Christianity
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
Isaiah 22:11“Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.”
‘Since the days of Charles Darwin, over a century ago, naturalists have generally classified living things by their appearance. A zebra and a horse are said to be more closely related than a zebra and a whale. This has been the foundation of all those evolutionary trees that claim to show that all living things have supposedly come from older, simpler living things.
In recent years, some scientists have been comparing another feature that all living things share. Today, scientists are able to look for similarities and differences among the biological chemicals – like hemoglobin. What they are finding does not agree with the evolutionary tree in their textbooks, according to Dr. Colin Patterson of the British Museum of Natural History.
Among the examples Dr. Patterson offered to American evolutionary scientists was a comparison of alpha myoglobin among mammals, birds and reptiles. According to evolution, comparisons between mammals, reptiles and birds should show mammals and birds to be most distantly related. Reptiles should have more similarities to each. However, when humans were compared with crocodiles and birds, birds were closer to humans than were crocodiles – the opposite of what evolution predicts. Dr. Patterson asked, “What’s going on?”
While Dr. Patterson did not become a creationist before his death in 1998, he was definitely dissatisfied with evolution.’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/scientist-says-evolution-makes-bad-science-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=scientist-says-evolution-makes-bad-science-2&mc_cid=6c1db3f0d1&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
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+
Church denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention are NOT found in the New Testament. Now SBC churches will sometimes say they are independent but if they were the following wouldn’t be an issue for a reading of Romans One answers most questions concerning creation, evolution and the sodomite, lesbian issues of today. However, in spite of God’s Word ‘Divisions over politics, race, sex abuse, and LGBTQ issues are roiling America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), ahead of a meeting of its executive committee this week.
On the agenda are two items reflecting those divisions: A recommendation that a church in Kennesaw, Georgia, be ousted from the SBC because it accepted LGBTQ people into church membership, contravening Southern Baptist doctrine; and a report by an executive committee task force criticizing the leader of the SBC’s public policy arm, the Rev. Russell Moore. Among the grievances against Moore: His outspoken criticism of Donald Trump during Trump’s 2016 election campaign and his presidency.
Jim Conrad, the pastor of Towne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, said he’s at peace with the likelihood that his church will be “disfellowshipped” by the executive committee during its meeting Monday and Tuesday.
But Conrad sees broader challenges for the SBC as its stances on various sensitive issues are questioned from inside and outside.’https://julieroys.com/baptists-divided/?mc_cid=26363a6f9d&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
I am an independent Baptist as the New Testament knows nothing else but independent churches. So, for those SBC folk that say they too are independent we read ‘On February 8, however, Towne View received a letter from Mike Lawson, chair of the SBC Credentials Committee, that the church’s case had been referred to the denomination’s Executive Committee in Nashville.‘ So much for independence!
‘That decision will purportedly be made at the Executive Committee’s scheduled meeting on Tuesday (Feb. 23). According to a member of the denomination staff who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, Towne View’s fate is all but sealed.
“It’s about the bottom line, and that more churches than not in the Cobb County region would be against the acceptance of the LGBTQ community being members in their churches,” the staffer said.
Conrad said it is clear that he knows that he made the right decision, despite the loss of a third of his membership (and a third of his salary).’
Now, to top it all off the two sodomites who began all this have moved out of the area! The article continues by saying ‘The Reynolds, meanwhile, have left, moving out of the area for work reasons. John Reynolds, however, says: “We remain grateful for the experience of finding Towne View.” He said that like other groups who were once unwelcome in Baptist churches, the couple believes that “God is working in a very special way to open the door to the Baptist church community just a little wider.”’https://religionnews.com/2021/02/19/georgia-sbc-church-faces-banishment-for-accepting-lgbtq-members/
It isn’t God at work here but man as God’s Word is clear on the subject.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
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.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
‘It’s a warm day on the Amazon River. A small fish swims near the surface, looking among the natural floating river debris for some food. As he looks among the occasional leaf or twig in the water, he sees no danger. At the same time, one of the floating “leaves” is waiting for the little fish to move just a bit closer. Then, without warning, the floating “leaf” comes to life, grabs the fish and eats it!
What the little fish thought was simply another floating leaf was actually another fish. The Amazonian leaf fish is carefully designed not only to look like a leaf, but to act like one as well. It has a flat body, very much like a leaf. A black line runs the length of its body, giving the appearance of the midrib of a leaf. A fleshy growth in its lower jaw looks like a leaf stem.
Beyond looking like a leaf, the leaf fish also acts like a leaf. It lies still in the water, drifting with the current. To hide its identity further, it draws its fins close to its body, removing any last hint that it is indeed a hungry fish looking for lunch.
The leaf fish combines deceptive coloring, appearance and behavior into one design so that it, too, can make its living. In this, the leaf fish shows that the Creator makes nothing without also designing a special purpose for that creature. According to the Bible, the same can be said even more emphatically for each human being He has made. Your Creator has a special purpose for you, too, and it begins with His plan of salvation for you through His Son, Jesus Christ.’ https://creationmoments.com/sermons/the-hungry-leaf-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-hungry-leaf-2&mc_cid=1d2b7b36a3&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
China doesn’t have to militarily fight the USA or Australia. It seems they own us through our politicians! ‘Yesterday the Pastor took to Facebook encouraging followers to protest outside his Lots Of Fins Aquarium in Narre Warren after DHHS served it with a prohibition notice.
Approximately 150 people came to support the Pastor at his shop when police and DHHS arrived.
DHHS said they’re reviewing his Covid plan before revoking the prohibition order.
Police indicated that they were not taking any action.
But as soon as the people and cameras left, police pounced on the Pastor.
Pastor Fulong has since been released on strict bail conditions and charged with three separate incitement charges for the protest today and his church service on Sunday.’ https://www.rebelnews.com/pastor_furlong_arrested?utm_campaign=ay_pastorarrest_2_18_21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel
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!
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
