No Toleration Of Christians In Muslim Countries

From: The Pen of Gary DeMar

It’s a story that hasn’t gotten much press. Bibles translated into Afghan languages were sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan. The Bibles were later confiscated by chaplains and destroyed to make sure that American troops did not violate government rules which bar soldiers from sharing their faith with Afghans. So it’s OK to blow up stuff and shoot and kill Afghans, but it’s illegal to share the gospel with them. . . .

It’s not just soldiers who are denied the right to present the gospel in Muslim nations. Just being a Christian in a Muslim nation of which you are a citizen can get you thrown in jail or worse. Foreign aid workers who have no link to our military are under constant threat if it is perceived that they might present the gospel. Christian minorities are persecuted on a regular basis. Some have had their apartments searched for Bibles and other Christian literature. Converting to Christianity can get a Muslim convert the death penalty. Take a look at the video Muslim Persecution of Christians produced by the Terrorism Awareness Project. It reports in graphic terms on current instances of anti-Christian violence that is said to be justified based on Islamic theology. These persecuted Christians were minding their own business. It didn’t matter. They weren’t Islamic. . . .

Continue reading. . . .

The Importance Of Church Discipline

Quoting R. C. Sproul:

When the church fails to discipline its members for gross and heinous sins, particularly sins of a public nature, that community becomes infected with the immorality of the secular culture. This occurs when the church so desperately wants to be accepted by the pagan culture that it adopts the very morality of the pagan community and imitates it, baptizing it with religious language.

Green Jobs Raise Unemployment

In The Words of George Will:

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating “green jobs” in “alternative energy” even though Spain’s unemployment rate is 18.1 percent — more than double the European Union average — partly because of spending on such jobs?

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Moral Courage

Quoting General George S. Patton:

“Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”

Cap And Trade Is A Huge Tax On You

Written by Gary Bauer:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House of Representatives will be voting on “cap and trade” legislation this week. A recent Rasmussen poll found that only 24% of likely voters correctly understand the term, and I’d be willing to bet that an even smaller share of Congress has read the 1,200 page bill. Representative John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, summarized it best when he said, “Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a great big one!”

Writing in the Washington Post several weeks ago, Robert Samuelson put it this way: “The centerpiece of Obama’s agenda is a ‘cap and trade’ program. This would be, in effect, a tax on fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas). The idea is to raise their prices so that households and businesses would use less or switch to costlier ‘alternative’ energy sources, such as solar. In general, we would spend more on energy and get less of it.”

Spend more and get less. That sounds like Obama’s rationed healthcare proposal too! That concept is antithetical to economic progress and rising standards of living. But it’s generally the outcome of socialism and leftwing thinking.

According to an analysis by the Heritage Foundation, the “cap and trade” bill before the House will result in a “58 percent increase in gas prices, 90 percent for electricity, and 55 percent for natural gas. Cumulative higher energy costs for a household of four from 2012-2035 would reach nearly $20,000.” The Heritage Foundation also predicts more than one million job losses as a direct result of higher energy costs.

Just think about that for a moment. Here we are in the middle of a deep recession, with the president predicting double-digit unemployment, and this White House and the liberal politicians on Capitol Hill are scheming to impose one of the biggest tax increases in history. It will affect every American who turns on a light switch, drives to work or consumes products, since just about every economic activity involves the use of fossil fuels.

Fighting The Battle For Truth

John MacArthur

In The Words of John MacArthur:

A couple of weeks ago Tom Pennington gave me a quote from Martin Luther that I found very interesting. This is what Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God, except that little point, which the world and the devil are, at that moment, attacking. I am not confessing Christ. However, boldly, I may be professing him. Where the battle rages, said Luther, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battlefield, besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point,” end quote.

Luther was saying if you’re gonna call yourself a Christian then you have to fight the battle where the battle rages. And where it rages today, and I think all through history, is at the very point of the truth of Scripture.

The Bible is under incessant assault from the enemy. It’s pretty easy to understand, from the biblical prospective, God is the source of, author of, truth. Satan is the source of, author of, lies. And, therein, is the battle, God’s truth, Satan’s lies. And Satan attacks God’s truth relentlessly with his lies. . . .

Some people think, you know, that the fall of man happened because Eve ate an apple. No. The fall happened because Eve stripped God of his glory, because Eve made a twisted assault on the holy perfections of God. She didn’t trust what he said and she didn’t trust his character. She blasphemed God. The eating was just the evidence. Because when she ate she was saying, “God lied, I’m not gonna die. And Satan told me the truth. I’m gonna be like God. And even if he doesn’t like it I’m gonna do it anyway.” So it was disobedience to what God said. It was the conviction that God was a liar, that God was motivated by selfishness, and it was open rebellion. So the father of lies brought down the whole human race on the premise that you can’t trust what God said. He doesn’t tell the truth.

Now folks I can put it simply. Either the Bible is true or it’s not. There’s no in-between. It’s not part of it’s true and part of it’s not. It’s not whatever is true to you is true and what ever is not true to you is not true. It’s either true or it’s not.

Thirty eight hundred and eight times the Old Testament claims to be the Word of God. The New Testament writers repeatedly claim that it is the Word of God. Jesus claimed that Scripture could not be broken, that it was the Word of God. Not one jot or tiller would ever in any wise fail until it had all come to past, even though heaven and earth would pass away. You can say it’s a lie or you can say it’s true, and there’s really nothing in the middle. . . .

Read this entire sermon. . . .