The Times reports:
A drug has stopped brain deterioration in Alzheimer’s patients for the first time, scientists announced yesterday.
Mental decline was halted for 18 months in some patients, in results hailed as the strongest sign yet that an effective treatment for the disease is near. Researchers said that the drug — taken as a tablet twice a day — could soon become the first medicine given to Alzheimer’s patients to keep the disease at bay for as long as possible.
CRN has reported on the direction Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa has taken since the passing of CC’s founder Chuck Smith. (Here, here and here) Now Berean Research informs us of a troubling incident that occurred in the tiny town of Appleton Wisconsin. According to BR, there are “eyebrow-raising concerns [that] have not gone unnoticed by news outlets and other Christian groups,” and she lists what the concerns are:
Calvary Chapel pastor who warned of false teachings and apostate movements seeping into the Calvary Chapel organization has been removed from his regional leadership position, and is now removing his local congregation out of the Calvary Chapel Association altogether.
Pastor Dwight Douville of Calvary Chapel Appleton Wisconsin was informed last month that he was being removed from his position as a regional leader, a position he’s held for many years. Why? He says because personal friendships have been put above doctrinal truth, muddying the waters of what Calvary Chapels are all about. And because he advocated for maintaining and staying the course while calling out wolves and yeast seeping into Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the organization as a whole since the death of founder Chuck Smith.
According to NewsMax:
Mike Pence said Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, will be overturned after Donald Trump is elected president in November, Mlive.com reported.
Answering a question from an audience member during a town hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Indiana governor said a Republican win in the fall will lead to changes in the nation’s highest court.
Fox News reports:
Chief Shelley Zimmerman said the gang suppression officers reported they were making the stop shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday and almost immediately radioed for emergency cover.
Video footage showed officers out in force with numerous squad cars with emergency lights flashing lining a street, officers on foot, and a helicopter buzz overhead.
Responding officers put one of the wounded officers into a patrol car after the shooting and rushed off to a hospital, but efforts to save him failed. Zimmerman said that officer had a wife and two children.
I have reached a very important crossroad. If you have been following my posts over the last several weeks then you know that I have been focusing on what genuine Salvation looks like, its source, and comparing it with man’s version of it that does not save. Of course, how do we do that? We go to God’s Word. We use the words of our Lord, the Apostles and Church Fathers and the Reformers and good men of faith who have come since to help us clarify God’s truth from every attempt that our enemy makes to cloud the issue, to sow confusion and keep people in the dark. Yes, God’s truth shines the light of our Lord in the darkness of our enemy and his seed’s lies that have created a form of “Christianity” that looks genuine, but is not. Many call it “Churchianity.” I make no apologies that I am Reformed in my faith. My theology is that of the Reformers. However, many who call themselves Calvinists and should, by most men’s measure, be “Reformed” as well, prove that their theology is compromised by what I am about to share in this post. I know that this post will anger some. I will probably lose a few friends. However, truth is truth and I will continue to pursue it with my all with the time the Lord gives me in order to bless the Body of Christ.
By Marsha West
I have a deep concern for those who are warring against the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m speaking of men and women who are spreading a false gospel around the globe, a gospel that saves no one. In Mat. 23, Jesus rebuked false teachers for being full of “hypocrisy and lawlessness.” He also referred to them as serpents and a brood of vipers. Ouch!
The Lord addressed false teaching in Mat. 7:15-20:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Yet “ravenous wolves” are frequently given a platform to reach millions with their rotten fruit through “Christian” events. I’m talking about the events that evangelical patriots attend for the purpose of praying for our nation. Moreover, wolves are given a platform on popular “Christian” news and opinion sites. Sad to say that visitors to some esteemed “Christian” blogs really should seek God’s protection before entering. Three such examples are Christianity Today, Christian Post and Christian Today. But by far the worst offenders when it comes to spreading a false gospel are cable stations such as Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and God TV.
During the Republican National Convention, Donald J. Trump allowed a door to be opened for false teachers to impart Word of Faith (WoF) theology to the massive audience in attendance and those watching on TV. WoF, a.k.a. prosperity gospel, name-it-and-claim-it, health and wealth is a theological cult. Moreover, it is,
The world’s fastest-growing false religion tells us that our faith is a “force” and the words we speak have the power to create something new. The Word of Faith proponents promise we can obtain health, wealth, success, and more if we simply have enough faith. Biblical Christianity says no. (Source)
So what are God’s people to do about this? In 1 Timothy 6:3-5 Paul tells Timothy what he thinks of false teachers:
If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Those who teach a false doctrine create huge problems in the Church? Yes! And 2,000 years after Paul wrote to Timothy, modern-day wolves “puffed up with conceit” are still around, creating constant friction.
Two people who propagate “teachings of demons” are Paula White, senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida and Pastor Mark Burns of Harvest Praise and Worship Center. Both of these individuals were invited to take part in the 2016 Republican National Convention. It’s no secret that The Donald has an affinity for affluent prosperity preachers such as White; Joel Osteen calls the mogul a “friend of his ministry.” Both White and Burns serve on Trump’s “Christian” Advisory Committee that was established to help him win the evangelical vote.
In verse 12 Paul tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith.” Before that, in 1 Tim. 1:19, he told his friend to hold on “to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby shipwrecked their faith.”
Could it be any clearer that Bible believing Christians, who are faithful to the teachings of Scripture, are to “out” wolves?
Pastrix Paula
With Donald Trump now in full presidential campaign mode, there is no doubt we’ll be hearing more from the woman who is known as Trump’s “God whisperer.” Thankfully, discernment bloggers have kept us apprised of Paula White’s shenanigans (see links below) and why she is considered a serious threat to the Church. So there are many of us who are not in the dark. One discernment blogger, the late Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries, warned the flock about Ms White back in 2012:
Today she shows us that she’s learned well his WF positive confession. Pastrix Paula White has told us that Jakes is as Paul and she as Timothy; she’s also revealed that she’s Elephant Room 2’s T.D. Jakes’ Spiritual Daughter. Not long ago White would tweet in succession:
In another blog post, Ken included a video of Pastrix Paula “preaching the classic Word Faith sow a seed of money so God will be obligated to bless you.” Furthermore, says Ken, “she’s doing it for her spiritual father T.D. Jakes at his Potter’s House in December of 2010.” He included a video that can be viewed here. (Scroll down toward the bottom of the page. Directly below White’s video is another video that shows modalist T.D. Jakes selling WoF snake oil to the crowd, if you can stomach watching it.)Paula White denies that she teaches the prosperity gospel but the videos and her tweets say otherwise. I have combed the web and was unable to come up with anything that indicates White no longer teaches WoF heresy. Moreover, there isn’t any indication that she has confessed her sin, repented, and turned from it.
As if all this isn’t bad enough, Paula White also claims the title of pastor and in so doing she is disobeying the command of God:
A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (1 Tim 2:11-14)
So you see that Paul plainly taught that women are not to be in a position of authority over men within the Church.
Since space does not allow for the details of Paula White’s heretical teaching, research links will have to suffice. Several links are included below. Now to Mark Burns…
Mark Burns — pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship Center
The man who has been dubbed “Donald Trump’s pastor” made headlines by delivering “the most partisan prayer in convention history.” What did Rev. Burns say that was so controversial? He referred to Democrats as the enemy and called on the Almighty to defeat Hillary Clinton. (Watch Burn’s prayer on YouTube)
Before I move on, I should point out that “imprecatory prayer,” which means “to invoke evil upon or curse one’s enemies” is nothing new. See Psalm 35:6, 55:15, 58:6, 69:28, and 109:8.
In a piece for TIME entitled “Meet the Evangelical Outsiders Who Are Flocking to the Republican’s Campaign” Elizabeth Dias observed:
At a March Trump rally in Illinois, Burns leapt up to the stage, pumping up the crowd in chants of Trump’s name. “Lord, this will be the greatest Tuesday that ever existed, come Super Tuesday Three,” he prophesied in prayer, naming and claiming a Trump victory. He opened his eyes. “There is no black person, there is no white person, there is no yellow person, there is no red person, there’s only green people!” he shouted. “Green is money! Green are jobs!!”
Until Trump plucked Burns out of the tiny town of Easley, S.C., few Christians knew the black pastor’s name. But it is God, Burns says, who has economically transformed his life—before he found Jesus, he relied on food stamps, lived in section 8 housing, went to jail, and faced a charge of simple assault as part of his self-described “baby mama drama” past. Then last year, Burns decided to transition his ministry to a for-profit televangelism business, so he and his followers could achieve economic success.
“Jesus said, above all things, I pray that you prosper, I pray that you have life more abundantly,” Burns, 36, explained to TIME in an interview, quoting a verse not from the Gospels but another New Testament passage. “It was never Jesus’ intention for us to be broke.” All of this is wisdom is now contained in a candidate for President. “I think that is what Donald Trump represents,” Burns says.
Trump is making inroads in the evangelical world by cloaking himself with pastors like Burns, who represent a narrow and often controversial segment of the faith. The preachers who often stand with him are born-again Christians, but most are evangelical outsiders—many are Pentecostal televangelists who often preach a version of what’s often called the “prosperity gospel,” a controversial theological belief that God wants people to be wealthy and healthy.
Dias states in her closing remarks:
Burns meanwhile is praying Trump’s way to victory. He started an #IPrayedForTrump hashtag and leads phone conference calls for followers to pray over Trump when he speaks. He says 10,000 people have joined for a five-minute prayer. Ultimately, Burns hopes Trump will help his hometown. “I fantasize about bringing a company like Microsoft to Easley, to bring car manufactures to Greenville, to create more and more jobs,” he says. “You need people like the Trump family to learn.”
More from 1 Timothy 6:
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
Grace be with you. (vs 17-21)
Paul appeals to Timothy to guard the deposit which God had entrusted to him “by avoiding the empty speculations of the false teachers, who claimed to have knowledge, but didn’t know what they were talking about. This brings him full circle back to the warnings of chapter one. Paul meant the deposit of the gospel as well as the spiritual gifts Timothy had been given.” (Source)
Setting hopes on the uncertainty of riches:
Psalm 62:10 Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.
Proverbs 11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
Proverbs 23:5 When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.
Paula White Research:
WF Pastrix Paula White: As Paul is to Timothy T.D. Jakes is to me – Ken Silva
Pastrix Paula White: Your words create your destiny – Ken Silva
False Teacher Paula White – Todd Friel
Debunking Paula White’s teaching regarding generational curses – Chris Rosebrough
James Dobson Reveals Who He Believes Led Donald Trump to Christ
Should Christians hold prayer vigils with apostates? By Marsha West
© Marsha West
Craig Shirley of The Daily Signal believes releasing John Hinkley is a “purely political decision by Judge Paul L. Friedman, who clearly wishes to corrupt Reagan’s legacy.”
The decision to release John Hinckley Jr. from St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital after his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan is outrageous, disgraceful, and a travesty of justice.
No matter how much supervision he has, Hinckley cannot be trusted to move and function in society.
Even though his victims, Reagan and White House press secretary James Brady, have died, Hinckley remains a threat. According to the Secret Service, he is still obsessed with Jodie Foster. Hinckley’s actions remain a terrible stain on American history and a reminder of the lifetime of damage that can be caused by one man in a matter of seconds.
Breitbart reports:
Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” in an appearance from the site of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the convention “the most anti-police” and “the most anti-law enforcement” he had ever seen.
However, he also said that according to “high-ranking police officers” in Philadelphia, uniformed law enforcement was not allowed on the floor of the convention.
According to CNSNews:
In a term evidently aimed at Donald Trump, President Obama said Wednesday night that “homegrown demagogues” – along with fascists, communists and jihadists – threaten American values but would ultimately fail.
In a speech at the Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations, Obama said that America has changed, but what makes Americans American was not where they came from or looked like but – pointing to his chest – “what’s in here.”
16 οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλʼ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον (John 3:16 NA28)
16 “Thusly, for God loved the world, so that He gave his only Son, that all those trusting in him might not be destroyed but might have life eternal. (John 3:16 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
26 ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ σῶμα χωρὶς πνεύματος νεκρόν ἐστιν, οὕτως καὶ ἡ πίστις χωρὶς ἔργων νεκρά ἐστιν (James 2:26 NA28)
26 As indeed for the body without spirit is dead, thusly also the trust without works is dead. (James 2:26 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
There is no more dramatic contrast between two words than those describing what are alive and those describing what are dead. For instance, in James 2:14-26 James describes the difference between living faith (trust), which is saving faith (trust), and dead faith (trust), which does not save. In v26 the first occurrence of “dead” translates the Greek adjective νεκρόν (nekron), the Nominative, Singular, Neuter case of νεκρός (nekros), which speaks of a dead body or corpse. The second occurrence of “dead” translates the Greek adjective νεκρά (nekra), the Nominative, Singular, Feminine case of νεκρός. What James is describing is a false faith that is as dead as a dead body. The ultimate contrast is to take that which is the state of death compared to the state of eternal life, which our Lord described in John 3:16.
Christian News Network reports:
The Democratic National Convention is set to feature its first-ever “transgender” speaker this Thursday as a man who identifies as a woman is scheduled to take the stage in support of Hillary Clinton.
Tim McBride, who goes by the name Sarah, serves as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and is also a volunteer on the steering committee of Trans United for Hillary.
McBride explained in 2012 that he felt he was transgender as a child, but buried his struggle with his identity in his love for politics.
According to Benedict Brock of news.com.au:
It was a glowing tribute to his beloved wife, the woman who aims to make history by becoming President of the United States of America.
At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Bill Clinton was fulsome in his praise of Hillary, who has now officially received the party’s nomination for the top job.
But there was something big – something huge – missing from his speech.
The former Mr President described the potential Mrs President as the “best darn change-maker” he’d ever met and recounted how he tried three times to get her to marry him, in a speech designed to use his popularity to ingratiate his wife to Middle America.
He took the crowd on a journey through the years of their relationship. It was 1971, he said, when he met the girl with big blonde hair and glasses.
Christian News Network reports:
The Harris County District Attorney’s office in Texas has dismissed all of the charges against David Daleiden, the pro-life investigator who recorded undercover videos of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
As previously reported, Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) was indicted in January on a felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record” for creating a fake driver’s license in conducting his undercover investigation, as well as a misdemeanor count related to the purchasing of aborted babies.
5 So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (NASB)
Genuine Christianity is vastly different than the religiosity and Churchianity all around us. I remember as a much younger Christian as I studied eschatology, that we always assumed that the attacks on Christians during the close of the end of this age would come from the secular, from the evil that is opposed to everything about our faith. However, over the last several years as I have battled in the truth war and studied the writings of the reformers such as William Tyndale, Martin Luther, and John Calvin; Puritans such as John Owen and John Bunyan; and men such as Gordon H. Clark, it has become clear that the visible church is mostly anti-Christian. On the other hand, God has His saints in the invisible Church kept secure and is continually growing them in maturity, transforming them through continual mind renewal through immersion into His Word.
According to Philip Wegmann of The Daily Signal:
Leaked emails seem to suggest that the Democratic National Committee maintains cozy relationships with mainstream media outlets but takes a more caustic approach with publications it believes to be conservative.
According to these emails, party officials stonewalled and blacklisted the Washington Examiner when editors approached the party in May to gather the names of delegates to the Democratic National Convention for publication in a souvenir edition of its magazine.
“I can send an alert to the state parties not to respond to this inquiry,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Eric Walker wrote in an email of May 10. “Examiner is a right wing rag.”
The episode came on the eve of Democrats’ convention this week in Philadelphia. The organization WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 hacked emails from seven party officials, revealing the inner workings of the national committee’s communications team.
Fox News reports:
Two knife-wielding attackers who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” slit the throat of an 86-year-old priest and critically wounded at least one other person during a Tuesday morning terror attack on a Catholic church near the Normandy city of Rouen, officials said.
The terrorists, who were later shot and killed by police, forced priest Jacques Hamel to kneel before they slaughtered him, and the Islamist attackers captured the bloody episode on film, according to a nun who escaped the assault.
Church Leaders reports:
Evangelical leader and co-author of the popular Left Behind Series, Tim Lahaye, has passed away at the age of 90. A few days ago, LaHaye suffered a stroke that he was not able to recover from.
Jerry B. Jenkins, who worked with LaHaye on the Left Behind Series and consequently got to know him very well, described him as being someone with “a pastor’s heart [who] lived to share his faith.” Jenkins says, “He listened to and cared about everyone, regardless of age, gender or social standing. If Tim was missing from the autograph table or the green room of a network television show, he was likely in a corner praying with someone he’d just met—from a reader to a part-time bookstore stock clerk to a TV network anchorman.”
Museum of Idolatry informs us what Andy Stanley’s church has been up to:
Credit: Raymond McCrea Jones/CNN – 2012
Imagine you’re sitting in church on Sunday during an official worship service, and singers on stage are singing those lyrics. Would you really want to hear lyrics about how a girl turns a guy on because she has the right stuff baby? That’s what happened during a Sunday worship service at North Point Community Church-Andy Stanley’s church. They opened an official Sunday worship service with hits from the 1990s.
The Apostle Paul said, “We preach Christ and Him crucified,” but Stanley seems to be saying “we will put on an elaborate and worldly show to draw a crowd.”
Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ not good enough? Does it really need to be dressed up with cheesy boy band songs from the 90s? On top of that, can anyone imagine that any of those performers had any free time left to study God’s Word? This is a tightly choreographed and professionally performed medley of (secular) hits; it must have taken many hours of practice and rehearsal to accomplish this. Is this what a church should be encouraging its people to focus their precious time on? North Point and Andy Stanley have a gigantic effect on other churches in America; many smaller churches study their methods and try to emulate their “success.” Lord have mercy…
A video of the praise & worship segment is included.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; WE were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 (NASB)
All of those truly in Christ have an enemy. He hates us. He hates our Lord. He hates the Father. He hates the truth. He hates the light given to us by our Lord by which we see the truth. He hates the truth that he has already been judged and his future in the Lake of Fire awaits while our sins were already judged at the Cross as they were imputed to Christ who paid the penalty for them as our propitiation. Because of this we have a glorious future awaiting us in eternity with our Lord. Yes, our enemy hates us and all that. Because of this and the fact that he is more evil than we can imagine, he attacks us in every conceivable way possible in attempts to discourage us and keep us from living and walking in the light of the truth provided for us by our Lord. That is why it is vital for each of us to grasp the truths from the passage above (Romans 8:31-39) in order to stand firm in the midst of every conceivable attack our enemy can use against us. On the other hand, the truths in this passage are like a dividing line. Those who come down on the side of God’s Sovereignty and the security of the believer within it have it right, while there are many who call themselves Christians who ignore these truths and teach the opposite leaving those who follow them in the bondage of fear and doubt and even believing in the sovereignty of Satan (our enemy) and his demons. There is another group of course, that would be all in the liberal camp who take the name of Christian for whatever reason, but believe in no historical Christian doctrines. No, they only believe in their own man-made “god” and “jesus” made in their own image. These magnificent truths are meant only for genuine believers not those who have never bowed the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord and are now walking in repentance having been saved by grace through faith as a gift from God.
The Daily Signal reports:
When the Rev. Gus Booth found out the IRS was dropping its inquiry into Warroad Community Church where he preaches, he was actually disappointed.
“We wanted to go to court,” Booth told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This is the First Amendment vs. the IRS code. One standard of the law would win.”
The IRS has almost never fully enforced the Johnson Amendment, which the new Republican Party platform calls for getting rid of. The language of the platform is:
Places of worship for the first time in our history have reason to fear the loss of tax-exempt status merely for espousing and practicing traditional religious beliefs that have been held across the world for thousands of years, and for almost four centuries in America. We value the right of America’s religious leaders to preach, and Americans to speak freely, according to their faith. Republicans believe the federal government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from policing or censoring speech based on religious convictions or beliefs, and therefore we urge the repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
Gateway Pundit has published the findings:
On Friday Wikileaks released nearly 20,000 hacked emails it says are from the accounts of Democratic National Committee officials.
The documents were released just days before the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.
The hacked emails revealed the DNC’s hatred for Bernie Sanders and his movement. The documents reveal the party’s hidden ties with the liberal media. The emails reveal the heights of dishonesty of the party infrastructure.
Now there is a list of a few of the most shocking emails released by Wikileaks.
CNSNews reports:
With ten weeks to go until the end of the fiscal year, the Obama administration continues to admit Syrian refugees at an accelerated pace, and has now exceeded two-thirds of President Obama’s target of 10,000 by September 30.
The proportion of Christians among those resettled continues to languish below half of one percent, while other non-Sunnis account for just over one percent.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.” John 3:6-8 (NASB)
I grew up as a Southern Baptist. Much of the memories from my childhood have something to do with being at church each and every Sunday morning and evening. One thing I remember was an annual event in our church called a ‘Revival.’ The Pastor and his staff would plan it for a certain range of dates, put those dates in every church bulletin leading up to it, put signs up in front of the church advertising it, and make announcement after announcement from the pulpit to remember the upcoming ‘Revival.’ The speaker for these revival meetings was usually some evangelist I had never seen before or a Pastor from another SBC church. One time we had a group of brothers come in and ‘do the revival.’ One preached, one played various instruments, while the other sang solo. That was my concept of ‘Revival.’ Is it possible for people in one place to plan for a certain date and time on the calendar to be the time and place God moves, pouring out His spirit on a local body of believers? The emphasis in those ‘Revivals’ I witnessed were on a pragmatic form of evangelism instead of a moving of God to bring about repentance and a rededication of a group of people to live for God instead of self.
According to Jasper Hamill of The Sun, “researchers said the number of machines is likely to grow so large that humans will need to command armies of them.” Hamill writes:
Human beings are set to be “outnumbered” by robots as massive armies of intelligent machines move into the home and workplace.
That’s the claim from leading American robotics experts, who are trying to work out how humans can control the vast numbers of intelligent machines which are expected to be unleashed in the coming years.
A team based at the University of Texas have unveiled a system which allows them to use “any device with a web browser to access and control a humanoid robot” – which means machines designed to act like real people.
Breitbart reports:
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee has been dropped from the party’s lineup of convention speakersfollowing WikiLeaks’ release of explosive DNC emails showing members of the organization actively working against the Bernie Sanders campaign.
A Democratic insider told CNN that Schultz has been dropped from the lineup to “keep the peace” within the party, amid calls from Sanders’ campaign manager for someone at the DNC to be “held accountable” for the anti-Sanders collusion seen in the leaked emails.
