Visiting Hank Hanegraaff’s New Greek Orthodox Church

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After attending a service at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church, Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen made this observation: A lost person could not walk into this church and walk out a changed man. It was literally a Pagan practice. Like a seance. Pure witchcraft was going on in this place.

Now read about Maples experience during a recent St. Nektarios church service:

One of the biggest complaints against Pulpit & Pen we get consistently is that we somehow don’t “have all our facts,” or are “misrepresenting” someone or something. I received countless emails claiming that I “misrepresented” Greek Orthodoxy in my recent posts regarding Hank Hanegraaff and that I should do more research. Well, what better way to research than to go straight to the source in person? Saturday, April 15, known as Holy Saturday in the Orthodox tradition, I along with a couple of friends went to visit St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC–the church that Hanegraaff was recently chrismated in. The service began at 11:30 pm, and was still going strong showing no signs of slowing down when we decided to leave at around 2:00 am. While we hoped to have the opportunity to confront Hanegraaff in person, being that we all had to get up early the next morning to worship the living God on Easter morning, we decided to call it a night early. However, there are quite a few things that we can take away from this experience in this church.

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Almost as Many Americans Died of Drug Overdoses in 2015 as in ’12 Years in Vietnam’

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Breitbart reports:

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly has largely blamed Latin American drug cartels for the unprecedented 52,000-plus drug overdose deaths in America during 2015 alone, the latest year for which data is available.

During a discussion that George Washington University (GWU) hosted about the threats facing the United States, retired Gen. Kelly noted in his prepared remarks:

It’s the highest number of drug-related deaths our country has ever seen. It’s more deaths than the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995. In a single year, we’ve lost nearly as many Americans to drug overdose as we lost in battle in World War I. Almost as many as was lost in 12 years in Vietnam.

And that’s just overdose deaths. That number—as high as it is—says nothing about the long-term health damage to our citizens who survive, to say nothing about the human misery, the families ripped apart, and the extremes of crime and violence inherent in the illegal-drug enterprise.

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‘Bible Answer Man’ Booted From Bott Radio Network After Hank Hanegraaff Joins Orthodox Church

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According to Christian Post (a site we do not recommend), Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, will replace the “Bible Answer Man”:

The “Bible Answer Man” radio show program with Hank Hanegraaff has been booted from Bott Radio Network over concerns regarding biblical accuracy, following Hanegraaff’s conversion into the Eastern Orthodox Church.

“We want to make sure that our listeners know that the programming that we have on Bott Radio Network is thoroughly biblical,” said BRN President Richard P. Bott II, a member of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kansas, according to Baptist Press.

BRN had reportedly been broadcasting the “Bible Answer Man” since the 1980s, even before Hanegraaff joined the show in 1989.

“We live in strategic times,” Bott told BP.

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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15 (NASB) 

There is a certain type of love that God hates. We find that in John 15:18-20)

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15:18-20 (NASB) 

God has no love for “love of the world system that is opposed to God.” Jesus made it clear in the passage from John 15:18-20 that those who are “of the world” are not of God nor are those whom He has selected from out of the world part of the world. This is why those who are still “of the world” hates them. I want to reinitiate here that there are plenty of apostate, “so-called christians” in our time who exhibit that very same hatred toward those of us who refuse to back away from Orthodox Christianity and God’s Word and being infallible and complete. In any case, John is telling us in 1 John 2:15-17 two important truths about genuine Christianity. First, the Christian loves God and fellow Christians and an absence of love of the world must habitually characterize the love life of those to be considered genuinely born again.  View article →

North Carolina Lawmakers Present Bill Declaring Supreme Court ‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling ‘Null and Void’

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Christian News reports:

Four Republican lawmakers in North Carolina recently presented a bill that would declare the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on “gay marriage” to be “null and void,” but the House speaker has considered it dead and won’t bring it up for a hearing.

Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City filed House Bill 780, also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” on April 11th.

It notes that the U.S. Constitution does not give power to the federal government to create laws surrounding the institution of marriage, and that the issue is rather reserved to the states. The bill also outlines that the courts have no right to overrule the laws of God.

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Does God Condemn Debate?

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Jeremiah Johnson of Grace to You asks: Should we or shouldn’t we debate our doctrinal differences?

Many believers argue that our focus should be on what we agree on, and that we must set aside anything we disagree on. So does that mean we should ignore our differences with those who teach universalism?  What about those who teach the word-faith prosperity gospel…NAR/dominionist theology…Eastern mysticism…ignore these folks, too? Should we let slide sins such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality and abortion for the sake of unity?

Johnson argues that we must do as Paul instructs us in 2 Timothy 2:14 and hold fast to sound doctrine.  He includes the following quote from Dr. John MacArthur:

Paul’s purpose was to motivate and encourage Timothy to keep a firm grasp on that truth himself and to pass it on to others who would do likewise … It is only with a thorough knowledge of God’s truth that falsehood and deceit can be recognized, resisted, and opposed. . . .

So back to the question at hand: Does God condemn debate? Let’s find out…

Almost twenty years ago, during Moody Bible Institute’s Founder’s Week conference, I heard Jim Cymbala make the following plea for unity:

Think of the division right now in the Body of Christ. We have all these names that don’t exist to God: Baptist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Charismatic. God doesn’t have any idea what any of them mean, because He only has one Body. . . . He has one Body—the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelical—evangelical doesn’t even exist to God. We’re using words that aren’t in the Bible. We’re thumping the Bible and being unbiblical while we’re thumping it. He only has—there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Body. And He doesn’t like us dividing up His Body. 

In the moment, it struck me as nonsense. Of course God knows what our denominational titles mean; of course He understands where the doctrinal lines have been drawn in the sand.

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Godly transformation

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NASB) 

Truth is not relative. Truth is not found through some synthesis process through which one concept of the truth is ‘synthesized’ with that which opposes it until some sort of compromise can be reached. That process is called the Hegelian Dialectic which states that truth is not found in the thesis nor the antithesis, but the synthesis of the two. This synthesis process may take countless evolutions, but the theory is that eventually change will occur and that is the real goal. This is not biblical transformation. It is not what God does in Christians when He transforms them from flesh driven, prideful, self-oriented people to spirit-led, humble, God-focused servants of the Most-High. View article →

Entire Faculty Senate Resigns After LGBT Activist Professor Denied Promotion

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Gordon College, a private evangelical Christian college in Massachusetts, made the news when the entire faculty senate resigned in a “show of solidarity” for a professor who says the administration denied her a promotion because of her criticisms about the school’s policy on homosexuality. Gordon’s student newspaper The Tartan has the story:

Photo credit: John Phelan

All seven faculty members of Gordon College’s Faculty Senate resigned from senatorship on Wednesday, citing ongoing disagreement with the administration over shared governance, specifically in the processes of approving faculty promotion.

Professor Ivy George, the Senate chair prior to the resignations, read a letter outlining the decision at an all-faculty meeting. Also resigning were fellow professors Tim Sherratt, Bruce Herman, Bryan Auday, Irv Levy, Steve Hunt and Jonathan Senning.

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Cannabis Church in Denver to Offer ‘Sacred Flower’ Sacrament

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According to Leah Jessen of LifeZette, “An organization of pot smokers is in pursuit of a ‘love, create and elevate’ religion.”

Photo credit: Fox 13

It’s come to this: Pot smokers in Denver have formed their own church “religion,” all based on the “high” of the marijuana lifestyle.

The International Church of Cannabis is set to open April 20. Steve Berke and Lee Molloy founded the “church” with a small group of people who were, and still are, “unsatisfied with the outdated organized religions” available.

“There are rumors that this is a rasta smoking lounge or a nightclub,” Berke told Westword, a Denver newspaper. “It’s not. It’s a safe place to congregate and consume.”

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Why We Can’t Assume Hank Hanegraaff is Saved and We Should Evangelize Him

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As previously reported (here and here), Hank Hanegraaff shocked many in the evangelical community by converting to Greek Orthodoxy.  When the news hit, Jeff Maples wrote a piece for Pulpit & Pen entitled “The Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, Leaves the Christian Faith?” Not surprisingly, Hank’s fans were put out with Maples for suggesting that he had left the faith.  Following is Maple’s response to his critics:

In the recent controversy surrounding Hank Hanegraaff, the ‘Bible Answer Man,’ and his conversion to Greek Orthodoxy, I received numerous, literally hundreds upon hundreds, of emails and messages, asking me to retract my claim that Hanegraaff has departed the Christian faith and telling me that I went too far by saying this. Pulpit & Pen has been accused of being “always cantankerous” to “using a bazooka” against Hanegraaff and “judging his heart.”

The issue here, however, is not of judging Hanegraaff’s heart. This is not something we, as Christians, can do. We can, however, judge them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16-20), and this is what we have done.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. –2 Corinthians 4:1-2

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Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

11 I am the Good Shepherd. The good one lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In our last post, Jesus Christ is the Son of Man and the Good Shepherd, we looked closely at John 9 and the Lord’s healing of the man born blind. This caused a large confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders who could not refute the healing, but refused to believe that Jesus was from God because He healed the man on the Sabbath. Jesus absolutely refused to conform to their religious expectations in any way. There was not one iota of compromise in His method of ministry in order to be as “inclusive” as possible. No, after the fact, after these men had cast the man whom Jesus had healed out of the Synagogue, Jesus found him and as we see in John 9:35-41,  this man believed and worshiped our Lord, but those who refused to believe, our Lord confronted further saying that they had no excuse for their unbelief since they claimed to believe the Law and the Prophets, which our Lord was fulfilling with His life and ministry. Then in John 10:1-6 He makes it very clear that all leaders like them are false shepherds of the people. He makes it clear that the true sheep hear the voice of the true shepherd and follow Him, referring to Himself. Now we come to John 10:7-21. View article →

What will become of you when you die?

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Easter conjures images of Easter egg hunts, decorative baskets filled with all sorts of goodies, cool new clothes, church services, and families and friends gathering together for a feast. It’s all about….what? Is the reason we observe Easter Sunday to celebrate the coming of the Easter Bunny? To usher in springtime? Or is it an excuse for a parade?

As you might have already surmised, it is none of the above. The significance of Easter is to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For many professing Christians, Easter isn’t about Jesus — it’s about binging on sweets! There’s nothing wrong with Easter festivities per se; but to be sure, the reason we celebrate is Christ’s triumph over death. A little more than two thousand years ago the Son of God experienced a humiliating horrific death to atone for the sins of humankind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The Son of God condescended to take on human flesh and come to Earth to die, not because He had some sort of social or political agenda that weighed heavy on His heart. Jesus was not concerned with “social justice.” He came to Earth to die for our sins.

The Bible is clear that God’s hates sin — yet He went to great lengths to save us!  Pastor and author John MacArthur explains it thusly:

When we say God hates sin and doesn’t hate the sinner, you’re really drawing a fine line. God looked on all His creation and said that it was good, so that basically what God created He adores, He considers the work of His hand, and man, though the image of God is marred is none the less made in the image of God. So, the New Testament says God loves the world, God loves all men. It even says that we are to do good unto all men especially of the household of faith, so we are to do good to all men for they are made in the image of God. There is a sense in which no matter what we do in our lives, God still loves what we are as the expression of His creation. But He hates the sin.

The thing most people fail to understand is that God is holy. (Isaiah 6:3, Rev 4:8) And because God is holy He is repelled by evil. All sin is evil — even those “little white lies” we tell. Washing away our sins (cleaning us up) is the sole purpose for Jesus’ death on the cross. He died for one and all, and that includes those we think aren’t worth a plug nickel.

My point is that the person who truly BELIEVES that Jesus shed His blood for his sins and realizes his need for repentance and forgiveness will be saved from eternal damnation. Yes, Jesus died for the worst of the worst, the scum of the earth, the reprobate, the smelly homeless guy, the ugly girl in your math class, Bashful, Dopey, Doc and, yes, even Grumpy. So if an outlaw like Billy the Kid comes to faith in Christ, that outlaw is heaven bound! The blood of Christ has washed away his sins.  From the moment the Kid repents and places his faith in Christ, he is no longer that outlaw; he has become a son of the King.

Christ’s death on the cross is God’s way of saving humans from being sent to hell for all eternity. Every sinner is destined for hell — and hell is a real place! How do I know that? Because Jesus gave us fair warning when He spoke these words:  “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). He also spoke of hell to the Pharisees: “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33). Again: “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades” (Luke 10:15). Christ’s words were not just hyperbole!  If hell is nonexistent, the Lord Jesus wouldn’t have warned people about it. Those who reject Him will be sentenced to hell!

But never fear! There is a way to avoid being sentenced to that terrible place. The Apostle Paul tells us how to avoid it: “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 [from hell]” (Romans 10:9).

Now, those who think they know better than God who should enter the Highway to Heaven or be thrown into hell will no doubt reject what Paul said. But they cannot ignore the fact that the scriptures teach that God, no one else, will decide who ultimately goes up…and who goes into the pit.

There are those who believe that “good people” go to heaven. Au contraire! By God’s standard of “good” the Bible says a person’s good deeds are “filthy rags.” No Good person, no good Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Mormon will ever see the Kingdom of Heaven. Why? For the simple reason that “good people” will not be invited into God’s kingdom. Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) So no matter how good an individual appears to be, he/she will never be “good enough” to stand in the presence of Holiness unless he/she is cleansed of all sin by the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

It’s going to be a huge shock when those in the “me” generation find themselves in the courtroom of the One who will judge the world and are handed a one way ticket to hell. After all, they think God created the sun just to light up their lives. Hell isn’t a real place anyway, they say. So why should anyone have to worry about going there? And if there is a hell, only murders, rapists, pedophiles and Adolph Hitler will go there. It’s indeed true that unrepentant murders and so forth will go to hell; likewise, anyone else who rejects Christ will spend eternity “where the worm never turns…”  Including “good people.”

Warning to the unbeliever! Jesus Christ is the CEO (Chief Executive Over-all) of Heaven.   So – if you have little or no interest in getting to know the Lord Jesus while residing on this planet, why would you want to live in the kingdom He rules for all eternity?  Moreover, if you have no use for biblical Christianity and its “outdated confessions, creeds and dogmas,” then would you really want to bow to and worship the Son of God for all eternity?

One last thing.  There are a large number of professing Christians who claim to love Jesus yet they’re too embarrassed–or proud–to bend a knee to Him.  They embrace Him as their Savior but they’ll not allow Him to be their Lord and Master.  They disobey His commands and live by their own rules…and they believe they’re saved.  Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) So are these people saved?  Really?

Not judging, just saying.

© Marsha West, 2017

10 Signs of a Cultic Church

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From Berean Research:

Cross Examined has a piece by Brian Chilton who asks: “How does one know that a church has the characteristics of a cultic church?” Good question.  According to Chilton, there is a difference between a cult and a cultic church and he gives some signs of cultic churches. So we want you to know what those distinctions are. We’ve included links for further study at the end that will help you grow in your faith:

#2 Personal interpretations are held to an equal or higher view than biblical truth. A good example of a cultic church would be Bethel Church in Redding, CA

A few weeks back, I was troubled to hear about a Word of Faith congregation in Spindale, North Carolina, that was guilty of abusing its members. Reports included young children being punched by the leadership while being called Satanists. Jane Whaley and her husband are at the center of these accusations. The full report can be accessed here.

Unfortunately, cultic churches abound. Just last night, a guest pastor from the Philippines spoke about particular cults in his land. He noted that one cult did not allow the congregants to open their Bibles as everything had to be interpreted by the leadership. Churches like these are identified as cultic churches as contrasted with authentic churches. Authentic churches are the body of Christ. They are the assemblies of baptized believers who fully adopt biblical principles and have the freedom to grow and develop in their relationship with Christ.

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The Insanity of the Left’s Child Gender-Confusion Agenda

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“This is science with an agenda,” reminds Ben Shapiro in a piece over at CNSNews:

On Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece by Jack Turban, a research fellow at the Yale School of Medicine. Turban says that doctors should begin applying puberty blockers to children who identify as transgender as early as possible. That’s because, according to him, “it has become clear that if we support these children in their transgender identities instead of trying to change them, they thrive instead of struggling with anxiety and depression.”

Turban uses as his example one 14-year-old girl named Hannah who was born a boy named Jonah. Turban glows: “Hannah is using a puberty-blocking implant and getting ready to embark on the path of developing a female body by starting estrogen. Ten years ago most doctors would have called this malpractice. New data has now made it the protocol for thousands of American children.”

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The Daily Wonder of Easter

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion

Michelle Leslie reminds us that “As Christians, every day our sin sick souls need to bow at the cross and be washed afresh in the precious, atoning blood of Christ.”

“What should I preach about on Easter Sunday? Help me out, here.”

That’s the gist of a tweet I saw recently from a pastor. It caught me quite off guard, and it must have had the same effect on many others who punctuated their excellent advice –“preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for our sins”- with lots of “duh’s” and other indications that this should be a no-brainer for a Christian pastor.

Traditionally, the prevailing line of thought about Easter (and Christmas) services has always been, “This is one of the two times a year that a lot of lost people go to church. It might be our only chance to reach some of them. Let’s make sure we give them the gospel.” Maybe after so many years of that, some pastors feel that their church members have heard it all before and they need to move on to something else in order to keep people’s attention. Sometimes, as a pastor, it’s tough to know just what to do to best reach people for Christ.

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AI programs exhibit racial and gender biases, research reveals

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According to The Guardian “Machine learning algorithms are picking up deeply ingrained race and gender prejudices concealed within the patterns of language use.” So the question is, will robots display human prejudices?

An artificial intelligence tool that has revolutionised the ability of computers to interpret everyday language has been shown to exhibit striking gender and racial biases.

The findings raise the spectre of existing social inequalities and prejudices being reinforced in new and unpredictable ways as an increasing number of decisions affecting our everyday lives are ceded to automatons.

In the past few years, the ability of programs such as Google Translate to interpret language has improved dramatically. These gains have been thanks to new machine learning techniques and the availability of vast amounts of online text data, on which the algorithms can be trained.

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Trinity Broadcasting Network campus sale price revealed: $18.25 million

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Orange County Register reports:

When Trinity Broadcasting Network announced in March that it sold its highly visible campus in Costa Mesa, the price was not revealed.

Now it’s public. The landmark building sold for $18.25 million, according to CoStar Group, a commercial property database.

The 65,000-square-foot, three-story building on the 6.19-acre campus is familiar to many beyond TBN’s audience for its brightly lit holiday displays along the 405 Freeway on Bear Street.

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Jesus Christ is the Son of Man and the Good Shepherd

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

35 Jesus heard that they threw him out and having found him said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 The man answered and said, “And who is He Sir, that I may believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen Him and you and He is the One speaking with you.” 38 And he said, “I believe Lord.” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world that the ones who do not see may see and the ones who see may become blind.” John 9:35-39 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In the Word of God, light is associated with God’s way, His truth, what is right, et cetera. Darkness is the antithesis of light in this sense. While those who walk in God’s light walk in His truth, those who walk in darkness, walk in ignorance of His truth, of His ways. Those who are of God’s light are growing in the knowledge of Christ while those who walk in darkness continue in their ignorance. In John 1:4-5 , the Apostle John said, “ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων· καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.” Or, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus as the “light” brings to the dark world true knowledge, moral purity, and the light that shows the very presence of God. The darkness of this fallen world cannot comprehend, grasp, or overcome the light of our Lord. View article →

President Donald Trump Signs Bill to Overturn Obama Rule Forcing States to Fund Planned Parenthood

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According to LifeNews:

Photo credit::Kelsey Lucas Visualsey,The Daily Signal

President Donald Trump signed into law today a bill to overturn a rule pro-abortion President Barack Obama put in place preventing states from defunding the Planned Parenthood abortion business.  The rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) prevented states from blocking Title X funding to abortion companies like Planned Parenthood.

After the House first passed the measure, the Senate voted 50-50 for the bill, with a couple of liberal pro-abortion Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the abortion giant and Republicans voting pro-life. The tie vote made it so pro-life Vice-President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the measure.

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Read why Planned Parenthood should be defunded: Congress’s Planned Parenthood Investigations Find Horrifying Criminal Practices 

23 and Me (and You): Let the Buyer Beware

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“Curious about genetic testing and what the results will tell you?” asks Chris Woodward of LifeZette. “Be sure you’re comfortable with privacy issues (or lack thereof).” Woodward writes:

Let the buyer beware! That is the message for people thinking about using home kits promising personal genetic information and details in exchange for something as simple as a saliva sample. The firm 23andMe is the latest company looking to become a household name — and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted it authorization to market genetic reports on personal risk for certain diseases.

The authorization includes reports on genetic risk for 10 conditions, including late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and harmful blood clots, among others.

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No Substitute For Marriage: Co-Habiting Parents More Likely to Break Up, Hurt Kids

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Tyler O’Neil over at PJ Media fills us in on the study — that will come as no surprise to Bible believing Christians:

Children’s well-being depends on family stability, researchers agree. But some say marriage is not a critical factor in that stability — that cohabiting parents are just as likely to stay together long-term and provide the love and support children need. According to a new study from the Brookings Institution, that just isn’t the case: There’s no substitute for marriage.

“It is easy to see why some conclude marriage per se does not matter. But here’s the thing: marriage itself is strongly associated with family stability,” wrote Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, and Laurie DeRose, sociology professor at Georgetown University.

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Profane ‘Pastor’ Welcomes Open Homosexuals, Admits He ‘Doesn’t Care’ What Bible Says

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Christian News has the story. They’ve posted a video at the end of the piece where you will hear the so-called pastor using profanity and saying some pretty provocative things, such as “I don’t care if the Bible says gay people suck…I have lots of things I disagree with about the Bible.” Yes, Bible believing Christians are few and far between these days.

A profanity-laced preacher who has lost hundreds in his congregation over his decision to allow open homosexuals to serve in leadership positions, and who says he “doesn’t care” what the Bible has to say on the issue, is featured in a new online video that has received over a million views in less than a week.

Ryan Meeks is the founder of EastLake Community Church in Bothell, Washington, which identifies itself as “an inclusive Christian community where faith is less about a story to be believed as it is a life to be lived.”

In 2015, Meeks announced that he believed a “move of the Spirit” caused him to rethink how he had handled the issue of homosexuality. In the April 8th video released by Upworthy, Meeks—amid clips of profanity usage—noted that he used to shy away from the topic.

“When it came to the conversation around the LGBT community and church policy, or what does the Bible say about homosexuality, I always felt awkward about it. I didn’t want to bring it up,” he explained.

“I felt like I needed to scare people into believing the right thing because the God who loves them is going to send most of human history to Hell,” Meeks said. “That’s the Good News? Sounds pretty [expletive]!”

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The Cross of Christ separates those in Him from those who are not

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. John 14:19 (NASB) 

When our Lord spoke of the “world” in John 14:19, He was talking about those in this temporal existence who are not in Him. They are not true Christians even though some in that group may profess to be so. In this context He was also referring to the Jewish religious leaders of His own day who so opposed Him and His ministry and who would continue to oppose the early church as is seen all through the book of Acts for example. What is it that separates those alive in Christ in this world from those who are not? Those in Christ are the ones who truly see Jesus for who He really is, believe and are saved from those who refuse to do so, reject the gospel, and remain in their sins, even if they may develop a form of Christianity that suits them, but is absent of the real Jesus. View article →

App Delivers Birth Control Without Doctor’s Visit, Ages 12 and Up

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According to Leah Jessen of LifeZette, a “San Francisco-based firm says it ‘won’t tell parents or anyone else’ if a young woman has ordered this medication.”  She writes:

Teenage girls and women can order birth control from an app that will deliver the medication straight to their home, all without the “hassle” of a doctor’s visit. The app, deemed the “uber of birth control,” is called Nurx and is sure to create a wave of controversy.

If you have health insurance, Nurx is free in most cases.

“Our country’s medical system doesn’t always work very well for patients,” Dr. Jessica Knox, Nurx’s medical director, told the Daily Dot. “We sort of hold women hostage.”

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