Is a person simply avoiding the really big questions when they believe Genesis 1 and that everything was created by the God of the Bible? No, they aren’t. There are many who have degrees in all areas of science from well known universities who believe Genesis One. The facts show a Creator rather than an accident. Evolution (to me) is based on assumption and fairy tales!
Christianity
Kent Brandenburg says he ‘…was talking to a man this week who said he wanted to be in a church that gave feet to the love of Jesus, something like that. His example was that this church, which he joined, even though he didn’t like its doctrine, helped the homeless. The homeless is a relatively new term in the history of our country. Why are there so many who are homeless? Who are the homeless? What should churches do? What responsibility should they take?
We live in a day when it is important to understand what is “good” and what is really a “help.” Just because a man might say it’s good does not mean that it is, and just because he says it is a help does not mean that it is a help. The key is that we must be discerning. We must determine our answer to this question by means of the Word of God, and not by a societal norm.
Man is by nature deceived. At least forty times in the Bible we are warned about being deceived. Eve was deceived by Satan, and Satan is the great deceiver. The ways of man are the ways of death, and God tells us not to lean on our own understanding.
Help is alright. Scripture calls God a Helper (Hebrews 13:6). Eve was a help to Adam (Genesis 2:18). One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that edify the church is “helps” (1 Corinthians 12:28). Also, God wants us to do good. The terminology, “do good,” is found 26 times in the Bible. However, in Isaiah 5:20, people will call evil good, and good evil. Someone can be deceived about what good is. In Romans 7:21, Paul says, “when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Just because someone says something is a help and it is good doesn’t meant that it is.
Proverbs 3:27 says, “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.” At the same time, 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 say, “21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Things must be proven as to whether they are good and not evil.
God is the definition of good. Seven times scripture says, “the Lord is good.” Psalm 52:1 says, “the goodness of God endureth continually.” Whatever God’s Word says about anything is good: any person or any situation.
For instance, one might think it is always good to pray for someone. 1 John 5:16 says, “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” God doesn’t want everyone prayed for. It’s not always good. It doesn’t always help.
Is benevolence always good? 1 Corinthians 13:3 shows that not if done for selfish reasons. Proverbs 11:4 shows that benevolence is not good if intended to make one righteous, because riches do not profit in the day of wrath. Is suffering itself bad? Genesis 50:20 says that with Joseph, God meant it to me for good. Is sickness bad? John 11:4 says that this sickness is to the glory of God. We can’t assume that all suffering and all sickness is bad. God uses sickness and suffering. It’s not always right to alleviate either.
When it comes to helping people, it’s not always good or always a help to give someone something. The lazy should not be given anything. Laziness is self-imposed bondage (Proverbs 12:24). Giving the lazy person something is to reward laziness, so that you get more laziness. The lazy are neglectful (Ecclesiastes 10:18) and unproductive (Matthew 25:26-30). God won’t give to the lazy and we should follow God.
Scripture shows that God brings famine on the wicked (Deuteronomy 28:15, 33, 38, 42, 51; Ezekiel 5:17, 30:12; Jeremiah 8:13). God doesn’t keep giving good crops to a nation that is wicked. The wicked people don’t learn not to be wicked by being wicked without repentance. God gets the attention through the famine, through the hunger. Feeding takes away the motive to turn to God. This principle can and should be applied to the individual as well. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” You can tell whether someone is lazy or if he won’t work if he’s in the church. In the church, this is a matter of church discipline. Outside the church, you don’t know.
Hunger is a motivation to turn to God. David wrote in Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” The alternative is also true. The unrighteous are forsaken and begging for bread. Should they be given bread without being righteous?
The welfare system of Israel in the Old Testament didn’t just give to people. When you read Ruth, you can see that Boaz left the corners of the field for this widow to reap. Even the two widows, Naomi and Ruth. This fits Leviticus 23:22, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.” Just giving food for no work is not only not taught in the Bible, but taught against. How about this? “I’ll give you a job.” But it’s not just that. If this person is not a good worker, should he or she stay employed, and should we reward him for not providing righteous labor? This would be rewarding wickedness.
All of the reasons that I’ve given above about giving food or money to the homeless relates to the priorities seen in scripture. 1 John 3:17 says, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” This is seeing a “brother” in need. This isn’t seeing just anyone in need. Within the church, where the brothers are, there is accountability to why there is this need. Someone can ask, is it the direct result of sin? Are we rewarding the sin? Is it because of laziness? We can know that through the accountability of a church.
Even in the church, not everyone is taken care of. Not every widow would be taken care of by a church. Read 1 Timothy 5. The priority is that a family takes care of their own family members. When we give money to someone, when the family should be doing that, then the family is shirking that responsibility. 1 Timothy 5:8, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
The problems in a society continue because people do not obey God in what He says about these things. Matthew 4:4 gives a clue. “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The opposite is the expectation to live, to survive without the Word of God.
Say this to a homeless person: “Come to our church, show that you love the Word of God, that you want God, that you want the grace of God, and the church will see that desire and will help you. God will help you.” See what the reaction is. James 4:6 says, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” The humble get God’s grace. God resists the proud. God will send those who resist His grace to Hell. Will we make these homeless more comfortable in their pride? Is this is what God does?
The foolish have wasted opportunities (Proverbs 6:9,10) and brought poverty on themselves (Proverbs 10:4). This is the drug addict or the boozer. We first help them get saved. Jesus provided one meal in John 6, a very sensible, humble meal. Then He offered His audience the bread of life. They rejected. He didn’t keep feeding them. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Teach all nations.” Make disciples. In the realm of help, making disciples is teaching someone to fish, so to speak, rather than just giving them fish. God wants followers. He wants people living for His kingdom. You don’t get to that goal by feeding them. You’ve got to expect them to follow first or you are not really helping them.
For the most part, this issue is living like God is right, trusting Him, believing what He says. It’s like when Saul offered the sacrifice and kept Agag and the animals alive in 1 Samuel 13. He had a better idea than God. There is a way that seems right to man (Proverbs 14:12). Someone may ask, “Don’t you want to feed the hungry?” The hungry will be fed forever in the kingdom and eternal state, and eternal satisfaction of hunger is more important than the temporal. Even on this earth, the real problem isn’t solved by giving food. It might not seem like it, but that is the easy way and the wrong way for reasons described already in this essay.
Most organizations that are about “feeding the hungry,” “giving to the poor,” and “housing the homeless” do not have scriptural quality control. They don’t care about the biblical principles. In most ways, they are proud that they are not scriptural or godly. They are not taking into consideration laziness, wickedness, what’s going on with the family, among other areas addressed above. They very often cannot because they are tied into a government that requires acceptance or toleration of the sin. Acceptance, association, and affiliation give accommodation. Sin is to be reproved and the institutions would not allow sin to be reproved (Ephesians 5:11). One of the ways they get more funds is through disobedience to what God said. The best someone can do for a society is do all he can do in a church without association with these organizations. Why do they not like the church? Why do they not like righteousness?
It’s good to become individually involved in the lives of other people in a biblical way, one-on-one. Do what Jesus did. Do what the apostles did. Help those people to help people in the same way, so that multiplication occurs.
Especially millennials want to be seen as “helping” the poor. They often promote themselves before others for doing so. I’m sure some, albeit few, are well-intentioned. It brings glory in this culture to be seen to care by giving money for temporal things. They know you won’t get credit for obeying God. That’s living by faith. They are walking by sight, not by faith. Many of them aren’t true believers themselves.
Everything I’m writing here is true. Someone isn’t doing good or helping by denying the truth. It’s also vanity. It’s a waste of time and energy and resources. God wants us to be good stewards, faithful and wise stewards (Luke 12:42).’https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/02/17/giving-food-and-money-to-the-homeless/
‘The Washington National Cathedral has been dodging intense incoming missile fire since they apologized to livid LGBTQ bullies for having conservative author Max Lucado preach at its virtual Sunday service recently. The church invited Max to “build bridges,” but his biblical views on sexuality and marriage makes them hold their breath in angst. When those defenders of equal rights at the local Lavender Club started shooting at Cathedral leaders, they, along with the Bishop, folded like a cheap suit as all unprincipled people do.
Church officials blamed their “mistake” on their “straight privilege” and begged forgiveness for the “pain” they had caused. The two gutless church leaders promised to schedule a “listening session” for the LGBTQ crowd who had turned blue from holding their breath.
The Episcopal Church is so twisted that it put one of their bishops on trial for following the Bible! William Love was a very conservative and orthodox Episcopal Bishop of Albany, New York, and was tried by his denomination for being too biblical. The Bishop abides by the traditional Christian doctrine that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The courageous Bishop was put on trial “after banning gay marriage ceremonies in his diocese.”
Bishop Love is as out of place in the radical Episcopal denomination as Louis Farrakhan at a Jewish bar mitzvah. After enormous pressure from his craven denominational leaders, Love resigned from his bishopric effective February 1, 2021.
Good, now other principled leaders and ordinary church members should leave the denomination as if their hair were on fire.
Frankly, all principled people, with any cursory knowledge of biblical truth, should cut all ties with all the mainline churches that have become little more than social clubs. Most of these churches are very light on the Bible and deep into social justice, promotion of same-sex “marriage,” transgenderism, globalism, climate change, etc. By continuing in apostate denominations, members become participants in the compromise and corruption of their evil deeds.
The Episcopal Church has been dominated by weirdos such as Bishops James Pike, John Spong, and Gene Robinson. Their best-known churches are the National Cathedral and St. John’s in Washington, D.C. Those churches would be empty and used as warehouses if they were not historic places.
I watched two hours of a dialogue held at the National Cathedral dealing with two cathedral windows that depict Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Cathedral officials had been wrestling with this for a long time, and in September 2017, the windows were removed.
The media and the panel discussion I watched were concerned about the windows telling an “incomplete and misleading account of our History.” An official said, “We are committed to finding ways to offer a richer, more balanced expression of our nation’s history.” I’ll buy that; however, I demand some consistency, something that never concerns liberals.
During the panel discussion, the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian at the Cathedral, spoke approvingly of Nat Turner, and another spoke positively of W. E. B. Du Bois. The panelists also agreed that one must know about Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of hundreds of slaves to really know the man. Okay, I’ll accept that, but no one seemed concerned to tell the whole story about Turner and Du Bois, so I will. Maybe the panel, consisting of two white people and two black people, does not know the complete stories of those men.
Nat Turner, a black slave in Virginia, claimed to be a Baptist preacher who always felt destined for greatness, and his parents encouraged him, considering him a prophet. They were convinced of that because of unusual marks on his head and breast! Turner reported seeing spirits fighting in the sky, and he allegedly heard voices. Being a “prophet,” he communicated “revelations” to fellow slaves. I don’t need to emphasize that such is more indicative of a paranoid than a prophet.
Then, when Mount St. Helens erupted on February 12, 1831, nearly 3,000 miles away, Virginia’s atmospheric conditions convinced Turner that God wanted him to kill his white enemies! About seven months later, on August 21, 1831, he and other slaves attacked and killed 55 white people, including men, women, and children–some as they slept. One victim was a baby in its cradle. Some of the victims were beheaded, including children. The killers used axes, clubs, swords, and guns.
Armed citizens confronted the attackers, and Turner was captured, tried, and executed by hanging after hiding for two months. His corpse was flayed, beheaded, and quartered. It seems the slaveholders wanted to send a message to their slaves.
Mindless, guilt-ridden Whites and gullible Blacks seek to make every Black a hero, but surely, no sane person thinks Turner was anything but a monster.
Another black hero is W. E. B. Du Bois (who insisted on being called “Dr. Du Bois”), an impressive intellectual who, in 1895, was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. He was a founder of the NAACP (most of the executive officers were white) in 1909, and he was hired as editor of their journal The Crisis. Du Bois later resigned (some say he was dismissed) in 1934 over the reversal of his segregation position to accepting the “separate but equal” position as a satisfactory goal for Blacks. He had rejected Frederick Douglass’ plea for black Americans to integrate into white society. He also sparred with Booker T. Washington, the number one black leader in America who was highly respected by Whites and Blacks.
Du Bois thought Booker T. Washington was too slow and patient in dealing with segregation. Washington was an accommodator, and Du Bois was an agitator. Du Bois was an effective advocate for civil rights but leaned far to the left, defending and joining many socialist causes. He taught that capitalism was a major cause of racism. Du Bois was a peace advocate and promoted nuclear disarmament. He began to support the Communist Party and warmed to Marx’s atheism.
Many of Du Bois’ friends and supporters shunned him, especially after the FBI continued to investigate his actions, associates, and his advocacies. He ended up joining the American Communist Party, traveled to Russia and China (becoming their cheerleader), and became a citizen of Ghana, where he died in 1963.
I wonder why the Episcopal leaders did not think it necessary to reveal the full scope of Du Bois’ life. Maybe because of the stories of their own leaders.
Bishop James Pike died a bishop in the Episcopal Church, although he said that he was leaving the denomination. In his personal life, Pike was a chain-smoker and an alcoholic. In theology, he was a heretic even to many conservative Episcopalians. Many heresy charges were brought against him with plenty of facts to substantiate them. The cowardly bishops of the denomination refused to pursue heresy charges. Pike did not believe in Hell, the Trinity, and virgin birth.
Pike was a troubled man all his life. He married Jane Alvies then divorced in 1941. He married Esther Yanovsky in 1942, and she divorced him in 1966. They had four children. Pike lived with (but did not marry) his secretary Maren Bergrud until 1967 when she committed suicide after a heated argument with him. Pike performed her funeral in his church.
In 1968, he married Diane Kennedy and went to Israel on an extended honeymoon. They were researching a book Pike was planning to write. While near the Dead Sea without a guide, they had car trouble, and the couple walked away from the car. Soon, Diane went alone to seek help leaving her husband. She stumbled into workers who took her to safety. Pike’s body was discovered a few days later after an intensive search.
Bishop John Shelby Spong is another Episcopalian leader who is very careful that no one would ever mistake him for a Bible-believer. Of course, he, like Pike and other unbelieving Bishops, makes an excellent living preaching the Bible he does not believe. Such people have plenty of chutzpah but no character. Spong teaches that Christ was “adopted by God as his son” in his Born of a Woman, and He rejects the historical truths essential to Christianity, such as the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. Neither does Spong believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. He teaches that the Apostle Paul was a pervert. He believes the creation story is nonsense.
When the Episcopal denomination consecrated homosexual Gene Robinson as a Bishop in 2003, the denomination experienced the “worst single outflow of Episcopalians in modern history,” over 100,000.
They should have lost every genuine Christian, but alas, many Christians don’t know what the Bible teaches, or they don’t care.
Every true Christian should leave every corrupt mainline church because without truth, all you have is a cult.’ http://donboys.cstnews.com/principled-people-should-cut-all-ties-with-the-episcopal-church
I wasn’t surprised to read that ecumenical ‘Christian author and pastor Max Lucado, who holds biblical Christian views on marriage, issued an apology for “disrespecting” and “hurting” the LGBT community in his past sermons after the Washington National Cathedral was criticized for inviting him as a guest speaker.
“In 2004 I preached a sermon on the topic of same-sex marriage. I now see that, in that sermon, I was disrespectful. I was hurtful,” wrote Lucado, pastor of Oak Hills Church, a nondenominational Christian church in San Antonio, Texas, in a letter last week to the Episcopal Church’s Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul in the City and the Diocese of Washington, also known as the Washington National Cathedral.
“I wounded people in ways that were devastating,” Lucado, who spoke at the National Cathedral on Feb. 7, continued. “I should have done better. It grieves me that my words have hurt or been used to hurt the LGBTQ community. I apologize to you and I ask forgiveness of Christ.”’https://www.christianpost.com/news/max-lucado-apologizes-for-past-sermon-on-homosexuality.html?uid=d3769f0ce2
Do you believe the Apostle Paul would apologize for writing Romans 1?
‘Street trees reduce depression, according to Science Alert 30 January 2021 and Scientific Reports 31 December 2020 doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79924-5.
A group of researchers in Germany “analysed the association of street tree density and species richness with antidepressant prescribing for 9751 inhabitants of Leipzig, Germany. They found “for individuals with low socio-economic status, high density of street trees at 100m around the home significantly reduced the probability of being prescribed antidepressants.”
They went on to conclude: “The study suggests that unintentional daily contact to nature through street trees close to the home may reduce the risk of depression, especially for individuals in deprived groups.”
Diana Bowler, a population ecologist from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and one of the researcher team, also commented: “Our study shows that everyday nature close to home – the biodiversity you see out of the window or when walking or driving to work, school, or shopping – is important for mental health. This finding is especially relevant now in times of the COVID-19 lockdowns.”
Links: Science Alert, Scientific Reports
Editorial Comment: This fits with much other research into the importance of green spaces with trees in supporting good health, which is no surprise to us since Genesis tells us mankind’s original “very good” home was a beautiful fruitful garden filled with trees.
Access to green spaces and trees has become a real issue in these days of lockdowns with its associated stress and depression, especially in dense urban communities. We agree that providing trees will help people in lockdown and other restrictions, but to really protect people from stress, depression and despair they need the hope which can only come from good news of a salvation in Christ. We encourage churches and individual Christians to find creative ways of sharing good things from God’s good creation along with God’s Good News with those in quarantine, lockdown or affected by changes brought about by restrictions in their local areas.’https://creationfactfile.com/6164/street-trees-reduce-depression/
This was in an email recently received from https://creationresearch.net/.
‘A lawyer was in the audience, so I asked him what a testimony was supposed to be. “The truth” he quickly replied! That by the way, is why lawyers are paid to probe, investigate, test and challenge any testimony in legal proceedings. They are looking for false testimonies.
However, it is just one testimony that concerns us today. A true testimony which many academics, scientists, church leaders and pew sitters sadly dismiss. It’s been labelled a testimony right from its origin. Not the testimony of man but of the Creator God. Remember the Ten Commandments? The record reports “God gave Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God”. (Exodus 31:18) After the affair of the golden calf Moses smashed the first set of the tablets in anger. God then told Moses “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.” (Exodus 34:1) After Moses spent a second time with God on the mountain, he came down the mountain “with the two tablets of the testimony”. (Exodus 34:29)
Nowhere does the Bible treat the Ten Commandments as anything but the actual Word or Testimony of the Lord, e.g. at the giving of the first set we read “God spoke all these words”. (Exodus 20:11) In his address to the people of Israel recorded in Deuteronomy, Moses reminded them: “And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.” (Deuteronomy 9:10)
As our lawyer friend addresses, if any part of a written or spoken testimony is not true, it is invalid. Including in this case the witness rule in the courts … ’you shall not bear false testimony’. (Ex 20:16) Note well that the Creator Christ testified in the commandments He made the world in six days. So all of those leaders of academia, theology or politics who dismiss the six days, actually have moved to dismiss all God’s commandments. No wonder they move on to legislate the mass murder of infants, block Gender Menders, promote BLM destruction, push climate lies and cash in on Covid-10 controls. Note well – you will all give eternal account to the One who is truth, for He cannot lie. He did make the heavens and the earth in just six days and His moral authority is based on that. You portray Christ any other way and you will be held accountable for calling him a liar – someone who gave false testimony, while taking the moral high ground in labelling false testimony a grievous sin.
Moses’ successor Joshua challenged the people to “… fear the Lord and serve him …. ‘choose this day whom you will serve’ … the gods of this world or the real God … But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)’
2 Peter 3:10“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
‘We live in a world – indeed, a universe – that is in continual change. Things have been designed that way for a very important reason. Unfortunately, some people choose to define evolution as simply change. However, that’s not the kind of continuous change that surrounds us.
The change we see around us serves to keep things the same. Biologists call this “stasis.” That might sound contradictory, but think about it for a moment. A baby is born – that’s change. The baby grows into a child and then a young adult. That’s more change. In the end, though, a new generation is born to replace the last generation, and things are as they were. It’s the cycle of life, common to all living things.
What’s more, the interrelated life cycles of all living things complement each other. Plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make oxygen and food, which are needed by the animal kingdom and human beings. Each generation of living things reproduces after its own kind, helping to keep this balance in tune.
The change we see all around us was designed by the Creator to renew the creation so that it might remain stable – the same. We can truly say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. However, this state of affairs will not go on forever. One day – and perhaps soon – the world will end. The Son of God, Who was the instrument of our creation and the instrument of our salvation, will return. Are you ready to meet Him?’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/designed-to-renew-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=designed-to-renew-2&mc_cid=38e629a331&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
Kent Brandenburg writes and I agree ‘My Christianity isn’t tethered to what other people are doing or have done. Christianity is the truth. If I were one of eight remaining believers on earth, it would still be true. I don’t doubt it when people don’t live it. I feel sorry for them, but they haven’t affected what I think about Christianity itself. My Christianity is tethered to the Bible, God’s Word.
I’m writing about this, because of an article in Newsweek that came out on Tuesday this week, written by Issac Bailey, “I’m Struggling with My Christianity After Trump.” Something with that title in a major publication would be a head scratcher, except that most “Christianity” today and probably for most of history isn’t and hasn’t been actual Christianity. No one should be surprised about counterfeit Christianity. Bailey says he got his doubts about Christianity itself from the reality that professing Christians voted for Trump. I’ve heard other people say this.
According to scripture, anyone who leaves actual Christianity was never saved in the first place. Nowhere says a true Christian can lose his salvation. He can’t leave it, because he’s kept by the power of God (1 Peter 1:5). A believer cooperates with what God does in saving him, but it is God who keeps him saved. Scripture is clear on this. Many passages teach the eternal security of a believer, but two verses are definitive on the point that, if a professing believer defects, he was never saved in the first place: first, 1 John 2:19.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Second, 1 John 3:6.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Read both verses. The first one says that when someone does not continue, he never had salvation in the first place, that is, he was “not of us,” said twice in the verse. If he was “of us,” he would “no doubt have continued with us.” No doubt. The second verse says that a person who sins as a lifestyle, as seen in the present tense, “sinneth,” “hath not seen him, neither known him,” that is, a person who takes on a lifestyle of sin never saw or knew Christ in the first place. A true Christian can’t walk away from Christ. As Jesus said in John 10:28-29, no man, including himself, can pluck a true believer out of either Jesus’ or His Father’s hand.
If you read the Bailey article, you can see he doesn’t have biblical Christianity. I’m not saying that to be unnecessarily offensive or condemnatory. People call themselves Christians, who are not, because there are many various forms of popular “Christianity” in the world. That could be a whole separate article, all the different types, that aren’t Christianity. They are fraudulent perversions of the real thing. There is more false Christianity by far than there is true Christianity.
Most Christian denominations don’t even preach a true gospel. You should know that. They are preaching a false gospel. Most professing Christians to whom I talk don’t even know the gospel. I repeat, they don’t know it. Churches are not clear on the gospel. Even the ones who might believe a true gospel are more concerned about having a bigger congregation and so they do more to pander to people than tell them what they need to hear. There has been a cumulative and comprehensive erosion of the gospel in the United States for awhile and for a number of reasons.
In the first paragraph, Bailey says his “faith is in tatters.” Before I provide an assessment of what he says in his article, I have an opinion about what he’s doing. I don’t think he’s going to leave his spurious version of Christianity. He’s threatening to leave it like a child threatens to hold his breath until he dies if his parents don’t give him what he wants. True Christians are concerned that their testimony could result in defections from the faith. Jesus said at the beginning of Matthew 18 that it would be better to put a millstone around your neck and jump into deep water than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
Bailey is saying that Christians are sending him into apostasy because of their vote for Trump. This is meant to strike fear into Christians, so that they at the least become non-political or disengaged from political action. Bailey will keep supporting actual murderers greater than any holocaust in the history of the world, the same people who booed God at their party convention, but a vote for Trump will send him off the deep end. He’s already off the deep end. His party is the party against divine design of the family, which is the most rudimentary and rebellious form of opposition to God in existence.
The people Bailey addresses specifically are the pro-life supporting Christians, implying that there are non-pro-life Christians. You can be a Christian, a true one, and not be pro-life. There is only pro-life Christianity. Everything else is an impostor. Sure, it might take a new Christian some time to get up to speed on this point, but he will get there, because he is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, if he is really saved.
Many of the Trump voters, who claim to be Christians, are not. They do have a different Jesus. That includes some, if not all, of the people in the picture posted in Bailey’s article. As a matter of religious or theological comparison though, these pseudo Christians have a lot in common with the type of Christianity Bailey represents. They both have a novel fabrication or improvisation of Christianity, that is very loose with scripture. They put more authority in their own experience than the Bible, relying more on allegorization than exegesis.
For all of Trump’s many flaws, in a political way he represented to a lot of Americans and most true Christians, a last opportunity to save the federal government from a trajectory of progressive, oligarchical totalitarianism and globalism. Of course, that’s just a conspiracy theory, wink wink. There is no new world order planned for the future of the United States with no borders and the eradication of Americanism. Christians would like to keep their freedoms, freedom of religion and of speech. They would like to stop the present course of the elimination the nuclear family, something basic like a father and mother of opposite sex with the authority to raise their own children. The support of vouchers for education is about the freedom to educate their children in Christian values away from the humanistic, pseudo-science of gender fluidity.
It is not accident that today you hear the left use words like “cult” and “worship” as it relates to Trump. I’m sure they’re seen as effective propaganda. No Christian wants to be seen or known for being in a cult or worshiping a man. Bailey among many others uses this terminology. I don’t know anyone who follows Trump, let alone worships him. I understood why Christians would attend the rally on January 6. I know some people who were there and none of them knew anything about breaking into the capitol building to stop the counting of the electoral votes. I’ve explained this in previous posts, but they see both their voice and their vote being taken away. It’s obvious to them that a two tiered justice system already exists, where a true Christian can be prosecuted for not baking a cake for a same sex wedding and yet left wing anarchists can take over a large area of an American city without opposition. The mainstream of the media applauds it, likes it, has no problem with a Trump voter bleeding in the street.
Much of what Bailey wrote just isn’t true and other parts are misrepresentations, slanted in a dishonest way. He might just be deceived, but I believe he knows what he’s doing.
- True Christians don’t pray to Jesus. They pray to God the Father like Jesus taught.
- The group filmed “praying” in the front of the Senate chamber, it’s obvious, don’t represent biblical Christianity.
- True Christianity isn’t white or black, as in “white church” or “black church,” as Bailey represents it.
- All the things that Franklin Graham said about Trump are true. Graham doesn’t represent biblical Christianity, but I understand why a Christian would appreciate the list of accomplishments he mentions.
Bailey argues that Trump was not pro-life, because Trump oversaw a 200% increase in civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq in his first year. That is a very specific statistic that does not relate to the issue of being “pro-life” as defined. Pro-life means that you’re against murdering unborn children. How many civilians would die if ISIS continued on unfettered? That’s more difficult to measure, but that is why a very narrow, cherry-picked statistic was necessary for an opening statement. Trump oversaw a quick dismantling of ISIS his first year and then evacuation so that less future death would occur. Consider the following statistical chart of civilian deaths in the Iraq War between 2003 and 2021:
Look at the Trump years, 2017-2020, compared to the previous ones. This belies what Bailey writes, his assuming, it seems, that no one would fact check him, if it even mattered. Despite Bailey’s twisting of the meaning of pro-life, nevertheless, more civilians were killed in Iraq in 2014 during the Obama presidency than during the entire four years of the Trump presidency.
- Bailey blames Trump for the murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. No president has been more pro-Israel than Trump. Israel says this. There were fourteen mass shootings during the Obama years. It’s sheer political opportunism to blame mass shootings on a president. Was Trump also to blame for the 2017 Las Vegas shooting at a country western concert? Those were mainly Trump deplorables getting gunned down.
- Another argument Bailey makes is that abortion rates go down during Democratic presidencies, because of government programs. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were higher unintended pregnancies when Democrats are president, because of greater support for contraception, most of which is abortifacient. Those aren’t called murders, but they are. Since 1965 over 11 million have been murdered by abortifacients, that don’t show up as abortions. That would be a good explanation for lower abortion rates too.
Pro-life people, of course, want to end all abortion, so the rate would decrease to nothing if they had their way. Instead, with the support of Bailey, almost 70 million have been murdered in the United States, which would be enough to cause a Christian to defect, except that’s impossible for a true Christian. True Christians are happy about slowing down the abortion rate. They don’t, however, support contraception as a way of getting there. A true Christian opposes fornication and all sexual sin that results in an unintended pregnancy. For a biblical Christian, an unintended pregnancy is by definition one outside of marriage. If Bailey is a Christian, he should support the biblical position, which is abstinence. That would also end the AIDS epidemic.
- Insurrection occurred all summer with BLM and Antifa, doing far more damage and causing far more death than the capitol “riot.” Is that justified to Bailey, because he agrees with socialism and actual fascism? When you see the picture of unarmed crazies in costumes, a truly thinking person doesn’t see the comparison. One of the five “killed,” used as a statistic by the left, was an unarmed woman, who threatened no one with violence. Where is the outcry? Three Trump supporters died of natural causes. The one police death has hardly been covered. What happened there? Why isn’t there more coverage of his death? Not his funeral, not the way he’s been used politically, but what actually happened to him?
Bailey says that 60% of white Catholic voters voted for Trump, implying that Catholics are Christian. He lumps them with evangelicals who supported Trump. This is the most tell-tale evidence that he doesn’t understand biblical Christianity. He is pro-abortion. He is against the death penalty for murder. If you are a Christian, you support what God supports. You believe the Bible. Bailey does not.
The crucial aspect for a lasting faith, which is actually a saving faith, is the object of that faith. My faith doesn’t stand in men. The object of faith is Jesus Christ Himself, and He never fails. I believe the Bible. My faith comes by the Word of God. 1 John 5:4-5 say:
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
One reason true Christians won’t be swayed by what occurs in this world is because they aren’t living for this world. They are living for the next world, the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the eternal state. This reminds me of the hymn, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, by E. E. Hewitt:My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed;I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea;It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.Enough for me that Jesus saves, This ends my fear and doubt;A sinful soul I come to Him, He’ll never cast me out.My heart is leaning on the Word, The written Word of God,Salvation by my Savior’s name, Salvation through His blood.My great Physician heals the sick, The lost He came to save;For me His precious blood He shed, For me His life He gave.’ https://kentbrandenburg.com/2021/02/10/questioning-christianity-because-of-what-one-sees-occurring-in-the-world-or-from-people-who-call-themselves-christians/
The following is part of an email from THE EPOCH TIMES.
‘Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections before becoming the 16th president of the United States. You can find the full record of his life in several historical sources; we’ve gathered these from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield. Here are some of Lincoln’s notable defeats.
- In 1832, he ran for a seat in the Illinois State Legislature and lost. Two years later, he won and was re-elected three times.
- In 1838, he aspired to become speaker of the state legislature and lost.
- In 1840, he sought to become an elector in the Electoral College and lost.
- In 1843, he ran for the House of Representatives and lost. When he ran again in 1846, he won.
- In 1854, he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost.
- In 1856, he sought the vice-presidential nomination at this party’s national convention and got fewer than 100 votes.
- In 1858, he ran for the U.S. Senate again and lost again.
Finally, he ran for president in 1860, and things turned out far differently for him and for the nation. The rest, as they say, is history.
Abraham Lincoln kept loyal to his ideals, his beliefs, and his vision for America. What if he had stopped after his first defeat?’
One wonders what Reformer Martin Luther would think of certain Lutheran’s today? ‘A Lutheran university in Indiana is trying to distance itself from Christian history by phasing out its “Crusader” mascot “over the coming months,” according to Valparaiso University’s interim president.
Colette Irwin-Knott told the community in an email Thursday that a task force she convened “determined the Crusader is not reflective of Valpo’s mission to promote a welcoming and inclusive community.”
Composed of student, faculty, staff, athletics and alumni representatives, its mission was to study the “appropriateness” of the mascot “given historical and modern implications, and whether it aligns with the University’s values,” she wrote, citing its “divisive connotations”:
The task force received approximately 7,700 survey responses from our campus community, alumni, and friends of the University. In light of this feedback and the negative associations to religious oppression, violence, and hate groups, the task force determined the Crusader is not reflective of Valpo’s mission to promote a welcoming and inclusive community.’ https://www.thecollegefix.com/christian-university-ditches-crusader-mascot-because-of-association-with-hate-groups/
