Expert Thinks Evangelical Christianity Could End Chinese Communists’ Rule
By Chad Groening
May 31, 2006
(AgapePress) – An American anti-Communist activist says he is encouraged by a recent report that after years of atheism, the Chinese people are returning to religion. He believes that is going to be an increasing problem for the Chinese Communist Party.
D.J. McGuire is president of the China Support Network and the China E-Lobby. He says a recent article in the Chinese newspaper, the Epoch Times, points out that years of Communist rule has not brought the Chinese people satisfaction or spiritual transcendence, with the result that many are turning elsewhere to fill the void.
“The Chinese people are suffering a crisis of faith,” McGuire contends. “As one would expect, Maoism has not brought them fulfillment of any kind. They’re now relying on radical nationalism, the CCP is, in order to survive, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that only works temporarily.”
But while the Communist regime looks to nationalistic fervor for salvation, the activist says the Chinese people are returning to the very thing the government fears — religion. “What we now see is a people, the Chinese people, crying out for faith, crying out for fulfillment,” he explains. “And they’re finding it, increasingly, in Christianity.”
The more Christianity spreads, McGuire asserts, “and the farther and deeper that spreads, the more treacherous it is for the Chinese Communist Party.” He says this is because there is something fundamentally different about the Christian church.
“What makes Christianity different,” the head of the China Support Network notes, “in particular evangelical Christianity — and I say this as someone who was born and raised Catholic — [is that] evangelical Christianity is connected but it’s decentralized, which makes it much harder for the communists to stamp out and remove.”
Other religious communities, such as Falun Gong and Roman Catholicism, are more centralized, McGuire points out. “And that is why I think the rise of evangelical Christianity is one of the things that will lead to the end of the Chinese Communist regime.”
Because of the structure of China’s underground Christian church in cells or house church communities rather than a centralized “head” that can be easily cut off, McGuire says he believes evangelical Christianity will eventually lead to the end of Communist Party rule in China. He believes this is one reason why the Communist Chinese regime is so afraid of the church.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
Focus Action Launches Marriage Protection Blitz
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Message to grassroots: The vote is only days away. There is no time to lose.
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The U.S. Senate is expected to vote June 7 on the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA), and grassroots pro-family groups are stepping up efforts to make sure their constituents weigh in on one of the most important issues of our time.
Focus on the Family Action Founder Dr. James Dobson will focus on the MPA during two broadcasts of his nationally syndicated radio show this week. He is asking Americans to flood the phone lines of their senators to let them know how strongly they feel about passing the amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
“They need to feel the heat from people all across the country,” he said. Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action, said his group and FRC Action will sponsor a series of radio and print ads to run in 13 states whose senators are either officially undecided or outright opposed to the amendment. “While many of these senators claim to support traditional marriage, their actions speak clearly,” Minnery said. “They refuse to stand up and be counted in support of civilization’s foundational institution.”
The targeted Senators are:
Arkansas — Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Democrats
Colorado — Ken Salazar, Democrat
Florida — Bill Nelson, Democrat
Indiana — Evan Bayh, Democrat
Louisiana — Mary Landrieu, Democrat
Maine — Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Republicans
Montana — Max Baucus, Democrat
Nebraska — Chuck Hagel, Republican
New Hampshire — John Sununu, Republican
North Dakota — Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, Democrats
Pennsylvania — Arlen Specter, Republican
Rhode Island — Lincoln Chafee, Republican
South Dakota — Tim Johnson, Democrat
This is the second go-round for the MPA in the U.S. Senate, according to Amanda Banks, federal issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action. This time, it must pass.
“A lot has transpired over the past couple of years,” she said. “Unfortunately the courts have continued their activism — where they have either overturned state marriage amendments or the state law has been challenged — and there is a question whether marriage will continue to be between a man and a woman in several states in our nation.”
Indeed, 19 states have voted on state-level amendments protecting marriage, according to Minnery. All of them passed overwhelmingly.
“In each of the states that have approved constitutional amendments preserving marriage, the average vote has been 70 percent of the electorate,” he said. “Seventy percent is an absolute mandate! Americans understand that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and they want it protected from radical redefinition.”
The Cornhusker State is a perfect example of why protection of marriage needs to be written into the Constitution. Dave Bydalek, executive director of Nebraska Family First, explained that his state’s marriage amendment was struck down by a federal district judge.
“Nebraskans, of all people, should understand that the federal judiciary or state courts can usurp the power of the people by substituting their own political judgments for the popular will,” Bydalek said. “The only way to truly protect the institution of marriage is through a federal amendment.”
Interestingly, Nebraska’s senators split on the issue. Nelson, a moderate Democrat has indicated that he will vote in favor of the MPA, while Hagel contends that it’s premature. Nebraskans are being especially urged to contact Hagel.
Banks pointed out that it will take two-thirds — or 67 — of the Senate’s 100 senators — to pass the amendment, as well as approval by two-thirds of the House, before the amendment would go to the states. There it will need to be ratified, or approved, by three-quarters of the states before it could be added on to the U.S. Constitution.
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Poland could be Europe’s first red state.
Poland digs in against tide toward secularism
BY TOM HUNDLEY
Chicago Tribune
WARSAW, Poland – Poland could be Europe’s first red state.
The 25 members of the European Union do not think of themselves in terms of blue states and red states, at least not yet. If they did, the map of Europe would have a decidedly blue hue. Even countries with conservative governments, such as France and Germany, are blue when it comes to the “values” debate.
But Poland cuts against the grain. Lech Kaczynski, winner of last October’s presidential election, is opposed to abortion and gay marriage. He has instructed his education minister to come up with guidelines for the “proper upbringing of children.” And lately, he has been spending a lot of time cozying up to conservative Christian groups.
While Christianity appears to be in a steep decline across most of Europe, in Poland the faith still burns brightly. The question is whether Poland is an anomaly, a quirky throwback to another era, or whether it is harbinger of Europe’s coming culture war.
Poland’s churches are packed; its seminaries still are churning out healthy numbers of priests. According to census data, 96 percent of the population identify themselves as Roman Catholic; 57 percent say they attend Mass every Sunday. There now seem to be as many statues of Pope John Paul II as there once were of V.I. Lenin.
Last week, Pope Benedict XVI paid homage to his predecessor with a visit to Poland, and Poles responded by modestly covering up some of the racier lingerie ads along the processional route. The pope’s stops included Warsaw, the Auschwitz death camp and Wadowice, John Paul’s hometown.
It was the late pope’s fervent hope that the intense spirituality of his native Poland would spark a “new evangelization” of Western Europe. During most of his papacy, there was scant sign of that happening. But more recently Poland has emerged at the fore of a fledgling movement to restore Christian values to Europe.
“What’s new in Poland is that political parties want to express their Catholicism,” said Pawel Spiewak, a Polish sociologist and expert on right-wing politics. “A few years ago, a typical Pole was Catholic in his private life. Now he’s expressing it openly and wants to express it as public policy. It’s atypical for Europe.”
Beginning in 2003, the Polish government led the push – ultimately unsuccessful – to include some reference to Christianity in the new EU constitution.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, the reformed communist who was Poland’s president at the time, told a British newspaper that “there is no excuse for making references to ancient Greece and Rome, and to the Enlightenment, without making reference to the Christian values which are so important to the development of Europe.”
An unusual argument coming from a self-professed atheist, but Kwasniewski always has grasped the importance of religion in Polish political life.
Last year, the Polish delegation to the European Parliament made waves by setting up an anti-abortion display in the corridors of the parliament’s headquarters in Strasbourg, France. A scuffle ensued when guards attempted to remove it.
“We follow the teachings of the church and the advice of the bishops,” said Piotr Slusarczyk, a spokesman for the League of Polish Families, a conservative Catholic party that was behind the anti-abortion display.
In addition to abortion, Slusarczyk said the league opposes gay rights and euthanasia. It also favors large families and takes a dim view of the EU in general.
“Our goal is to defend Catholic values and to defend Poland against Western tendencies that are being promoted by a vocal EU lobby,” he said.
Religion and politics blend naturally in Poland. For more than a thousand years, the Roman Catholic Church has been the chief guardian and repository of the Polish national identity. During the years of partition, when Poland didn’t have a territory, it was the church that kept the nation alive. Under communism, the church served as a bulwark of moral resistance.
The papacy of John Paul II applied the coup de grace to East European communism, and when the decrepit Polish regime collapsed in 1989, the church proclaimed itself the victor and assumed a privileged position in the new democracy. At its behest, Poland’s liberal abortion laws were abolished and the Catholic catechism was introduced to public schools.
But when Polish bishops tried to use the pulpit to sway the 1995 presidential elections, it backfired badly. Incumbent and former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, the bishops’ choice, was humiliated by Kwasniewski.
“It was a misunderstanding. The church had no experience with democracy,” said Maciej Zieba, a Dominican priest and one of Poland’s leading social thinkers.
After the 1995 fiasco, the church hierarchy maintained a studied neutrality and much lower profile in politics, Zieba said.
But last year’s election brought a new wrinkle. President Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party ran on a populist reform platform but veered sharply to the right after its victory when Kaczynski and his twin brother, Jaroslaw, who heads the party, began courting the League of Polish Families and Samoobrona (Self-Defense), a populist party sometimes described as xenophobic.
“The leading party, Law and Justice, wants to engage the church in politics, especially this extreme wing in the church,” Zieba said. “This is a real danger.”
Lech Kaczynski’s first visit as head of state was to the Vatican; his second was to Washington. Andrzej Dominiczak, co-director of the Polish Humanist Federation, an organization that aims to maintain a separation of church and state, said the president’s itinerary was meant to send a message.
“The politicians from Law and Justice use America as an example of a democracy that is also a very religious state,” he said. “And it’s effective because Poles are incredibly fond of the America.”
Certainly, the League of Polish Families makes no secret of its admiration for America’s religious right. “I like what I see happening in the United States – the emphasis on the family, the emergence of so many pro-life groups,” said Slusarczyk, the league’s spokesman.
“I feel much closer to the United States than to Europe. I’m very concerned about France, Germany, even Italy – they’ve lost their way in terms of moral development,” he said.
In some ways, the League of Polish Families could be the doppelganger of U.S. groups such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family or the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, but this kind of religious activism in politics is a recent phenomenon in Poland, and Polish religiosity is different from that in the United States.
“Poles are religious, but they are not passionate about it the way Americans are,” said Anna Hejka, an investment banker in Warsaw who worked on Wall Street in the 1980s. “In America, there’s this need to immerse yourself fully in religion. … You have all these sects and born-agains and charismatic groups.”
Although the anti-abortion lobby in Poland is deeply committed, Hejka said, the idea of bombing an abortion clinic “would never happen in Poland.”
But as conservative Catholic activists begin to flex their political muscles in Poland, liberal Catholics and secularists have become increasingly alarmed. Recently, media attention has focused on the growing influence in Poland of Opus Dei, the Catholic lay organization that is invariably described as “secretive.”
According to Polish media reports, several ministers, deputy ministers and key advisers in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz are members of Opus Dei, including Roman Giertych, director of the League of Polish Families, who this month was named education minister.
Later this year, Opus Dei, whose IESE Business School in Barcelona is considered one of Europe’s best, plans to open a branch in Warsaw. Radoslaw Koszewski, director of the Warsaw program, insists the school will not mix business and religion.
“No priests or bishops will be teaching there, and we don’t pay attention to the religion of professors or students,” he said.
The fuss about Opus Dei appears to be overblown. The one European country where Opus Dei members have held positions of influence over the years, Spain, continues to barrel down the path of secularization. The government of Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero recently legalized gay marriages over the protests of the Vatican and Spanish bishops.
More disturbing for Poles is the growing influence of Radio Maryja, an ultranationalist Catholic radio station with a decidedly anti-Semitic worldview.
Radio Maryja has been an embarrassment to the church for more than a decade. This year, the Vatican and the Polish Bishops Conference issued separate condemnations of the station’s involvement in politics, but to no apparent effect.
“In the beginning, (Radio Maryja) was treated as a necessary evil in a pluralistic society … but now it is really hurting the image of the church,” said Kazimierz Sowa, a priest and journalist.
During the 2005 election, Radio Maryja embraced the cause of Law and Justice and helped sway a close vote. The Kaczynski brothers have repaid the debt by snubbing mainstream media outlets and making the radio station and its television affiliate the quasi-official voice of the government.
“Imagine if George Bush appeared only on the televangelists’ news? Well, that’s what’s happening here,” said the Humanist Federation’s Dominiczak.
The rise of a religious right in Poland has set off alarms in Western Europe, according to Krzysztof Bobinski, director of Unia i Polska, a research center in Warsaw.
“When they started out, the Kaczynski brothers were fairly mainstream … but now they’ve gotten into bed with the League of Polish Families and Samoobrona. They are moving to the right, and it’s a pretty intolerant right,” Bobinski said.
“Poland risks losing the sympathy it has in the West as a freedom-loving, freedom-fighting nation. You lose that goodwill if you are seen as intolerant,” he said.
Given the shadows of the Holocaust that linger over Poland, its leaders can ill-afford to be seen as intolerant, nor do they have much to gain by antagonizing other members of the EU.
Zieba, the Dominican priest, said Poland’s place is not to lead the charge in a culture war but to show, simply, that a modernizing society and strong democracy also can have a deep Christian faith.
“Faith is not an ideology,” he said. “Faith has to inspire people, to offer them possibilities.”
Men of Destiny Ministries Will Not Be Shut Down Next Week
May 19, 2006
Men of Destiny Ministries Will Not Be Shut Down Next Week
Expedited Trial Set for July 26
Orlando, FL – Yesterday afternoon on behalf of Men of Destiny Ministries (“MDM”), Liberty Counsel presented oral argument before federal Judge Gregory Presnell, in which MDM requested that the court stop Osceola County from shutting down the Christian ministry on May 25 and stop the daily $200 fines. As a result of the hearing, Osceola County will not enforce its order to shut down the ministry. The court will now expedite the final trial which will be conducted on July 26.
At the hearing, Judge Presnell said that what appears to have happened in this case is the so-called “NIMBY” (Not in my back yard) syndrome. He pointed out that the professional zoning staff recommended approving MDM, but then politics and political pressure from some of the neighbors influenced the elected officials to vote against the ministry because of preconceived stereotypes. He said the 45 days given by the County for MDM to shut down appeared to be “vindictive.” At the prior meeting of the Commissioners, some of the neighbors made comments like, “once a drug addict, always a drug addict.” In response to 16 different emails which espoused stereotypes against people with drug additions, County Commissioner Ken Smith responded, “I agree with your thoughts.” Federal law prohibits such discrimination.
The men who undergo the Christian discipleship ministry at MDM are not taking drugs. These men have come to a point in their lives where they really want to change. Many have tried secular programs to no avail. The stories of changed lives as a result of this one-year residential discipleship program are incredible. One mother spoke of how the ministry restored her son. One man, who now operates his own business, spoke of how his life was transformed at MDM. Despite the fact that business owners spoke of how pleased they were with the men who work at their businesses, the Commissioners ignored the professional staff recommendations and voted to evict MDM.
Anita L Staver, President of Liberty Counsel, who attended the hearing said, “Men of Destiny Ministries transforms lives and mends broken families destroyed by drugs and alcohol. It is important for the success of the program that it be Christ-centered and residential. County officials have a choice – modify your stereotypes of recovering addicts and open your heart to this ministry, or lock your doors and open your jails. We are thankful that the ministry will not be forced to shut down and put these men on the streets. We look forward to presenting this case in court.”
Liberty Counsel, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family. On the campus of Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty Counsel’s Center for Constitutional Litigation and Policy trains attorneys, law students, policymakers, legislators, clergy and world leaders in constitutional principles and government policies.
Liberty Counsel . PO Box 540774 . Orlando, FL 32854 . 800-671-1776
Man Frees Puppy From Gator’s Grip
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
A.P.
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. —
The phrase “you lucky dog” takes on new meaning in Coral Springs, Fla.
Michael Rubin took his 6-month-old golden retriever, Jasmine, and his border collie Frisbee, for a run near a construction site Monday. The puppy ran ahead of Rubin to the edge of a pond.
Rubin heard the dog cry. When he went to check on her, he saw the puppy’s head inside an alligator’s mouth. Rubin jumped in the water and started beating the gator with his fist. The reptile refused to let go and started rolling in the water with the dog still in its mouth.
Rubin estimated the gator was about 7-feet long.
He eventually pried the dog loose and rushed her to a nearby animal hospital, where she was treated for cuts and puncture wounds. He said the puppy is at home Monday and doing fine.
What is the definition of sin?
Answer: Sin is described in the Bible as transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18). Sin had its beginning with Lucifer, the “shining star, the son of the morning,” the most beautiful and powerful of the angels. Not content to be all this, he desired to be the most high God and that was his downfall and the beginning of sin (Isaiah 14:12-15). Renamed Satan, he brought sin to the human race in the Garden of Eden, where he tempted Adam and Eve with the same enticement, “you shall be like God.” Genesis 3 describes their rebellion against God and against His commandments. Since that time, sin has been passed down through all the generations of mankind and we, Adam’s descendants, have inherited sin from him. Romans 5:12 tells us that through Adam, sin entered the world and so death was passed on to all men because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Through Adam, the inherent inclination to sin entered the human race and human beings became sinners by nature. When Adam sinned, his inner nature was transformed by his sin of rebellion, bringing to him spiritual death and depravity which would be passed on to all who came after him. Humans became sinners not because they sinned, they sinned because they were sinners. This is the condition known as inherited sin. Just as we inherit physical characteristics from our parents, we inherit our sinful natures from Adam. King David lamented this condition of fallen human nature in Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Another type of sin is known as imputed sin. Used in both financial and legal settings, the Greek word translated imputed means to take something that belongs to someone and credit it to another’s account. Before the Law of Moses was given, sin was not imputed to man, although men were still sinners because of inherited sin. After the Law was given, sins committed in violation of the Law were imputed (accounted) to them (Romans 5:13). Even before transgressions of the law were imputed to men, the ultimate penalty for sin (death) continued to reign (Romans 5:14). All humans, from Adam to Moses, were subject to death, not because of their sinful acts against the Mosaic Law (which they did not have), but because of their own inherited sinful nature. After Moses, humans were subject to death both because of inherited sin from Adam and imputed sin from violating the laws of God. God used the principle of imputation to the benefit of mankind when He imputed the sin of believers to the account of Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for that sin (death) on the cross. Imputing our sin to Jesus, God treated Him as if He were a sinner though He was not, and had Him die for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him. It’s important to understand that sin was imputed to Him, but he did not inherit it from Adam. He bore the penalty for sin, but He never became a sinner. His pure and perfect nature was untouched by sin. He was treated as though He was guilty of all the sins ever committed by all who would ever believe, even though He committed none. In exchange, God imputed the righteousness of Christ to believers and credited our accounts with His righteousness just as He credited our sins to His account (2 Corinthians 5:21). Personal sin is that which is committed every day by every human being. Because we have inherited a sin nature from Adam, we commit individual, personal sins – everything from seemingly innocent fibs to murder. Those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ must pay the penalty for these personal sins, as well as inherited and imputed sin. However, believers have been freed from the eternal penalty of sin (hell and spiritual death). Now we can choose whether or not to commit personal sins because we have the power to resist sin through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, sanctifying and convicting us of our sins when we do commit them (Romans 8:9-11). Once we confess our personal sins to God and ask forgiveness for them, we are restored to perfect fellowship and communion with Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Inherited sin, imputed sin, and personal sin – all have been crucified on the cross of Jesus, and now “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
What is the Nag Hammadi library?
Who were the early church fathers?
Is the deity of Christ Biblical?
What are the lost books of the Bible? What does the Bible say about the holy grail? What occurred at the Council of Nicea? Did Constantine decide what books belonged in the Bible? What is the Desposyni / Rex Deus? What is Holy Blood, Holy Grail? What was the Merovingian dynasty? Did Constantine change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? |
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Liberal Clergy’s Opposition to Marriage Amendment No Surprise, Say Conservatives
By Bill Fancher
May 23, 2006
(AgapePress) – Clergy opposed to a constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage” say religious conservatives who support the proposed federal marriage amendment are bigots. But those conservatives don’t appear to be overly concerned about the left-leaning clergy’s lobbying efforts to derail the proposed constitutional amendment.
Several dozen Christian and Jewish leaders held a news conference on Capitol Hill, where they are lobbying senators to reject the amendment when it comes up for a vote about two weeks from now. Involved in that coalition were United Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, United Church of Christ, Reformed Jews, and others.
The proposed amendment that protects marriage as defined in the Bible, as the union of a man and a woman, is supported by Roman Catholic bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention. But Rev. Paul Simmons, a Baptist minister and University of Louisville professor, said the amendment “has the smell and feel of Salem,” comparing its supporters to the colonial Puritans who burned witches.
Simmons says he and many other clergy oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. “There is a broad and profound opposition to the proposed amendment among religious people,” he noted. “The thunder of the Religious Right should be resisted as misguided and prejudicial.”
And Rev. Kenneth Samuel, a United Church of Christ pastor and NAACP chapter president in Georgia, said black pastors who oppose homosexual marriage have turned their backs on civil rights. “A lot of what goes on is also tied on to the faith-based initiative money,” Pastor Samuel said, “and I am sorry to say that many of our African-American clergy have been bought out.”
Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families is not concerned about the coalition of religious leaders who are lobbying against the marriage amendment. “I believe they’re way out of step with church-going Americans who, every study shows, overwhelmingly support keeping marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” he says. Every state that has considered a marriage amendment to its constitution has seen decisive majorities of voters — as high as 70 and 80 percent — approve the measure.
And Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council says he is not surprised to see these groups and other liberal denominations speaking out against defining marriage as it is taught in the Bible. “This is completely predictable for this bunch,” says Schenck. “Every time anyone anywhere asserts traditional moral values or traditional biblical positions on anything — and most especially marriage and human sexuality — you can predict that this same group will parade out and oppose it.”
Schenck says these groups are not only on the wrong side of Christian doctrine and the wrong side of what he calls “the moral divide,” but also on the wrong side of history. He believes that is why such groups are losing members. “While it’s lamentable, while it’s predictable, in the end it only makes them even more irrelevant than they are,” he states.
Effect of Legalized ‘Gay Marriage’ on Traditionalists
Meanwhile, the president of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty says churches and Christian schools that oppose same-sex marriage will face government pressure if it is legalized. Anthony Picarello says they could be barred from firing employees with same-sex spouses, forced to give them marital benefits, or lose charitable and property tax exemptions if they refuse.
Picarello and other legal experts took part in a recent panel discussion at the Heritage Foundation. Maggie Gallagher, a columnist who heads the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, offered grim predictions about people and churches who oppose same-sex unions, should they be legalized.
“Once a court goes to rule gay marriage is a civil right, people who have an older, conjugal vision of marriage as inherently the union of husband and wife are going to be treated like racists in the public square,” she offered.
And as for churches that believe homosexual marriage is immoral? “The temptation will be … [to] simply mute your marriage theology,” said Gallagher, opining that many people will find it hard to resist that temptation. “If you are just quieter about it … as long as you’re not too loud about this and keep your nose clean, you’ll stay out of trouble.”
She believes recent events have shown why a federal marriage amendment is needed. “Leaving it to the states right now is leaving it to state judges, not to the people in states,” she noted. “We’ve already had judges in two states overturn state marriage amendments that were passed by more than 70 percent of the people.”
In essence, said Gallagher, unless the U.S. Constitution is amended to protect traditional marriage, judges will probably force states to legalize homosexual marriage.
Associated Press contributed to this article. Bill Fancher, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
News from The John Ankerberg Show
There are a few times in your life when you can’t just stand by and let evil go unchallenged. That was the case these last two months when multi-level attacks on Jesus started spreading.
The Jesus Papers, The Jesus Dynasty, The Gospel of Judas, Misquoting Jesus, and “The Da Vinci Code” movie all were released within seven weeks of each other. Each of them were given nationwide attention by the secular media, some were given television specials. This was blasphemy; I just couldn’t stand by quietly. This was not right!
To respond to these attacks on Christ I called on outstanding Christian scholars like Dr. Darrell Bock, Dr. Gary Habermas, Dr. Craig Evans, Dr. Erwin Lutzer and taped 12 television programs. We then taped 6 additional programs for a new series entitled, “Where Is Islam Taking the World in the Future?” We will air these programs sometime this summer. During the first few days of April Dr. Michael Easley and I wrote our new book The Da Vinci Code Controversy. Then I flew to Chicago and taped three-hour long programs for the entire Moody broadcast network. At the same time, we expanded our internet site to include extensive video, articles, audio broadcasts and sermons to put materials into the hands of the Christian community that would assist them in defending their faith.
People have called and written thanking us for the information and answers we provided. But other challenges lie ahead and before we move on, we must face the expenses incurred. In the last seven weeks we have incurred more production expenses then we normally do in four months. A new series costs between $35,000 and $50,000 each to produce and air. Now as we approach the end of May, we must quickly raise an additional $110,000 to pay the bills.
I’m writing to ask for your help! If each one of you will give we can meet this need. I trust you believe that the programs of the last few weeks were beneficial to Christians and non-Christians alike in refuting the lies about Jesus. If you agree, I am asking you to join me in this fight for the cause of Christ by sending the largest gift you possibly can by May 31. To securely give a gift online, please visit http://www.johnankerberg.org/catalog/ministry-gift.html
I would like to thank you for your gift by sending you the three-hour programs we made for the Moody Radio Network on 3 audio CDs featuring Dr. Darrell Bock, Dr. Michael Easley, Dr. Ted Baer and Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Or if you prefer, I’ll send you a copy of our new book The Da Vinci Code Controversy: 10 Facts You Should Know.
For the sake of Christ and His Gospel,
Dr. John Ankerberg
Ankerberg Theological Research Institute (A.T.R.I.)
P.O. Box 8977
Chattanooga, TN 37414 USA
(423) 892-7722
For credit card orders only:
1-800-805-3030
http://www.johnankerberg.org
Activist Judge Strikes Down Ban On Homosexual Marriage, Overruling 76% of Georgia Voters
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May 23, 2006 Activist Judge Strikes Down Ban On Homosexual Marriage, Overruling 76% of Georgia Voters Dear Ric, The constitutional amendment, passed overwhelmingly by 76% of the voters in Georgia, is now null and void. The homosexuals are determined to win this battle. They know they will never win if the people have an opportunity to vote. So they are turning to liberal activist judges to force their will on the people. They intend to force homosexual marriage down the throats of Americans. They feel our children must be indoctrinated beginning in kindergarten that homosexuality is normal behavior. On June 6 the U.S. Senate will vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) which defines marriage as being only between one man and one woman. Because of a power grab by activist judges like the one in Georgia, the MPA is the only way that the sacred institution of marriage will remain between one man and one woman.
If you think our efforts are worthy, would you please support us with a small gift? Thank you for caring enough to get involved. Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends! |
Calvary Chapel Rejects Contemplative and Emergent Spirituality!
May 21, 2006 – This weekend, a position paper addressed to pastors was posted on the Calvary Chapel website. The paper indicates that Calvary Chapel is taking a stand against contemplative spirituality and the emerging church and decrees that the title Calvary Chapel not be attached to such movements. The statement comes on the heels of a recent discovery by Pastor Chuck Smith, the movement’s founder, that his book, When Storms Come, had been tampered with unbeknownst to him. The book was published by Thomas Nelson and included contemplative and Eastern meditation language, which apparently had been added by someone doing the final editing of the book.
Lighthouse Trails issued two press releases regarding the book tampering, and on May 18th, Pastor Smith wrote an email to the editors at Lighthouse Trails Publishing, addressing the tampering and stating that he “prepared a position paper to be distributed to the Calvary Chapel pastors on the subject of the Emergent Church and its many divergent and unscriptural theological positions that trouble me greatly.” Pastor Smith also thanked Lighthouse Trails for sending him a copy of A Time of Departing, which he said he “read with interest,” then added “[A Time of Departing] resonates with the concerns that I personally have concerning the direction that many ministries seem to be taking in their endeavor to unify all faiths. I do believe that straight is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and as Jesus said, He was that way, He is the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the Father but by Him.”
There has been a growing concern by many Calvary Chapel pastors that some pastors and teachers in the Calvary Chapel movement have been promoting practices that are related to contemplative spirituality and Eastern religions. Regarding this, the Calvary Chapel position paper states:
Should we look to Eastern religions with their practices of meditation through Yoga and special breathing techniques or repeating a mantra to hear God speak to us? If this is needed to enhance our communication with God, why do you suppose that God did not give us implicit instructions in the Scriptures to give us methods to hear His voice? Is it the position of my body or my heart that helps me to communicate with Him?
While the Calvary Chapel position paper to pastors does not specifically use the term contemplative spirituality when addressing the emerging church, the philosophy and practices are described, and we hope that pastors will understand that contemplative prayer is the glue that holds the emerging church movement together and is the main reason it should be avoided. Furthermore, contemplative spirituality is the common denominator in not just the emerging church movement but other current trends as well including the spiritual formation movement and the Purpose Driven Life movement. It is vital that pastors and believers of churches in all evangelical denominations understand that those who regularly practice contemplative prayer have consistently ended up with a panentheistic view of God, which in turn negates the message of the Cross. The notion that we should enter into the “silence” or an altered state of consciousness to “hear” God is unscriptural and downright dangerous.
Roger Oakland, director of Understand the Times and a frequent speaker to Calvary Chapel churches throughout the world, spoke to Lighthouse Trails about the new position paper:
Based on observations that I have made as I have traveled extensively throughout the Calvary movement for the past 20 years, this statement was necessary, timely and of paramount importance. I am in full support with what Pastor Chuck has proposed.
We believe it is pertinent for all evangelical pastors to have at their disposal the facts and documentation on contemplative spirituality. Both A Time of Departing and Running Against the Wind as well as our free research website have all of this information available.
We commend any pastor or leader who stands against the contemplative prayer movement. In this eleventh hour, believers need leaders who will courageously take a stand, and those not yet believers need to hear the pure gospel message of Jesus Christ.
——————————————————————————–
Note: Pastor Smith told Lighthouse Trails that his book, When Storms Come, is being reedited and reprinted. He said the book was written to “help people find true peace in the storms.”
For More Information:
Pastor Chuck Smith’s Position Paper to Pastors
<a name=”This page URL:http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/CCSpecialReport.htm
Why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?
Question: “Why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?”
Answer: In the Bible Abraham is known as a man of faith. When the Lord called him to leave his country to go to a land He would show him, he obeyed. The Lord made a covenant with him and promised that he would be the father of many nations and have many descendants. However, he and his wife Sarah were childless. At age 86 he had a lapse of faith, and became the father of Ishmael, born to his Egyptian servant, but this was not according to God’s plan. At age 99 the Lord again appeared to him and confirmed His covenant, stating that his wife Sarah, age 90, would bear a son through whom His promises would be passed. One year later, as promised, their son Isaac was born. (Later Ishmael and his Egyptian mother were sent away.)
Then we read, “Some time later God tested Abraham.” (The story is in Genesis 22.) No test could have been more severe. God commanded, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.” This was an astounding request because Isaac was his son of promise. How did Abraham respond? With immediate obedience, for early the next morning Abraham started on his journey with two servants, a donkey and his beloved son Isaac, with firewood for the offering.
On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw in the distance his destination and told his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” His great faith in God assured him that all would be well for he trusted the Lord to keep His promises. When Isaac asked his father, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham calmly replied, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Though Abraham did no know how, he had full assurance that God was able to care for such details and provide whatever was necessary in His own way.
When everything was in place on the altar that Abraham had built, he bound his beloved son on the wood that he had carried on his shoulders. Then the father lifted high his trembling hand, holding the knife. Suddenly a voice from heaven called out, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not do anything. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.” There in the thicket Abraham saw a ram, and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar instead of his son. What a reprieve!
This was Abraham’s highest and finest hour. Obeying God’s command revealed the greatness of his faith; he obeyed even if it meant sacrificing his son. It also revealed the greatness of Isaac’s faith in submission; he willingly followed his father’s words, believing that God would, indeed, provide a lamb.
This story also has another application. It is a portrayal in the Old Testament of the New Testament teaching of the Atonement, the sacrificial offering of the Lord Jesus on the cross for the sin of mankind. Jesus said, many centuries later, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Following are some of the parallels between the two Biblical accounts:
· “Take your son, your only son, Isaac” (vs.2); “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. . .” (John 3:16).
· “Go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there. . .” (vs.2); it is believed that this area is where the city of Jerusalem was built many years later, where Jesus was crucified outside its city walls (Hebrews 13:12).
· “Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering” (vs.2); “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
· “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac” (vs.6); Jesus, “Carrying His own cross. . .” (John 19:17).
· “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (vs.7); John said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
· Isaac, the son, acted in obedience to his father in becoming the sacrifice (vs.9); Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
· God spared Isaac’s life at the last minute by providing a substitute (vss.11-13); God was not able to do for Himself what He did for Abraham – “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. . .” (Romans 8:32).
· Resurrection – Isaac by figure and Jesus in reality: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice His one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking he did received Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17-19); Jesus, “that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).
and it was credited to him as righteousness.’”
(Romans 4:3, quoted from Genesis 15:6)
Recommended Resource: Bible Answers for Almost all Your Questions by Elmer Towns.
Ten questions to ask about The Da Vinci Code
Published: May 11, 2006
“Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”
This line from Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code (page 255, paperback edition) is an illustration of why the 2003 book/2006 movie is so controversial. The fact that Brown’s tale is the best-selling adult novel of all time – with more than 40 million copies sold – as well as a blockbuster film indicates why Christians find themselves everywhere encountering the scandalous beliefs of this story.
The Da Vinci Code is a murder mystery. The victim is the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Before dying, he leaves a series of clues about a secret allegedly suppressed by the church since the time of Jesus. The curator is the leader of a small, clandestine society that has protected this secret through history. One of the purported members of this ancient group was Leonardo Da Vinci who, according to this protective band, embedded aspects of this secret in his artwork for the initiated to see. From this comes the title, The Da Vinci Code.
As the primary characters pursue the clues left by the murder victim, author Dan Brown uses the story to convey his beliefs that, among other things, the Bible is a corrupt, human document, that Jesus is not God, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and produced a child, that Mary Magdalene is a goddess to be worshipped, and that sex should be seen – as in pagan religions – as a means of experiencing God.
The phenomenal popularity of Brown’s vehicle for this anti-Christian message will provide believers with many opportunities to discuss the book/movie in light of the Bible. So here’s a list of questions to use with those who read the book or see the movie.
1. If, as The Da Vinci Code says, Jesus is not God (253) – despite all the wonderful things which The Da Vinci Code agrees were said and done by Jesus (251) – then what did Mary Magdalene do to qualify as goddess and become worthy of the worship commended by The Da Vinci Code?
2. If, as The Da Vinci Code asserts, the biblical claims about the deity of Christ are unreliable (250, 254-255), why does The Da Vinci Code maintain that the good things recorded in the Bible about Mary Magdalene are reliable?
3. If, as the book acknowledges, the alleged sexual activity between Jesus and Mary Magdalene disqualifies Jesus’ claims to divinity, why doesn’t it disqualify Mary Magdalene from being goddess?
4. Why should we worship the dead (for even those who worship Mary Magdalene acknowledge that she is dead)?
5. If, as The Da Vinci Code assures, Jesus was married (“It’s a matter of historical record,” 264) and His apostles knew it, why didn’t the Apostle Paul ever appeal to Jesus’ example when he wrote about marriage, especially when he defended (in 1 Cor. 9:5) a minister’s right to marry based upon the example of “the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas [that is, Peter],” when Jesus would have been the greatest example of all?
6. When The Da Vinci Code claimed that “the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. . . . in the temple” (336), why didn’t the author mention how inconsistent this was with God’s Seventh Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery,” Ex. 20:14), which was given before the Jews even had a tabernacle or temple for worship?
7. Is the kind of ritual sex associated with worship (as advocated in The Da Vinci Code) really an exaltation of women, or is it a pandering to the lusts of men condoned by their religion?
8. Since both secular and Christian historians agree that The Da Vinci Code is wrong about things such as the practice of ritualistic sexual activity in the temple, the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple housing God’s “powerful female equal,” the events at the Council of Nicaea related to the divinity of Jesus, the process by which the 27 books of the New Testament came to be accepted as Scripture, the activity of Constantine in church history, etc., do you think author Dan Brown is simply ignorant of the biblical and historical facts, or that he is intentionally misleading his readers?
9. For any who think there might be some degree of truth on both sides, do you realize that biblical Christianity – including the New Testament declaration that Jesus is God (John 1:1, etc.) – and the goddess worship of The Da Vinci Code are mutually exclusive, and that there is no possible middle ground between them?
10. Upon which will you base your hope for eternity?
The Da Vinci Code is based upon the belief that there is a “spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine” (337). In other words, all the problems that exist because of alienation from God can be overcome by our own efforts. There is no need for repentance according to this view, for all we need we can “achieve through [sexual] union with the sacred feminine.”
But the Bible declares that our hearts are desperately wicked. We are self-centered, go our own way in life, and live to indulge our own desires. Contrary to Dan Brown’s theology, the Bible says that our greatest need is not for us to do something, but for something to be done for us. In His love and mercy, God did for us what we could never do for ourselves: He sent His Son to rescue us from eternal punishment for our sins. Jesus lived the perfect life that only God-in-the-flesh could live. On the cross, Jesus offered Himself to His Father as a sinless substitute in exchange for people who deserved God’s righteous judgment. Then God raised Jesus to life to signify that He had accepted Jesus’ sacrificial death. God offers all the benefits and blessings earned by Jesus to anyone who will turn from living his or her own way and believe that only Jesus’ life and death can make them right with God.
Will you rely upon God to accept you because of what you do to reach up to God, or will you rely upon what God has done through Jesus to reach down to us?
EXPOSE AND DEFEAT THE ACLU
++Special ACLU Alert++
Just a few months ago, the multi-million dollar machine
known as the ACLU strong-armed and raided the school
budget for one of the poorest counties in the land.
A few years before, the ACLU had won a court order to
have Ten Commandment monuments removed from three Adams
County, Ohio high schools. It didn’t matter that the
monuments were unanimously approved by the school-board,
and privately funded.
Once removed, the ACLU had the audacity to return to
federal court to demand that the school board (one of
the poorest in the nation) cough up $80,000 for legal
bills–and the judge agreed!
This is why Grassfire is taking action against the ACLU,
and why we launched our nationwide petition to expose
and ultimately defeat the ALCU.
Our goal is to expose the kind of travesty and heartache
they are bringing to the communities of our nation, and
educate citizens to the real truth and motivation of
the ACLU.
Please take a moment to add your name to our petition:
http://www.grassfire.net/81/petition.asp?PID=11011086
++Partnering with the Liberty Counsel
As part of plan to defeat the ACLU, we needed to find a
legal organization dedicated to protecting the rights
and freedoms of citizens, with a proven track record
against groups like the ALCU.
We found the Liberty Counsel, one of the nation’s
foremost legal defense organizations established to
preserve our First Amendment Rights.
Ric, with your help, we can expose and defeat the
ACLU so that they cannot terrorize Americans with
their “storm-trooper” tactics.
As their founder, Roger Baldwin said, “We [the ALCU] are
for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing
the state itself…we seek the social ownership of
property…and the sole control of those who produce
wealth. Communism is the goal.”
This is the real ACLU, and we need you to help us
enlighten a nation of people who have been deceived
by signing our national petition:
http://www.grassfire.net/81/petition.asp?PID=11011086
Thank you for standing with us against the ACLU.
Grassfire.org Alliance
P.S: Another non-reported fact about the ACLU “shakedown”
in Adams County was the fact the ACLU raised millions from
the Adams County case–so they can fight similar cases–
perhaps even in your town!
+ + Sign our “Stop the ACLU” petition:
Christian Church Files Emergency Lawsuit to Stop the Ministry From Being Shut Down
May 9, 2006
News Release
Christian Church Files Emergency Lawsuit to
Stop the Ministry From Being Shut Down
Orlando, FL – Today, Liberty Counsel filed suit against Osceola County, Florida, on behalf of a church called Men of Destiny Ministries (“Church”) to protect the ministry from being shut down by the county and to stop the fines being levied each day the ministry continues to operate.
The Church’s primary ministry provides healing and regeneration to men who have chemical additions to drugs and alcohol. The goal of the Church’s “Regeneration Program” is to disciple men by introducing them to Jesus Christ and to help them gain freedom from addiction and become productive members of society.
The ministry in question involves fourteen men who live in a 6,300 sq. ft. home. The men work during the day and have Christian meetings in the evening, Monday through Thursday. During these evening meetings, Pastor George Shafter leads the men in prayer, teaches them about Jesus Christ, and instructs them on overcoming drug dependency. The meetings also serve to support the men and provide accountability.
On April 10, 2006, the Board of County Commissioners voted to shut down the ministry. The men can continue to live in the home, but the Christian-based drug regeneration program and teaching must stop. In other words, these men can play cards, discuss the events of the day, debate politics or watch football, but Pastor Shafter cannot lead them in prayer, nor may he encourage and support them to overcome their chemical addictions.
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated, “It makes no sense to say men can live in a home and play cards, talk about the events of the day or debate politics, but cannot pray, talk about Jesus or encourage one another to remain drug-free. Osceola County has violated numerous constitutional and federally protected rights. We should encourage this church and these men who want to live productive lives in the community, rather than penalizing them with unconscionable fines.”
Liberty Counsel, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family. On the campus of Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty Counsel’s Center for Constitutional Litigation and Policy trains attorneys, law students, policymakers, legislators, clergy and world leaders in constitutional principles and government policies.
Liberty Counsel
PO Box 540774
Orlando, FL 32854
800-671-1776
Restoring the culture one case at a time by advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life
and the traditional family
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