May-June 1998 News Archives
Distributed via e-mail by Christian News Views.. These articles may be used in any manner to the glory of God, and as an aid in the discernment of the times
[Andy Neckar PO Box J, Hico, TX 76457]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Alpha, A New Evangelism Movement
2. AMENDMENTS to COMMANDMENTS
3. HOT PERCENTAGES
4. Plastered Pastors
5. Government Run By Southern Baptists?
6. Cyber Patrol--Wolf guarding the sheep
7. Politically Correct Testing in Public Schools
8. NEA Money Helps Support Play about Homosexual Jesus
9. JERRY FAWELL ATTENDS SBC
10. Salvation Prayers: The power of God unto salvation?
11. Influential or Influenced?
12. NEWS BRIEFS
13. Taxpayer Funds Hold No Status With Salvation Army
14. Muslim Death Penalty, or God’s. Which Do We Prefer?
15. Can Prayer Save?
16. Can Prayer Generate Faith & Repentance?
17. UMC Bishops Determine Truth from UMC "High Court"
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Alpha, A New Evangelism Movement, Gaining U.S. Adherents
(Ft. Worth Star Telegram- Apr. 30, 1998)
FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- On a recent evening in the fellowship hall of The Falls Church, more than 100 people caught up on each other's lives as they prepared to settle into their weekly session of the Alpha course.
After socializing with plates of fish, corn and salad on their laps, the mixed crowd of longtime churchgoers, new Christians, "seekers" and agnostics turned to the more serious aspect of their evening -- asking hard questions about prayer and healing.
"How do you go about prayer for yourself without being a prayer hog?" one woman asked.
The Episcopal church's rector, the Rev. John Yates, dressed in a white shirt and tie, answered the question by drawing on personal experience.
"I pray this way regularly -- `Father, I feel a little funny asking you for this…" he admitted.[Editor] The "seekers" and "agnostics" who say "Father", are praying to their father the Devil. The Alpha course does not tell them the difference between a Christian’s Father and an unbeliever’s father.
Food, fellowship and discussion are the key aspects of Alpha, a 10-week course of study on basic Christian principles that is little-known in the United States. It began at Holy Trinity Brompton, a charismatic Anglican church in London two decades ago. Now, after being revamped in the early 1990s from a course for new Christians to an outreach to nonchurchgoers, it has swept through British churches and become as much a movement as a curriculum. The course is being offered in homes and churches -- Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal -- across the globe.[Editor] The natural (unsaved) person does not spiritually discern Christian principles. 1 Cor 2:14)
At last count, Alpha officials say there are about 10,000 churches in 75 countries offering the course. Half of those courses are in Great Britain, where plans are underway to invite everyone in the nation to take part in the study in the fall through a massive billboard campaign.
"I never imagined Alpha would work outside of our parish," the Rev. Nicky Gumbel, an English Anglican on the Brompton parish staff who re-worked the curriculum for nonchurchgoers, told the audience at a mid-April conference in Bethesda, Md. Gumbel is the author of "Questions of Life," the book on which the course is based.
Organizers hoped the two days of training at the Maryland Alpha conference would lead to more courses in the United States. Most of the 450 attendees -- Catholics and Protestants, Baptists and Pentecostals -- knew almost nothing about Alpha and came to learn if it was for them.
Gumbel, the chaplain to Alpha, calls the course "evangelism for ordinary people" who don't consider themselves natural evangelists. He compares it to a modern version of a crusade, proclaiming the same gospel message in a different form.
"The message is an unchanging message," he said. "The message comes to us in a package, in a cultural package . . . We have a duty to change the package if the package is not the best one for the people we're trying to reach."[Editor] The Alpha course does not preach the unchanging message. (gospel of Christ. Rom 1:16) The gospel of Christ does not come packaged for different cultures or races. (Rom 10:12)
The Alpha package is a very organized one.
Conference participants followed along and took notes in a 76-page "Alpha Conference Speaker Notes" booklet, which included outlines of conference topics, advice on training course leaders and even suggested menus for the dinners. Course attenders at The Falls Church followed along with workbooks under their rector's instruction before dividing into small groups for more intimate discussions.
Course materials stick to the basics -- Who is Jesus? Why should I read the Bible? How can I resist evil? -- rather than getting into areas that could become divisive in classes of people from different denominational backgrounds.[Editor] The Alpha course may be a good "social" course, but not a biblical course that could lead to salvation for anyone. Satan and his demons know who Jesus is. (Matt 8:29—Luke 4:41) Hey, folks, does knowing who Jesus is help the devil in any way? Does Satan "resist" evil or "promote" evil? Unsaved people cannot resist evil. The division in classes of people from different denominational backgrounds is too important to overlook in a "real" Bible study. The divisiveness (difference) between those you believe the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3) and those who believe another gospel (2 Cor 11:4) is eternal life in heaven or eternal damnation in hell. (lake of fire)
"Catholics and Protestants both do the Alpha course," said Alistair Hanna, North American director of Alpha. "If the Alpha course wanted to make a statement about the sacraments or a statement about baptism, it would probably lose one group or the other. And so Alpha doesn't."
The ability of the course to bridge denominations and different levels of Christian maturity thrills Gumbel.[Editor] The statement the Alpha course makes is "loud and clear". It is endeavoring that "they may be one". They want to make Christians "one with the world" ONE WORLD--ONE GOVERNMENT--ONE RELIGION—ONE ANTI-CHRIST
"It's just taken off, basically, in an extraordinary way," he said. "I don't think it's explicable in human terms. This is the Holy Spirit."[Editor] It is very explicable in "any" terms. All Christians must be made aware that it is definitely demonic spirits behind this movement.
The focus on all three aspects of the Trinity -- especially the Holy Spirit -- is a key part of the course. During the 10 weeks, course participants are encouraged to take part in a weekend retreat where they can learn about baptism in the Holy Spirit, which may include speaking in tongues or gifts of prophecy or healing.[Editor] I had the Holy Spirit come to indwell in me one time. He’s still there in me. He lives there--in me. I didn’t have to learn about Him first though. I just heard the gospel of Christ, believed it, and "here He come". I wasn’t baptized "in Him", He came to dwell "in me".
Some church leaders have chosen not to include the charismatic focus, but Gumbel thinks the course isn't the same without it. He said churches surveyed in England found those leaving out the emphasis on the Holy Spirit were the least satisfied.
Margaret Poloma, professor emerita of sociology at the University of Akron in Ohio, said the movement will be labeled by scholars of religion -- many of whom don't know about it yet -- as charismatic.
"What the movement's about is a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, which may or may not include speaking in tongues," said Poloma, also a visiting professor at Southern California College in Costa Mesa. "They would expect things like healing and prophecy and miracles."
The series of sessions end with a "celebration supper," which allows participants to invite friends and family members who they hope will take the next course. Course leaders hope past participants will either start attending church or become more involved in a congregation.{Editor} Yep! Get em in church, get their tithes and let em go to hell. These course leaders hope for a lot, don’t they. Hey! After all, they’re just doing as their "father" (John 8:44) tells them.
The course's emphasis on asking questions and social interaction appeals to participants like J.D. and Allison Mechalske, who will become official members of the Yates' congregation just outside Washington in June.
"It clarifies what it truly means to be a Christian, what it truly means to have a relationship with God," said Allison, a human resources specialist at a high-tech firm.
Her husband, a worker in a grocery store produce department, said it helps to know that others have the same questions and to be able to share those views over a meal.
"Socializing is very important to help build the church family," he said.
The small groups seem to appeal to participants -- no matter what their faith background.
Eric Holt, a non-Christian who came to the course at the invitation of a member of The Falls Church, said he liked the sense of "community" that developed in his small group.
"There's something about that that feels right," he said, adding quickly, "I don't know if that means that I'm going to become a Christian."[Editor] If I were this man I wouldn’t worry too much about that. He would have to hear the TRUE gospel of Christ before becoming a Christian happens. Even that wouldn’t be enough. Get this—he would have to actually "believe it".
Although Holt, a Spanish professor, said the course has not prompted him to want to start attending church, he said, "I don't intend to stop asking questions either."[Editor] The whole world will be churchgoers soon. That’s what almost everyone is working toward. The world is "full" of missionaries, pastors, evangelists, you-name-its, who are out recruiting church members but very few are out pulling sinners out of hell
The Alpha movement is funded through donations and purchases of resources, such as books and videotapes written by or featuring Gumbel, a lawyer-turned-Anglican priest.
Tricia Neall, Alpha's international director said the organization lost about $30,000 last year. Contributions from Holy Trinity Brompton helped ease the shortfall.
Poloma, the sociologist, said the long-term success of the movement is still unknown.
"If it's aimed at also building Christian community, it may have a selling point," she said. "If it loses sight of that and just makes this experience a one-time deal, then I think it's going to fade away quickly."
Hanna, the North American director of Alpha, hopes the course will become as popular in this country as it has been abroad. At present, there are about 575 U.S. churches offering the Alpha course, double the number there were last year.
"Our goal is to have 50,000 churches doing Alpha by the end of the year 2000 in the U.S.," he said. "I think we're adding somewhere around 50 a month."
Linda Jones left a session of the Maryland conference confident her Lutheran congregation in Honesdale, Pa., could be added to those numbers.
"I think it's very doable and it's exciting," said Jones, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who had heard about Alpha from her local Episcopal priest. "There's been such success with it, there's no reason why it wouldn't be successful in my hometown."[Editor] Folks, we Christians don’t stand a chance of reversing this present day apostasy. We can try--and we should. But "the world" doesn’t stand a chance come hell or high water. High water already came, (Gen 6:17) now the world is going to hell.
------------------------------------------------------------AMENDMENTS to COMMANDMENTS
Media Mogul Ted Turner, who is giving $1 billion to the UN and won the 1990 Humanist of the Year award, says, "Heaven is going to be perfect, and I don't really want to be there." He also says, "Christianity has been unsuccessful after trying for two thousand years to solve the world's problems, so why don't we start over?" He complains that there is no amendment process to the Ten Commandments and suggests a new ten commandments. For example, one should be "Love and respect the planet," and another should be "Promise to have no more than two children or no more than one's nation suggests" (Plains Baptist Challenger, 1/98).[Editor] The following is an article I wrote that was published in the Hico News Review in 1993, before I started writing the Christian News & Views newsletter.
Maybe Ted Turner would settle for these until Al Gore can come up with an amendment.
The Commandments According To Bill Clinton
I am the President thy Ruler, thou shalt have no other Rulers before me
Thou shalt not imply the name of the President, thy Ruler as apathetic, for thy Ruler will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in indifference
Remember the Lord’s Day , to desecrate it and all other days of the week. In them thou shalt labor and harvest riches to enhance thy self-esteem.
For in six billion years thou hast evolved into thy present species, as well as the heavens and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. Wherefore, as nature rests not, thou shalt labor and pay thy taxes.
Dishonor thy father and thy mother. Comply with the indoctrination of thy counselor and thy government, that thy days may be long in the New World Order that the President thy Ruler prepareth to give thee.
Thou shalt kill, until thou is so fed up with killing that thou wilt allow thy government to disarm thyself. Thy victims shalt find no refuge, not even in the womb.
Thou shalt have safe sex with anyone thou pleaseth at any time, at any age, as that is thy unalienable right. If thou believeth differently, or don't know how, thy school will indoctrinate and illustrate, until thou conforms to public policy
Thou shalt steal, as it is also thy unalienable right to posses property as well as thy neighbor who toils for his possessions. Especially if thou finds thyself in a favorable position, such as elected to Congress.
Thou shalt bear false witness against thy neighbors and sue them, for their possessions came easy to them. They had opportunities that thou thyself were unjustly denied.
Thou shalt covet thy neighbor’s wife, as well as thy neighbor’s son, and thy neighbor’s grandson. It is an abomination to the President thy Ruler, to deny the legitimacy of those who choose an alternate lifestyle.
---------------------------------------------------------HOT PERCENTAGES .
Saved by faith or by works? That is the question that was recently asked Americans in a nationwide survey. More than half--55 percent--say a good person can earn salvation. A breakdown is as follows: Assembly of God, 22%; Baptist, 38%; Presbyterian, 52%; Lutheran, 54%; Episcopalian, 58%; Methodist, 59%; Mormon, 76%; and Catholic, 82% (Moody, March/April 1998).[Editor] I don’t know who took this survey, but it don’t look to hot. On the other hand—I guess it does.
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London (ENI). When a Pentecostal Baptist decided to take to the
skies in a paramotor - a parachute with a motor attached - he hoped that
young people hearing him preaching as he flew over their houses would
believe that the voice from on high was "the voice of God". But on his
maiden flight in the paramotor he never got high enough to persuade
anyone he was speaking from the heavens. Instead, he found himself
hurtling through a housing estate at 32 kilometres an hour only 1.8 metres
above the ground. [Ecumenical News International News Highlights 30 March 1998][Editor] This is a 'God called pastor?" He didn't get high enough off the ground perhaps, but it seems he was "high" all right. "Bad boy! Playing with toys designed for grownups". There-I scolded him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Government Run By Southern Baptists?
Look who's leading the country
By Laurie Goodstein (c.1998 N.Y. Times News Service) Excerpted from article of same name posted by the Fort Worth Star Telegram. 6/15/98
The conspiracy theorists have it all wrong. The U.S. government is not run by Freemasons. Or by the pope. Or by Jewish bankers.
The American people are entitled to the truth: the government is run by Southern Baptists, a denomination recently in the news for boycotting Disney, proselytizing Jews and, just last week, declaring that wives should submit to their husbands.
The country's highest elected officials are Southern Baptists: President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate President Pro Tem Strom Thurmond, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt.
If some disaster were to befall the president, the first three officials eligible to succeed him would be you-know-what, which is a remarkable shift from the era when the prototypical Washington politician was, like former President George Bush, an Episcopalian.
"We're no longer out in the cold," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "We're on the inside now. We don't have to explain to Bill Clinton and Al Gore how important Southern Baptists are to the political life of this nation. We had to explain it to George Bush."
The dominance of Southern Baptists in top leadership is in many ways testimony to the sway of the South in national elections these days. If Minnesota and Wisconsin dominated American politics, Lutherans might be running the country. A majority of the South's population is Baptist, and of the various Baptist groups and denominations (which include American Baptists, Free Will Baptists and the predominantly black National Baptists), the Southern Baptist Convention has grown into the nation's largest Protestant denomination, with nearly 16 million members.[Editor] Is this braggin? ‘bout what? Clinton and Gore? God forbid!
No, they’re NOT out in the COLD. It’s gonna be pretty HOT where some of these enemy’s of God are going if they don’t repent and believe the gospel of Christ. The NAME, "Southern Baptist" holds no saving power whatsoever.
Southern Baptists don’t have to explain to Bill Clinton and Al Gore how important Southern Baptists are to the political life of this nation. It wouldn’t do any good.
Past experience may tell us that Southern Baptist politicians are abominable, degenerate (Clinton & Gore) and spirituality blind. (Carter)
Southern Baptists politicians, as exemplified, are repulsive to the political life of this nation, and the spiritual life of "BIBLE BELIEVERS".
I would rather have a "secular" George Bush in office that a "saved" Southern Baptist if they "all" turn out like Carter, (Mormons are Christian advocate) and Clinton. (Sodomite advocate). AMEN?
Cyber Patrol--Wolf guarding the sheep
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TUPELO, Miss. -- The American Family Association (AFA)is a strong supporter of Internet blocking software, which keeps children away from pornography and other objectionable material in cyberspace. Now, the AFA web site is being blocked. The makers of the popular "Cyber Patrol" program has added AFA to the list of blocked sites because of the ministry's opposition to homosexuality. The software makers say AFA's stance constitutes "hate speech" and is blocked by the same criteria used to block neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Most Internet filters block pro-homosexual sites, but "Cyber Patrol" stopped blocking such sites after adding the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to its oversight committee. (FBNS 6/12/98)[Editor] What? Say that again. Porno. Internet blocking software in the hands of perverts?
Politically Correct Testing in Public Schools
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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- An Oregon law which requires schools to use annual tests as the criteria for promotion to the next grade was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The court rejected a challenge brought by the American Family Association (AFA) on behalf of several students and parents. AFA argued that the law was being misused to require students to adopt "politically correct" positions on issues such as homosexuality and environmentalism. But Judge Otto Skopil said, "The Constitution does not prohibit a state from imposing an educational structure and philosophy on its public schools." An attorney for the AFA claimed that a school administrator had said students who believe homosexuality is wrong would be denied promotion. (FBNS 6/12/98)[Editor] One Nation under God? A nation that tries to force immoral beliefs on moral people? More like One Nation under the prince of this world.
--------------------------------------------------------------NEA Money Helps Support Play about Homosexual Jesus
The much-maligned National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), controversial for funding perverse and blasphemous art, has done it again. This time the organization has helped to fund a play on Broadway that depicts Jesus as a homosexual who has sex with his apostles.Playwright Terrence McNally’s latest work, entitled Corpus Christi, focuses on a Christ-character named Joshua who has sexual relations with his apostles. (AFA NET 6/12/98)
[Editor] I really don’t like how Caesar is spending my tribute.(Rom 13:7; Matt 22:21
-------------------------------------------------------------------------JERRY FAWELL ATTENDS SBC, THIS TIME AS A MESSENGER
(Associated Baptist Press 6/12/98)
SALT LAKE CITY (ABP) -- Jerry Falwell has spoken at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference, preached in the pulpits of Southern Baptist churches and put Southern Baptists on the trustee board of his Liberty University.
So in many respects his registering for the first time ever as a voting messenger to the SBC annual meeting was simply confirmed the trend in which he has been moving for several years, said the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
"I've been attending the Southern Baptist Convention for many years. This is the first time we have taken 10 messengers and voted," Falwell said in an interview during the June 9-11 convention in Salt Lake City. "I don't know why we decided to send messengers this time as opposed to earlier, but we did."
Falwell and seven other members of Thomas Road Baptist Church registered as messengers, according to Registration Secretary Lee Porter. The church reported giving $10,000 to SBC causes last year through a new state convention formed by conservatives in Virginia.
"We have officially joined about a year ago," Falwell said, adding that he has no intention of leaving some of the other independent groups he has supported through the years. "We still hold membership in and give support to other groups that we've been affiliated with for 42 years."
Falwell said his decision to join the SBC follows the completion of the denomination's move toward a more conservative stance.
"All six of the seminaries now have biblical inerrantists as presidents. All the Southern Baptist agencies now are headed by inerrantists, and the thing that many of us thought never could happen -- that is the return of the denomination to biblical authority -- has happened," he said.
Falwell said other churches also have joined the convention for the same reason. "I'm sure others will."
"There is now no reason why we shouldn't be a part of it," he added. "We now feel the liberty to support the convention and to participate."
Falwell said he doesn't expect criticism from independent Baptists for the decision to formally join the SBC.
"We are still in good fellowship," he said. "We have not abandoned the Baptist Bible Fellowship (a group of independent Baptist churches)."
He said he doesn't intend to take an SBC leadership role, noting his responsibilities for Liberty University, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcast and the 20,000-member church occupy his time.
"I don't have any plan to get politically involved, just spiritually involved," he said. "I really, at age 64, don't have the energy to take on anything new."
Falwell, a longtime friend of newly-elected SBC President Paige Patterson, said he does intend to be involved in Patterson's goal of baptizing 1 million new Christians during the year 2000.
"We're training 1,000 pastors right now," he said. "Church planting is a major priority with me and has been all of my ministry. It is with Paige Patterson, and we plan to coalesce with our graduates in planting a lot of new Southern Baptist churches."
--------------------------------------------------------------------Salvation Prayers: The power of God unto salvation?
Troubled by the drawings and the message they contained yet "fighting my feelings," Keith left the service with his future wife, Andrea, who had invited him to the service.As he drove away from the church, he became so convicted that he pulled off the road and stopped the car, telling Andrea he knew he needed to be saved. She helped him remember the words of a simple prayer Davis had presented during the service: "Lord, I know you're speaking to me. I know that Jesus died for me, and I know that I need to accept him. I'm tired of fighting, and I know the best thing for me is for you to come into my life and be my Savior. I'm asking you to do that right now." At that moment, Keith recounted, Jesus became his Savior and Lord.
[Editor] The above paragraph is taken from a "Baptist Press" news article and it bothers me. If Keith’s wife had not remembered the words of the prayer would Keith have been saved? You will notice the prayer ends with, "I'm asking you to do that right now". It was "only at that moment" that Keith says he was saved.
Are people saved when they "believe the gospel of Christ from the heart", or when they "complete a prayer from their lips" What if Keith could find no place to pull off the road and had to drive another mile or two? What if he was killed in an accident while he was searching for a place to pull over and pray?
WHAT IF KEITH THINKS HE IS SAVED, BUT ISN’T?
Many people are in hell today that think they were saved and were not. Many people are saved by Emotions. Christian Rock Music saves many. Many are saved by the awesome power of "The Power Team". But what are they saved from? The GOSPEL OF CHRIST is the ONLY power of God unto SALVATION FROM HELL unto everyone that believes. THAT’S IT.
-------------------------------------------------------------------Influential or Influenced?
(excerpts from church news article)"It was a privilege to participate at the Baccalaureate service at the Church of Christ. Bro. Kevin did a good job creatively explaining to the graduates, their friends and families that if we are to weather storms it will be because we have been obedient to God’s instructions. Thanks Kevin."
[Editor] Kevin is pastor of the Hico Church of Christ, and as you know this denomination teaches "baptismal regeneration". (water baptism saves) The writer of the article published in the Hico News Review is a Southern Baptist pastor of a local SBC church. Notice the Southern Baptist minister calling a Church of Christ minister BROTHER.
In the same article this SBC minister writes: " At a recent wedding, I made a new friend. This young man is a Seventh Day Adventist. I was impressed at his commitment to obey the Old Testament instructions to be set apart in one’s diet. With commitment to God’s instructions, may all of God’s family in Christ be gripped and then set aside disobedience for obedience".
Talk about influence! This pastor is eat up with it. I thought pastors were to influence others to Christ, not be influenced by the Christ-less. In past articles he praises the works of Mother Teresa. (Roman Catholic nun)
I know the Baptist preach "once saved, always saved", as does the Bible. But "all saved "? I don’t see that anywhere in God’s Word. Do you?
I wish we had ONE decent (sound) church in this community, but we don’t.
--------------------------------------------------------------Calvary Baptist Church in Waco has broken the gender barrier among Texas Baptist clergy by electing Julie Pennington-Russell as its pastor.
Pennington-Russell, 37, is believed to be the first female senior pastor of a church affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. (Excerpted from Associated Baptist Press 6/5/98)[Editor} I believe this church has broken more than the gender barrier.
------------------------------------------------------------Two religions are colliding in Salt Lake City. More than 10,000 Southern Baptists are invading the Mormon stronghold during their annual convention June 9-11. The meeting takes place in the Salt Palace Convention Center, across the street from the Mormon Temple.
...The convention is almost secondary to what is going on around it. Baptists are evangelizing the city with an extensive campaign before and after the meeting. Some 3,000 Baptists are canvassing 140,000 homes door-to-door in 18 neighborhoods. (Excerpts from Religion News Today)[Editor] Better not let this Hico community Baptist pastor loose over there. He’ll be pulling a Jimmy Carter on us who says he has reservations about the Southern Baptists' plans to try to convert Mormons when they go to Salt Lake City for their annual convention.
"I think the one of the worst things we can do as believers in Christ is to spend our time condemning others who profess a faith in Christ. I think we should be spending our time being generous and compassionate, and helping others. Too many Southern Baptist leaders are acting like the Pharisees did, making judgments on behalf of God. I think that's wrong." [Reported by the CNV News Service 11/97, as excerpted from a report by The "Providence Journal-Bulletin" of Providence R.I. An hour-long telephone conference with former President Jimmy Carter last week with reporters.]The movie "The Apostle" is about a Pentecostal preacher (an adulterer) who kills the youth pastor his wife is sleeping with, then is deposed from his church but rebaptizes himself and flees to rural Louisiana to start a new church. Yet Charisma says, "This groundbreaking film is the first to show a Pentecostal preacher in a positive light" (Calvary Contender, 3/15/98).
[Editor] For some ministers (of every kind) this would indeed be a positive light.
In Kansas, a spokeswoman for abortionist George Tiller described "separation encounters" that his clinic offers for women who undergo late-term abortions. In these "encounters," the mothers who have just had their baby killed are allowed to hold the aborted fetus or have it baptized after the abortion (The Baptist Challenge, 2/98).
[Editor] That what America needs—a loving and caring abortionist
In an attempt to shift the focus on Easter back to its true meaning, Heartland Chocolates has developed a new edible to replace the chocolate bunny--a chocolate cross. Made of solid milk chocolate, each cross is decorated with chocolate flowers, vines, and a colored candy bud in the center (Aspire, April/May 1998).
[Editor] What has a cross to do with Easter? Even if the "true meaning" of Easter were Christ centered it would have nothing to do with the cross. Easter is usually associated with Christ’s resurrection not His death.
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About 1.4 million women have abortions each year--44 percent have had at least one previous one. Catholic women have them at a higher rate than do Protestant women. A Planned Parenthood director expects that 30 percent of abortions will soon be medical abortions. RU-486, an abortion drug, becomes widely available this year (Calvary Contender, 2/1/98).[Editor] Roman Catholic priests have a much higher percentage homosexuality rate than the general population too.
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Tony Campolo says he could envision a scenario where God--tired of the mess human beings created in this world---would send beings from another planet to help people learn to love one another (Calvary Contender, 1/1/98).[Editor] I envision another scenario. When God is tired of the mess He will rain wrath on this world. "All" the world will never learn to love each other. If Christ can’t teach "all the world" to love each other, do you think some aliens can?
---------------------------------------------------------------Taxpayer Funds Hold No Status With Salvation Army
(Excerpted from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram 6/5/98)SAN FRANCISCO -- The Salvation Army has decided to end its contracts with San Francisco and shrink programs serving the homeless, drug addicts and the aged because of a dispute over the city's domestic partners law.
Lt. Col. Richard Love, a spokesman for the Salvation Army, said after 11 months of negotiation, the organization had told city officials Wednesday it could not comply with the ordinance. It is giving up $3.5 million in city contracts to serve the needy.
"We will not be applying for those funds," Love said, "but we're not leaving the city of San Francisco. We've provided a quality service here without discrimination for 118 years and we'll continue to do that."The domestic-partners ordinance, which took effect June 1, 1997, requires companies that do business with the city to provide the same benefits to their workers with unmarried partners as they do to married couples.
Three Salvation Army programs, including meals for 1,700 senior citizens, receive taxpayer dollars and will be reduced, though the programs will not be closed.
The Salvation Army objects to the domestic partners law on religious grounds.
"The Army's belief system, grounded in traditional interpretation of Scripture, does not perceive domestic partnership arrangements as similar to the sanctity granted marriage partners," read an editorial in New Frontier, a Salvation Army publication.
But the editorial goes on to say that the group provides services to individuals regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or marital status.[Editor} Some ministries will NOT compromise for funds--taxpayer or donations. GOD BLESS THE SALVATION ARMY
------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Death Penalty, or God’s. Which Do We Prefer?
The Roman Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, Pakistan, publicly shot himself in the head to protest a fellow Christian's death sentence. News reports said that John Joseph, 67, led a march to a courthouse in Sahiwal in the district of Punjab, where he killed himself after denouncing a death sentence on Ayub Masih, a Catholic convicted this month of blaspheming Mohammed. "We must act strongly in unity, Christians and Muslims, in order not only to get this death sentence suspended but to get [the laws] repealed without worrying about the sacrifices we shall have to offer," he said. Several Christians have been convicted under the country's severe blasphemy law. About 2% of the country's 135 million population is Christian. (Religion Today 5-8-98)[Editor] This Catholic convicted of blaspheming Mohammed was already under a death penalty for blaspheming God. The Muslims can only kill the body. The Catholics should fear the One who can destroy body and soul in hell. (Matt 8:28) It appears this bishop, John Joseph, was eager to send himself to hell.
I pray for these Catholics. But prayer won’t get them saved. I witness to them when I can. God is not responsible for their damnation. I am not responsible. THE CATHOLICS are responsible.
------------------------------------------------------------Can Prayer Save?
A missions' festival hosted by Youth With a Mission attracted 1,400 people last month. Jesus Go Fest music-missions festival was held April 17-18 in Tyler, Texas. Many responded to the theme of "Come and Join the Reapers" by praying to become Christians or rededicating their lives to Jesus Christ, the group said. Others made plans to join YWAM training schools and outreaches. One participant decided to use his nursing skills for God after meeting with staff members of the Mercy Ships, YWAM's relief ministry. Tyler-area radio stations KBJS and KVNE broadcast live from the event. A listener heard an interview with a missionary who works with Muslims in Central Asia and came to the event to talk to him. He now wants to use his talents to serve YWAM's work among Muslims, the ministry said.[Editor] Some folks may think reports such as this make me out a liar when I say prayer will not save a person, but I say it AGAIN.
I believe what I hear from God’s Word, and His Word does not teach that prayer saves. The gospel of Christ is the ONLY thing God provided that has His power unto salvation to everyone that BELIEVES. (Rom 1:16) We BELIEVE unto salvation, not pray, work or whatever unto salvation. I could pray to become a Christian to escape hell. I could pray to become a Christian to receive blessings, or any number of things. Folks, we are saved by GRACE through FAITH. Faith in what? Faith in the gospel of Christ, not faith in prayer. Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:21) is what saves us. The goodness of God leads us to repentance. (Rom 2:4)
"Coming forward to make a "commitment" to Christ does not save us. Publicly saying that "we need Jesus in our lives" does not save us. Walking down a church isle to "accept Jesus into our lives, or hearts" does not save us. Any public profession that is not generated by BELIEVING IN FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST and REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, IS NOT SAVING FAITH. IT IS NOT HOLY SPIRIT PRODUCED.
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Can Prayer Generate Faith & Repentance?
More than 5,000 people prayed to become Christians in Rio de Janeiro and Campos, Brazil. San Antonio, Texas-based evangelist Sammy Tippit preached in the cities April 22-May 6. "My life has fallen apart. The pressure is too great to handle. I need Jesus in my life," the Campos attorney general said before praying at one of the crusades. About 50 women rededicated themselves to serving God at a seminar conducted by Tippit's wife, Tex. Tippit has preached crusades in Brazil since 1991, and is scheduled to preach 11 more city-wide crusades before the year 2000.[Editor] I can see no faith or repentance in the statement made by the Campos attorney general.
--------------------------------------------------------------UMC Bishops Determine Truth from UMC "High Court" rather then Bible
United Methodist Bishop Melvin G. Talbert of the San Francisco Area has told clergy and lay members of the California-Nevada Annual Conference that unless the denomination's Judicial Council rules otherwise, he does not consider a pastor's performing a "holy union" to violate church law.Bishop Talbert leads an annual conference in which at least two congregations have publicly said they have long performed such ceremonies for same-sex couples. The bishop has maintained that he and his district superintendents have adhered to the law of the church contained in the denomination's The United Methodist Book of Discipline.
In a May 14 letter to the conference, Bishop Talbert acknowledged that performing such a same-sex union "does go against the spirit" of the United Methodist Social Principles (where it is specifically forbidden). But the Social Principles, contained in The Book of Discipline, he said, "are not law.
"As one bishop," Bishop Talbert wrote, "I will hold to the principle that the Social Principles are not law, until instructed otherwise by our Judicial Council, the denominations' high court, which meets in August to deal with the issue of holy unions."Our denomination is inclusive and tolerant enough to accept, embrace and welcome all persons, irrespective of their age, gender, political or theological differences. For you see, such differences matter very little when faced with what is required to be around God's table," the bishop stated.
Two San Francisco United Methodist congregations, Bethany and Glide Memorial, have stated publicly that they will allow "holy unions" to be performed in their churches. (Excerpted from United Methodist News Service 5/27/98)[Editor] How many UMC Bishops (bishopettes) and Pastors (pastorettes) are in agreement of performing these "un-holy unions"? I don’t know. But the members of these congregations go along with them that do.
When a denomination makes a "church law" to replace God’s Law the denomination is in the last stages of complete apostasy. Now, folks, that’s just what the United Methodist Church did. The "high court" of their Judicial Council is the official "law maker" of the UMC.
This Talbert says the UMC is "inclusive," and he’s right. But those who are around God’s table are "exclusive". The UMC God is inclusive but the God of the Bible is not. The REAL God does not make a "study" on a particular sin and have a "Creature Court" determine Law.
Folks, the UMC is almost pure Roman Catholic. They hold to truth from tradition just as the Roman Church does. They have their church catechism (Book of Discipline) just as the Roman Church does. They celebrate "Lent" and "Holy Week" (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Saturday) just as the Roman Church does. I could go on—and on—and on. But for some of you it won’t make any difference. Some of you do not see anything wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. I know—I hear from you.
The time for slumber is past. AWAKEN--JESUS IS COMING SOON.
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