According to Bud Ahlheim of Pulpit & Pen:
The Baptist Press just released the Annual Church Profile report for 2015. The article opens with the decidedly Scripture-oblivious words, “Southern Baptists may find cause for hope in the latest Annual Profile Report. The Southern Baptist Convention added more churches in 2015, due mostly to church planting efforts.”
Really?
Over at Borrowed Light, blogger Mike Leake tackles what’s going on with what he calls the “accepting myself” movement that’s becoming so prevalent among professing Christians. Leake laments:
I’m seeing more and more young people follow the path of Knapp and Pearson. It’s becoming quite the broad road. And this broad road isn’t labeled homosexuality. This broad road is labeled “accepting myself”. That is the foundational doctrine of this American heresy. And it is swallowing up more and more of those my age and younger. It’s a doctrine which runs away from the Refiner’s fire.
According to Breitbart:
The NBA launched a marketing campaign for 30 shirts bearing rainbow-colored team logos to benefit a controversial homosexual-advocacy group. “In celebration of LGBT Pride Month, we’re excited to announce a new collaboration between the NBA, GLSEN, and Teespring,” the three groups proclaimed. “Beginning on June 7, fans can purchase an exclusive line of Teespring NBA Pride T-shirts featuring the logos of all 30 NBA teams, with all proceeds benefiting GLSEN.”
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3 NASB)
The fallen nature of man does not understand death. Depending on culture, some fight to stay alive with their all. The correct understanding of death comes to us from God’s Word. The word death is used in three different ways in Sacred Scripture. The first is spiritual death, which is separation from God (Ephesians 2:1,1). Then, of course, there is physical death (Hebrews 9:27). Then there is eternal death, which is referred to as “the second death” in Revelation 20:11-15). While many would consider the topic of death to be a subject to be avoided, it is vital for us to have a clear understanding of all three manifestations in biblical terminology so that we will have a better foundation for sharing the Good News.
According to CNSNews:
The U.S. Defense Department will host its fifth LGBT Pride Month ceremony on Wednesday in the Pentagon courtyard, a spokesman announced on Monday, but don’t expect an announcement on transgenders in the military.
“There continues to be progress on that front, even in the last few days,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters on Monday.
“There have been a range of — I’m not going to get into private deliberations…but there have been — the secretary challenged people within the department to work out issues resolving — to try and resolve this issue.
According to Breitbart:
On Saturday, May 28, security officials shot a gorilla named Harambe to protect a three-year-old boy who had fallen into the animal’s pen at the Cincinnati Zoo.
In the five days that followed the animal’s death, the three major networks devoted a total of 1 hour, 28 minutes and 17 seconds to the story during their morning and evening news shows. An unfortunate incident, to be sure, but as one commentator noted, “a tempest in a teapot.”
Berean Research has the story of the latest self-professed Christian to shun Scripture’s clear teaching on the sin of homosexuality and announce that he’s a “gay Christian”:
Ready for your Christian paradigm to shift once again? Put your Bible away and expand your tolerance:
- A Christian contemporary rock star “came out” last week and announced he’s a homosexual.
- The gay rock star has a wife (who supports his lifestyle), and two young children.
- The gay rock star’s Christian band will headline a homosexual pride festival in Ohio next weekend.
Got it? Now open your Bible. God’s paradigm never shifts, even when the culture – and the visible church – does.
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. (1 Corinthians 4:14-16 NASB)
The visible church is flesh driven and, therefore, full of darkness. Evangelicalism is corrupt because of the very same thing. I visit both large and small churches. It seems that in many cases, the larger the church, the more geared the leadership is there to appealing to the flesh to attract and keep the crowds large and entertained. When I enter the physical buildings of these large churches I look around and take a visible inventory of the clues given of how focused the leadership there is to being “in tune” with culture in how church is done, how the music is done, how convicting the message from the Word of God is in all of this and how central that is to the life of that local body of believers. Forget those that have their own television networks or shows or whatever. They have sold out a long time ago to contextualization of the truth in order to keep the money coming in.
Breitbart reports:
Parishioners visiting a church in Italy were told they must “pray in silence” so as not to disturb African migrants being housed there.
Some of the faithful hoping to practice their Christianity at the church of St. Anthony in Ventimiglia were surprised when they were told by Caritas volunteers they couldn’t recite the rosary and would instead have to pray in silence out of respect to migrants who are living there.
Christian News Network reports:
Following a seven month battle, the Norwegian government has agreed to return the four remaining children who were seized from their parents last November after a school principal expressed concern over the children’s “religious upbringing.”
“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! The Bodnariu family will be reunited!” reads a statement released by spokesman Pastor Cristian Ionescu. “The Naustdal Municipality of Norway has come to terms with Marius and Ruth Bodnariu for the return home of all of their five children.”
According to Breitbart:
The European Commission plans to attack citizens’ right to online privacy, insisting that state-issued ID cards should be used to log into platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and even Uber.
The Vice President for the Digital Single Market on the European Commission, former Communist Andrus Ansip, is behind the next European Union (EU) raid on personal freedoms, promoting the idea of using national ID cards to log in to online services.
6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “ God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6 NASB)
Despite what those say who insist that the only attribute of God that ever comes into play is His Love, the only ray of hope in man’s spiritual darkness is His sovereign grace. It alone can rescue man from his propensity to lust for evil things. The passage above (James 4:6) tells us that God gives “more grace.” What does this mean? It shows that His grace is greater than the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan (cf. Romans 5:20). Who obtains God’s grace? Do the proud?
He said to them,
When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name…Luke 11:2
The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer is one of surrender, Hallowed be your name.
I am quite sure this is the petition that makes hypocrites out of most of us. For we can say, Father
with grateful sincerity, but when we pray Hallowed be your name,
we say this with the guilty knowledge that, as we pray, there are areas of our life in which his name is not hallowed and in which, furthermore, we don’t want it to be hallowed. When we say,Hallowed be your name,
we are praying, May the whole of my life be a source of delight to you and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is your name. Hallowed be your name.
The trouble is that we so frequently know there are great areas of our life that are not hallowed. There are certain monopolies which we have reserved to ourselves, privileged areas which we do not wish to surrender, where the name of our boss or the name of our girl friend or some other dear one means more to us than the name of God. But when we pray this, if we pray it in any degree whatsoever of sincerity or openness or honesty, we are praying,Lord, I open to you every closet, I am taking every skeleton out for you to examine. Hallowed be thy name.
There cannot be any contact with God, any real touching of his power, any genuine experiencing of the glorious fragrance and wonder of God at work in human life until we truly pray, and the second requisite of true prayer is that we say, Hallowed be your name.
Christian Nets Network reports:
A satire site run by a professing Christian is receiving criticism for making light of the death of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) co-founder Jan Crouch this past week.
The Babylon Bee is run by Adam Ford of Detroit, who also publishes Adam4d, a comic site that centers on matters of the Christian faith. While some have spoken positively of the site’s use of humor, others opine that its fake news story this week mocking why Crouch might have died went too far.
The Washington Times reports:
A landmark bill allowing for the prosecution of climate change dissent effectively died Thursday after the California Senate failed to take it up before the deadline.
Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, would have authorized prosecutors to sue fossil fuel companies, think tanks and others that have “deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change.”
The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change “fraud” extending back indefinitely.
Bible study author, speaker and blogger Michelle Lesley identifies Christendom’s most nefarious false teachers — and she proves it by using their own words and actions against them. Now find out who Michelle thinks are some of the worst of the worst apostates…
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy hit the big time several years ago with his “You Might Be a Redneck” one-liners. He frequently introduced the bit by saying, “I’ve found that there are rednecks all over, but sometimes people don’t know they’re rednecks. So, I came up with this little test…” and continued with such gems as:
“If you’ve ever had to carry a bucket of paint to the top of a water tower to defend your sister’s honor, you might be a redneck.”
“If your wife has ever said, ‘Honey, come get this transmission out of the tub so I can take a bath!’ you might be a redneck.”
“If you’ve ever been accused of lying through your tooth, you might be a redneck.”
According to Daily Caller:
By fall 2017 Washington state public schools will begin teaching gender expression to kindergarteners under newly-approved health education learning standards that designate sexual health a “core idea” of public K-12 education.
While some aspects of sexual health aren’t taught K-12 (HIV prevention begins in fourth grade), one component of sexual health titled “Self-Identity” begins in kindergarten, where students will be expected to “Understand there are many ways to express gender.”
From Berean Research:
To fully understand the New Apostolic Reformation and the reasons it is a dangerous movement, we are posting an article written a few years ago by Herescope (Discernment Research Group) that covers all the bases. Bible believing Christians must take this seriously. Moreover, they must understand the inner workings of this movement for the reason that, “You will recognize them by their fruit.” (Mat. 7:16)
After reading this article, if you find yourself involved in this movement in any way shape or form, you must break free from it — now! No dilly-dallying. For some of you, breaking free will be difficult for all sorts of reasons; however, you have no choice because to choose heresy over Truth always results in spiritual darkness.
We urge our readers to send Sarah Leslie’s blog post to everyone you know.
According to Christian News Network:
The head of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has resigned from her position over her disagreement on transgender restroom use following an experience where her own young daughters became frightened in encountering three large men in the women’s restroom.
Maya Dillard Smith says that she realized that her values were different from those of the ACLU, which has backed the Obama administration’s controversial transgender restroom mandate for schools and has expressed opposition against North Carolina’s restroom law.
“It became very evident to me that the ACLU and myself were simply principally and philosophically unaligned on a number of issues,” she told Fox’s Megyn Kelly this week. “And I found myself and at the crux of the transgender rights and transgender restroom controversy.”
Mike Gonzalez of The Daily Signal has the story:
Whatever happens in the NBA finals, Steph Curry should be on every box of Wheaties. His example is just the antidote to many of the ills currently holding America back.
In an age of vulgarity, he’s humble; in a season of cynicism, he’s a religious family man; in a time of grievance mongering, he peddles grace.
Of course, it is first and foremost his prowess on the court that has earned Curry accolades. Just this week, he scored 36 points in game seven of the conference finals to finally put away Oklahoma City, a team to which Curry’s Golden State Warriors had fallen down 3-1.
1 Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε, 2 μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης καὶ πραΰτητος, μετὰ μακροθυμίας, ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων ἐν ἀγάπῃ, 3 σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ πνεύματος ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης· (Ephesians 4:1-3 NA28)
1 Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, encourage you to walk worthy of the calling by which you were called, 2 with all humility of mind and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love, 3 being eager to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
Please read Ephesians 4:1-3, which I placed at the top of this post. What is to be our demeanor in how we deal with each other as fellow believers? Paul starts out by reminding the Ephesians that he is writing the epistle from prison and that he is in prison because of his ministry. That means that the faithful Christian walk can be costly and that, like him, we can pay a considerable personal price if we remain faithful to our Lord in the face of persecution. From that “reminder,” Paul encourages us all to walk our Christian walk “worthy of the calling by which we were called…” What does that mean? Our “walk” refers to our daily conduct. Paul is calling for all believers to “walk” in such a way their lives match their position in Christ which is the outcome of the effectual “calling” by God himself. No one comes to Christ unless effectually called by God: Romans 1:18; 11:29; 1 Corinthians 1:26; Philippians 3:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:9; Hebrews 3:1.
Among the public policy issues to be addressed at the rally are LGBTQ equality and climate change, says Eric Scheiner of CNSNews:
“All the atoms in our bodies will be blown into space in the disintegration of the solar system, to live on forever as mass or energy. That’s what we should be teaching our children, not fairy tales about angels and seeing grandma in heaven,” the quote from Carolyn Porco says on the Reason Rally website.
Berean Research tackles the latest fad in the Christian community. Who are the change agents pushing “dream destiny” and where did they get this idea? BR fills us in:
Does God put a dream destiny in your heart? Did He make you for a God-sized dream?
The words, “dream destiny,” or, “God’s dream” are popping up in a significant number of sermons and books by celebrity pastors. It’s as if they’re all preaching from the same strange hymnal. Once you recognize the symptoms and the widespread infection, you can’t unsee the dream shift happening in modern churches. Check out this short eye-opening gallery of Dream Destiny books – sold in CHRISTIAN bookstores:
According to The Atlantic, “Middle-class women treat the ‘child angels’ as though they’re real, taking them to get blowouts at salons and even giving them their own seats at restaurants.”
In Bangkok plastic-baby boom is under way. Thai adults have lately been towing around lifelike dolls known as luk thep (commonly translated as “child angels”), which are believed to be inhabited by spirits that bring good fortune. There are few places the dolls don’t go: They are carried through street markets, they receive blowouts at salons, they take up seats on airplanes, they are even served restaurant meals.
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NASB)
Martin Luther is considered the “Lighting rod of the Protestant Reformation.” It was through his battle with the Roman Catholic Church that the doctrine of salvation through Justification by Grace through Faith alone was recovered and from that, many Christian martyrs went to their deaths refusing to compromise their faith by denying the truth of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified based not upon the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. So much of the pressure being brought to bear upon Christians in our time is to not be so precise in our theology, but be more willing to “compromise” along doctrinal grounds for the sake of “unity.” The “mega-church” model is based precisely upon never offending anyone, but being non-threatening and willing to be all things to all people in order to attract everyone, but to what?
