Visions And Angels With Bags Of Golden Dust

The music is a driving beat – strong, loud, and almost mesmerizing.  Some in the audience faint or laugh hysterically as emotional fervor is driven to a fever pitch.  The unconventional preacher is covered in tattoos.  Sometimes he wears a t-shirt that states, “JESUS GAVE ME MY TATTOOS.”  He wears earrings, eyebrow rings, and a ring in his chin.  He often wears a WWE wrestler t-shirt and can name many of the WWE wrestlers.  He appears to be very pleased with his persona and, in fact, draws attention to it.

This is a minister who has no difficulty blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular.  He declares that the spiritual source of power in his ministry comes from an angel who is standing next to him on the stage.  He once wrote that when he was having financial difficulties, “I don’t just pray and ask God for my financial breakthrough. I go into intercession and become a partner with the angels by petitioning the Father for the angels that are assigned to getting me money: ‘Father, give me the angels in heaven right now that are assigned to get me money and wealth. And let those angels be released on my behalf. Let them go into the four corners of the earth and gather me money.'” His money gathering angel is called Emma.  Our visionary evangelist first met Emma in North Dakota.  She carried bags filled with gold dust.  As she glided up and down the aisles, she sprinkled the gold dust on people.  Many students of the Bible have come to the conclusion that Emma is a demonic spirit.  Angels are created by God and the Bible does not reference any female angels.

Todd Bentley is certainly making headlines with his claims of supernatural powers and faith healing in a revival located in Lakeland, Florida.  According to Bentley, even the dead have been raised.  Bentley also believes that God tells him to hit, choke, and kick people.  He has done this on several occasions to initiate their cures.  Bentley’s miracles have yet to be verified by a reputable source. Bentley claims he has been transported into the future.  He claims to have healed a man in such a manner as to enable him to see using a glass eye.  Another person he prayed for, Bentley claims grew a new eyeball. Hank Hanegraaff, of the popular “Bible Answer Man” radio program, called Bentley “an absolute false prophet.” He calls what’s going on in Lakeland a “counterfeit revival:”

“Unfortunately today people are looking for God in all the wrong places,” Hanegraaff wrote on his website. “They’re going to hear in Lakeland all kinds of things, from people being resurrected from the dead — not true, no details, no descriptions — to supposedly people being pickled and marinated in the Spirit…. In fact, they’re going to hear about vibrating in the Spirit now. This guy is an absolute phony. Unfortunately people are falling for his ruse.”

Russell D. Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has stated:

“Every few years here comes another fraudulent, scandal-riddled ‘faith healer,'” Moore said. “That’s, sadly, no surprise. I am not dubious about healing. I believe that God heals today…. We all know, however, that there are those who will use the power of God to peddle a product. “What’s most tragic about this cycle, though, is the fact that there’s always a constituency for guys like this. I fear that it’s more than just P.T. Barnum’s famous old maxim about the gullibility of the American public. I fear that there’s something missing in our churches that drives even some of our people to charlatans. Might there be less of a demand for these traveling health-and-wealth revivalists if our churches spent more time on our knees in prayer for sick and hurting people?”

Bentley also tends to suggest that attendees will not receive a blessing unless they give generously when the offering is taken.  He notes that people want to be stingy but, at the same time, want a generous blessing. In his personal testimony, Bentley claims he heard the Gospel from the Bible many times but could not believe without a supernatural experience. He says he was saved only when God spoke audibly to him in his drug dealer’s trailer.  God told him it would be his last chance to make a decision for Christ. According to Bentley, he received his calling in 1998 when a “glory liquid honey cloud” came and rested over his head.  This “manifest tangible presence of God” did not leave his life for three months. Throughout this time, he was constantly “slain in the Spirit” and had many visions.  He says Jesus appeared to him at the end of the three months and told him he would never do secular work again.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Have You Separated Your Heart From The Influence Of The World?

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

Therefore go out from their midst,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch no unclean thing;

then I will welcome you,

and I will be a father to you,

and you shall be sons and daughters to me,

says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:15-18, ESV)

Separation from the world’s value systems is evidence of a work of grace in the heart.  A person, who is born of the Spirit, seeks to separate himself from the evils of worldliness.  Many church leaders desire to make Christianity easy and to avoid self-denial.  We hear professing Christians saying that we should not be too narrow and exclusive.  They believe we may go anywhere, and do anything, and still be good Christians.  It says in God’s Word, “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you. . . .”

If you believe that anyone is a Christian who goes to church, in spite of how he lives or believes, you probably think very little about separating yourself from worldliness.  But if you read your Bible, you know there is a difference between believers and unbelievers.  An unsaved person thinks mainly on the things of this world. He is more concerned with pleasing man than pleasing God.  This is why Christians must be a “peculiar” people, living their lives in a way that separates them from the unsaved.

Paul says to the Corinthians, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler-not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-11)

The true Christian refuses to be guided by the world’s standard of right and wrong.  The rule of most men is to go with the flow.  Whereas, the true Christian will ask, “What does God say in the Bible about this?”  He believes that nothing is right that God declares wrong.

North Carolina Government Funds Movie With Rape Scene Of Child

Dakota Fanning

Why are North Carolina state funds being used to finance a movie with a child rape scene?  The movie is “Hounddog,” starring Dakota Fanning.  Fanning was 12 years old when they filmed the movie, but she plays a nine-year-old who was raped by a 20-year-old man.  There was no stand-in actress for Fanning during the scene in which she is fondled and partially unclothed.

The makers of “Hounddog” were given a $387,000 tax credit to make the movie in North Carolina.  Two other films have also been produced in North Carolina about sexual encounters with minors and they too were given similar tax breaks.  Is this how North Carolinians want their taxes used?

See OneNewsNow for more information on this topic. . . .

Do You Possess A Holy Boldness?

Has God made you bold in the Gospel since your conversion?  On the other hand, do you worry about being offensive to this friend or to that acquaintance if you share the good news of Jesus Christ?  Is boldness a spiritual quality we should seek or is it inappropriate for our culture and times?

After a confrontation with the local religious authorities – Peter, John, and company once prayed, “‘And now, Lord, . . . grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’  And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31, ESV)

Paul had faced cultural conflict but revealed his source of strength in these words, “But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” (1 Thessalonians 2:2, ESV)  Paul had found boldness in God.  We see that the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to speak of Christ with boldness.

How long has it been since you prayed, “Lord, give that kind boldness to me. Help me to open my mouth and to speak as boldly of Jesus Christ as I ought to speak”?  Have you never prayed that way?  The verses above demonstrate that it is a spiritual characteristic greatly to be desired.  Should we be less bold than these disciples were?

Was not Christ, Himself, bold in delivering His message of judgment and mercy?  If we believe in the seriousness of the message, how can we speak of it lightly and timidly to others?  Have you ceased to believe in the wonders of heaven?  Do you think the torture, agonies, and weeping of hell are uncivilized myths?  You cannot.  If you count yourself among the converted, pray for a holy boldness to confront the world with the Gospel.  Eternal life is a serious matter.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Strikes Down “Hate Crime” Laws

WorldNetDaily reports that the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania has declared the “hate crimes” laws used to jail the Philadelphia 11 in 2004 violated the state constitution.  The Philadelphia 11, a group of Christians, had been giving their testimony on public property at the city’s tax-funded celebration of homosexuality in the city’s downtown in 2004.  They were arrested, jailed and threatened with up to five decades in jail.

The group members then challenged the law itself and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a 4-1 decision that the amendments were unconstitutional.  The legislation increased penalties for crimes based on what the criminal was thinking, specifying the additional penalties for “actual or perceived … ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.”

All crimes are “hate crimes” and we must stop any legislation that tries to make some victims more special than others and thus entitled to more rights than others.  A crime is a crime and the victims and accused must stand before the law equal in rights to all others in their positions.  Increasing penalties based on what you think someone else is thinking during the commission of a crime is an extremely dangerous and subjective form of a kangaroo court system.  Guilt, innocence, and penalties must be based on objective testimony and evidence; not looking into a crystal ball.  Objective evidence must remain the basis of our legal system.

The implementation of “hate crimes” legislation not only removes the objective standard of justice from the justice system but it is also targeted against the freedom of speech.  If you simply criticize individuals or a group that belongs to one of the special categories of “protected” citizens designated by “hate crimes” laws, such as people of a certain “ancestry, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity” – you can be arrested and tried for “hate speech.”  This is what happened to the Philadelphia 11.  They were sharing God’s Word about the sin of homosexuality in a public area where there were homosexuals gathered.

Therefore, “hate crime” laws place the equality of justice for all citizens at risk.  They subjectivise the determination of guilt, innocence, and punishment.  They also strike down the First Amendment by restricting free speech and freedom of religion to the whims of politically correct trends.

Do You Want To Make Your Church Relevant?

The hardest thing to change in the church is the people who say, “This is the way we have always done things.” The counter part to this, however, is that some people love to change things just for the sake of change or to put their personal imprint on their job.  We have all heard criticism of some of the new ways people are doing church.  New movements such as “the emergent/emerging church” and “sonship theology” have certainly earned their share of critics.  Some very notable theologians have warned us about efforts to turn the sanctuary into a theater.  These new movements often neglect the preaching of the Word as they try to appeal to the emotions of the unchurched with an upbeat style of music.  This approach is more focused on how we feel rather than God-centered worship.

We cannot simply dismiss these orthodox theologians with that tired saying, “We must make the Church relevant to modern culture.”  Instead, we must heed the wisdom which tells us that Christianity is to reform the culture; not vice versa.  The older, wiser, and most orthodox of Christian theologians are not simply naysayers to the new methodologies; they are here to warn us if we are straying from the true path.  They help us to identify false teaching and to avoid violating the Word of God.  It is clearly pride that makes us leap ahead where Angels fear to tread.

Charles Spurgeon teaches here a valuable lesson.  “We preach today what was preached 1800 years ago, and wherein others make alterations they create deformities, and not improvements. We are not ashamed to avow that the old truth of Christ alone is everlasting; all else has gone or shall go, but the gospel towers above the wrecks of time.”

Saudi Academics: An Education In Hatred Only Leads To Violence

Most of us have had to take a multiple-choice test at one time or another.  Here is a sample question from a Saudi Arabian fourth grade textbook on Monotheism and Jurisprudence which teaches one to recognize true or false belief in God:

Q. “Is belief true in the following instances:

(a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.

(b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.

(c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.”

Anne Applebaum writes in the Washington Post:

The correct answer, of course, is (c): According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn’t enough to simply worship God or just to love other believers; it is important to hate unbelievers, too. By the same token, (b) is wrong as well: Even a man who worships God cannot be said to have “true belief” if he also loves unbelievers.

“Unbelievers,” in this context, are Christians and Jews. In fact, any child who attends Saudi schools until ninth grade will eventually be taught outright that “Jews and Christians are enemies of believers.” They will also be taught that Jews conspire to “gain sole control over the world,” that the Christian crusades never ended, and that on Judgment Day “the rocks or the trees” will call out to Muslims to kill Jews.

These passages, it should be noted, are from new, “revised” Saudi textbooks, designed to be less harsh on the infidels. After an analysis of earlier textbooks caused an outcry in 2006, American diplomats approached their Saudi counterparts about modifying the more disturbing passages, and the Saudis agreed to conduct a “comprehensive revision . . . to weed out disparaging remarks toward religious groups.”

Perhaps the Saudi textbooks have been revised, but that revision certainly does not reflect a call for change in behavior toward Christians, Jews, and unbelievers.  These children are actually being taught that their religion requires them to hate Christians, Jews, and all unbelievers.  Our friends, the Saudi government, distribute these textbooks free to Muslim schools all over the world.  Yet, our politically correct government and Muslim apologists are telling us not to pay any attention to these eccentricities of the Muslim faith.  We are to believe that there is no connection between these textbooks and the 9/11 hijackers who were mostly Saudis.

Anne Applebaum’s article, “The Saudi Guide To Piety,” is a must read.

Do You Live As If There Is No God?

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21, ESV)

Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, writes in his essays titled The Words that “I had been playing with matches and burned a small rug.  I was in the process of covering up my crime when suddenly God saw me.  I felt his gaze inside my head and on my hands.  I whirled about in the bathroom, horribly visible, a live target.  Indignation saved me.  I flew into a rage against so crude an indiscretion, I blasphemed, I muttered like my grandfather: ‘God damn it, God damn it, God damn it.’  He never looked at me again.” (p. 64)

All human beings know that God exists.  We cannot hide from Him.  He sees our every indiscretion.  In spite of Sartre’s claim, he never escaped the watchful eyes of God.  Sartre became an atheist precisely because he understood that God does exist.  It was the inevitable conclusion that God’s existence requires our accountability to Him that Sartre could not tolerate.  Therefore, Sartre – like millions of human beings before and since – (including myself at one time) chose to suppress the knowledge of God rather than to acknowledge God’s right to absolute sovereignty over us and our accountability to Him.

The guilt of unrighteousness drives us to a form of insanity in which we conclude that we can lock God away in some dark corner of the universe.  We are driven to suppress the truth of a supremely righteous, holy God because we know that our desires and actions fall far short of His holy standards.  Fallen man is like the mythical vampire exposed to light.  We fear the burning exposure of the presence of God.  Consequently, we choose to hide in the darkness.

Nevertheless, like the mad, self-deluded Jean-Paul Sartre, we too will one-day face the inescapable judgment of God.  All that we have said, failed to say, done, and failed to do will be weighed on the scales of justice.  The standard of God’s holy law will cast a light that overwhelms our illusions of self-righteousness.

Unless!  And this word, “unless,” is supremely important.  Unless we stand before almighty God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who atoned for our sins by His death on the cross – we will be like a people who wish the mountains would fall on them to cover them and hide them away.  God’s wrath is real and terrible.

You must, therefore, suppress the truth no longer.  Acknowledge the truth of God and your accountability to Him as your Creator.  Do not incorrectly assume that you can continue postponing this day of reckoning.  Flee quickly to Christ for His mercy and righteousness (John 3:16).

For Those Of Us Who Love God’s Creatures Great And Small

This is the video diary of Christian the lion, a big cat who lived in a London antiques shop.  John Rendall and Ace Berg, two Australians, had bought the lion cub from Harrods in 1969.  The trio became stars in Chelsea, playing football in a park.  Christian, however, began to grow too big and so, at 18 months, he was sent to live at the Kenyan wildlife sanctuary.  One year later his former owners, John and Ace, visited the sanctuary, but were warned not to get close to Christian, who was now in the wild and had his own pride.  They were told that the lion would tear them to pieces.  This is a video of what happened that day. . . .

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)

Charles H. Spurgeon On New Doctrines

When at any time I am cast down and dejected, I always find comfort in reading books which are strong on the doctrines of the faith of the gospel; if I turn to some of them that treat of God’s eternal love, revealed to his chosen people in the person of Christ; and if I remember some of the exceeding great and precious promises made to the elect in their covenant head, my faith at once becomes strong, and my soul, with wings sublime, mounts upwards towards its God. You cannot tell, beloved, if you have never tasted, how sweet is the peace which the doctrines of grace will give to the soul; there is nothing like them. They are-

“A sovereign balm for every wound,

A cordial for our fears.”

They are God’s sweet lullaby, wherewith he singeth his children to sleep, even in storms. They are God’s sheet anchors, which are cast out into the sea, to hold our little vessels fast in the midst of tempests. There is a “peace of God which passeth all understanding,” which accrues to a man who is strong believer, but you know the tendency of the day is to give up old land marks and to adopt new ones, and to avow anything rather than the old-fashioned divinity. Well, my dear friends, if any of you like to try new doctrines, I warn you, that if you be the children of God you will soon be sick enough of those new-fangled notions, those newly invented doctrines, which are continually taught. You may, for the first week, be pleased enough with their novelty; you may wonder at their transcendental spirituality, or something else, which entices you on; but you will not have lived on them long, before you will say, “Alas! alas! I have taken in my hands the apples of Sodom; they were fair to look upon, but they are ashes in my mouth.” If you would be peaceful, keep fast to the truth, hold fast the form of sound words: so shall “your peace be like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

“Hold fast the form of sound words,” again, let me say, because it will tend very much to your growth. He who holds fast the truth will grow faster than he who is continually shifting from doctrine to doctrine. What a mighty number of spiritual weathercocks we have in this world now. We have men who in the morning hear a Calvinistic preacher, and say, “Oh, it is delightful;” in the evening they hear an Armenian, and they say, “Oh, it is just as good; and no doubt they are both true, though one contradicts the other!” The glorious charity of the present day is such, that it believes lies to be as good as truth; and lies and truth have met together and kissed each other; and he that telleth truth is called a bigot, and truth has ceased to be honorable in the world! Ah! beloved, we know better than to profess such unlimited, but false charity; the truth is, we know how to “hold fast the form of sounds words,” which has been given to us, because in this way we grow. Changeable people cannot grow much. If you have a tree in your garden plant it in one place to-day, and tomorrow place it somewhere else, how much bigger will it be in six months? It will be dead very likely; or if it does not die, it will not be very much grown; it will be marvelously stunted. So it is with some of you: you plant yourselves there; then you are persuaded that you are not quite right, and you go and plant yourself somewhere else. Why, there are men who are anythingarians; who go dodging about from one denomination to another, and cannot tell what they are; our opinion is, of these people, that they believe nothing, and are good for nothing, and anybody may have them that likes; we do not consider men to be worth much, unless they have settle principles, and “hold fast the form of sound words.” You cannot grow unless you hold it fast. How should I know any more of my faith in ten years’ time, if I allowed it to take ten forms in ten years? I should be but a smatterer in each, and know nothing thoroughly of one. But he that hath one faith, and knoweth it to be the faith of God, and holdeth it fast, how strong he becomes in his faith? Each wind or tempest doth but confirm him, as the fierce winds root the oaks, and make them strong, standing firmly in their places; but if I shift and change, I am none the better, but rather the worse. For your own peace sake then, and for your growth, “hold fast the form of sound words.”

But, my beloved, I would beseech you to hold it fast for your own sakes, from a remembrance of the great evils which will follow the contrary course. If you do not “hold fast the form of sound words,” listen to me while I tell you what you will do.

In the first place, every deviation from truth is a sin. It is not simply a sin for me to do a wrong act, but it is a sin for me to believe a wrong doctrine. Lately our ministers have absolved us all from obeying God in our judgments; they have told us point blank, many of them, in their drawing-rooms, and some of them in the pulpit, that we shall never be asked in the day of judgment what we believed. We have been told that for our acts we shall be responsible, but for our faith we shall be irresponsible, or something very much like it; they have told us plainly, that the God who made us, although he has authority over our hands, our feet, our eyes and our lips, hath but little authority over our judgments; they have told us, that if we make ever such blunders in divinity, they are no sins, so long as we can live right lives. But is that true? No; the whole man is bound to serve God; and if God gives me a judgment, I am bound to employ that judgment in his service; and if that judgment receive an untruth, it has received stolen goods, and I have sinned as much as if I put forth my hand to take my neighbor’s goods. (Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon 79)

What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do? The Border And Immigration

Former President, Theodore Roosevelt, was also a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate winner because of his leadership in the negotiations of the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.  He is considered a notable and heroic American leader.  He advised us to “Speak softly,” “carry a big stick,” “and you will go far.”  I think he portrayed much in his life of what was to become the model for the “American Character” – a kind of cross between George Washington and John Wayne that you use to see in movie heroes years ago.

If faced with our modern problems of border control and immigration, what would a leader like Teddy Roosevelt do?  What would be his attitude toward this problem?  The fact of the matter is that Teddy Roosevelt did have a lot to say on this subject.  So, let us look at what he did say:

“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birthplace or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American.

“If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American.

“We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, and American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house; and we have room for but one soul [sic] loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” (The Chicago Daily Tribune, January 6, 1919)

Teddy Roosevelt believed that immigrants should be assimilated into American society as quickly as possible.  He did not care for hyphenated national identities such as “Italian-American,” or “Irish-American.”  He believed that when you came here, your primary allegiance was to America.  He advocated measures to strengthen the loyalty of American immigrants.  He thought that learning the English language should be compulsory.  Roosevelt went on to say:

“Let us say to the immigrant not that we hope he will learn English, but that he has got to learn it. Let the immigrant who does not learn it go back. He has got to consider the interest of the United States or he should not stay here. He must be made to see that his opportunities in this country depend upon his knowing English and observing American standards. The employer cannot be permitted to regard him only as an industrial asset.

“We must in every way possible encourage the immigrant to rise, help him up, give him a chance to help himself. If we try to carry him he may well prove not well worth carrying. We must in turn insist upon his showing the same standard of fealty to this country and to join with us in raising the level of our common American citizenship.

“If I could I would have the kind of restriction which would not allow any immigrant to come here unless I was content that his grandchildren would be fellow-citizens of my grandchildren.” (The New York Times, February 2, 1916)

I guess Teddy would not be considered very “politically correct” in our day and time.  Are his ideas, however, rejected because they are outdated and irrelevant to our border and immigration problems or are they rejected because this is the correct solution – but our politicians, like Esau, have sold our birthright for a pot of stew? (Genesis 25, ESV)

Someone needs to stand up and say that the stew is rotten before our nation is poisoned and dies from divided loyalties.  I was born here.  I am an American, not a Scottish-American or Irish-American, even though they are a part of my family heritage.  My loyalty is to America, not Scotland or Ireland (even though I may be fascinated by the history of these countries and be proud of my ancestry).  If you choose to immigrate to America, your loyalty must be first to America.  If you cannot make that choice, then you should not choose to come here – because the very reasons you are coming here will be destroyed by your presence.  Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” (Matthew 12:25, ESV)

Right now, our nation needs heroes like Teddy Roosevelt.  We need politicians who desire for the United States to continue as a sovereign, free nation.  We do not need the secular progressive prophets of the left continuously crying out, “‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 8:11, ESV)

Has Your Church Compromised The Gospel?

“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized [strange] fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.  And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” (Leviticus 10:1-2, ESV)

We live in an age of strange fire.  The clergy and leaders of the Christian church believe it is necessary to reshape and water down God’s Holy Word in order to appeal to the present generation.  The church is pandering to “worldly” needs rather than offering the Gospel of “spiritual” need.  Spiritual truth has been replaced by the desire to make the church more appealing, more attractive, and more in sync with our materialistic culture.  Charles Spurgeon wrote these lines to address similar problems in his day:

Brethren, let me ask you, do you imagine that the gospel is a nose of wax which can be shaped to suit the face of each succeeding age? Is the revelation once given by the Spirit of God to be interpreted according to the fashion of the period? Is “advanced thought” to be the cord with which the spirit of the Lord is to be straitened? Is the old truth that saved men hundreds of years ago to be banished because something fresh has been hatched in the nests of the wise? Think you that the witness of the Holy Ghost can be shaped and molded at our will? Is the divine Spirit to be rather the pupil than the teacher of the ages? “Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?” (OldTruth.com)

When the church’s goal is to be relevant by the world’s standards, you can be sure that it is on the road to irrelevance.  We do not come to church to be entertained and psychologically affirmed, but to become disciples.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, ESV)  Christianity is not compatible with a “give the howling mob what they want” philosophy.  When the church compromises with popular thinking, the Gospel is lost.  The preaching of the Scripture must never be tailored to the world’s preferences.

“This is what the Lord has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'” (Leviticus 10:3, ESV)

Harry Reid And Nancy Pelosi: Holding America Hostage To Environmental Fascism

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have effectively undermined all efforts to lift the ban on drilling for more oil.  Despite growing public support for ending the ban, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she won’t even allow a vote on lifting the ban.  Pelosi even boasts that in the House, the power of recognition and setting the agenda rests with the Speaker.

Support for drilling in the areas that have been banned is now over 73% in various polls.  Reid and Pelosi, however, seem to be impervious to reason.  Completely ignoring public opinion, the high price of oil, and the damage being done to our economy – they have misused their authority to block solutions to problems that don’t fit their personal agendas.  They demand that the nation trust in their peremptory authority to decide what is best for the American people.

When the force of logic is pressed against their irrational stance on oil and environmentalism, Reid and Pelosi can only react with hysterics and obfuscations.  Like their mentor, Al Gore, they are not beyond making up their own “reality.”  They shout, accuse, and toss out “so-called facts and figures,” which are later shown to be the meaningless products of their aides’ imaginations or faulty pseudo-science.

It is interesting to note in the study of history how totalitarian states seem to rise out of the perpetuation of a permanent sense of crisis.  Crisis is used as a means to expand the power of the government.  Fascist movements use a crisis to cut off or block democratic deliberation.  Radical environmentalism, as preached by Al Gore, is currently trying to use the same tactics.  By taking advantage of a heightened sense of emergency – which was created by government policy to begin with – radical environmentalists call for more government control over our freedoms to choose in order to create their imaginative version of an environmental utopia.  By creating a state of fear, environmental fascism has pressured for legal decisions and legislation by which they have gained a stranglehold on our economy and the financial means to intimidate US Senators and Congressmen.

Fascism was very popular with American progressives in the 1920’s and 30’s.  Are the secular progressives today reclaiming that movement?  Should Pelosi and Reid dictate to the American people that they must pay higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher energy prices, and higher taxes in order to create their mythical environmental utopia?  Are we witnessing a liberal-fascist coup?

If you feel the way I do, I urge you to make Reid and Pelosi aware of your disappointment with them on this issue.  We need to urge and demand that they allow a vote to lift the ban in the House and Senate on expanded drilling.  This needs to be accomplished before they go on break on August 1st.  You may email Nancy Pelosi at this site or you may call this number (202) 225-0100.  You may email Harry Reid at this site or you may call this number (202) 224-3542.  Please call your US Senators and Congressmen as well.  If public opinion will not move Reid and Pelosi from their illogical positions on this issue, then we must vote every politician, who has bent the knee to environmental fascism, out of office in November.  It is time to reclaim the American citizen’s right to a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people. . . .” (Abraham Lincoln)

Why Is It Important To Read The Bible?

The Bible is the Word of God written through man.  The human words we read in the Bible are God’s words.  Since the Bible is God’s Word, it is beyond human criticism.  It is the foundation of absolute truth.  The Bible is self-authenticated by God and does not really need other forms of verification.

Every day it becomes more apparent that most people care little about Biblical authority.  When people become Christians, however, they see the Scriptures as living and dynamic.  The Word of God is indeed powerful and able to save.  No human being should neglect it.  Everyone should read and study the Bible from cover to cover.

As creatures of God, we must read, hear, and obey the Word of God.  He is our Creator and we owe Him our obedience.  People do not want to hear this message and they go on rebelling against the Word of God.  Nevertheless, wherever the Gospel is heard, some will be saved.  The Bible is the powerhouse of our faith, if we are Christians.  The Holy Spirit working in us helps us to understand and obey God’s commands for righteousness.

I have always enjoyed reading and I read mostly Christian and History books.  Christian books, however, are no substitute for the Bible.  Yes, I have read the Bible many times.  I have listened to it on tape many times – particularly The New Testament.  How can we neglect so great a salvation that can only be found in the words of Scripture?

Could You Pass The United States Citizenship Test?

One of the great failures of our modern secular progressive educational bureaucracy is the dumbing down and rewriting of American History to make it more politically correct.  As a result, many citizens born in the United States don’t know the fundamentals of our own history.

Here is a selection of questions that immigrants to our country must answer before becoming a citizen of the US.  The candidates for citizenship are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview. The following questions have been adapted from the immigration service’s sample questions.

See how many you can answer correctly:

1. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

• George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison
• John Hancock

Continue taking the test here. . . .

HT to Kristin Chapman at WORLDMAGBLOG