Who Is it that Truly Has Fellowship with Christ?

14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?  2 Cor 6:14–15, NASB 

Contrary to what most believe about Christianity, what one’s own framework is of their conception of salvation and having fellowship with Jesus Christ is irrelevant. Unless this ‘understanding’ is totally submitted to the Word of God and the authority of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit then it will be according to the counsel of the individual’s own conscience. This counsel is according to the value system of the individual not according to what God has revealed. It creates its own image of God and holds that image accountable to the individual’s value system. View article →

The Visibility or Invisibility of the Church

Make no mistake, because no human being can know for certain who is indeed born again, there is a sense in which there is the visible Christian church.

However, as you’ll see in this article at Apprising Ministries, the long apostate Roman Catholic Church is not this visible church.

In fact, since she preaches a false gospel, the Church of Rome is not even a Christian church in the first place. View article →

7 Marks of a False Teacher

According to prominent blogger Tim Challies, there are 7 marks to look for in a person who teaches a false gospel:

No one enriches hell more than false teachers. No one finds greater joy in drawing people away from truth and leading them into error. False teachers have been present in every era of human history, they have always been a plague and have always been in the business of providing counterfeit truth. While their circumstances may change, their methods remain consistent.

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Finishing Well

3 Εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁ κατὰ τὸ πολὺ αὐτοῦ ἔλεος ἀναγεννήσας ἡμᾶς εἰς ἐλπίδα ζῶσαν δι’ ἀναστάσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐκ νεκρῶν, 4 εἰς κληρονομίαν ἄφθαρτον καὶ ἀμίαντον καὶ ἀμάραντον τετηρημένην ἐν οὐρανοῖς εἰς ὑμᾶς 5 τοὺς ἐν δυνάμει θεοῦ φρουρουμένους διὰ πίστεως εἰς σωτηρίαν ἑτοίμην ἀποκαλυφθῆναι ἐν καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ 6 ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε ὀλίγον ἄρτι, εἰ δέον ἐστίν, λυπηθέντας ἐν ποικίλοις πειρασμοῖς, 7 ἵνα τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως πολυτιμότερον χρυσίου τοῦ ἀπολλυμένου, διὰ πυρὸς δὲ δοκιμαζομένου εὑρεθῇ εἰς ἔπαινον καὶ δόξαν καὶ τιμὴν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ 1 Pet 1:3–7, NA28

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one according to his great mercy has regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an imperishable inheritance that is undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if it is necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to bring praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet 1:3–7, translated from the NA28 Greek text

I left on a trip early in the morning of August 19th for a scheduled two week meeting in the Kansas City area dealing with restructuring much of how we do our Database Management at our company. However, I knew going into this that there was the possibility that I could receive a message or call or email from my sister that the time in hospice care was drawing to an end for my nephew Travis who has been battling brain cancer for about 6 years or so. In fact, on Wednesday last week I got an email from her saying that the hospice care nurses were saying he had only a matter of hours or days left so we had better be prepared. I called her that night and she confirmed that and I could also sense a deepening dread in her perhaps some weariness. In any case the very next  evening after after my wife drove up to KC from our home in the OKC area to spend the weekend with me, we received the message from her that Travis had died. I made all the arrangements to depart the meetings and head home the next day so we could then drive to Houston to be with family and attend Travis’ funeral, which was on Monday this week. We arrived in Houston with our daughter Sunday afternoon in time to attend the “Viewing” at the funeral home. This was the first time I had seen my sister in several weeks, perhaps months. What a difference! It was a like a massive load had been removed from her. We visited with my brother-in-law, Travis’ brother and sister, and his wife Jennifer and it was amazing how, yes, they were in mourning, but there was also a great release and joy present knowing that the one they loved was no longer suffering and was now in the presence of our Lord. View article →

Pastor & Imam Debate, Agree to Seek Truth

Baptist Press writer Mike H. Hunter reports the chilling story of a courageous American pastor:

It was hot, stuffy and crowded in the one-room shack, deep in a labyrinth of slums of Mumbai, India, when the door burst open. Angry Muslim men ordered everyone to get out — except for one.

“You stay!” they told the pastor of one of Louisiana’s largest churches who was holding a Bible study with about a dozen Bangladeshi men.

As part of its international missions outreach, the church — unnamed for security reasons — adopted Bangladeshi Muslims, an unengaged, unreached people group who migrated to India by the millions and are despised “illegal immigrants” in the predominantly Hindu nation.

This was the second trip for the Louisiana church to meet with house church planters who were evangelizing the vast slums of Mumbai.

“The first minute or two my blood pressure rose because I knew they were angry — and I was alone — except for the Lord,” the senior pastor recounted. “But I felt courage rise. Jesus said, ‘Don’t worry before you go in to testify before kings and authorities, I will give you words in that moment,’ and in that moment the Lord was granting me wisdom to respond to what they were saying.”

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Pro-Life Groups Slam CA Bill Allowing Non-Physicians to Perform Abortions

CNS News reports:

Pro-life groups decried the “abortion-first” mentality of a bill approved Monday by the California State Senate that will allow nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physicians’ assistants to perform first-trimester abortions.

“This expansion will help alleviate a shortage of abortion providers in California,” said Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), who introduced the bill, which passed by a 25-11 margin. “All women should have timely access to reproductive healthcare regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas and without excessive expense or travel,” she said in a press release.

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A Spiritual War Is Raging

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis reminds Christians that they are living in the midst of an ongoing spiritual war. Many believers “are virtually asleep while a battle rages all around them.”

A friend of ours, knowing that Mally and I enjoy watching detective programs on TV, sent us an intriguing DVD series set in World War II. As we watched the programs, I thought about what is happening today in the church. You see, while soldiers were at the battlefront overseas in WWII, people back home in England were by and large going about their daily business.

The British people definitely knew a war was going on, but they were quite oblivious to much of what was happening where the battles were raging. When soldiers came home, some with horrific wounds and startling stories, it was clear that the general population really did not know what terrible things were happening on the front lines.

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Transgender Politics vs. the Facts of Life

Author and speaker Nancy Pearcey examines the liberal worldview that holds that a person’s sex at birth is merely arbitrary and not a scientific, biological fact.

California has just passed a new law saying school districts may not bar transgender students from same-sex settings, like men’s basketball teams or women’s locker rooms (Assembly Bill 1266). Opponents promptly submitted a referendum to overturn the law. But it will take more than the usual political activism to stop the momentum on what some are calling the next major drive for “equality.”

It will take a serious, sustained program of education in both scientific facts and real respect.

Every law has an implicit worldview, a set of assumptions that justifies it. The worldview implicit in the transgender movement is that our physical bodies have no particular value — that our biology is irrelevant to who we are as persons.

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The Revolution of the Family: The Marxist Roots of ‘Homosexualism’

In a piece posted at LifeSite News, Hillary White examines “homosexualism.”

I have been asked recently “what is homosexualism?” I started using the term in my writing on these issues a few years ago when it became clear that we were dealing not with a group of people, but with a particular ideology that is often held by people who are not themselves homosexuals.

A few days ago in The Guardian, Peter Tatchell wrote a pretty good description not only of that ideology’s goals but its origins. This political ideology, often called “queer theory” by its proponents in academia, is what is being pushed, quite openly these days, by the “gay rights” movement. Despite what we are told all day by their collaborators in the mainstream media, from the six o’clock news to your favourite sit-com, this movement is not about “equal rights”. It is about re-writing the foundational concepts of our entire society. I predict that it will not be much longer before the pretense of “equality” is dropped, having done its work.

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Planned Parenthood ‘Navigators’ Will Have Access to Americans’ Personal, Medical, Tax Information

LifeSiteNews shares this disturbing report:

Planned Parenthood employees will soon have access to a vast federal database of sensitive information, including the Social Security number, tax form, bank account, and medical records of every single American citizen as the president seeks their help in implementing ObamaCare.

Consumers purchasing health insurance through health care exchanges will speak to “navigators,” whose job is to help them find the best coverage and determine if they are eligible for a federal subsidy.

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Top ‘LGBT Friendly’ Colleges Offer ‘Gender-Free’ Bathrooms, ‘Queer Studies’ Minor

CNS News reports:

Campus Pride, a gay rights advocacy group, released its annual list of the “Top 25 LGBT Friendly Colleges and Universities” on Tuesday, which includes schools with gender-neutral bathrooms and a minor in “queer studies.”

The top 25 schools had to achieve five stars in overall, sexual orientation, and gender identity/expression categories in order to be listed in the top 25. Each school also had to be 4.5 stars or above in eight LGBT-friendly factor areas

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Terrorist Admits He Was ‘Defending’ His Muslim Faith in 2009 Fort Hood Shooting

According to Christian News Network:

A Muslim terrorist who killed thirteen people in a shooting rampage has told a local newspaper that he was “defending his religion” in the ruthless attack.

On November 5th, 2009, former Army Major Nidal Hasan opened fire in Texas’ Fort Hood army base, killing thirteen people and injuring over 30. One of the slain individuals was a pregnant mother; the unborn baby died also. Hasan fired over 200 bullets during the rampage.

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Christian Legal Group to File Lawsuit Over New Jersey Law Banning Counseling Homosexual Youth

Christian News Network reports:

A Christian legal organization states that it plans to file a lawsuit against New Jersey officials in an effort to block the enforcement of a new law that bars therapists and counselors from assisting youth in turning away from their homosexual inclinations.

As previously reported, reiterating his belief that homosexuality is “not a sin,” the Republican governor of New Jersey signed a bill into law on Monday that bans the use of conversion or reparative therapy, or to otherwise help minors who are struggling with homosexual feelings to overcome their temptations.

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Will More People Go to Heaven or to Hell?

GotQuestions.org provides us with the answer to this burning question:

The question of whether there are more people in heaven or hell is answered by Jesus Himself in one succinct passage: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

This passage tells us that only those who receive Jesus Christ and who believe in Him are given the right to become children of God (John 1:12). As such, the gift of eternal life comes only through Jesus Christ to all those who believe. He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). It’s not through Islam, Buddha, or other false gods of man’s making. It’s not for those wanting a cheap and easy way to heaven while continuing to live their own selfish and worldly lives on earth. Jesus only saves those who fully trust in Him as Savior (Acts 4:12).

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Churches Help Catholics Learn Baptist Doctrine

According to the Baptist Press:

As Hispanic populations across the United States, many of which are traditionally Catholic, continue to increase, so do opportunities for Southern Baptist churches to address the spiritual questions of current and former Catholics.

Hispanics made up 38.1 percent of the population of Texas in 2011, the U.S. Census reports. This reflects a nearly 10 percent increase since 2006, when Hispanics accounted for 35.7 percent of all Texans, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts’ office.

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Christianity Under Attack as Violence Sweeps through Egypt

The Washington Times reports that Christian churches are being burned to the ground and the homes and businesses of Christians are facing similiar “dire circumstances.”:

Dozens of churches and monasteries have been burned and attacked, a Virgin Mary statue decapitated and several Christians killed in the past few days of unrest in Egypt.

The violence against Christians has been the underbelly to the ongoing public clash between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and interim government and security forces.

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Airman Punished for Opposing Gay Marriage Files Complaint

Last week Fox News radio host Todd Starnes wrote about a vereran of the Air Force that was punished for opposing gay marriage. Starnes now reports:

An airman who was relieved of his duties after he told his commanding officer that he could not support gay marriage has filed a formal complaint with the military alleging he is the victim of religious discrimination.

Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk, a 19-year veteran of the Air Force was punished after he disagreed with his commander when she wanted to severely reprimand an instructor who had expressed religious objections to homosexuality.

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National Right to Life Committee Boots Affiliate for Standing Against Homosexual ‘Marriage’

Christian News Network reports:

The National Right to Life Committee has cut ties with an affiliate chapter of the organization over its desire to expand its mission efforts to defend both life and the family.

This past June, the Cleveland, Ohio chapter of the National Right to Life Committee announced that it was enlarging its borders to fight for the institution of marriage, as well as the lives of unborn children.

“So as to foster a culture of life, we promote and defend the right to life of all innocent human beings and reject such practices as abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, and same-sex marriage that are contrary to ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,’” the group’s updated mission statement reads.

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