as the “lie of separation.” But as a former New Ager, I recognized what Young was calling the “lie of separation” was in and by itself a lie. What he was teaching had nothing to do with biblical Christianity and everything to do with the false teachings of the New Age/New Spirituality/New World view. In fact, what Young was attempting to convey to countless TBN viewers was the same thing I had been taught and was teaching when I was in the New Age—that there is “no separation” between God and creation because God is “in” everyone and everything.

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Religious News Association Panel: James Goll, Holly Pivec and Paula White talk on NAR

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According to Churchwatch Central (CWC) there were two very dangerous people on the RNA panel with Julia Duin and Holly Pivec — James Goll and Paula White. What makes Goll and White so dangerous? Both of them are self-appointed apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation. These two were “quite prepared to lie to a media audience who could only take what they were saying at face value,” says CWC. In their opinion, Goll and White “gave lip service to the Bible, the Reformation and the historic Christian creeds misleading others to advance their movement…”

CWC has included a must watch video of the panel discussion:

Photo credit: Spirit of Error

Recently, the Religious News Association (RNA) had a panel discussion with NAR Apostle James Goll, NAR Apostle Paula White and Apologist and Polemicist Holly Pivec. The panel topic was ‘The New Revivalists’. Thanks to the work of Holly Pivec and her well-researched presentation, many reporters now understand that the Presidential Spiritual Advisor, Paula White, is part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

The entire panel discussion is well worth listening to, with James Goll (inadvertently) naming those who are part of the New Apostolic Reformation. The entire discussion can be watched here:

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Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Kneels On House Floor In Support Of NFL Players

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Real Clear Politics reports:

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) took to the House floor Monday night to kneel in solidarity with NFL players who chose defy President Trump and protest police brutality. Jackson Lee said you “cannot deny” that Trump calling players who kneel a [SOB]  is “racism.”

“I kneel in honor of them. I kneel in front of the flag and on this floor,” Jackson Lee declared.

“I kneel in honor of the First Amendment. I kneel because the flag is a symbol for freedom. I kneel because I’m going to stand against racism. I kneel because I will stand with those young men and I’ll stand with our soldiers. And I’ll stand with America, because I kneel.”  View article →

Related:

Steve Bannon: NFL Players Should Take A Knee Every Night And Thank God In Heaven Donald Trump Is President

Rush Limbaugh on NFL Controversy: “There’s No Way Trump Loses”

The angry Jesus

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” John 2:12-16 (NASB) 

Some today have made a caricature of our Lord Jesus Christ. This man-made image is far from the truth we see in Sacred Scripture. There have been some who have even portrayed the Bible as revealing two separate “Gods,” the mean, angry God of the Old Testament, and the kind, gentle Jesus of the New Testament. The former is an image contrived by those who resent God’s commands for holiness and righteousness while the latter is vastly incomplete and derived by those who are either ignorant of what the New Testament teaches about our Lord or they are deliberately ignoring what it says. View article →

O’Reilly Warns Ingraham: The Left Is ‘Going to Come After You’

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According to LifeZette’s Katherine Blackhurst, Bill O’Reilly says prime-time TV has become a “hateful arena where the truth doesn’t matter.” O’Reilly stated that in 42 years he worked with a dozen companies and “he ‘never had one complaint’ lodged against him with human resources.” Blackhurst has the story:

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly warned LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham that the far Left is “going to come after you” because the talk-show landscape is a “hateful arena where the truth doesn’t matter,” during an interview Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

O’Reilly, who left the network in April amid sexual harassment claims, said Ingraham — whose upcoming Fox News show, “The Ingraham Angle,” will debut on October 30 — will be targeted as part of the smear campaign orchestrated by the far Left to take conservative voices off the air.

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Protestant and Catholic: What’s the Difference?

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October 31st marks the 500th anniversary of the revolt against the abuses and totalitarian control of the Roman Catholic Church known as the Protestant Reformation. To help us understand why there still remains a very wide divide between Protestants and Catholics, pastor and best-selling author Kevin DeYoung lays out a few of the main points that cause the separation so that those who are unfamiliar with RCC theology will know why there still remains a wide divide, and never the twain shall meet. He writes:

Ask a serious Protestant today what is the biggest threat to orthodox Christianity today, and he might mention cultural hostilities, the sexual revolution, or nominalism in our churches. But if you would have asked a Protestant the same question a hundred years ago, he would have almost certainly mentioned the Roman Catholic Church. Until fairly recently, Protestants and Catholics in this country were, if not enemies, then certainly players on opposing teams.

Today, much of that animosity has melted away. And to a large extent, the thaw between Protestants and Catholics has been a good thing. Sincere Protestants and Catholics often find themselves to be co-belligerents, defending the unborn, upholding traditional marriage, and standing up for religious liberty. And in an age that discounts doctrine, evangelical Protestants often share more in common theologically with a devout Roman Catholic steeped in historic orthodoxy than they do with liberal members of their own denominations. I personally have benefited over the years from Catholic authors like G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, and Robert George.

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See our Research Paper on the Roman Catholic Church

Beth Moore Praises Brother Lawrence and Obscures the Reformation

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For those who are still in the dark regarding SBC darling Beth Moore’s slide into apostasy, six years ago the late Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries penned a piece to warn her many fans that she had become “iffy about Reformation theology.” As often happens, the video clip Ken used to prove his case has been removed from YouTube. so replacing it with a video produced by Emergent Watch Media was necessary:

September 4, 2011

The largely pretending to be Protestant evangelical community continues its pilgrimage back to the legalistic spiritual bondage of apostate Roman Catholicism and its evil author the Church of Rome.

As an online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries does what we can to document this woeful walk away from the truths recaptured during the Lord’s Reformation; how sad He must be.

Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore remains enormously popular within today’s anything goes evanjellyfish.

Not unlike charismatic prophet-pastors like PDL Pope Rick Warren, Moore is also an SBC figure receiving direct revelations from God.

The Slowly Becoming Catholic (SBC) is said to frown upon charismatic practices; but I guess they’re okay as long as someone isn’t a Calvinist, I mean we can’t have that. Like Warren, Moore’s teachings are peppered with things God “told me,” “spoke to my heart,” etc.

Interestingly enough, both of them are pretty iffy about Reformation theology, most specifically that the Roman Catholic Church teaches another gospel. This clip from Emergent Watch Media is from the Be Still DVD, which is an ode to the unbiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

You may remember that in Alabama Baptist Convention (SBC) Encourages You To Learn Lectio Divina From Apostate Tony Jones—yes, you read that right—I explained CCP, a form of transcendental meditation, is the crown jewel of the highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

Under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation this spurious CSM— a refried Roman Catholic mysticism—has been taught for years now within evangelicalism by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. As a matter of fact, Foster is featured prominently in Be Still.

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For he whom God has sent utters the words of God

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34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. John 3:34 (NASB) 

In John 3:1-21 our Lord spoke the words of God to “a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” In this passage our Lord clears the table and tells it like it is. He tells Nicodemus in v3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Of course, Nicodemus doesn’t “get it at first and asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” in v4 and, “How can these things be?” in v9. In between those two perplexed questions, our Lord, the Λόγος or logos or Word, the living Christian proclamation as a whole of the New Testament proclaimed τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ or “the words of God” to Nicodemus in a way that he had never heard before. He said,”Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” As we read in John 3:34 (above), He spoke or uttered the ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ to this man and all who read John 3. What did he say? Only those born again are part of the Kingdom of God and to be born again is to be born of the Spirit. Notice carefully that this rebirth is not something controlled by or contained by or comprehended by people of the flesh. Everyone truly born of the Spirit are so by the work of the Holy Spirit not by the works of men. These are the ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ. View article →

Jesus Christ is the True Vine

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1 “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser.”  John 15:1

(translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In John 15:1, we have our Lord’s last of His seven “I am” sayings signifying His claim of deity. The word “true” in v1 translates the adjective ἀληθινὴ, which is nominative, singular of ἀληθινός or alēthinos, “unfeigned, trustworthy, true.” The nominative case form, ἀληθινὴ of ἀληθινός means that the metaphor our Lord is making of Him being the “true vine” is subject to the main verb in the sentence with is εἰμι, which, of course, means, in this context, “am.” Therefore, our Lord is saying that the fact that He is, in fact, deity means that He is the “true vine.” What this means, of course, is that there are “other vines,” but He is the only one who is “true” and God the Father is the γεωργός or vinedresser.  The noun γεωργός or geōrgos, “can refer to the owner of a farm or to those who work the farm.” Here our Lord is using this term metamorphically to refer to God the Father as the owner of a vineyard, the “vinedresser.” View article →

Newborn Baby Whose Mother Sacrificed Her Life to Save Daughter Also Dies

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Christian News has the story:

The newborn baby of a Michigan mother who refused recommendations that she abort her unborn child in the midst of a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, and instead decided to forgo treatment in order to save her baby, has now died just two weeks after her mother passed into eternity.

“It is with great sadness and a absolutely broken heart that I tell you Life Lynn passed away last night,” the Cure 4 Carrie page posted to social media on Thursday. “Carrie is now rocking her baby girl. I have no explanation of why this happened, but I do know Jesus loves us and someday we will know why. The grief we feel is almost unbearable; please be praying for our family.”

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Who will go into the ‘furnace of fire’ Jesus warned about?

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Following is part 1 of a series entitled “Hell Interrupted” by Tim Barnett and Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason. Barnett and Koukl go to the scriptures to answer the burning question: Is the future punishment of the wicked a place of eternal fire?

You may not have noticed, but Hell is not as popular as it used to be. Simply put, the doctrine of Hell has fallen on hard times.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have long denied Hell, at least the everlasting punishment part at the heart of the classical view, along with Seventh Day Adventists, each teaching that, in the final judgment, the unrepentant wicked will be snuffed from existence—annihilated.

Currently, however, it’s not just those on the theological fringes who are rejecting the idea of Hell as eternal conscious torment, but also respected evangelicals like theologian John Stackhouse and the late Anglican, John Stott, venerable rector emeritus of All Souls Church in London.

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Part 2

How to Repent

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Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Whenever somebody accuses you of being wrong or tells you the truth about yourself, it hurts. It can produce one of two reactions, what Paul calls either godly sorrow or worldly sorrow. We all feel hurt, but the question, of course, is, Is it godly sorrow, or is it worldly sorrow? Godly sorrow is the pain of suddenly becoming aware of something about yourself that has been hidden to you. An awareness of something wrong about yourself that you have not been able to see always creates a sense of anger, perhaps, of defensiveness, of injury, and often of tears. It is the moment of self-awareness, or what we call a moment of truth. Have you ever had that happen to you? You were going about your life, thinking you were doing okay, when somebody came along and told you something about yourself. Even as that person said the words, there was a stab in your heart that said, That’s right, isn’t it? You may be defensive, you may argue, or you may fight back, but deep inside you know that is true. It hurts, but if it is godly hurt, it leads to repentance. It makes you change. You alter your behavior.  View article →

Will the world end on Saturday?

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Kimberly Winston has a few examples of prophetic speculation that the world would come to an end on a specific day. The latest speculation is September 23rd. Not mentioned in Winston’s piece is Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith’s prediction that the rapture would occur before the end of 1981….Hal Lindsay’s book “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon“….John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann’s “The Jupiter Effect”.…Edgar Whisenant’s “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be In 1988”….John Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons” — all sheer speculation. Books such as these sell like hotcakes in the Christian community. Those who write these sorts of sensationalist books make a bundle off gullible Christians who buy them.  So – pay no attention to false prophet David Meade’s wild speculation that the “Planet Nibiru” will collide with the earth tomorrow, and just go about your business.

Now to Kimberly Winston’s piece over at USA Today :

Short answer — no.

But David Meade, a Christian and self-published author of end-of-the-world survival guides, predicts doomsday is near — very near, as in this Saturday.

Meade’s ideology, laid out in his book “Planet X — The 2017 Arrival,” is described by the author as “a compendium of information from every sphere—astronomical, scientific, the Book of Revelation and geopolitics.” There’s some astrology in there, too.

Meade is the latest in a very long line of American self-proclaimed prophets who claim they know when — sometimes to the hour — the biblically predicted “end times” will arrive. And while it’s fun to laugh at his belief that the “Planet Nibiru” will collide with the Earth this week, the failed prophesies of some of his predecessors have, at times, led to important religious movements or illuminating ways of thinking about faith. Let us explain:

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Judge Rules Filmmakers Can’t Decline to Film Same-Sex ‘Weddings,’ Dismisses Preemptive Suit

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Christian News reports:

A federal judge in Minnesota has dismissed a preemptive lawsuit filed by a filmmaking couple who are concerned that state law mandates them to create films in support of same-sex “marriage” if they also produce videos that reflect their Christian beliefs about marriage.

Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, appointed to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton, ruled on Wednesday that Carl and Angel Larsen of the Telescope Media Group cannot turn away video requests by homosexuals as per the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA). He also concluded that the law itself is not unconstitutional.

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When the Gospel is preached correctly, it divides

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

34 Do not think that I cam to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. Matthew 10:34 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

The peace that Christians have because they are in Christ is between them and God and because of that, with each other. However, that does not mean that there will be peace between them and those not in Christ. In fact, these words of our Lord in Matthew 10:34-38 make it clear that those truly in Christ will be so changed by the Gospel, the presence of the Holy Spirit in them, and their new nature that there will be inevitable separation between them and those who are not in Christ. This holds true even within families. This is true because the genuine believer is so changed that no matter what sort of pressure comes to bear on them, they simply cannot be at peace with the ways of the world or the ways of the flesh. Their conscience is bound to Christ and His Word while those not in Christ have consciences bound to the flesh no matter how religious they are. View article →

The Five Solas of the Protestant Deformation

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The church has “functionally replaced the Five Solas of the Reformation with pragmatic, and often idolatrous, solas of our own making,” says Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley. I’d venture to say that a large number of professing Protestants have no clue what the five solas are. Not only that, many Protestants are unclear what the Protestant Reformation was all about. Why, they wonder, does an event that happened 500 years ago matter today?

According to Michelle Lesley, the Protestant Reformation not only matters, it was a really big deal.  So she’s taken the time to fill us in on the events leading up to the schism from the apostate Roman Catholic Church that was sparked by a humble German monk….who changed the course of religious history. Lesley also reveals the Christian’s instructions for life and godliness. She writes:

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. October 31, 2017 will commemorate the date in 1517 when Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses – a list of grievances against the Catholic church for unbiblical doctrines and practices – to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Luther’s calls for reform spread quickly throughout Europe, inspiring the likes of church fathers Ulrich Zwingli (Zurich), John Calvin (Geneva), and John Knox (Scotland) to join the effort in their own locales. As they worked to address the issues raised in Luther’s document, these men codified what we know today as the “Five Solas of the Reformation,” the basis of Protestant church doctrine. The five solas are:

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See our Research Paper on Roman Catholicism

Scientists edit embryos’ genes to study early human development

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Reuters has the story:

British scientists have used a genome editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out a gene in embryos just a few days old, testing the technique’s ability to decipher key gene functions in early human development.

The researchers said their experiments, using a technology that is the subject of fierce international debate because of fears that it could be used to create babies to order, will deepen understanding of the biology of early human development.

CRISPR/Cas9 can enable scientists to find and modify or replace genetic defects. Many describe it as game-changing.

“One way to find out what a gene does in the developing embryo is to see what happens when it isn’t working,” said Kathy Niakan, a stem cell scientists who led the research at Britain’s Francis Crick Institute.

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