The following may not be a surprise to many of my readers but this is just a reminder that there is only ONE Truth! So, ‘Pope John Paul II has lent his support to the theory of evolution. He has proclaimed it compatible with Christian faith. On October 22, 1996, in a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a body of experts that advises the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) on scientific issues, the pope said that evolution is “more than just a theory.” The Academy was in session to discuss the theme: The Origins and the Evolution of Life: Reflections on Science at the Dawn of the Third Millennium. The Roman pontiff advised that the theory of the physical evolution of man and other species through natural selection and hereditary adaptation appear to be valid.
He made clear that he considers the human soul as of immediate divine creation, not subject to any process; and yet, the pope has sold out to Darwinism.’ https://ia800203.us.archive.org/23/items/VanPoptaVaticanMakesPeaceWithDarwin1997/Van%20Popta%20Vatican%20makes%20peace%20with%20Darwin%201997.pdf
Christian Testimony
‘The Bible is a prophetic book. That alone is an amazing statement, because it is the only prophetic book in the world, because it is the only one written by God. Prophecy has a lot of purposes, a major one being a validation that that the Bible is in fact the Word of God. As you open the New Testament, it is easy to see the importance of prophecy all over it. God wants us to take it seriously.
The first page of the New Testament in Matthew, a genealogy, is related to prophecy, because the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are prophetic. The genealogy proves that Jesus is a fulfillment of those predictions. Then you get the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy that says that Jesus is a fulfillment of that. Then you have the magi setting off looking for the Messiah based upon what? Prophecy. Then there are four wondrous prophecies in four different geographical location in the second half of Matthew 2 that confirm who Jesus is. Matthew 3 talks about John the Baptist, himself another fulfillment of prophecy.
When Peter preaches on the Day of Pentecost, almost every point he makes relies on prophecy. When the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs, what is that? It is a fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist, Acts 1:5, which is repeated by Jesus before He ascends into heaven. When the unbelievers mock what’s happening in Acts, Peter defends it with what? Prophecy. He refers to Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:17-21 to kick off his sermon there, explaining to the audience what’s going on. He starts:
15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God
It is such an unusual, outlying event, outside of the norm for comprehension, Peter makes the connection to the Old Testament. This gigantic crowd wasn’t all drunken. This is what Joel was talking about, and Peter says that what was occurring there on the Day of Pentecost was “in the last days.” Generally, when people say, “We’re in the last days,” they mean something different than what Peter says, so that becomes confusing. Peter’s usage of the last days is the correct usage and it’s what we should imitate.
We’re not waiting for the last days. We’re already in them. Peter was saying that he and his audience were in them. 1 John 2:18 says,
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
“Last days” or “last time,” which is the same terminology, is ironically a terminology from Old Testament prophecy. That’s what is supposed to get us up to speed is the Old Testament usage. Here are some places:
Isaiah 2:2, And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Jeremiah 23:20, The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
Ezekiel 38:8, After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.Daniel 10:14, Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.To the Jews, the last days were the Messianic era, when the Messiah had come and was in operation. To God, this began when Jesus came the first time. This launched the last days. It’s also why Peter can be using a passage with amazing astronomical events and say they are referring to the Day of Pentecost, when those things didn’t take place. What they experienced on the Day of Pentecost, I like to call the “sample pack.” It’s like when you go to Costco and you taste a sample, so that you’ll be receptive of the whole box.The last days had arrived, because Jesus had arrived with the accompanying miracles, wonders, and signs. The ones on the Day of Pentecost are in the same program as those that will appear when Christ undoes the seals during the seventieth week of Daniel, what we refer to as the seven years of tribulation. What the audience in Acts 2 understood as the Messianic age, that Joel was prophesying, was already started. This was the prefulfillment of that with the ultimate fulfillment later. In one sense, it’s all the same event with book ends, Jesus coming as Savior and then Jesus coming as Judge.The magi were anticipating the coming of Jesus. Believers today should be anticipating the second coming. How do you interpret what you read in the prophetic passages? Look at all of the prophecy of scripture and compare. The prophecies will give you clues. Revelation is symbolic language, as revealed in the first verse with the word, “signified.” Prophecy uses symbolism, but that isn’t freedom to treat it like your Gumby doll.If God can do astronomical events, like He will according to Joel 2, then He can do the smaller, albeit plainly divine, ones of Acts 2. That’s the push-back and explanation from Peter. These things are occurring because we are already in the last days.I believe we are meant to look for the fulfillment of prophesies that haven’t been fulfilled. We are required to be scriptural with this and not to speculate. If we are speculating, we should say we’re speculating. When someone asks, do you think we’re in the last days, they are meaning something other than what that phrase means. I don’t like to give them an answer that reaffirms their wrong view. A better question is, do you think that some of what we see happening portend to unfulfilled prophesies from scripture? I say, yes.Let me give you an example. Revelation 13:17 says,
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
I think it is good to make an application of this with what we see happening today. The world economy will be centrally controlled in a totalitarian way. We can look today how this might be applied. We can see it can happen. That is a good application of that above verse. How does one man control everyone? Can technology give this capacity? We should point to that, look at the contemporary examples. That doesn’t contradict what I see New Testament authors do with Old Testament prophecy.Prophecy in scripture is real. We should take it literally. That doesn’t mean we don’t take the symbolism into consideration. We do. We understand the symbolism based on comparing every passage with every other passage of the Bible. It gives us enough clues to understand. This is hard to be understood like Peter said about Paul’s prophetic passages (2 Peter 3:16). It can be understood though. As preachers or teachers in the church, we should want people to understand the prophecy and how the yet unfulfilled parts should be understood.We should oppose globalism, because it looks like the one world government and church of the antichrist. There is a tension here. If we really want the Lord’s return, perhaps we could hasten it by supporting the one world government. The elimination of borders is a contemporary issue that relates to prophecy. We should use prophecy to make that application. This is right thinking. This is a good use of the Word of God.Let me give you two more examples. The Apostle Peter prophesies how the world will end in 2 Peter 3:10. That’s how it will end. This results in my denying the contemporary climate change teaching. That is an application to the world we live in, based on what Peter said. It says a lot more than that, but we shouldn’t ignore it.The culture of the United States and then the world is deteriorating. This looks like a trajectory toward total apostasy. It has affected a hearing of the gospel. Let’s be honest. When Isaiah went to preach to apostate Israel, he couldn’t get a hearing. We are in similar times. These are times like Noah was in. Man is of the same nature he’s been since the fall. We can say that we’re getting closer to the end, because we see this trajectory. We don’t want it. We’re still being faithful, but we’ve got to make the application. People need to know.Much more could be said. We don’t want to stretch scripture beyond what it’s saying, and in that sense, just use scripture. We should preach what the Bible says and apply it, including the prophetic passages.’ https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/03/01/are-we-living-in-the-last-days-the-right-approach-to-biblical-prophecy/
Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Now, that’s what God’s Word has to say and yet so-called Christian organizations go ahead and put their stamp of approval on the Sodomite life style. For example, ‘Bethany Christian Services, the country’s largest Protestant adoption and foster care agency, will begin serving LGBTQ couples, a significant change for the evangelical outfit and a sign of the growing cultural shift.
Bethany, which is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with offices in 32 states, announced the change in an email to employees today. Its board of directors approved the policy change back in January after nearly a decade of internal discussion.
An agency spokesperson said it has already been working with LGBTQ families in about 12 states.
“This decision implements consistent, inclusive practices for LGBTQ families across our organizations,” said Nate Bult, Bethany’s senior vice president of public and government affairs. “We’ve had a patchwork approach for the last few years.”
The change is the latest in a hot culture-war topic pitting faith-based adoption and foster care agencies and civil liberties groups against one another. Many faith-based adoption and foster agencies have come under increasing pressure over the past decade as city, state and federal authorities have added LGBTQ non-discrimination policies. Bethany was among them.
In 2018, the city of Philadelphia suspended contracts with Bethany for a period of time. The agency then decided to change its policy in Philadelphia and serve LGBTQ couples.
The Trump administration briefly lifted an Obama-era rule that barred adoption agencies, foster care agencies, and other social service providers from receiving taxpayer funding from the Department of Health and Human Services if they declined to serve people based on religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
But those rules will likely revert back under the Biden administration.
And in Fulton v. Philadelphia, the Supreme Court is expected to rule later this year on whether religious child placement agencies can refuse to place children with LGBTQ couples. In that case, the city of Philadelphia demanded that Catholic Social Services comply with its requirements, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. When the agency refused to do so, the city opted not to renew its contract. Catholic Social Services then sued.
Bult said that while not all of Bethany’s 1,500 employees may agree with the inclusive approach, most have been supportive and have known that the agency is examining the issue.’
So, before we make a decision to do what God has told us is wrong let’s take a survey on what people think! So, ‘In making its decision, Bethany commissioned Barna Group, a Christian polling firm, to ferret out the views of Christians about LGBTQ adoptions. Barna found 55% of Christians said either that sexual preference should not determine who can foster or adopt, or that it was better for children to be in an LGBTQ home than in foster care.
The survey also found that 76% of self-identified Christians agree, at least somewhat, that it would be better for Christian agencies to comply with government requirements pertaining to the LGBTQ community rather than shut down. (The survey was taken last year among 667 self-identified Christians.)
Bethany also released a letter showing that its three past executive directors and CEOs — James Haveman, Glenn De Mots and William Blacquiere — agreed with the new inclusion policy.’ https://julieroys.com/bethany-christian-services-allow-lgbtq-adopt/?mc_cid=0f285f5ebc&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
There we have it! A survey and three former executive directors and CEOs AGREED with the policy! Therefore WE can disobey the Word of God! It doesn’t matter what God’s Word says but a survey and what three past directors think will determine what is RIGHT! What a sham. Bethany Christian services NEEDS to REMOVE the word CHRISTIAN!
‘Students in public schools have no chance to hear the reasons why life cannot “emerge” from rocks and water.
The recent landing of the Perseverance Rover has ramped up talk about life on Mars (17 Feb 2021). In all cases in secular media, the assumption is made that life (if it exists) would have made itself by chance. Another common assumption is that once simple life emerges, nothing stops it from proceeding all the way to intelligent brains because of the assumed creative power of Darwinian evolution.
Advocates of intelligent design and creation are always loaded for bear to address origin-of-life issues. They never get the chance to explain the reasons, though, because Big Science and Big Media and Big Education control the messaging to students.
Mars in a Minute: Why is Curiosity Looking for Organics? (NASA/JPL). The video aimed at children argues that finding organic molecules is equivalent to finding the conditions for life. See also the classroom activity “Looking for Life” aimed at grades 4-8.
Organics are carbon-based molecules – key ingredients to life. If Curiosity finds organics in ancient rocks, there’s a better chance Mars once had good conditions for small life forms called microbes.
Curious Kids: We have been trying to contact aliens – but do they want to contact us? (The Conversation). An eight-year-old student named Sai asks if aliens want to contact us. Jacco van Loon, astrophysicist and Director of Keele Observatory steps up to the microphone in the “Curious Kids” service of The Conversation to give the official Darwinian answer. He admits that nobody knows what aliens are thinking, but he never questions the existence of aliens, and why they must be there.
The question presumes that aliens do exist. And again, because we haven’t found any yet, we don’t know if they do. It is possible they may exist, for one simple reason: we exist. Whatever made the likes of bacteria evolve into complex bodies with intelligent brains on Earth may have also occurred on another planet.
He mentions “whatever” not “whoever.” The idea of a Creator with intelligence is completely ignored. Notice, too, that he assumes that “evolution” has the power to take life from bacteria to the human brain by “whatever” – the impersonal, chance-based Stuff Happens Law.
Time is the magic wand that lets miracles happen by chance, van Loon goes on to explain, but his answer is based on ignorance, not observation.
On Earth this transformation seems to have taken place quite suddenly some 700 million years ago. At that time the Earth was already almost 4 billion years old, and had been inhabited by simple lifeforms such as bacteria for much of that time. Why did it not happen sooner? And what made it happen? Until we find the answers to those questions we cannot tell how likely it is that it also occurred elsewhere.
It is fallacious to build a case on an example of one. van Loon speculates that since humans are curious and want companionship, aliens probably want that, too.
Some aliens might simply not be interested in life beyond their own world.
On the other hand, it may be that life such as ours is actually very common. With so many worlds and civilisations to choose from, we may simply not yet have caught their eye. If that is the case, we might soon detect alien life around nearby stars for ourselves.
Poor Sai never had a chance to hear an alternative view that life was created for a purpose. He was never taught that the requirements for life preclude a naturalistic origin. He will keep looking up to the silent stars waiting for ET to phone home.
Has life existed beyond Earth? (Purdue University). This is a piece about Briony Horgan, associate professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, who is a member of the NASA Perseverance Rover team, and how she is “going to great lengths” to find out if life ever existed on Mars. This piece is typical of NASA press releases that assume that if life ever existed on Mars, it evolved—it was not created. As for why Jezero Crater was selected for the rover’s landing site,
“… we think Jezero Crater is the best location to search for evidence that life existed on Mars, if it ever did. And what we find will help us learn more about whether or not we are alone in the universe.“
Students are inspired to be like Briony, growing up to be good evolutionists, and eventually, to become brainy scientists like Dr Horgan, who believe that water and rock are sufficient to produce living organisms and brains.
Life of a pure Martian design (University of Wien). Scientists at this university put earth life on soil from a Martian meteorite to see if it would grow. Fallacy alert: this has nothing to do with whether Mars life exists. At most, it shows how hardy Earth life is. They think it gives NASA a way to look for “biosignatures” on Mars to distinguish life from non-life. But what if Mars life (if it ever existed) is completely different from Earth life? (Fallacy alert #2).
Could game theory help discover intelligent alien life? (Phys.org). The answer is, naturally, “It could, and if pigs had wings, they could fly.” Like the previous example, this SETI article assumes what aliens are thinking.
“Soon we should have the first catalog of planets that may be inhabited by civilisations who already know something about our World. They may know just enough to be tempted to send a message. These are the worlds we really need to focus in on. If they know about game theory they’ll expect us to be listening.”
The above is a string of empty speculations held together by the word “may.” But if the assumption is wrong, the conclusions are completely bogus.’https://crev.info/2021/02/nasa-indoctrinates-kids-to-expect-aliens/
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” (Colossians 1:15)
‘A widespread cult heresy based on this verse claims that Jesus Christ was not eternal but merely the first being created—perhaps an angel—before becoming a man. Note, however, that the verse does not say He was the “first created of every creature” but the “first born of every creature,” and there is a big difference. In fact, the very next verse says that “by him were all things created” (v. 16). He was never created, for He Himself is the Creator. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).
He is “born” of God, not “made,” the “only begotten Son” of God (John 3:16). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). The eternal Father is omnipresent, and therefore invisible, inaudible, inaccessible to the physical senses. The eternally existing Son is the “image” of the invisible Father, the One who declares, reveals, embodies His essence. Although He is always “in the bosom of the Father,” yet He is eternally also “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). He is the eternal, living Word, which was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2), and which “was God” (John 1:1).
Thus, the phrase “firstborn of every creature” in our text can be translated literally as “begotten before all creation.” The eternal inter-relationship of the Persons of the Godhead is beyond human comprehension in its fullness, and the terms “Son” and “begotten” are the best human language can do to describe it. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the only begotten, eternally generated Son of the Father, forever shining forth as the image of the otherwise invisible God.’https://www.icr.org/article/12614/?utm_source=phplist9275&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=February+27+-+The+Firstborn+of+Every+Creature
I have been in the ministry for fifty years now and I have learned that it is all too often thought by SOME that either a preacher makes too much money or he doesn’t really earn what he does make! Now, personally I am not a fan of most ‘popular’ preachers but John MacArthur is a good preacher. I don’t always agree with him on some things but that doesn’t take away from the fact he is a good speaker. As to what he gets paid from his church and other ministries is, I believe, between him, his church and the other ministries. John MacArthur and any other preacher worth their salt would know 1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
These same men would know 2Corithians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. I will leave it at that but below is just a portion of what Julie Roys recently wrote concerning MacArthur’s salaries and an interview with MacArthur’s front man Phil Johnson.
Julie wrote that ‘Phil Johnson, director of John MacArthur’s broadcast ministry, Grace to You (GTY), argued in a recent videotaped interview with Justin Peters that MacArthur’s large salaries don’t reveal greed, but instead restraint, and his alleged nepotism is a farce. Yet when examined, the arguments Johnson presented are full of holes and raise even more red flags.’ The complete is at https://julieroys.com/johnson-defense-macarthur-more-red-flags/?mc_cid=6961317489&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
The interview with Johnson and Peters is below.
The Court of Appeal has today ruled that it was lawful for a Christian non-executive NHS director and magistrate to be sacked for expressing in the media that children do best when raised by a mother and a father.
Mr Richard Page, 74, from Kent, was suspended from the magistracy and forced out of a role at an NHS Trust, after explaining on television that he had been discriminated against for his Christian beliefs on parenting while presiding over an adoption case.
After a six-year legal battle seeking justice against the decisions to remove him, today’s judgment has instead taken a significant step in developing further limitations on freedom of speech for Christians in the workplace.
Mr Page now intends to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
‘Views might cause offence’
In his judgment on Mr Page’s claim against NHS Improvement, Lord Justice Underhill stated that:
“The extent to which it is legitimate to expect a person holding a senior role in a public body to refrain from expressing views which may upset a section of the public is a delicate question.”
He recognised that Mr Page “had a particular interest in expressing publicly his views about same-sex adoption in the context of his removal as a magistrate, which was a legitimate matter of public debate” and that he expressed his views ‘temperately’ in the media.
However, he judged that Mr Page’s views on same sex-marriage and ‘homosexual activity’, might cause ‘offence’.
The ruling suggested, for example, that Mr Page should have “declined to answer” Piers Morgan’s questions on his beliefs during an interview on Good Morning Britain in 2016.
Mr Morgan’s treatment of Mr Page during the interview led to 70 complaints to Ofcom.
However, it was ruled that Mr Page’s responses to Piers Morgan’s questions justified his removal from his financial role in the NHS, as they might inadvertently “deter mentally ill gay people in the Trust’s catchment area from engaging with its services.”
Lawyers representing Mr Page had argued at the hearing in November 2020 that upholding his removal on these grounds would force Christians holding traditional views about sexual morality into silence, making it almost impossible for them to hold any kind of public office.
Concluding his judgment however, Lord Justice Underhill stated that, “the issue raised by this case is not about what beliefs such a person holds but about the limits on their public expression.”
He added that:
“the freedom to express religious or any other beliefs cannot be unlimited. In particular, so far as the present case is concerned, there are circumstances in which it is right to expect Christians (and others) who work for an institution, especially if they hold a high-profile position, to accept some limitations on how they express in public their beliefs on matters of particular sensitivity.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This is the first time the Court of Appeal has endorsed the perverse distinction between unlawful discrimination for Christian beliefs and lawfully dismissing someone for offending an LGBT audience by expressing those beliefs.
“This is simply an artificial way to exclude Christian beliefs from the protection of the law. Nobody would get away with applying a similar distinction to any other protected characteristic. You would not get away with dismissing a homosexual for coming out as a homosexual, and then saying: “we duly respect your sexual orientation as long as you keep it to yourself”. This is an unfair and chilling decision, and the Supreme Court should put it right.
“The judgment sends a direct message to Christian public servants that if they allow their beliefs to influence their decision-making while in public office, they must self-censor and be silent, and are ultimately unfit for that office. If they express their beliefs in private to colleagues, they will be reprimanded, and if they then state those beliefs to the media, they will be sacked and will have their lives torn apart.
“The idea that you can remove a director from the NHS based on a perception that members of the LGBT community may be offended by something he said in the media, is extraordinary and should concern us all.
“This ruling provides a green light for employers to punish Christian employees who do not fall in line with and unquestionably support LGBT ideology. We will continue to stand with Richard Page as he seeks justice. We will not stop until this wrong is put right.”
Responding to the outcome, Mr Page said: “This is another deeply concerning ruling from the courts against Christian freedoms, and I intend to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.”‘https://christianconcern.com/news/court-upholds-richard-pages-sacking-for-sharing-christian-views-on-family/
Is there a hope of salvaging the Southern Baptist Convention? Dr. Boys writes that ‘Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), is a longtime Trump hater who called upon him to “please step down and let our country heal?” Well, if he thinks America needed to heal because of Trump, I wonder what he thinks about the rotting taking place under Biden and what’s-her-name. Moore is an embarrassment and lightning rod among the rank and file of the SBC. Many consider him a lobotomized liberal.
The SBC has an illustrious past with about 48,000 churches, some significant colleges, universities, and seminaries, plus an impressive world mission’s outreach. However, it is fast becoming a haven for mixed-up blacks, mushy fundamentalists, mild evangelicals, and manly women.
And moronic pathetic, political pundits, à la Russell Moore, helping destroy a once viable organization.
The membership of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination plunged to under 15 million for the first time since 1989. Bible-believing churches are leaving to become what every church should be: independent. The pastors are leaving or closing their church checkbooks because of the group’s decades-long leftist drift.
After being encouraged by the conservative takeover in 1979, Bible preaching Baptist pastors are now pressed to explain why the convention is committing corporate suicide. Astute pastors are aware of the SBC’s controversial deadly issues—booze, sexual abuse charges, pro-Muslim advocacy, extreme Calvinism, emphasizing education at the expense of evangelism, social justice activism, women preachers, radical minority leadership, and radical progressivism led by Trump-hater Moore.
The denomination split in the 1860s when they broke away from national Baptists in the north over slavery. They are about to split again over severe issues just as definite, although not as serious as the slavery issue. One big problem is between militant Fundamentalists and mushy Fundamentalists with some very loud and pushy pastors with eyes on leadership positions in the various seminaries, cooperative mission program, etc.
It seems it is in the DNA of the SBC to make moves in the wrong direction. They did it in 1860, and they are doing it again.
While it must be acknowledged that denominations have no scriptural reason to exist, many denominational groups in their original formation and early days did an outstanding job of preaching the truth. Many SBC pastors have strongly asserted that the SBC is not a denomination, only a fellowship of cooperating churches united to be more effective in doing world missions.
Those same preachers also believe Pepsi will sell for a nickel, Bill Clinton has lived a virtuous life, Jeffrey Epstein was a misunderstood choirboy who killed himself, the coronavirus did not originate in China, and Stacey Abrams is the real governor of Georgia.
Every year the SBC grows greyer and grayer and balder and balder as the leadership is hipper and hipper, gushing over anything progressive like a teenager in his first crush.
People are dreaming if they think the old guys will vote for women preachers, reformed theology, and progressive black leadership. I see a major confrontation soon, resulting in another split.
President J. D. Greear promised to lead the convention in a different direction, and that direction was to the left. Greear teaches that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, yet Muslims do not believe in the Trinity, the sacrificial death of Christ, or His physical resurrection. Greear gives the old-timers constant heartburn. He compared homosexuality to “greed” and “boasting,” even stating that those sins are “more egregious in the eyes of God” than homosexuality.
I heard Greear say Christians should “stand up and be among the fiercest advocates for the preservation of the dignity and rights of LGBT people because we recognize that gay and lesbian people are essentially just like us.” Not like me, J.D.
He does not mention that God destroyed cities for their perversion.
Greear should be less concerned about “greed” and “boasting” and more concerned about heresy or even apostasy!
There was talk of adding many females to leadership positions at the Dallas national meeting in 2019 by the ERLC, the SBC’s political arm headed by Moore. Some even whispered of electing a woman as president of the SBC! Of course, diversity was discussed, and a black pastor led the conference, and six out of the 12 preachers were non-white.
I believe a minority CEO will run the SBC within two years, and he (or she) will run it even further to the left.
As more blacks and Hispanics achieve leadership positions, the theological and political directions will change 180 degrees. It will also be more political, rushing to the left, and it will be more charismatic. That will not be your father’s Southern Baptist Convention.
The SBC has played the Black Card for many years and has jumped into the deep end of the progressive pool. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, declared, “Black lives do matter. We have to say that even more powerfully than #BlackLivesMatter does.” It is shocking that a highly educated and sophisticated man is so naïve.
Or uninformed.
The SBC president shocked many this summer when he urged church members to declare “black lives matter” and denounced the use of “all lives matter.” It is shocking and somewhat embarrassing that so many Baptist leaders could be so uninformed or so far left to make such a racist statement. That snapping noise you just heard was hundreds of church checkbooks being closed and pastors running from the convention into independence they left many years ago.
The convention apologized in 1995 for its past position on slavery and, in 2016, condemned the Confederate Flag and, in 2017, condemned the “alt-right,” whatever that is. The last two resolutions were the brainchild of Dwight McKissic, a popular black pastor from Texas who recently pulled out of the Southern Baptists of Texas and has threatened to leave the SBC. His church averages 1800 each Sunday, and it has a hefty bank balance, so he has maneuvered his way to be a significant voice in the SBC. He leans obviously to the left, speaks in tongues, and is a strong, even dictatorial leader, as are most black pastors—and many white pastors in independent Baptist groups.
McKissic was horrified that some SBC pastors identified with the alt-right, but he doesn’t seem to be horrified that so many black pastors are in bed with the far left. Oh, my, it is so difficult to be consistent.
McKissic was a supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and said, “I’m thoroughly convinced, the quality of life for all persons will be better under Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. I’m voting for the highest quality of life for all Americans.” Well, the one and a half million butchered babies each year would not agree with the reverend if they were permitted to live long enough to disagree.
Thabiti Anyabwile, a black Southern Baptist pastor in Washington, DC, tweeted that “any ‘church’ that cannot denounce white supremacy without hesitancy and equivocation is a dead, Jesus denying assembly. No 2 ways about it.” However, the race-baiting Baptist did not add, “Any Baptist pastor who cannot denounce Black Lives Matter movement is a Jesus-denying assembly.” Thabiti is a vicious racist who teaches that all white people are guilty of murdering Martin Luther King, Jr. and has demanded an apology from all Whites for that “murder.”
Could Thabiti be Al Sharpton’s twin brother separated at birth? Whatever, Thabiti doesn’t mispronounce simple two-syllable words, and he wears cheaper suits than Al. But then, Al has a radio show, a television show, and almost unlimited finances from a nonprofit organization. He also has a long history of not paying his taxes. At present, he still owes $700,000 in back taxes.
The SBC declares that since each member church is independent, they can put up with significant differences, even theological deviates. However, they have removed churches in the past. The once-great Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga was removed because it started its own college and had its own mission’s program of Independent Baptist missionaries. A Georgia church was removed from the convention because of racism, but will the black racist churches be removed? Don’t bet the farm on it. You see, Blacks cannot be racists!
More than half of new SBC church plants in the past four years have been predominantly “non-Anglo.” That would be great if each church took a biblical stand.
Even without a formal split, the SBC is no longer dominated by white men with combed-over hair speaking with a distinctive southern drawl, preaching from a well-worn King James Bible.
The fading SBC and most Evangelical churches are dying because they are wallowing in diversity and are choking on heresy.’http://donboys.cstnews.com/southern-baptist-convention-haven-for-mixed-up-blacks-mushy-fundamentalists-mild-evangelicals-and-manly-women
Years ago my family and I visited the Grand Canyon. What a sight it is! The ‘Grand Canyon carves a 277-mile-long chasm through northwestern Arizona. Running from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead, the expansive landscape reveals some of the most colorful geology in the world and provides strong evidence for the global Flood.
Lateral Extent of Strata
As you look across Grand Canyon, observe the layers on both walls. The cliffs and the colors match from one side to the other. The gaps between the cliffs were once filled solid, the layers continuous, but the space in between has since been removed by erosion. The bottom flat layers are older and were deposited first; these are called Cambrian system rocks. The youngest layers are on the canyon’s rim; these are identified as Permian system rocks.
An explorer carefully navigates a canyon wall trail, circa 1930Image credit: Henry G. Peabody Photographs, Greater Arizona Collection, Arizona State University Library, Tempe, AZ.
All of these layers were deposited during the rising phase of the global Flood. Powerful tsunami-like waves spread massive, continuous sedimentary layers for hundreds of miles in all directions across this part of North America. Even relatively thin layers extend across Grand Canyon.
Flat Contacts Show Little Time Between Layers
Grand Canyon’s layers are like stacked pancakes. The lowermost flat layer at Grand Canyon is called the Tapeats Sandstone. At about 200 feet thick, it makes a thin, dark brown layer from a distant view. This layer represents the first extensive Flood deposit at this location. The basal boundary of the Tapeats is a special type of unconformity1 called a nonconformity, where sedimentary rock resides on top of pre-Flood crystalline rock. This surface is also referred to as the Great Unconformity (Figure 1).
Figure 1. ICR geologist Dr. Tim Clarey addresses a Grand Canyon tour group with the Great Unconformity behind himImage credit: Kevin Turley
This global phenomenon is found in countless locations where Cambrian system sedimentary layers overlie Precambrian crystalline rocks. Just below the contact, we observe metamorphic crystalline rocks that are oriented nearly vertically, but the overlying Cambrian Tapeats is horizontal. Although secular geologists claim the Precambrian rock surface here experienced over a billion years of erosion, the contact with the Tapeats is almost perfectly planar—it’s flat! Where are the gullies and chasms from billions of years of erosion?
The Redwall Limestone is Grand Canyon’s most prominent layer—a red, thick, vertical cliff that spans the middle of the exposed rock layers. It’s part of the Mississippian system. Right below it, the Muav Limestone of the Cambrian system appears a bit more grayish. The evolutionary narrative claims 160 million years of erosion occurred between these two rock units. But where are the v-shaped channel patterns that gullies and canyons should have carved on top of the Muav? Instead, one flat limestone lies flat on another nearly everywhere you look.
Figure 2. Flat contact shows no erosion and thus no time between the deposition of the Muav Limestone (gray) and the overlying Redwall Limestone (red). The inset shows the Great Unconformity.Illustration by Scott Arledge
A third flat unconformity lies between the Coconino Sandstone and the Hermit Shale. If you look toward the top of the layers in the canyon, you’ll see a thin, light, tan-colored cliff on top of a dark red layer. About a million years of erosion supposedly separates these two units (Figure 2). But if they were really deposited millions of years apart, valleys and canyons should be found between each of these layers. Instead, the contact is almost perfectly flat everywhere we see it.
Badlands Topography Shows Catastrophic Carving
By examining the topography of areas that have been catastrophically restructured recently, we can estimate the effects of the Flood and compare that estimation with Grand Canyon’s topography. A mudflow following the 1982 eruption of Mount St. Helens created a steep-walled, 140-foot-deep canyon system, complete with side canyons, in a single day.2 It looks remarkably like a 1:40 scale of Grand Canyon.
And we see similar deep gorges and butte-and-basin (badlands) topography associated with the flooding that followed the bursting of Ice Age Lake Missoula. This occurred about 4,000 years ago in the American Northwest. Even secular geologists now recognize that this catastrophic megaflood created the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington and widened the Columbia River Gorge.
Today’s processes do not form broad, flat rock layers or carve such big and clean canyons. Different processes must be responsible—catastrophic processes. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that early floodwaters laid down Grand Canyon rocks while the water was rising, and the receding floodwater carved most of the Canyon.
The present narrative for Grand Canyon’s formation is insufficient. Most of today’s secular scientists assume the Colorado River slowly carved Grand Canyon over a period of six million years. But today’s flow rates simply don’t have the power to push the 1,000 cubic miles of rocks and debris all the way out to the Pacific Ocean. Even after millions of years, we should see a lot more talus and debris. Talus refers to rock piles that lean against the cliff walls where they fell. The canyon’s base looks like it was swept clean. Only catastrophic water flow and water volume many times greater than what flows there today could sculpt badlands topography and wide gaps in the canyon.3
Noah’s Flood Explains Grand Canyon
Secular interpretations still cannot adequately explain why the Colorado River cuts right through the Kaibab Uplift that formed on the western flank of the Colorado Plateau. The Kaibab Uplift has warped an arch of rock about 3,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Water should have flowed around it, not uphill and through it.4
How do Flood geologists explain this? The year-long Flood narrative in Genesis helps us understand what we see. After sediments like the Coconino, Redwall, and Tapeats were deposited in the rising phase of the Flood, the Colorado Plateau was pushed up 5,000 feet during the receding phase of the Flood. This caused the floodwaters to drain off rapidly. Grand Canyon is on the western edge of that plateau. When packed, wet sand is lifted up, it stretches and cracks. Water naturally follows the cracks and fractures. Some of those would have run through the Kaibab Uplift to create a path for lots of water to flow downhill and carve a vast canyon.
Rapid uplift and drainage of the receding floodwaters provide both the pathway and the necessary volume of water to quickly carve Grand Canyon.4 This was all accomplished before the Ice Age began. How do we know? Because there are about 150 lava flows that originated on the Uinkaret Plateau and poured down into Grand Canyon during the Ice Age. The canyon had to exist before these lava falls poured in.5
The lateral extent of the sedimentary layers, flat contacts between the layers, and vast badlands topography all point to rapid deposition and ultra-high-volume erosion. The rocks reveal the enormity of the global Flood, and the canyon exhibits catastrophic carving from receding floodwaters. Grand Canyon is a reminder of the immense power of the judgment of the Flood.
References
- An unconformity is where some amount of erosion has taken place, removing a segment of the rock record. Unconformities can also occur if there was a brief hiatus in deposition. Unconformities do not imply vast amounts of time since they can form quickly as tsunami-like waves wash across the landscape, eroding the surface as they go.
- Morris, J. and S. A. Austin. 2003. Footprints in the Ash: The Explosive Story of Mount St. Helens. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 72-76.
- Austin, S. A. 1986. Mt. St. Helens and Catastrophism. Acts & Facts. 15 (7).
- Clarey, T. 2018. Grand Canyon Carved by Flood Runoff. Acts & Facts. 47 (12): 10-13.
- Clarey, T. 2020. Lava Flows Disqualify Lake Spillover Canyon Theory. Acts & Facts. 49 (10): 10-12.’ https://www.icr.org/article/grand-canyon-exposing-the-flood/?utm_source=phplist9319&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=NEW%21+National+Park+Series%2C+Butterfly+Wing+Design%2C+and+More%21+
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