This is the Christian testimony of Christopher Replogle, a Marine veteran of the Iraqi war. Christopher’s testimony is of one who not only fought in a war of bullets but a spiritual warfare for his soul. In the end Christopher came to know true freedom found only in the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour.
Sinner
All posts tagged Sinner
The Bible speaks of fornication, adultery and men with men working that which is unseemly, as sin! The following article is speaking abut what has become known in and out of the churches as sexual abuse. The ‘abuse’ spoken of in the following article began with an older man when the woman was 26 and ended when she was 38. I am not blaming the woman alone but I am saying these two professed to be ‘Christians’ when they were committing this sin! Personally, I believe both should be questioning their relationship with the Lord Jesus!
Now, there are many things that stand out in the articles being written on this ‘abuse’ matter but at least to this blogger there are three things that stand out.
One is that BOTH professed to know the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour while committing fornication! There is definitely a heart (spiritual) problem here. Have these people considered the fact they may not be saved.? 2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Secondly, while this sin continued this long this man, David Sills, was able to move about the Southern Baptist Convention teaching and preaching while committing adultery!!!! The word ‘ACCOUNTABILITY’ is thrown around a lot in the churches and ‘Christian’ organizations such as the schools and seminaries but where is the accountability?
Thirdly, it is stated https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/religion/2019/03/12/louisville-southern-baptist-seminary-professor-accused-sex-abuse/3130024002/ that this same man, ‘Sills had been hired at a missionary agency outside the Southern Baptist Convention’!!!! There’s always a job for one of the Good Ole Boys no matter what they have been doing!!!!
Those churches and organizations, in this case the Southern Baptist Convention, say they are preaching the Gospel when in reality they are not preaching the Gospel as found in the Word of God where there is repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 20:21! There’s sin in the camp and there is seemingly NO repentance or discipline administered in the churches or the denominational organizations and these things ought not so to be, James 3:10!!! Now, the articles say ‘Jennifer Lyell was trying to do the right thing.
In the spring of 2019, Lyell, then a well-respected leader in Christian publishing, decided to publicly disclose that she was a survivor of sexual abuse.
She did so after learning her abuser, a former Southern Baptist seminary professor, author and missionary, had recently returned to ministry. Lyell feared he would once again have the opportunity to abuse others and wanted to stop that from happening.
So she wrote up a statement detailing the abuse and shared it with a reporter from a Christian news organization. Then things went terribly wrong.
Instead of reporting she had been abused, Nashville-based Baptist Press, which is overseen by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, reported in March 2019 that Lyell, then a vice president at Lifeway Christian Resources, had admitted being involved in a “morally inappropriate relationship” with her former professor.
The fallout was quick and devastating. Lyell was labeled on social media as an “adulteress” rather than an abuse survivor, with users leaving scores of vile comments about her on Lifeway’s Facebook page and the Baptist Press website. Pastors and churches called for her to be fired. She lost her reputation, her job and even her health in the process.
The article was eventually retracted, but the damage was done.
Lyell told Religion News Service she wished she had never gone public. Instead of receiving support and compassion, she found herself trying to convince critics she was not responsible for the abuse she had experienced at the hands of the former professor.
“It takes years and years to recover from trauma, and no one should be in the position of having to explain it to the whole public while they’re still trying to do that,” she said.’ https://churchleaders.com/news/392768-how-complementarianism-fueled-a-culture-of-abuse-in-the-church-for-jennifer-lyell.html
More of this sad story may be read at https://julieroys.com/jennifer-lyells-life-fell-apart/?mc_cid=9d9bbc3a95&mc_eid=b13d34ad49 and https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/a-statement-from-baptist-press/ and https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/religion/2019/03/12/louisville-southern-baptist-seminary-professor-accused-sex-abuse/3130024002/
Acts 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
The other day I ran the article SBC DISFELLOWSHIPS 4 TENNESSEE CHURCHES. One of those churches booted out of the SBC had as its Pastor since 2014 a man who had earlier pled guilty and was convicted of statutory rape. Below is from https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914bba0add7b04934797a7b which details some of the charges. This was a married man of 31 and pastoring a Baptist church! It is disgusting to read NOT only what this man did to a girl of 16 but that he was called to pastor another Southern Baptist Church JUST DOWN THE ROAD after his conviction! This brings up the fact that (1) this man is probably not born again and fits what Paul speaks about in Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.!
Secondly, there is the matter that the church that called him after committing and being convicted of this SIN in a court of law called this man to be their supposed Shepherd is a partaker of his evil deeds. Again, let it be said that the church which this man pastored at the time of his crime was ONLY SIX MILES FROM THE Antioch Baptist CHURCH THAT LATER CALLED HIM TO BE THEIR PASTOR! Didn’t those at Antioch Baptist call the other church for a reference or read the papers or listen to the radio or watch the news on television to be aware of this man’s sin!? Are those at Antioch Baptist unsaved as well! This man was disqualified from being a pastor!! The church at Corinth had sin in its midst and Paul wrote to that church saying the sin they were allowing was not so much as named among the Gentiles or we could say it this way, even the unsaved didn’t allow that sin.
Read what is circled below and I am sure your reaction will be, or should be, one of disgust, anger and questioning whether those in these two churches know the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. Perhaps we need to be reminded of 1Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
The Biden administration has lost all sense of morality as it spends other people’s money for military personnel’s sex reassignments!
‘The Department of Defense has confirmed in recent memos that sex reassignment surgery will be provided free of charge, as part of the military’s medical benefits package following President Joe Biden’s Jan. 25 executive order.‘ https://www.blabber.buzz/blab/pop/1025167-biden-just-gave-transgender-wannabees-a-very-expensive-taxpayer-funded-present?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-Yahoo&utm_content=0-CU2v4r0Hyroukx-XZyA8E92NWTn
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
1Timothy 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
‘When clergy sex crimes come to light, the scars extend far beyond the individuals who are sexually exploited. Church members experience shock and grief, and congregations can be permanently weakened or destroyed. Anguished wives and children are thrust into the spotlight. Communities experience broken trust. Parents strategize ways to discuss horrific topics with their children. Everyone who knows—or thought they knew—the perpetrator asks, Did I miss the signs? Is there something I could’ve done to prevent all of this?
The most recent cases follow a familiar pattern. Pastors and other Christian workers get hooked on child porn they access through the dark web and apps, sometimes staging and filming sex acts themselves, but often keeping these activities completely walled off from their churches and public identities.
In many cases, churches didn’t have or failed to follow protocols for detecting inappropriate computer usage. Churches were caught completely off guard, sometimes along with other local institutions. The abuse might likely be continuing even now if it hadn’t been for outside organizations that detected the illicit activity and reached out to local and/or federal law enforcement.
The latest cases feature pastors from the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, which has recently faced a number of cases of sexual misconduct and crimes. The Houston Chronicle’s database records the gruesome toll: more than 700 victims, nearly 400 SBC leaders and volunteers facing allegations, with more than 250 charged with sex crimes. As we reported in November, an additional database, Baptist Accountability, features more than 500 people representing “Baptists of all flavors,” not just SBC.
But the alleged perpetrators also include Methodist pastors, a Nazarene pastor who filmed and uploaded child porn, and leaders from independent congregations.
William Milam, 62, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist Convention congregation in Milton, Florida, was well known for preaching against the evils of alcohol. He preached his sermon at the church as usual on Sunday, Dec. 13.
The next day, it became clear Milam was hiding a darker side when he was arrested and charged with two counts of promoting sexual performance of a child and 25 counts of possession of child pornography. Employing the user name “willjones6969,” Milam had obtained images of children as young as three engaging in sexual acts that were stored on various devices in his home. He is being held in jail on a $2.7 million bond.
Church members were dumbfounded, according to a statement: “The church was shocked to hear about the arrest of its former pastor. We are in fervent prayer for all involved; including law enforcement as they seek to uncover the truth in this situation.”
Shawn Fitzgerald, 46, fooled not only the people at First Methodist Church of Bartow, Florida, where he served as director of youth services—he was also a Lakeland High School teacher who coached soccer and tennis.
He was arrested Nov. 20 and initially charged with 408 counts of child pornography and jailed on a $2 million bond after law enforcement used technology to crack open a hidden vault of horrific images featuring children as young as ten months old on his cell phone. More charges may be forthcoming as they comb through the computer images, and investigators are trying to determine if the children featured in the images are local.
“His entire life and church life was interacting with children and young adults,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. Judd’s office began their investigation after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted them that Fitzgerald has used the KIK Messenger app to upload a 20-second video of a young female performing oral sex on an adult male.
David Pettigrew, 48, pastor of Dennison Church of the Nazarene in Denison, Texas since 2006, was even more audacious.
Starting in 2016, Pettigrew and a local chiropractor worked together to persuade minors into performing sexual acts that they could film and share with others. He was arrested last year by Department of Homeland Security agents and indicted in federal court for conspiring to sexually exploit children, also known as producing child pornography.
Pettigrew, a father of three, worked as a substitute teacher in the Sherman Independent School District, where his wife has worked as a first grade teacher. He was also a board member of a foster parent association. If convicted, he could serve 15-30 years.
As in other cases, it was a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that launched an investigation, which is ongoing. “The investigation has revealed that a number of children were surreptitiously photographed in private locations or outside of the presence of their parents,” said a federal official.
We wish these three cases were the only ones on the pastors-and-porn police blotter, but there’s more.
John Robert Griffin, 73, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, was also an elder who ministered to senior adults at Riverbend Community Church, a Southern Baptist Convention congregation in nearby Ormond Beach. He was arrested in January after police found more than 200 sexually explicit photos in his home and charged him with 30 felony counts of possessing child pornography. Further charges are possible. An Embry-Riddle spokesperson said, “We are very dismayed to learn about these charges and allegations.” Initially, the church declined to comment to the media.
John Hackmann Jr., 45, pastor of Marion First United Methodist Church in Marion, Illinois, was arrested in November and faces felony charges for child pornography and intimidation.
But the strangest case may be north of the border with Canada. In Chilliwack, east of Vancouver, John (Johannes) Vermeer, the former executive pastor of the Main Street Church, is accused of accessing and possessing child porn on the church’s computer in 2010 and 2015. His defense attorney has helped draw out the trial for years over technical questions and claims of “reasonable doubt,” but a final evidentiary hearing was held last week.’https://ministrywatch.com/pastors-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-scar-victims-shock-congregations/
This is the Christian testimony of Ron Lindner a member of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame.
1 Peter 1:20-21 “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
‘Blessings can become curses. For example, a painkiller may be used to cover up an injury that needs immediate treatment. Pain is unpleasant. However, when pain tells us to move our hand from the hot stovetop, it helps us prevent worse injury.
When God created the universe and placed humans on this Earth, there was no disease, no pain and no death. The Bible tells us that God also knew that our freedom to withdraw our love from Him would also result in the consequences of withdrawing that love – that is, disease, pain and death. In His wisdom, God filled the creation with chemical factories that could provide temporary help for pain and disease.
Foxglove, or digitalis, offers a treatment for heart failure. Quinine, from a South American tree, is used to treat malaria. Steroids come from a Mexican yam. A treatment for gout is made from the autumn crocus. A fungus that grows on the rye plant and caffeine from coffee beans are used to treat migraine headaches. White willow bark, which contains a form of aspirin, has been used for thousands of years as a natural treatment for pain and fever.
Pain, disease and death call our attention to our much more serious spiritual condition. If we did not have to face death in this life, we would be condemned to spend eternity in an imperfect world. We can thank God that He has provided the remedy for our sin in the forgiveness of sins through His Son, Jesus Christ. Is your trust for salvation in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you?’https://creationmoments.com/sermons/fields-and-forests-of-medicine-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fields-and-forests-of-medicine-2&mc_cid=8fa0f5f087&mc_eid=00c1dcff3c
The following video is supposed to focus ‘…on establishing a common understanding about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth homelessness.’ To say the least society is going to be so screwed up in the next five or less years that these poor people will not know who or what they are!!
All of this questioning of one’s gender is anti-God the Creator. Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
‘What tumultuous times they are in which we live? Not so long ago In Australia it was a criminal offence to engage in homosexual sex. But if a proposed bill in Victoria regarding ‘conversion therapy’ is passed it will be a crime just to offer prayer for someone who practices it.
The once well-regarded Amnesty International has presented the following infographic. Look at the last frame:
Make no mistake, as is evidenced from the cartoon strip above, this campaign is especially targeting Christian churches. Martyn Iles, the managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, wrote the following on social media:
Note the theme — Christianity is harmful. Christian teaching, Christian communities, and Christian expression must be criminal.
Premier Daniel Andrews’ statement …was clear that the “ideology behind” “conversion practices” must be targeted.
Given that “conversion practices” apparently include prayer, scripture reading, teaching abstinence, and the idea of “change” among other things… I guess that means Christianity…
Amnesty International has effectively declared war on all people of faith. Remember the vote against the same-sex marriage plebiscite in some heavily Muslim electorates? This isn’t about love—let alone ‘tolerance’—but a complete capitulation to their own ideology.
I heard a preacher say in the mid-’90s that Christians in this country would be sent to goal in his lifetime, and it would be over the issue of homosexuality and perceived discrimination.
He was right. And it looks like that time could have finally arrived.’https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/11/prayer-illegal-in-australia/
What is it we do not understand? 1Timothy 5:19-22 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. 20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. 21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. 22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
‘Michigan Prison (DOC) Arrest Records for Inmate CHRISTOPHER SCOTT SETTLEMOIR’https://www.publicpolicerecord.com/michigan/doc-prisoner/SETTLEMOIR_CHRISTOPHER/803032
This former Baptist pastor is now out of prison and is a registered sex offender. ‘Christopher Scott Settlemoir Registration Details Last Known Address: 14117 LAKESIDE, BLVD, MI 48315’https://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/MI2043958/Christopher-Scott-Settlemoir.html
Here the details of this sordid story. ‘After a pastor at Antioch Baptist Academy repeatedly raped a student, the church called the boy a liar and the “instigator of his own rape,” the boy claims in court.
John Doe claims he was younger than 14 when he was repeatedly raped and sodomized in 2009-10 by defendant Christopher Settlemoir, a “29-year-old serial pedophile who was posing as a man of God, a church pastor and a parochial school principal of the defendant Antioch Baptist Church dba Antioch Baptist Academy.”
Doe also sued Settlemoir’s wife, who is or was a teacher at the academy, other employees and the 10 members of the church’s board of directors, who allegedly knew about Settlemoir’s molestations but failed to stop them.
According to the complaint in Macomb County Court: “Defendant Antioch hired the pedophile Christopher Settlemoir as a teacher, pastor and principal even though defendant Settlemoir, while still in college, began showing signs of sexual perversion by racking up $100 in gay porn charges on the cable at the apartment where he was staying as part of the pastor internship program.
“Defendant Settlemoir was eventually kicked out of the internship program for not adhering to the rules, which included bringing teen-age boys to his apartment and being along with the boys for ‘Movie Night.’”
In his own case, Doe says: “For a period of 14 months, the pedophile Christopher Settlemoir openly and freely vetted, targeted and then sexually abused, exploited and raped John Doe in his office during school hours as well as in defendant Christopher Settlemoir’s house and/or within the domains of other property under the control of defendant Antioch Baptist Church and/or its agents.
“John Doe was a boy, a student and a parishioner of the defendant Antioch when he was routinely and inappropriately abducted from classrooms during class time by the pedophile Settlemoir, or by other staff members of the defendant Antioch who delivered the boy to the pedophile Settlemoir, who thereafter would rape the boy.”
Doe claims Antioch knew or should have known of Settlemoir’s “overt sexual aggression” and “sexual misconduct” with male students. He claims Settlemoir raped him “dozens of times” while the staff turned a blind eye to the crimes.
By February 2009 or earlier, Settlemoir “initiated contact with John Doe and other male students requesting that these children forward pictures of their erect penises to defendant Christopher Settlemoir via cell phone images, pretending that this conduct was just a ‘game,’” the complaint states.
“Defendant Christopher Settlemoir also sent, via text, pictures of his own erect penis to minor children, including plaintiff John Doe.”
After singling him out, Doe says, “Settlemoir would routinely take John Doe to his office, a room with only one door.
“Defendant Christopher Settlemoir would have to pass other teachers as well as his secretary, Ms. Boggs, when bringing John Doe, or other minor male children, to his office where he would lock himself and the child alone in the officer for long periods of time. …
“Defendant Christopher Settlemoir’s conduct became so flagrant that another minor child was solicited by the defendant Christopher Settlemoir for pornographic images in exchange of [sic] ‘monster drinks’ aka energy drinks, another ‘grooming’ technique commonly known to be used by pedophiles. …
“Although members of the staff at the defendant Antioch were aware that defendant Christopher Settlemoir was engaged in overt sexual misconduct and/or witnessed this pedophile systematically engaged in ‘grooming’ specific students as targets, the defendant Antioch’s staff never reported the conduct to legal authorities.”
When he finally did report the rapes, Doe says, the church “lashed out” at him: “After John Doe and his mother came forward and reported to police that Christopher Settlemoir was molesting and raping him, defendants, through their employees and agents, lashed out at John Doe, disparaging him, his mother and his father, through accusations against John Doe. After being raped by Christopher Settlemoir, John Doe was publicly accused by the defendants’ staff of being a liar and the instigator of his own rape, by the very people who failed to protect him from the pedophile defendant Christopher Settlemoir,” the complaint states.
Doe claims that Eunice Settlemoir, the pastor’s wife, “attempted to conceal and later recruited other members of the defendant Antioch to destroy a laptop belonging to her husband to prevent police from obtaining evidence of the molestation and rape of John Doe.”
Settlemoir is serving a prison sentence of 7 to 15 years for the rape John Doe, according to the complaint.
He seeks punitive damages of $10 million for assault and battery and negligence.
He is represented by James Simasko, of Simasko, Simasko and Simasko, and John Perrin.’https://www.courthousenews.com/church-blamed-the-pastors-victim-boy-says/
