Jennifer Knapp, "Gay Christian Icon"?

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The Religion News Service has released a story about musician Jennifer Knapp, calling her “an unlikely gay Christian icon.” Knapp was a popular contemporary Christian singer until she came out as a lesbian several years ago. Now Jennifer refers to herself as a “gay Christian artist” and urges Christians to affirm homosexuals. The singer performs regularly for Christian congregations and youth groups and revealed that, “Those listeners who used to treat her like ‘a big rock star’ now approach her after a concert for counsel about their sexual orientation.”

According to the article:

Her new album and her performances have found an audience with some of her old fans as well as Christians who — gay or straight — are hungry for churches to address LGBT issues and the challenges gay Christians face when they come out.

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Culture Doesn't Annul The Word Of God

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries attempts to help you identify trends within the visible church and to teach you to avoid them.

One disturbing trend right now is the idea that the Christian gospel has to be made “relevant” to our capricious culture. It’s the same ill-fated idea tried before by the original cult of liberalism. View article →

When Paul Sent the Celebrity Pastor

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion

Kevin DeYoung, Senior Pastor at University Reformed Church and a Council Member of The Gospel Coalition, wrestles with what it means to be a “celebrity pastor.” Could Christians be misguided in their allegiance to specific teachers and leaders? He writes:

Here is a verse that caught my attention yesterday: “With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel” (2 Cor. 8:18).

There are many things we’d like to know, but don’t know about this verse.

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The Sermon on the Mount, Part 5

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14“You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14, NASB

I am firmly in line with J. Gresham Machen’s assessment that “Liberal Christianity” is a different religion from Christianity. We see this in what it has abandoned in what it abhors in “Orthodoxy” that is exactly what makes Christianity “Christian.” Genuine Christianity is Christian because it is based upon the facts about our Lord Jesus and the message from him. True Christians love and respect and hold dear the same things he loved, respected and held dear, that is, God’s truth, which is called doctrine. In our day, as it was in Machen’s day, the liberals attempt to do away with what they call “dead orthodoxy” and get back to the primitive form of Christianity that the Church missed and has messed up with all its “Orthodoxy” for these last several millennia. In fact, they insist on totally “reforming” the church top to bottom without all this emphasis on the Bible as the infallible Word of God, which we call Sola Scriptura. The move towards that are seen in the teachings and sermons of men who keep moving their churches closer and closer to things such as tolerance for the “gay agenda” or “unmarried couples” or even looking the other way while their members and leaders have adulterous affair after adulterous affair. View article →

Christianity and Liberalism

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙

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. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10, NASB

I spent the last several days away from email, the Internet, work, et cetera, and simply rested and spent time with family with the intent of taking up right where I left off on our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount when I returned. However, before we get back to that, I would like to share some insights from some time I spent in the solitude of study and quiet I had during my “downtime.” Part of that time was spent in reading J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism, which was published in 1923. I have not quite finished it yet, but I made good progress. Some of you I know have read it because you recommended the book to me. For those who don’t know, Machen’s thesis in the book was to address the encroachment of Liberal theology in his day, which was taking over the Northern Presbyterian Church in the United States to the point that the Seminary at Princeton was preparing to “liberalize.” His thesis for this magnificent book is that “Liberal Christianity” and Christianity are two different religions. View article →

Oprah Still Insists She is a Christian

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙

Oprah Winfrey once again has declared herself to be a Christian, and many of her fans believe her. Examining Oprah’s own words, Marsha West exposes how Oprah’s profession contradicts the truths of Scripture.

Oprah has consistently, and unapologetically, rejected an essential tenet of the Christian faith: There is only one path to God, through the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus stated unequivocally, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Yet Oprah rejects Christ’s own words while at the same time declaring: “I’m Christian!”

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Stay Awake, Keep Watch

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

When things go smoothly in one’s life it can be easy to drift and to let down your guard. With this in mind Apprising Ministries shares an exhortation to beware of becoming soft from the prince of preachers Charles Spurgeon. View article →

Dr. Walter Martin Explains What Mormonism Teaches

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙

Unfortunately, because of misinformed people like Joel Osteen and the prominence of Mormon Glenn Beck, there’s much confusion concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons).

Apprising Ministries brings you this rare and important video sermon on this growing non-Christian cult by the late Dr. Martin who was the foremost expert in religious cults having their origins in the United States. View article →

Nebraska Football Coach: "To Be Fired for My Faith Would be a Greater Honor"

Posted by ∙ ∙ In News

LifeSite News reports:

University of Nebraska’s assistant football coach, Ron Brown, who is facing censure and calls for his dismissal for publicly expressing his biblically-based views against the homosexual lifestyle, has stated that he’d rather be fired than retract his comments.

Brown expressed his belief in the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual acts as sinful, then stated, “the real question I guess I have for you all is – what does God say?”

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Walter Martin: Mormonism vs Christianity

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries thinks it’s ridiculous that we have to go over such basics, but as I shown you before e.g. in Now Joel Osteen Says Mormonism Itself Is Christian, such is the time in which we now live.

Here in this video clip from The John Ankerberg Show you’ll clearly see that Mormonism is not Christian; rather, it is a nonChristian cult hostile to God and His Gospel. View article →

Evolution Pushed in Roman Catholic Bibles for Latin America

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Opinion ∙

Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis, a ministry that seeks to provide answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis and creation, brings to light a Roman Catholic Bible, written in Spanish, that is the “official” Bible used in Latin American countries. This Spanish Bible maintains that evolution is a fact, something Ken Ham disputes. He writes:

The universe, say the authors in their introduction, took “millions and billions of years” to form. After the authors describe how evolutionary ideas came about, they write, “Where are we trying to get with this? Simply that a vision of the world in evolution fits perfectly with the Christian notion of time and of the ‘ages’ of history.”

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The Defense of the Christian Faith

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

As my friend and fellow CRN contributor Mike Ratliff reminded me today, for too many within evangelicalism this is but a pillow fight.

So Apprising Ministries goes to the Bible, yes I know that’s très passé, to show the stark contrast between Holy Scripture and the mythology of men like Rick Warren. View article →

Christian And Muslim Debates—The John Ankerberg Show

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Apprising Ministries would have you know that the world religion of Islam will continue to be an important issue to be faced by the Christian Church. There are many now who have bought the lie that Islam is an Abrahamic faith; it is not.

The fact is, the capricious and unknowable Allah of the Qur’an is not the immutable and personal one true and living God of the Bible. Therefore we know that Islam’s founder Muhammad received his revelation from a demon and not from an angel of God.

Here in this post you’ll see for yourself from a well informed Muslim, Dr. Jamal Badawi, Chairman of the Islamic Information Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who they think God is. Then Christian Bible scholar Dr. Gleason Archer will show from Scripture the Christian and Muslim simply do not believe in the same God. View article →

Protholic Peter Scazzero Kicks Off Leadership Conference 2012 Thursday

Posted by ∙ ∙ In Devotion/Teaching

Highly recommended by Rick Warren, Willow Creek Association, and Gospel Coalition Council member Tim Keller, Apprising Ministries warns you that Scazzero has much influence upon mainstream evangelical pastors.

In this article you’ll get more idea of what type of fruit Scazzero’s corrupt contemplative spirituality is producing and what you need to get ready for as his disciples prepare to spread as spiritual spores. View article →