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Sunday, January 22, 2017

"BLISSFUL IGNORANCE" IN AMERICA; ADD TO THAT COWARDICE, INDIFFERENCE, ABORTION, PERVERSION!

BLISSFUL IGNORANCE
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
By Pastor Butch Paugh, PPP

January 22, 2017
NewsWithViews.com
Sadly, the title of this article clearly states how most people prefer to live their lives. Ignorance, like sin, is bliss for a season. I guess there is some pleasure in living in this manner for a brief period (Heb. 11:25).
"There is a tranquility in ignorance, but servitude is its partner."
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -Goethe
"Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish. It is not originally a thing of itself, but the absence of knowledge; and though man be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant." -Thomas Paine
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (ignorance) because thou hast rejected knowledge (willful ignorance), I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." -Hosea 4:6
Just wanted to let you know that I've had all the "damned" lies I can handle without standing up, speaking out and exposing to all of us what fools we have become! (Ps. 14:1) A moral and virtuous people, filled with Godly wisdom, will not and cannot blindly pledge "allegiance" to any man made government that denies the sovereign authority of the God of all creation. A nation ruled by corrupt men who ignore the eternal and immutable laws of Holy God, that demands obedience, or cause the people to err through immorality, depravity, decadence and debauchery cannot be obeyed by a righteous people! (Is. 9:16) Especially so for a nation that once knew the providence and protection of a righteous God. (Ps. 9:17) A nation that consisted mostly of a people who understood and realized that God alone must have preeminence in all things whatsoever in His creation. These people fled to an unsettled land to escape both a political and ecclesiastical tyranny under a corrupt king and a cult called Roman Catholicism. Both separately and together desired to rule the world!
These Godly people understood the authority given them by Christ Himself. (Mt. 28:18-20) They were determined to render to God alone their allegiance. They were determined to set up a "civil authority" that had but one purpose and that was to see that God's laws alone were to be followed. Evil men were punished, the righteous were blessed with liberty (Rom. 13:1-6). They were willing to dedicate their lives to fulfill this "Holy" calling. These people who greatly desired to be righteous, established the first and truly "Christian" nation in history, that stood for approximately 200 years, from the early to late 1600's to 1789. Yep, that's right! 1789! Keep reading!
People who have a sincere desire for truth can find the truth, but they will not find it in the heathen, state run, "public fool" system we have all attended and still send our children to today! You will find very little of it in today's 501c3 whorehouse we call the church! You can, if you are not too lazy to seek and find it in God's preserved Word, the 1611 KJV Bible, using a Strong's Concordance and a copy of the original 1828 Noah Webster's dictionary. You can find actual copies of our nation's first colonial covenants (constitutions) to read what our true founding fathers wrote about what our nation was formed for, but that is your call alone.
You may want to stop reading now! If you read any further, you will have your ignorance dispelled beyond repair. Again, the choice is yours. You could lose your ignorant bliss and blind patriotism!
If you will look at the original charters you will find that the colonists swore allegiance to Christ alone, for obedience and to further His Kingdom. To a king or civil authority, only a "limited" submission was given! To a self appointed "divine" leader who called himself Christ's vicar on earth, no authority or submission was given. This man they knew is and was an antichrist. The colonists were so concerned about this issue, that many of their charters stated that only Protestant Christians could hold any office of authority.
Now, back on the original topic of Blissful Ignorance. How did such a once Godly, intelligent and industrious people become so "damned" ignorant to all things righteous and good? Without going into great detail, let me list just three points that should help us understand a major reason as to what happened.
Number one. Our true founders knew that in the original covenant God penned for men, the Holy Bible, that in the first four words He established His preeminence and sovereign authority over His creation was established and settled forever. The four words are, "In the beginning God.."
Number two. When the first founding fathers were about to come ashore and establish the first truly Christian colony, they realized that they needed a covenant written for all to sign and agree to, for righteous order of their new society. It was called the Mayflower Compact because it was written and signed while still on board the Mayflower. It began simply with four words that set the standard for all of their society to agree to live by. "In the name of God." In so stating, they recognized God's sovereignty and rule of His law over all Creation.
Number three. The beginning of the end of God's recognized sovereign authority over His creation. The first huge step to a dominant humanistic view in American society. As a matter of fact, this new covenant, compact, charter on constitutions was so inadequate that Patrick Henry would have nothing to do with it and Ben Franklin stated that it was "doomed to despotism". Why? What could possibly be so out of place? We simply don't have time to go into detail on these issues now, but here is the problem and destruction of America's, once Godly, founding and fountain of blessings in three words! "We the people"! From the first, the founders recognized "beginning by, for and in God, in the name of God", to "we the people" who became their own god. No longer would God's laws alone be recognized! Now man, with and by his own understanding, could decide right and wrong. From Godliness to humanism in a manner of a few years. No, it didn't dissolve overnight, but as the people became more and more ignorant of God's sovereign right to govern in the affairs of men, they became their own gods, determined to govern themselves with their own ignorant devices. So here we are at 1789, 128 years later! Let's examine the results of recognizing "mans rights", (an oxymoron - more on that later ), without God's righteous laws!
1. Countless ungodly wars of federal powers to conquer and control their own people. Huge wars to further the "empires" power and control all over the world that was allowed and tolerated by an ignorant people!
2. A forced state controlled educational system to destroy any recognition of God and His laws in society, to dumb down in order to further produce and control an ignorant people. 1963 was a very good year for this! And for the record, Thomas Jefferson did not produce a writing to keep God out of state affairs, but to keep the state out of church affairs! Separation of church and state is not in any of our nations documents, but it is in Russia's!
3. 1954. Lyndon B. Johnson used his influence as a US senator to put the churches in America under control of the IRS. With the 501c3 clause giving the church the "privilege" of being tax exempt when they were already tax immune! An ignorant people claiming to understand God's Word were thrilled to accept this. Ah! Wonderful ignorant blissfulness!
4. 1974. A woman's "constitutional right" to murder her own child is given viability by a non authority, the US supreme court! This fruit of an ungodly nation has resulted in the torture and death of sixty million, 60,000,000, innocent children! There is no forgiveness for a nation that ignorance or cowardliness allows this atrocity! II Kings 24:4 This is one example of how we the people, as written in our 1789 document called the Constitution, have used mans so called rights to promote and protect evil.
5. 2015. Again, the same non authority stated that sexual predators, perverts and deviants not only have the "right" to exist in our society, but they have the "constitutional right" to marry! Again, an ignorant, cowardly and mostly indifferent society said or did very little.
These are a few of the bigger results and curses of an ignorant people. There are many, many more. They grow in severity as the people become more ignorant, cowardly and indifferent. Some of the lesser that an ignorant people ignored were income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, licenses, property seizures, child kidnapping by CPS tyrants and on and on we could go!
Most of the above have been established under supposed constitutional, civil or human rights! As I have said before, we have become a people that are straining at gnats and swallowing camels. Mt. 23:24 We protest taxation, gun control, government land grabs, police state tactics and the new world order, yet continue to allow the sacrifices of 4000 babies a day. We tolerate sexual deviants teaching our children in the public hell holes we call schools. God cannot and will not hear our prayers! II Chron. 7:14 does not fit us today!
Let me make one thing perfectly clear! Men do not have rights given to him by anyone, including a Sovereign God! Man was given commandments and duties by a Holy, righteous, totally and completely sovereign potentate King and Magistrate! Mans duties and allegiance is to God and Him alone! If we fulfill His duties, then He grants us blessings! NOT rights! For example, man has the blessing of keeping and bearing arms to fulfill God's command and duty to protect himself, family and nation! Numbers chapter one, Neh. 4:14, Luke 22:36 and I Tim. 5:8 are a few scriptures to prove this point. Because, through ignorance of God's Word, we have not fulfilled our duty to God to protect the innocent, we are facing the loss of the blessing, not right, to keep and bear arms. Folks, I could go further, but enough has been said on this issue.
We have, through ignorance and complacency become complicit in the sins of this once Godly nation. I, for one, will never pledge an allegiance to a symbol of a nation that has committed all of the abominations listed above! I am a veteran! I served before I knew the wickedness of this nation! Our young people haven't died in a Godly war since the Revolution! All the rest were forced upon us from enemies, both foreign and domestic, who hunger for wealth, power and control. Our young people have been used as cannon fodder to further an American empire, not defending our freedoms! 
 How ignorant we are! Free to murder, pervert and destroy our children's future! To allow our former pervert and chief in the white house, named Barry Soetoro, alias Barack Hussein Obama, to bestow America's highest award on a sexual deviant lesbian named Ellen Degeneres!

No thanks! Not me! I am angry at what I see! I will no longer remain silent or soften my words to endeavor for unity! God's Word is the only real truth on all manners! All of our so called founding documents are but dung without God's authority recognized as the supreme and final word in all manners whatsoever!
We now have a new president, Donald J. Trump, who pledges to "make America great again." Let us be hopeful and pray that this will happen, but while we tolerate the slaughter of 1,460,000 babies a year and the perversion of sodomy and lesbianism, God will not heal this land. Let's be clear on this one indisputable fact!! No nation will be blessed or prosper without obedience to God's moral laws!! (Ps. 33:12)
You must decide for yourselves who you will serve. You have been told the truth in this article! Joshua 24:15 is my decision. As our ministry name states, this is your "Call to Decision". Let us no longer fulfill Christ's warning in Matt. 15:14.
In Christ's service

FEMALE EMERGENT PASTOR-THEOLOGIAN PENS BOOK DENYING ORIGINAL SIN

 http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/files/2015/10/BC_DanielleShroyer_bio.jpg
 http://danielleshroyer.com/wp-content/uploads/Original-Sin-banner-Jesus-didnt-believe-9781451496765-e1472658778417-610x343.jpg
FEMALE EMERGENT PASTOR-THEOLOGIAN 
PENS BOOK DENYING ORIGINAL SIN
BY BUD AHLHEIM
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5
(No, I have not read the cited book. I could barely keep my lunch down just reading the article about it. So that’s my preemptive disclaimer.)
On January 13, 2017, the Religion News Service ran an Op-Ed piece: Author: Jesus didn’t believe in ‘original sin’ and neither should we.
The author cited by the article also claims to be a “pastor” and theologian. And SHE was a founding member of the “emerging church movement” according to Amazon’s author bio. She has an MDiv from Princeton Theological.   Taken together, these credentials make the premise of her book much more understandable, though certainly not more palatable.
Danielle Shroyer, the author, has penned a tome entitled Original Blessing: Putting Sin In Its Rightful Place. It’s a book which I already know I won’t bother reading, nor would I recommend, on two counts.  First, the premise is doctrinally inane.  And B, because Christ has already put my sin in its rightly undeserved (by me) place … by His grace … by bearing it for me.
Here are a few snippets from the RNS article. (I’ve added, for purely personal, cathartic purposes, a brief response to each.  Should you find my spontaneous remarks erroneous, please notify me because, as it happens, I don’t have an MDiv from Princeton.)
“According to Shroyer, a former pastor and theologian, Jesus didn’t believe this doctrine and neither did the early church. And if Jesus didn’t believe it, maybe we shouldn’t either.”
Shroyer blames Augustine for popularizing the notion of original sin, the notion having been absent in the teaching of Jesus, the apostles, and the early church. Having read some of Augustine myself, I cannot, however, find him blaming the Psalmist for inventing it. (See opening Scripture citation above) Pretty sure that didn’t happen. Plus, having read incessantly the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament (“incessantly,” btw, means “never enough”), I believe I can state with both Divine and Apostolic assurance that original sin is a notable feature. It wasn’t absent. It drove all of redemptive history.
“…Augustine and others shifted language to an inborn sin nature. Once that happened, all the theological focus went toward trying to fix the problem of sin. The cross was seen differently, and salvation became primarily about sin management, and human bodies became suspect, and on and on.”
The cross was seen differently? Salvation was about sin management?
Though she asserts this of the early church, the article doesn’t give enough space for elaboration. Perhaps the book does, but, like I said, I’ll not be reading it. However, I’m pretty sure that the Incarnate Son of God did not suffer crucifixion merely so that I could engage in more effective, pragmatic sin management.  The death of Christ on the cross wasn’t something to be trivialized as some sort of “Jesus App for Sin Management.”  Salvation actually isn’t about me managing my sin – past, present, or future – to merit the golden ticket to glory.  That’s works righteousness and I’ve got none of that, regardless of how well the cross-enabling sin management app might work.
Frankly, if the cross and salvation were merely about sin management, then the Pharisees might have been on to something.  If they could just obey more rules than they disobeyed, they might stand a fighting chance to argue their merits before the Almighty on judgment day.  But Jesus summarily thwarted that notion.  (See below).  Legalistic sin management doesn’t work.  Ask a Pharisee.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.  Matthew 23:13-15  (All the “woes” can be read in Matthew 23:13-24)
Oh, and that “hell” that our Lord mentioned … it ain’t where you wanna be …  it’s best to skip sin management and proceed directly to “repent and believe.”
“… when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels  in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might …” (2 Thessalonians 7-9)
“As a pastor and now a writer, I want to help people grow into a mature relationship with God. I just don’t think original sin is helpful in doing that; in fact I think it’s very often harmful.”
Yeah, well, for starters, she’s not a pastor.  Just as owning a stethoscope doesn’t make you a doctor, neither does having a pulpit make you a pastor.  There’s more to it than that, and, well, God decided chromosomes would play a part.  But, nobly intentioned or not, one certain way to NOT help people “grow into a mature relationship with God” is to fold, spindle, mutilate, and destroy perspicuous Biblical truth for them. Doing that is not just “very often harmful”; it can be eternally harmful … and never endorsed in Scripture. (2 Timothy 2:15)  Beware the stethoscope-wielding faux physicians, folks.
“Here’s the thing: people know they sin. What they don’t know is what to do about it. I don’t think the best answer is admitting you are irrevocably bad. I think it’s realizing your home has been in God all along, and it’s time you head that direction, because abundant life is waiting.”
Yeah, well, here’s another thing.   Universalism. That’s what I think I just read. It’s the old God is love and nothing but love forever and ever line.   But that’s not the gospel. The obvious problem is that no one can just “head that direction” because salvation isn’t an act possible for the soul dead in trespasses and sin. (Ephesians 2:1) It requires something more, something divine. The impetus for that is the real Gospel. This “pastor” needs more Scripture time and much less pulpit time, methinks.
“Scripture certainly talks about the universal reach of sin. But no passage or verse in scripture speaks definitively to the concept of an inborn sin nature. We can take sin seriously without going there. After all, Jesus didn’t believe in original sin, and the disciples and the early church didn’t either.”
Umm, yeah. This warrants a foul shot warning buzzer. Jesus affirmed all that the Old Testament contained, including the pesky notion of original sin so pithily penned by the Psalmist. (and, since Scripture is “theopneustos” – God-breathed – Jesus, who was God, also affirms the other Scriptural references parenthetically provided immediately below.)  Jesus didn’t affirm erroneous doctrine.  He didn’t endorse mistakes in His Word because there are no mistakes in His Word.  This’d prolly get a Pharisee-like “woe to you” from the Lord.
(A list of Scriptural citations to consider … Psalm 51:5 (cited above), Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 3:23, Genesis 6:5, Genesis 8:21, Ezekiel 18:20, Psalm 58:3 (cited above), Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:18-19, Romans 7:23, Romans 5:12-18. Those are just a few and no, they’re not talking about occasional moral “oopsies” that, with Christ’s example, we can more effectively manage like entries on a sin-management smartphone app.   They’re talking about humanity’s intrinsic sin nature which, apart from Christ, demands God’s righteous, holy justice.)
“Original sin hinders us from seeing the world as created for connection—to God, to each other, to all created things. It forces us instead to begin with the notion that humans are separate from God.”
Humans are separate from God?   Yeah. Guess what?  We are “separate from God.” He is holy; we are not. We are not just separate because He is the creator and we are the creature, we’re also separated from him by … hold your ears, pastrix … original sin.   Original to Adam and inherited by pastrixes everywhere. See Romans 5:12-18.   I don’t care how much redder the roses will be or how bluer the sky will appear in this pastrix’s idyllic wonderland, I want to see, know, and commune with God.  The wretched state of my intrinsically corrupt flesh has so defiled my soul that pretty flowers and bluer skies are the least of my desires.  I need to be reconciled with God by becoming a new creation, sloughing off the corrupt nature I inherited. (2 Corinthians 5:17)  But, GREAT NEWS!  Original sin, for all the separating horrors it causes, was resolved in the most unimaginable way – “Christ died for the ungodly.”  (Romans 5:6) Don’t stop to smell the roses … “repent and believe” … first.
“We are in a relationship with God, and God started it, and God is sticking with it. While original sin is centered on human action, original blessing is centered on God’s sovereign choice to love us.”
Yep, we’re in a relationship with God all right. And Jesus said that those who don’t believe in Him will remain in a rather undesirable default relationship with God. He phrased it like this … “condemned already.” (John 3:18) Not the relationship you want. I recommend “repent and believe in the gospel.”   (Mark 1:15)
“Original blessing wisely reminds us we are all capable of both remarkable good and horrifying evil. It reminds us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. You could say it’s a grace-filled view of humanity, but I wouldn’t call that optimistic. I’d call it the good news.”
Well that sounds all happy happy happy, but a “grace-filled view of humanity?” More like a delusional view of humanity. Or a Scripturally-uninformed view of humanity.   Give me grace, for sure. But it’s the grace of the authentic gospel, not this false “good news,” that saves. “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me” – that’s what’s needed for humanity.  The pastrix’s false gospel creates what the church already has far too many of … false converts.
“I think it’s impossible to explain what happened in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection with any simple formula. He came to be God-with-us. He came as the Messiah. He came to embody faithful humanity. He came to be the Way and to make a way. He came to glorify God and to empty himself. He came to share in our deepest sufferings, and to bless us even as we killed him. He came to defeat death, and to bring abundant life.”
Ehhh, yeah. Okay. How ‘bout this one? A propitiation for our sins. (1 John 2:2) Leaving that atoning work out of the list of what Christ has done leaves me dealing with guilt, dealing with sin, and without any assurance that I’m actually on “the Way” – which, by the way, Jesus didn’t come to make; He  IS  the way. (John 14:6) Christ’s life, death, and resurrection are the pinnacle of human history, but with a fundamental purpose … to ransom for Himself a people completely unable to balance the scales of required divine justice in their favor. Only Christ could do– and did – that. And He had to, else we’d be left wallowing in the false assurance of self-help gospels like this one.
More than ever, the world needs the unvarnished Gospel truth about their Christ-less standing before God. The sobering news of original sin only serves to magnify His cross, His Gospel, and His glory when one is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
From before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4) the Gospel has been the original redemptive plan of God …. to deal with original sin.
It’s a shame this “pastor” doesn’t know it.
(Contend for the faith, somebody … take away her pulpit and give her the Gospel.)
” … I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”  Jude 3
__________________________________________________

Emergence Christianity - A Talk by Danielle Shroyer

 

DONALD & MELANIA TRUMP ATTEND ECUMENICAL, PAGAN "PRAYER" SERVICE AT WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL; AN APOSTATE TEMPLE TO MANY GODS

GOD WILL NOT BLESS AMERICA FOR THIS!
 
DONALD & MELANIA TRUMP ATTEND ECUMENICAL, PAGAN "PRAYER" SERVICE AT WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL; AN APOSTATE TEMPLE TO MANY GODS 
 

Trump, Pence Attend Prayer Service Featuring Muslim, Buddhist & Sikh Invocations, Liberty Univ. Praise 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2017/01/21/trump-pence-attend-prayer-service-featuring-muslim-buddhist-sikh-invocations-liberty-univ-praise/;

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Vice 
President Mike Pence attended the traditional National Prayer Service at
 the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, which featured 
representatives from various religions, including Islam, Sikhism and 
Buddhism.
The gathering featured a variety of music and speakers, with prayers in the name of Jesus and songs such as “How Great Thou Art” by Marlana VanHoose and “We’ve Come This Far By Faith” by Liberty University Praise interspersed with prayers and readings from a rabbi, an imam, a Hindu priest and others.
The event was opened by Mariann Edgar Budde, the female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
“As we mark this moment of political transition, let us all draw strength and courage from the sacred texts and songs … from the many traditions of our land,” Budde declared.

A Navajo blessing was presented by Carlyle Begay, followed later by Todd Christopherson of the Mormon Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who read from the Book of Common Prayer, as was done during a prayer service for George Washington in 1783.
“Fill them with the love and truth of righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people, in thy fear through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with Thee, one God, world without end,” Christopherson recited.
Cantor Mikhail Manevich from Washington Hebrew Congregation recited the Jewish Sh’ma Yisrael (Hear O Israel) and the Viyahafta (You Shall Love).

Also in the first half of the service, Narayanachar Digalakota from the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland presented an invocation on behalf of the Hindu religion, speaking in Sanskrit.
Sajid Tarar, the founder of Muslims for Trump, who delivered an Islamic prayer at the Republican National Convention in July, read from the Koran in Arabic, and Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, presented a reading as well.
“O mankind, indeed we have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you,” Magid recited.
Later in the event, Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship and the Harvest Crusades presented a prayer asking that the Armed Forces have divine protection, that diplomats would be “ambassadors of hope,” and that local governments would have the “spirit of wisdom and love, and justice and compassion.”
He was followed by Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, who implored God to protect and give courage to the nation’s first responders and police officers “that they may serve You and their neighbor.”
David Jeremiah of Shadow Mountain Community Church also provided a reading from Romans, and Ronnie Floyd, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, read from Psalm 23.
The men were followed by Jesse Singh, founder of American Sikhs for Trump, who offered a prayer first delivered by Guru Gobind Singh, who is considered the 10th Sikh master.
The event concluded with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, led by Ramiro Pena of Christ the King Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.
Others who spoke at the service included Ian McIlraith of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International; Alveda King, the niece of the late Martin Luther King Jr.; Geron Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Donald Wuerl, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C.; and Cissie Graham Lynch, the granddaughter of Billy Graham.
As previously reported, services at the Washington National Cathedral following inaugural ceremonies have been a long-held American tradition, spanning more than 100 years. Barack Obama and Joe Biden likewise attended ceremonies at the cathedral featuring a number of world religions following the 2009 and 2013 inaugurations.
In 2013, the Episcopalian Cathedral announced that it would begin hosting same-sex ceremonies.
_____________________________________________________

‘Ecumenism For Trump’ Trumps Scriptural Commands For Key Evangelical Leaders

BY BUD AHLHEIM

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2017/01/21/ecumenism-for-trump-trumps-scriptural-commands-for-key-evangelical-leaders/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
There’s a supplicant from the Navaho Nation. A few from the now-defunct faith of Judaism. There are Roman Catholics. There’s at least one Hindu. Mormons are represented, as are Baha’is of the United States. Islam and Sikh’s will be there. Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterians, independent charismatics, and Buddhism have a place in the line-up too. And, because no event of ecumenism could possibly be complete without them, so too will Southern Baptists be involved.
The Washington National Cathedral is the site for the “interfaith” prayer service that is to be held the day after the inauguration. Many high profile evangelicals have been involved in the event during recent history. In 1985, Billy Graham preached a sermon at Reagan’s inaugural service.   Since then, the likes of Foursquare’s Jack Hayford, Soujourners’ Jim Wallis, and North Point’s Andy Stanley have all stood on the dais.
This year will find former Southern Baptist Convention Presidents Ronnie Floyd and Jack Graham engaged in the prayer service for the newly inaugurated President. They will be joined by Greg Laurie, David Jeremiah, and a granddaughter of Billy Graham, along with the many other interfaith representatives. Jack Graham and Greg Laurie will be offering a prayer. Jeremiah and Floyd have been picked to read Scripture.
But, do you see the problem? The problem is not about praying for the new President. Scripture commands us to do that.
The preeminent problem is that those who should know better … Graham, Floyd, and Jeremiah, for example … are serving – to those who know what Scripture teaches on such matters – as a clear example of willful violation of Scriptural commands. To engage in a spiritual enterprise with non-believers is unequivocally forbidden by our God.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
We don’t get to make the rules on this. God does – and has. We are not to ferret out “exception” clauses from Scripture that allow for professing believers to join hands with professing unbelievers in an intentional spiritual endeavor. There are no “exception” clauses. There’s no “well, it’s America” clause that justifies it. There is no “it’s an honor for us to be notably featured” clause that permits it. There is no “we’ll get to speak to Truth” clause that allows it. There is no “Trump” clause that allows these high-profile evangelical leaders to “trump” what Scripture teaches and clearly forbids.
As a result of this intentional, willful violation of Scripture, not only will faithful, onlooking evangelical believers be served up a poor example of “situational obedience to Scripture,” so too will the unbelieving world looking on see what the God-less, Gospel-less world already thinks it sees – that all religion is the same, in just different garb, with different lingo, and with different words. The world sees a synthesis of choices that all point to “God.”   It reaffirms the deception to the observant unbeliever that there are many paths up the mountain.
And this is why God has forbidden it. He is the One True, Living God.  Ours is “the faith … once delivered.”
“When Paul then says, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers,” he is calling for separation…listen carefully…at the religious level.  That’s what he means.  At the spiritual level. He’s talking about in a spiritual enterprise.  You can’t…you can’t play with false religion.  You can’t yoke up true teachers and false teachers.  You can’t take true Christianity and link it to a false, damnable demonic lie.  You can’t do that.  You have to separate yourself from all of that. ”  John MacArthur (Source)
What he is saying is you cannot link up with unbelievers in religious causes or religious enterprises.  You cannot go to their worship and become a part of it; you can’t make them a part of the kingdom of God.  You can’t engage them in anything that involves ministry, teaching, or worship.  Where there is ministry, teaching, and worship there has to be absolute separation.” John MacArthur (Source)
Former SBC President Ronnie Floyd
When Ronnie Floyd reads from the Bible, he’ll be following behind a guy who may have just offered a Native American prayer to the spirit god of the eagle. (Carlyle Begay, the Navajo Nation representative, is also an Arizona state senator, who, according to Wikipedia, “was raised under the teachings of his ancestry, instilling in him the importance of remembering the story of his people and carrying it on to his descendants.”)
When Jack Graham and Greg Laurie take their respective turns praying, they will be following a Muslim who will have offered prayer to a false, dangerous, demonically-conceived deity. The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, has forbidden such alliances. We are to be obedient servants to the Word and faithful stewards of the Gospel.   Inserting that Gospel and that Word as just other options in a spiritual enterprise where various faiths have an equal voice is not obedient and is not faithful stewardship of the single most important Truth in the world.
When Franklin Graham stands to pray at a political event alongside a charlatan or a rabbi, the distinction of the apostle is not precluding. An inauguration is not a spiritual enterprise. It is not a prayer event. It is a secular gathering for a secular purpose. But when a gathering is intentionally labeled as a prayer service – a purposefully spiritual endeavor – it is in clear violation to participate unless those joining in also share the same fundamental faith, “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)
Participation in such a show of unity may make for an impressive addition to one’s ministerial resume. It may enhance one’s Christian conference tour credentials. It may make access to the Oval Office more likely and it may make one’s influence in the Congressional halls of power carry a little more clout.
But what it does not do is serve as a faithful example for Scriptural obedience to the Sovereign God who commanded that such behavior not occur. It does nothing to advance the Gospel – in the event that it is even shared.   Indeed, it dilutes the gospel as an also-ran among other, perhaps culturally palatable, flavors of religion.
Ours is a narrow path.   Increasingly the superficial church in America is more about the sovereignty of Americanism than it is the sovereignty of God. And, correspondingly, the church has fewer and fewer leaders who will exemplify obedience to the Word. It’s far easier and far more popular to exemplify tolerance to the world, to acquiescence to calls to “co-exist,” and settle into the smorgasbord of religious ecumenism, grateful to the secular and pagan powers for a seat at the ecumenical spread.
We must not forget that never has our God needed any person or any nation to advance His agenda.  Instead, by grace, He has chosen to use individuals to declare His manifest revelation to the world.  He has not needed His people to forge alliances with the false gods of foreign nations to propel His mission, His Kingdom, or His Truth forth.  But He has chosen us as stewards of His gospel of grace that, by our faithful proclamation of it to the nations, He might save whom He will.
When the interfaith representatives in this prayer gathering coalesce in the National Cathedral, while Ronnie Floyd puts his Bible where moments earlier a koran was placed, or when Jack Graham bows his head to pray after the spirit of the eagle may just have been summoned, they aren’t obediently representing Christ or His Church.  They aren’t distinguishing Christ’s Gospel.  They aren’t serving as a bold witness to His Truth, but rather, they are serving as hirelings all too eager to sing kum-bah-yah with pagans in order to achieve some temporal influence and exude some affinity for culturally-approved unity.
They will be serving as witnesses to what drives so much of the evangelical church today, not obedience to the commands of Scripture, but the illicit ambitions of “American” Christianity.  But our God is not enthroned in Washington, D.C.  His Gospel is not a static display in the National Archives.  The faithfulness of our God is not measured in the number of conservatives in the Congress or by pro-life votes on the Supreme Court.  And His Truth is never to be contaminated by engaging in spiritual endeavors with pagans and those who follow the doctrines of demons. (1 Timothy 4:1)
It’s worthwhile to recall God’s displeasure at such associations of His Holiness with pagan idolatry.  Consider 1 Samuel 5:1-12
When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.  1 Samuel 5:1-6
The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. 1 Samuel 5:12
Authentic believers in the God of His Word realize that we must pray for our leaders. (2 Timothy 2:1-2) We must daily intercede for their salvation, for their wisdom, and for their pursuit of godly justice.  But we must never sacrifice the preeminence of our God, His Word, or His Gospel by presuming to place it alongside the Dagons of America in the pursuit of the American dream or “interfaith” unity.
We have a God who has commanded us against such things, and He has given us a Gospel that does not unite.  He has given us a Gospel which divides. (Luke 12:51)  That is what we are to protect, proclaim, and obey.
“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”  Jesus, Luke 12:51
To be sure, we will not unite by temporal efforts in a secularly-sanctioned event what Christ and His Gospel intend to divide.  Neither should we try.
 

 

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT TURNS ON PINK CABIN LIGHTS FOR PRO ABORTION "WOMEN'S MARCH PARTICIPANTS

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT TURNS ON 
PINK CABIN LIGHTS FOR PRO ABORTION 
"WOMEN'S MARCH PARTICIPANTS 
BY HEATHER CLARK
 
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 
WASHINGTON — A Southwest Airlines flight transporting a number of men and women to the “Women’s March” on Washington on Thursday reportedly turned the cabin lights pink to show support for those attending the event, which was largely pro-abortion and feminist.
“Southwest turns on the pink lights and a loud cheer erupts. #WomensMarch” Jennifer Moran, who was aboard the flight, Tweeted, sharing a photo of the illuminated cabin.
Passenger Krystal Parrish likewise posted a photo to Instagram writing, “When your Southwest flight crew celebrate a plane full of [expletive] women and men going to the Women’s March by lighting it up!!”
Southwest Airlines has since released a statement outlining that the move wasn’t a company effort, but that individual flights often change the lighting as a statement of support for passengers.

“While we’re unaware of details surrounding a specific flight, our flight crews celebrate, commemorate, acknowledge and share in special moments with our customers all the time,” it said.
“Some of our aircraft are equipped with mood lighting and while this was not a companywide initiative, at times, our flight crews will adjust the lighting for a customer or group of customers traveling on their flight,” the company explained. “For example, in October, one of our flight crews changed the lighting to honor a breast cancer survivor onboard their flight.”
According to reports, hundreds of thousands attended the march in Washington, which included speeches and appearances from secular celebrities such as Madonna, Cher, Alicia Keyes, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, Whoopie Goldberg, Scarlett Johannson, Natalie Portman, Emma Watson, Drew Barrymore, Lena Dunham, Vanessa Hudgens, and many others.

Some held signs such as, “We deserve to be sexual and serious, or whatever we please,” “I stand with Planned Parenthood,” “Our bodies, our minds, our power” and “I am woman, hear me roar.” Some were too explicit or profane to repost—using profanity or vulgarity—and some referred to President Trump as the “predator in chief.”
Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was one of the speakers at the event.
“For the majority of people in this country, Planned Parenthood is not the problem, we’re the solution,” she claimed. “My pledge today is: our doors stay open.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Tweeted in support of the march, writing, “Thanks for standing, speaking & marching for our values @womensmarch. Important as ever. I truly believe we’re always stronger together.”
But a number of women who identify as “pro-life feminists” also took to the streets of Washington to counter the abortion advocacy message, holding banners and signs such as “Abortion betrays women” and “Real feminists reject abortion.” The Huffington Post reports that some attendees cussed at the pro-life women, while others thanked them for their participation.
In addition to support for abortion, which was characterized as “reproductive rights,” other platforms for marchers included immigration rights, environmental justice and “LGBTQIA rights.”
“We firmly declare that LGBTQIA rights are human rights and that it is our obligation to uplift, expand and protect the rights of our gay, lesbian, bi, queer, trans or gender non-conforming brothers, sisters and siblings. We must have the power to control our bodies and be free from gender norms, expectations and stereotypes,” the website for the event reads.
Similar marches were stated to have been held in cities across the nation, as well as internationally.
One of the event organizers, Linda Sarsour, is a Muslim and Planned Parenthood supporter. Sarsour, who serves as the executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, posted prior to the event, “God be a fence around the #womensmarch tomorrow. May God protect our marchers, may He envelope us in His love and mercy.”
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AFTER MAKING PRESS WAIT OVER AN HOUR, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SLAMS MEDIA FOR FALSE REPORTS

AFTER MAKING PRESS WAIT OVER AN HOUR, 
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SEAN SPICER 
SLAMS MEDIA FOR FALSE REPORTS 
 
Published on Jan 21, 2017
Sean Spicer Attacks Media at First Press Conference
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