According to Bud Ahlheim of Pulpit & Pen, SBC president Ronnie Floyd has declared a new doctrine — the doctrine of denominational unity. However, Alheim shows in his blog post that Mr. Floyd is actually a divider not a uniter. He contends that under Floyd’s leadership the SBC has lost its way. So he calls for the SBC to repent, believe, and obey the Bible.
73 House Republicans Sign Letter Demanding Answers on Obama’s Bathroom Directive
The Daily Signal reports:
The largest conservative congressional caucus is calling into question the legality of President Barack Obama’s transgender bathroom directive for schools.
Chairman Bill Flores, R-Texas, is encouraging Republican Study Committee members to sign on to a letter, pushing the Departments of Education and Justice to detail how, and on what authority, they plan to enforce the new guidelines.
“Americans are incensed by President Obama’s blatant executive overreach,” Flores said, citing the IRS controversy, Obamacare, and the Iranian nuclear agreement. “Now they are threatening school funding over an issue that should rightfully be left to the states. Their actions are politically motivated and Congress has every responsibility to challenge them.”
Why Don’t Republicans Name the Enemy?
From Berean Research:
For those of us in a discernment ministry, a better question to ask is: Why don’t Christian leaders name the enemy?
But this is not about cowardly Christian luminaries who are averse to naming names because they fear man far more than they fear God; it’s about the Grand Old Party, the party of conservative Americans. (GOP intelligentsia who hold court over the “party of ideas” has finally gotten the message that there’s a wide divide between them and your run-of-the-mill conservative who have come up with their own ideas about what’s best for this country. But I digress.)
So – who is this enemy Republican leadership will not name? The Left, declares columnist, author and radio talk-show host Dennis Prager.
Obama Admin Demands Hospitals Accommodate Transgenders Or Lose Funding
Christian News Network reports:
On the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education threatened to revoke funding for public schools that do not allow students to use the restroom and locker room that correlates with their “gender identity,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also released guidelines requiring federally-funded hospitals that may require hospital systems to perform sex change operations or similarly lose funding.
The rules pertain to language in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, and affects all hospitals that accept Medicare or Medicaid, as well as those directly funded by HHS.
Justification and the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 NASB)
Much of the apostasy we are witnessing in our time is rooted in a history of generations of ministries in which preachers, because they feared men more than God, preached in such a way that they talked about God or they talked about His Word rather than actually preaching what God’s Word says. In this, they have created their own “god” in their own image who is inoffensive, all love, all grace, and just wants everyone to have a great day. This “god” only gets peeved at those who are serious about their theology and preaching what God’s Word says as if it is to be obeyed and believed. However, God’s Word tells us that His truth is eternal. It is the truth regardless of whether people believe it or not.
College coaches join the call for answers as Baylor allegations keep growing
Baylor is a top Texas Christian university. Fox News reports that a former Baylor student claims she was assaulted by a football player on two occasions:
My phone rang less than five minutes after I tweeted about Wednesday’s “Outside the Lines” report on more allegations of violence against Baylor football players. It was the first of nine calls and texts I received over the course of the day from college coaches talking about this latest investigation into Baylor’s handling of sexual violence cases involving its program.
“They’re gonna have to fire him, aren’t they?” a veteran college coach asked.
“Him” is head coach Art Briles, the man who took a perennial Big 12 doormat and made it into a powerhouse. Briles even got a fancy new stadium built. The 60-year-old is 32-7 the past three seasons at a place that hadn’t had a single winning season in the 13 years before he took over in 2008.
California is poised to become the center of cannabis culture
Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times has the story:
The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition.
Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana (including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker) said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country.
U.S. Senate Unanimously Confirms Nation’s First Openly Homosexual Army Secretary
Christian News Network reports:
The U.S. Senate has confirmed the nomination of Eric Fanning to serve as Army secretary—a move that homosexual groups note make him the nation’s first openly homosexual secretary of the Army.
“I’m honored by today’s Senate confirmation and thrilled to return to lead the total Army team,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fanning had previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work. He also served as the undersecretary of the Air Force from 2013 to 2015, and for a time was the acting secretary of the Air Force.
Christian Prayer vs Contemplative Prayer
19 καὶ ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον, ᾧ καλῶς ποιεῖτε προσέχοντες ὡς λύχνῳ φαίνοντι ἐν αὐχμηρῷ τόπῳ, ἕως οὗ ἡμέρα διαυγάσῃ καὶ φωσφόρος ἀνατείλῃ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, 20 τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες ὅτι πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως οὐ γίνεται· 21 οὐ γὰρ θελήματι ἀνθρώπου ἠνέχθη προφητεία ποτέ, ἀλλʼ ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι ἐλάλησαν ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι. (2 Peter 1:19-21 NA28)
19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic Word to which you do well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing first that every prophecy of scripture is not of one’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever brought by the will of man at any time, but men spoke from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21 translated from the NA28 Greek text)
Back in September 2011 Pete Scazzero tweeted the following, “There is a mysterious attraction to interior silence in the depth of our beings. The attraction is like a magnet…” Here is the link. Of course, he was quoting Roman Catholic Monk Thomas Keating, a proponent of Contemplative Prayer. In these days where post-modernist thinking has contaminated nearly everything including deeply into the visible church, we must have a clear understanding of what Contemplative Prayer, or CSM, really is. Some seemly very solid Christian leaders give it a pass as if it is just another form of Christian meditation, but is it? Let’s see.
Bathrooms are just the beginning: a scary look into the trans movement’s end goals
From Berean Research:
The radical LGBTQ–Q is for questioning–has a plan to totally destroy the concepts of male and female. In other words, they want to “burn the binary.” Claire Chretien of LifeSite News reveals that this goal is nothing new. Chretien quotes transsexual activist Riki Wilchins as saying:
Queer activists have been talking about [this] at least since the 1970s of Gay Liberation, even as the movement it spawned has continued to nudge it aside.
Moreover,
As the LGBT movement focused on redefining marriage and enshrining in law same-sex couples’ “right” to children, it also quietly introduced lawsuits advocating for the law to recognize one’s self-perception instead of biological reality as truth. Once the Supreme Court redefined marriage, the media focus on the LGBT movement slowly began to shift to battles over gender and transgenderism.
So we’ve noticed. Pay attention, brethren. This isn’t going away.
Evangelical Christians condemn introduction of Zen Buddhism to York Minster
According to Ruth Gledhill of Christian Today, York Minister in the north of England has quietly introduced Zen Buddhist meditation. Blending various religious beliefs is syncretism which is dangerous as it results in a fundamental change of beliefs. Gledhill writes:
A leading adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that Buddhist meditation introduced by a key cathedral in the north of England breaches the bounds of Christian orthodoxy.
Dr Ian Paul, a highly-regarded conservative evangelical member of the Archbishops’ Council, and also a regular commentator for Christian Today, writes on his Psephizo blog, says the setting up of a “sangha” or community for Buddhist meditation at York Minster illustrates the “nonsense” of the so-called “broad church”.
The revelation of Buddhism being practised at York Minister was doubly embarrassing because it came on Pentecost, which this year was chosen by the Church of England as the culmination of a week of prayer for the evangelisation of the nation.
Obama Appoints Man Who Identifies as Woman to Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships Council
Christian News Network reports:
Barack Obama has appointed a man who identifies as a woman to serve on his Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.
The man, who goes by the name Barbara Satin, is a veteran of the United States Air Force and formerly served on the United Church of Christ’s executive council. He was behind the denomination’s decision to affirm transgendered persons in the ministry.
Satin was raised by his mother after his father died just over a year after Satin was born. He went on to marry a woman and the two had three children together.
Are you alive in Christ?
7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8 NASB)
In the passage above (1 Timothy 4:7-8) the Apostle Paul used the Greek word ευσεβεια in v8, which is translated here as “godliness.” What is godliness? The word ευσεβεια in this context describes the condition of devotion and piety toward God. Godliness is a good translation, though it could also have been rendered as “holiness.” Godliness is a word which encapsulates the whole of true religion and it is called “godliness” because piety toward God is the foundation and the principal part of it. In the Greek, when this word is used to describe a devout worshipper of God, it also carries with it the general sense of a pious life or a life which is morally good. My brethren, this is the description of those who are truly alive in Christ because this is also the description of Christlikeness when it is applied to genuine believers belonging to the Lord Jesus.
The Moral Revolutionaries Present Their Demands: Unconditional Surrender
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, makes no bones about the fact that conservatives have lost the culture wars. And of course the Left is gloating over our loss. So, not surprisingly, they’re saying to the losing side, which includes conservative evangelicals, “You lost, deal with it.” And we did lose, big time. Now liberals are preparing to rub our noses in the battle field mud.
How should Bible believers deal with this startling defeat? According to Eph 6:10, followers of Jesus Christ must “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (See what that looks like here.)
Armor-up, brethren, because the winner’s are going to take a hard line: “No accommodation whatsoever,” urged one Harvard Law School professor. “Don’t even try to be nice to moral enemies…since their arguments have no normative authority of any kind.”
Liberals have no intention of showing any sort of kindness toward conservatives — and Bible believers are the Left’s real “moral enemies.” As Dr. Mohler points out in his piece, these people will go all out to squash religious freedom.
Abortion mandate cases returned to lower courts
Baptist Press reports:
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously voided multiple appeals court decisions against religious institutions that object to the Obama administration’s abortion/contraception mandate in an opinion released today (May 16).
The justices returned to the lower courts for reconsideration a disagreement between religious objectors and the federal government over the mandate, which requires employers to make contraceptives available to their workers, including ones with mechanisms that can potentially induce abortions. The high court remanded the cases to the appeals courts of the Third, Fifth, 10th and District of Columbia districts in light of their brief opinion and blocked the administration from fining the objecting institutions.
Disagreements slow Pentagon’s plan to allow transgender service members
The liberal Washington Post has the story:
Months before Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the Pentagon would take steps toward allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, Army Staff Sgt. Patricia King last year became what she believes is the first openly transgender member of the infantry. While official Pentagon policy still forbids openly transgender personnel, her commanders have been supportive, she said. King even purchased a female dress Army service uniform, anticipating that she would be able to wear it soon.
“I made a decision that owning that uniform was important to me, and I believe that our leadership is going to do the right thing,” she said.
Sin and missing the mark
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “ Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-21 NASB)
In the passage above, the word “sins” translates the noun ἁμαρτιῶν, which is the Genitive, Plural of ἁμαρτία or hamartia, from the verb ἁμαρτάνω or hamartanō, which means, “to miss the mark.” The word group from which these two words belong gives the sense of missing the mark, losing, or falling short of a goal (particularly a spiritual one), as in Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” The noun form, ἁμαρτία, typically refers to the transgression of the law, for example, 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” Therefore, ἁμαρτία is used to denote our sin against God. Apart from the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, ἁμαρτία results in death, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord ” (Romans 6:23).
Glenn Beck, Anti-Trump Conservatives to Meet with Facebook’s Zuckerber
Breitbart reports:
On Wednesday Mark Zuckerberg will hold a meeting with “leading conservatives,” embattled The Blaze head Glenn Beck, and former George W. Bush Administration official and co-host of Fox News Channel’s The Five Dana Perino, at the website’s Menlo Park headquarters to discuss Facebook’s conservative media suppression and censorship scandal.
In spite of this, Zuckerberg denies any wrongdoing, stating “we have found no evidence that this report is true.” He is instead planning to hold a session Wednesday where he will essentially “pat conservatives on the head” with a photo-op that is a direct testament to the fact that nothing has changed. It is also quite telling that he has reached out to Beck, who is struggling to remain relevant in the conservative media sphere.
Beck announced the meeting in a Facebook post on his page early Sunday morning. Beck and Perino will be joined by Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute, CNN’s S.E. Cupp, and Mitt Romney’s former digital director, Zac Moffatt.
An Economist Explains Why America Is Moving Toward Totalitarianism
Bob Bluey of The Daily Signal interviews economist Walter Williams who makes the case that America is heading toward totalitarianism.
The famed George Mason University professor says the government is gradually gaining more control over the lives of the American people. What can be done about it? Williams explains why it’s hard to change course, especially in regard to young people who embrace socialist ideas.
(Source)
Tim Keller Staff Member Says Homosexuality Isn’t Sin, Part of “Church Plant” Behind Transgender Restroom Plan
According to Christian News Network:
A staff member at New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, led by popular megachurch pastor and author Tim Keller, and who handles sermon orders for Keller, identifies as a progressive who doesn’t believe homosexuality is sinful and is part of a so-called church plant whose leader recently made recommendations to do away with male/female-separated restrooms nationwide.
In addition to his leadership of Redeemer Presbyterian, which sees up to 5,000 in attendance each week, Keller is known for his best-selling books “The Reason for God” and “The Prodigal God” as well as “The Meaning of Marriage” and “Counterfeit Gods.”
The Target boycott has reached a boiling point — and sales may suffer as a result
Business Insider reports:
Target is facing a nationwide backlash for its support of transgender rights.
More than 1.2 million people have signed a pledge to boycott the retailer after it announced last month that it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity.
Critics have been holding protests and demonstrations at stores across the country, and they are showing no signs of dying down.
Many are demanding access to bathrooms of the opposite sex to support claims that “perverts” can now prey on children and women as a result of the policy.
The boycotters’ goal is to force Target to reverse its policy, or at least make the retailer suffer for it by spending their money elsewhere.
Jesus Christ is the Exclusive Saviour
1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” (John 14:1-7 NASB)
What is noticeably missing in all cults is the correct emphasis on the necessity of the Cross of Christ and, therefore, a total misapplication of Him as our Exclusive Saviour. Carefully read the passage I placed at the top of this post from John 14. John 16:6 says, “Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” In response to Thomas’ question in v4, Jesus declared that He is the way to God because He is the truth of God (John 1:14) and the life of God (John 1:4; John 3:15; John 11:25). What we see in v6 is the exclusiveness of Jesus as the only approach to the Father is emphatic. Only one way, not many ways, lead to God and that one way is Jesus Christ (John 10:7-9; cf. Matthew 7:13, 14; Luke 13:24; Acts 4:12).
What does it mean to preach the Word?
1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4 NASB)
About 7 years ago or so we were dealing with the Emergent or Emerging “Church” replacing Christian liberalism or at least morphing into the same role. That means that it assumed a Gospel stance of universalism. At the same time, we were hearing of a certain group of Christian leaders who called themselves “New Calvinists.” For many years, it was assumed that if one was reformed in his theology, like me, that it was a sure deal that that Christian was not going to fall into the cesspool of liberalism. However, the New Calvinists appear to lean towards mysticism and heavily toward compromise. I am one who simply cannot wrap my mind around how one who confesses to believe that God is Sovereign over all things and that man is incapable of saving Himself can seek to make the compromises in their ministry that would line themselves up with the Emergents. Universalism and Calvinism are polar opposites in my understanding of things and that means that Calvinists should have a proper understanding of what it means that Jesus Christ is Lord. It means that we do not call the shots. We do not design new and more popular ways to serve and worship Him. No, we must worship and serve as directed by Him.
Breitbart News, #15 Facebook Publisher, to Zuckerberg: Forget the Meeting — We Want Transparency and the Truth
Breitbart reports:
Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg announced he is planning a “pat conservatives on the head” session with “leading conservatives” to discuss Facebook’s conservative media suppression scandal.
Representatives at Facebook have already reached out to Breitbart News.
We have zero interest in a Facebook photo-op.
Moreover, if, as Facebook claims, there has been no effort to suppress conservative media, why the need for a meeting?
Despite Facebook’s rampant suppression of conservative media in its Trending News section, Breitbart News has out-hustled Facebook’s bias, clawing its way to #15 in the world on Facebook for total engagement, #12 in the world on Facebook for Shares, and #10 in the world on Facebook for comments.
United Methodists may never agree on LGBT issues. Can they stay together anyway?
Michelle Boorstein of the liberal Washington Post reports:
The global United Methodist Church begins its once-every-four-years legislative meeting Tuesday, and the focus has been on whether to change or keep the denomination’s rejection of homosexuality. But a broader question is up for a vote: What do the 13 million Methodists from Africa to Asia to America have in common?
In a globalized, polarized time, it’s a question that could be asked of many faith groups, from Catholics and Jews to Muslims and Mormons. For the next 10 days, it will be put to the United Methodists, with hundreds of delegates from around the world hashing out more than 1,000 proposals on topics from abortion and whether to digitize hymnals to potentially divesting from businesses connected with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.