A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Many of the police share the faith and outlook of the attackers and are more sympathetic to them than they are to the victims of these attacks.
“Pakistan, Police to Christian Churches: ‘Hire Private Guards, We Cannot Protect You,'” by Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter, September 15, 2023:
August was one of the worst months in recent years for the number of assaults to Christian churches in Pakistan, with dozens of places of worship burned or demolished.
Besides arresting Christians for having allegedly provoked the rioters, the Pakistani police has now found a solution for this crisis, and a simple one.
Having inspected an area of Karachi notorious for sectarian conflict, and visited places of worship of different religions, the police issued on September 10, 2023, “Security Directions for Churches” (mosques are not mentioned).
The police recommends (or rather orders, since “strict compliance” is required), that
“Private security guards be deployed outside the main gate of the church along with metal detector equipment.” Details are as follows: “Private security guard will be deployed on the roof bunker especially made as the backup for gate security. Walk through gates to be installed on the entrances of church. All the windows of churches to be covered with iron grill. CCTVs to be installed inside and outside the premises of churches and must be of great quality such as 6 MP / Night Vision with 15 days minimum back up. Walls of the churches must be fenced properly to avoid any untoward incident.”…
What the document says, in so many words, is that the Pakistani police is not capable or perhaps not willing to protect Christian churches. Christian taxpayers should hire and pay private guards. The police would check who these guards are—perhaps to make sure they are not “too” effective.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Today, the dictatorship of Azerbaijan launched a full-scale military attack on Nagorno Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, where 120,000 Armenian Christians have been under siege for nine months.
The president of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Dr. John Eibner, warns, “If Azerbaijan’s allies and commercial partners – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, European Union, Israel, and Switzerland – do not act immediately to restrain it, there will be mass killings and other atrocities against the region’s civilian population. Genocide is imminent.”
CSI has received word from the minister of health for the Republic of Artsakh, Vardan Tadevosyan, that the capital city of Stepanakert is being bombed continuously by artillery. “We are under attack,” he says.
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry has announced that it has begun a military operation to “neutralize [the] military infrastructure” of the Armenians and “restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan.” An armed Azerbaijani conquest of Nagorno Karabakh will entail nothing less than the destruction of its ancient Armenian population.
On September 7, Elchin Amirbayov, a senior spokesman for Azerbaijan’s president, menacingly predicted “a genocide may happen” if Nagorno Karabakh’s elected leaders fail to submit.
A CSI team was in Armenia from September 11 to 16 and was able to observe Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh to the outside world. The CSI team also observed Azerbaijani military outposts built many kilometers inside the Republic of Armenia itself. It is highly likely that this war will spread to southern Armenia and beyond.
CSI’s Joel Veldkamp, who was part of the visiting delegation, stated, “For nine months, the major powers – Russia, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom – have done nothing to end this siege, or avert this very predictable outcome.”
A week after Azerbaijan’s siege of Nagorno Karabakh began, on December 19, 2022, CSI and nine other human rights groups issued a Genocide Warning for the Armenian Christians of the region. “Despite this early and clear warning, the world failed to respond,” Veldkamp stated.
On September 14, Yuri Kim, the U.S. State Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, stated in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that “the U.S. will not countenance any action or effort—short-term or long-term—to ethnically cleanse or commit other atrocities against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Azerbaijan is now doing just that.
Eibner states, “The United States and other members of the UN Security Council must now do collectively and individually what they should have done nine months ago – immediately use every lever at their disposal to restrain Azerbaijan and protect Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenians, including sanctioning the Azerbaijani perpetrators.”
“If not, they will be complicit in another Armenian Genocide.”
Gay Trump Official Roasted for Condemning Texas GOP’s Ban on Gay Republican Group
Former Trump administration official Richard Grenell faced backlash when he publicly condemned the Republican Party’s announcement to host the 2028 GOP convention in Houston, Texas. He pointed out that Texas is the only state where the gay Republican group “Log Cabin Republicans” is banned from their state convention. Predictably, many of his conservative followers did not respond kindly to his denunciation of the Texas Republican Party’s homophobia. Read More About This Story Here: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/08/g...
I have to admit, I was shocked when I first saw this clip.
There’s been a lot of talk about Trump’s recent interview on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” but his answer to what may have been one of the most important questions was so horrifying awful, I can’t even wrap my head around it.
During the interview, Megyn Kelly asked Trump a very simple question: “Can a man become a woman?”
Easy, right? The answer is “No, absolutely not.” It’s not complex or complicated. There’s no room for nuance, different points of view, or interpretation. A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man. There’s no gender spectrum, nor are there more than two genders.
Yet, in response to the easy question, Trump first replied with an “Ummmmmm,” then a chuckle, before saying, “In my opinion, you have a man, you have a woman. I think part of it is birth. Can the man give birth? No, although they’ll come up with some answer to that also someday. I heard just the other day they have a way that now the man can give birth. No, I would say I’ll continue my stance on that.”
What kind of an answer is that? Look, the sad reality is that there is no middle ground on this issue. Trump may be strongly against the mutilation of children by the transgender cult, but it feels like Trump is trying to have it both ways on this transgender nonsense, and you just can’t.
Sure, he banned transgender people in the military and is against giving children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and such, but at the root of this issue isn’t merely whether or not a kid has the mental capacity to consent to transitioning, whether biological men should be able to play in women’s sports, or whether someone on hormones should be in the military. The root of this issue is the fundamental and basic question of whether a man can become a woman or vice versa. And if you even give the slightest hint that maybe “someday” it might be possible, then you legitimatize the transgender movement and the entire industry behind it. To make matters worse, Trump also referred to Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner by feminine pronouns.
Pope Francis is considering a request for the resignation of an outspoken conservative bishop in northeast Texas.
According to a report by Catholic news outlet The Pillar, Bishop Joseph Strickland of the archdiocese of Tyler was the subject of a Sept. 9 meeting between the Holy Father and cardinals-elect Robert Prevost and Christophe Pierre. Prevost is the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the body responsible for recommending the appointment of new bishops, and Pierre is the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio — or national ambassador — to the United States.
“The situation of Bishop Strickland is the agenda, and the expectation is that the Holy Father will be requesting his resignation,” an unnamed source told the publication.
Strickland has gained notoriety in recent years for his opposition to abortion, vaccine mandates, and LGBTQ ideology.
In January, Strickland criticized President Joe Biden for his support of taxpayer funding for abortions, arguing, “It is time to denounce Biden’s fake Catholicism.”
In May, he accused Pope Francis of “undermining the Deposit of Faith,” a term for the divine authority Catholics believe has been vested in the presumed successor to the Apostle Peter. Although Strickland’s statement was an attempt to clarify that he disagrees with the assertion by a conservative Catholic podcaster that Francis is not the legitimate pope, he implicitly endorsed the podcaster’s criticism of the pontiff for embracing lockdowns and the COVID-19 vaccines while failing to defend the church’s traditional views on issues like abortion, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality.
And in June, Strickland led a prayer rally outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles during the team’s “Pride Night” event featuring a group of drag queens known as the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” one of whose members was recently arrested for “indulging” himself in public. Although the local archdiocese urged Catholics to pray for their community in response to the event, they stopped short of endorsing the rally held outside the stadium, fearing it could lead to confrontation and paint Catholics in a negative light.
Later that month, Strickland was visited in Tyler by emissaries from the Vatican. During his weekly podcast, he compared the visit to “being called to the principal’s office,” saying he was being investigated for “simply preaching the truth.”
However, the Vatican has had eyes on Strickland for at least the last two years.
At the 2021 annual meeting for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Strickland was confronted by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who warned him to tone down his rhetoric because “we’re watching you.”
When contacted by Religion News Service for comment on the report of the pope’s meeting, Strickland said he had not heard anything about it from the Vatican. He also indicated he would not resign if asked to do so.
“As a basic principle I cannot resign the mandate given to me by Pope Benedict the XVI,” he wrote in an email. “Of course, that mandate can be rescinded by Pope Francis, but I cannot voluntarily abandon the flock that I have been given charge of as a successor of the apostles.”
If Strickland is removed by Francis, some critics worry conservative Catholics would view him as a political martyr.
Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, expressed this concern to Religion News Service in May when the aforementioned incident between Strickland and Pierre was first disclosed.
“I believe that the fear is that, if he’s removed, his visibility will be amplified,” Faggioli said.
However, Strickland insists his priority is the gospel of Christ, and he isn’t trying to make a name for himself.
These recent remarks echo what he said during a July episode of his podcast.
“Really, it isn’t about me, but it’s about the truth of our faith,” Strickland explained.
Nevertheless, he indicated nothing would deter him from this mission, saying, “I’m willing to go through anything [that] I have to, to continue to proclaim that message because love for God’s people means we share the good news of Jesus Christ.”
“They won’t stop me,” he continued. “When we’re speaking the truth of Jesus Christ, there is no politically correct. And the world can try to shut us down, but it won’t work.”
Pope Francis and the Vatican might have something to say about that, but it doesn’t appear Bishop Strickland will be riding off into the sunset anytime soon.
Misko from Bilbao but I wish it was Amsterdam or Biarritz, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
I subscribed to Christianity Today for several years. For over half a century, the magazine and its accompanying website were the best source of news about what’s going on in mainstream Christianity, not just in America but also throughout the world. Billy Graham founded the magazine in 1956 as an evangelical answer to the mainline magazine The Christian Counterpoint.
Vital reporting, fascinating features, and thoughtful book and music reviews characterized what Christianity Today was about. One of the most important things about the magazine was that it mostly remained apolitical yet theologically mainstream.
Rarely did the magazine get explicitly political — except when it came to presidential scandals. In 1974, the magazine stopped short of calling on Richard Nixon to step down. A 1998 editorial criticizing Bill Clinton after his impeachment called him “morally unable to lead,” while in 2019, editor-in-chief Mark Galli, who later dealt with a harassment scandal at the magazine — he said he may have “crossed lines” — wrote that Congress should remove Donald Trump from office after his impeachment.
But over the years, I started to notice a leftward drift at Christianity Today. From articles about “creation care” that weren’t much different from the rhetoric of the believers in another environmental phrase that contains two words that start with the letter C to heavily featuring and advocating for women in pastoral roles (ignoring millions of complementarian Christians across the world), Christianity Today started to sound more politically and theologically liberal.
Galli’s dumping on Trump was enough for me to cancel my subscription, but a podcast by the magazine about another scandal was more problematic. “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” told the story of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church and the troubling leadership of its pastor, Mark Driscoll. The story was fascinating and heartrending, and the production values made it even more compelling. The problem with the podcast came in the analysis, which relied on anti-male feminism and got in multiple digs at Trump and conservatives in general.
Recommended:Most Pastors Preach the Gospel — Not This Guy Two articles from over the summer make me question what direction Christianity Today is heading. One piece from August takes on Oliver Anthony’s hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which has struck a chord with people across the nation. Author Hannah Anderson admitted that she had high hopes the first time she heard the tune.
“I was excited for a song in the tradition of Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie—music that names the inherent dignity of the poor, lodges a protest against establishment excess, and echoes Old Testament calls for justice, like God’s condemnation in Jeremiah 5:28 of those who ‘have grown fat and sleek’ yet ‘do not promote the case of the fatherless’ or ‘defend the just cause of the poor,’” Anderson writes.
As both a Christian and a fan of good music, I totally understand hoping for a Johnny Cash-type song — and I would welcome that. But Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie? Sorry, but no one outside of the far left would welcome a song like that these days.
What’s Anderson’s problem with the song? She says it “doesn’t love its neighbors” because Anthony takes on those who abuse welfare. The author cites these lyrics:
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
She then goes on to relate the time she was on food stamps and how undignified it was. Later, she lectures readers that “protest against wealthy elites and government corruption, no matter how justified, cannot ride on the backs of others who are also suffering. The price of accessing food through SNAP or a church food pantry must not be the poor’s dignity and self-worth.”
But the truth is that even Christians should have a problem with people abusing the system. Yes, it’s nice that we have a safety net for people, but the Bible doesn’t call for government welfare programs to be the primary solution to society’s problems. Anderson does laud churches and other Christian organizations for helping people in need, but it’s wrong for her to say that calling out those who abuse the system robs people of their “dignity and self-worth.”
Seeing Christian authors lose their minds to progressivism isn’t all that uncommon these days, but another article, also from August, might blow your mind. Author Beth Felker Jones compares the crowds flocking to see Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and the “Barbie” movie to church communities. Jones expresses her delight with the “theological themes” in “Barbie” and makes a cheap shot at conservative Christians when she points out that “Swift has expressed public frustration with ways American Christianity has been attached to partisan politics.” (I can only imagine that Swift doesn’t have any problems with progressive Christians.)
“The kids want communal meaning,” Jones concludes. “So I’m going to keep hoping—hoping that, maybe, what they want is the body of Christ.”
Instead of hoping, why not try to lead these kids to faith in Christ? Instead of taking potshots at Christians whose politics Taylor Swift might not agree with and lauding a movie that alienates half of those kids who need Jesus — boys and men — by saying that they all mistreat women, why not show them what a truly vibrant Christian community looks like?
I wish I knew what happened to Christianity Today. It’s reminiscent of what we’ve seen in so many large Christian organizations. John Cooper of the band Skillet, himself a committed and outspoken Christian, says that larger Christian organizations wind up “leaning left and punching right,” meaning that they’re so afraid of being labeled “evil conservatives” that they’ll take left-leaning positions and attack conservatives to avoid criticism. I have a feeling that’s what has happened to Christianity Today, and it makes me angry and sad.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
According to a sheriff’s office report that the press obtained this week, a prominent member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of primarily gay men who dress in drag and openly mock Catholics, was arrested in California last month for indecent exposure after it was alleged by witnesses that he openly masturbated in public for an hour.
After receiving a report of a man “exposing himself in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle,” authorities detained 53-year-old Clinton Monroe Ellis-Gilmore at a seaside park, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office.
“According to numerous witnesses, Ellis-Gilmore had been at that location for approximately one hour, sitting in his truck with the door open, masturbating,” according to a sheriff’s report on the incident, which took place on August 12th at around 6:41 p.m. “The conduct does not appear to have been directed at anyone in particular.”
In Loleta, California, at Table Bluff County Park, the arrest was made.
The park is described by Google reviews as “good for kids” and the location of “kid-friendly hikes.”
The press was able to obtain Ellis-Gilmore’s booking photo, which shows that he was shirtless when he was taken into custody.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to recognize the group during an LGBTQ “Pride” event garnered negative backlash for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
However, the group also gained the backing of many mainstream media outlets who supported the organization against those who said it was a perverse hate group, praising them for their “dedication to community service.”
The men typically dress as traditional nuns and use names that are sexually provocative while mocking Catholicism and Christianity.
A local Humboldt County website, The Lost Coast Populist, broke the news of Ellis-Gilmore’s original arrest. They discovered several of his previous social media posts and established the first connection between Ellis-Gilmore and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Ellis-Gilmore made no attempt to conceal what was happening in the park, according to Randy Fleek, a witness who spoke with the officers who conducted the arrest.
Fleek said that Ellis-Gilmore had parked two spaces away from his trailer, leaving the truck door wide open while putting his right leg up on the dashboard. He was also reportedly wearing no trousers, giving Fleek an open side view of Ellis-Gilmore “playing with himself.”
“Well this is f***ed up,” Fleek said, speaking of what he saw. “It’s obvious. You cannot help but see this guy, he’s not hiding it. He wants everyone to see what he’s doing.”
Throughout the hour, he said that vehicles pulled up to the parking area and left, some of them carrying young girls and boys who were passing by. Fleek said that he felt immense relief when the sheriff’s deputies came.
“There’s something wrong with that man. He’s got a weird f***ing desire to show off to the public, to anybody that wants to look at him,” Fleek said. “He puts himself in a position and in a spot that you can’t help but look at the son of a b****.”
The “popular” park, where many cars pass by to gaze at the ocean, added to the unsettling nature of what he saw.
“People do not pull in to view this sort of perverse behavior, they do so to see the ocean.”
He maintained that Ellis-Gilmore’s purported intentions were obvious.
The suspected public masturbator, Ellis-Gilmore, had long been involved with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Eureka, California. According to social media posts, Ellis-Gilmore appears to go by numerous identities in the organization, including “Novice Sister Bethe Cockhim” and “Novice Sister Man Romeo.”
Ellis-Gilmore took part in a number of Eureka Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence activities, including a book reading at an elementary school where he read to kids while a man in a mock-nun costume and fishnet tights was also seen wearing a blonde wig.
“Yesterday sisters had the most magical time reading story books to the Peninsula elementary school kids in recognition of them Studying LGBT awareness month! Thanks for the honor!” a post from October 31st, 2018 read.
Additionally, Ellis-Gilmore and the “sisters” have a history of posting sexually explicit statements on social media. Two sister members were shown clutching a fake penis in one of their posts, while Ellis-Gilmore displayed his nipple piercing and a cartoon “gay smurf” drawing with erections and pubic hair.
BREAKING: Clinton Monroe Ellis-Gilmore, an active member in the Eureka chapter of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, going by name Novice Sister Bethe Cockhim was arrested for indecent exposure.
According to the police report, witnesses claim Clinton was masturbating in his car… pic.twitter.com/4ThE9fTGup
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The Daily Signal recognized a pattern last year with the Biden administration, and rightly termed it as an “outrageous betrayal” of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians when “religious freedom designations were declared” and “Nigeria once again was entirely ignored by Biden and company.” Genocide Watch has reported that in Nigeria, more than 6,000 Christians were killed in the 15 months from January 2021 through March 2022, and 45,644 died in the course of 13 years.
Joe Biden has now done it again. He has “reaffirmed his commitment to the longstanding relationship between the country and Nigeria……Africa’s largest democracy,” and has boasted of “the longstanding friendship between our two countries and peoples.”
Nigeria is technically a democracy, but it is a country in crisis, where Christians are suffering under the jihadist threat and the proliferation of jihad activity, and where revolutionary secessionist groups in the southeast create upheaval. It is hardly deserving of a pat on the back from Biden. His continued slap in the face to the Christians in Nigeria and complete exoneration of Nigeria’s government for any responsibility for the nation’s jihad problem is just another indication of Biden’s callousness toward Christians. But that should come as no surprise. A few months ago, Fox News reported that “anti-Christian hostility” is at “unprecedented levels” under Biden.
“Biden re-affirms commitment to U.S-Nigeria relationship — Nigeria,” by Oluyemi Ogunseyin, The Guardian Nigeria, September 10, 2023:
United States President Joe Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to the longstanding relationship between the country and Nigeria.
This was stated in a statement released by the White House following Biden’s encounter with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, on Sunday.
“President Joe Biden has reinforced our enduring commitment to the U.S.-Nigeria relationship and to the longstanding friendship between our two countries and peoples,” the statement read.
“President Biden welcomed the Tinubu Administration’s steps to reform Nigeria’s economy.
“He also thanked President Tinubu for his strong leadership as the chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to defend and preserve democracy and the rule of law in Niger and the broader region.”…..
Today, I interviewed Dr. Groothuis about the craziness we see around us and what we can do about it. Dr. Groothuis holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and is a Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. He is the author of sixteen books and has also published over thirty academic articles in journals as well as dozens of pieces in publications. https://www.douglasgroothuis.com/
Beth Moore, when she apostatized a few years ago and left a somewhat biblical denomination for a completely apostate denomination, made it clear that her intentions were to continue to rebel against God by performing the function and role of a pastor, which the Scriptures reserve for men.
Beth Moore has since joined St. Timothy’s Anglican Church in Spring, TX, which, similar in some ways to the Roman Catholic Church, appears to believe in the literal presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Beth Moore has served as a lector during worship service at St. Timothy’s. According to at least one definition, in the Anglican Church, “The lector carries out his/her primary function during the Liturgy of the Word, proclaiming God’s Word to His people so that, strengthened by the words of Holy Scripture, they might come to a deeper love of God and a fuller Christian life.”
But in an even more shocking turn of events, Beth Moore’s church has now invited a Muslim Imam to come deliver a sermon and offer a prayer of worship in front of the church. This Imam came and took the pulpit—literally stood in the pulpit of this church where the pastor is supposed to proclaim the words of God—and instead stood there and profaned the Words of God and preached blasphemies from the Koran.
Is there room for discussion with Muslims and people of other religions as the pastor of this church claims? Of course. The Scriptures compel us to preach the unwavering, convicting truth and call the lost to repentance and faith. It does not, under any circumstances, call us to allow blasphemers to stand in our pulpits and address our congregations. This is spiritual malpractice at its worst.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Of all the deceptive doctrines and dogmas of Roman Catholicism, there is one that is more paralyzing and potentially fatal than the others. It is the falsification of all the spiritual benefits that are purported to be received with the sacrament of water baptism. This distortion of biblical teaching is paralyzing for Catholics because it discourages them from examining their dead, spurious, and misplaced faith.
The Falsification of Spiritual Blessings
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), many spiritual blessings flow out of water baptism. It is said to be the sacrament of regeneration which causes people to be freed from sin, and reborn as sons of God (CCC, 1213). By water baptism, all sins are forgiven, as well as all punishment for sin. Nothing remains in those who have been reborn that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God (CCC, 1263). The horrible deception continues. "Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte a new creature, an adopted son of God, who has become a partaker of the divine nature, member of Christ, co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit" (CCC, 1265). But that is not all! Rome declares "Justification is conferred in Baptism...It conforms us to the righteousness of God" (CCC, 1992). Catholics need to know that absolutely none of these spiritual blessings are received as a result of water baptism. The only way they will know they have been so woefully deceived is when they abide in God's Word and the truth sets them free from religious deception.
Scripture Exposes Rome's Deceptive Teaching
Only when we examine this Catholic teaching through the lens of God's inspired Word can we know how cunningly deceptive it is. Scripture is used for reproof, that is, to expose and to unmask the fatal errors of every false religion (2 Tim. 3:16). Rome's deceitful teaching on water baptism violates and blasphemes the sovereign regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Regeneration results in the new birth, being born again as a child of God. It is solely and completely the work of God. Man has absolutely nothing to do with the new birth as it is irrefutably stated in John's Gospel. Children of God "were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). Our rebirth is necessary because fallen man is spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” until he is “made alive” (regenerated) by God (Eph. 2:4-5).
The Timing and Purpose of Water Baptism
Water baptism is an act of obedience and a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ after one has been born again of the Spirit. There is irrefutable evidence for this in Scripture. When the Gentiles heard and believed the Gospel, Peter declared, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did." Then "he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:47-48). In spite of this clear teaching from God's Word, most Catholics are baptized as infants before they can believe anything. Rome makes a fraudulent attempt to overcome this by declaring it is the faith of the infant's parents that validates the baptism. They need to know that God does not have any grandchildren, only children of faith.
Water Baptism Cannot Cause Spiritual Rebirth
Catholics insist that their doctrine of water baptism is supported by the words of Jesus: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:5). Yet, Christian baptism is not mentioned here. In fact, the ordinance had not been introduced yet. The Lord Jesus was explaining that the new birth was entirely a spiritual one, which, like the wind, no man can control. In several places in the Bible “water” is used figuratively as the Spirit of God (John 4:14 and 7:37). The words in John 3:5, "of water and of the Spirit," could be correctly interpreted, "of water, even of the Spirit." Such a rendering is in full accord with Ezekiel 36:25-27, where the water is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit causing spiritual cleansing and rebirth. Jesus chided Nicodemus for not knowing this when He asked, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?" (John 3:10).
Only God and His Word Can Cause Spiritual Life
The two necessary agents to bring about the new birth are the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Peter declared, "you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23). James wrote: "in the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth" (Jas. 1:18). The new birth is a spiritual, holy and heavenly birth that results in our being made alive spiritually. Almighty God, not man, is the sole source of this radical transformation (Eph. 2:1, 8). It is not the priest and his water; it is the Spirit and the Word of God.
Let us speak the truth in love to Catholics who do not know they have been deceived about life's most important issues. Pray for God to give us open doors of opportunity and for open hearts to receive His Word with humility and repentance. This is a message that will encourage you to evangelize Catholics God's Way.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
As Iran is an Islamic republic, it considers conversion away from Islam to be an act of rebellion against the state and prosecutes the people who dare to convert accordingly.
“Iran targets minorities one year after Mahsa Amini’s death, 69 Christians arrested,” AsiaNews, August 11, 2023 (thanks to Tom):
Tehran (AsiaNews) – Iran arrested scores of Christians, mostly converts from Islam but also some Assyrian-Chaldeans baptised as children, over a seven-week period in June and July in 11 different cities of the country, this according to Article18, a human rights organisation that advocates on behalf of Iranian Christians and religious freedom.
In an early report, the NGO had reported 50 arrests by mid-July in five cities, but its latest update indicates that at least 69 people were taken into custody, 10 of which – four men and six women – are still held by the authorities.
The arrests occurred between 1 June and 17 July in the following cities: Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh, Aligoudarz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Semnan, Garmsar, Varamin, and Eslamshahr.
In the capital Tehran and the other cities, after their arrest, people were forced to sign statements pledging to refrain from Christian activities or undergo Islamic re-education in order to be released.
Some say that after their release they were summoned for further questioning, or were ordered to leave Iran. One said he lost his job at the request of intelligence agents. For those granted bail, families had to pay between US$ 8,000 and US$ 40,000.
The majority of those arrested are converts from Islam, but at least two are Iranian-Armenians, who were born into Christian families….
The wave of arrests among Christians also coincides with a new crackdown on Iran’s Baha’i community, which, along with Christian converts, is a minority religious group not recognised by the Islamic Republic….
It’s back to school time! What better way to get the year off to a great start than by taking the whole family to a demon-summoning class? Summon a few demons, sell your soul, and then head out for some last-minute shopping for school supplies. Then ice cream for everyone! It’s practically a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Maybe we could call it “Grandpappy Teaches Billy the Dark Arts.”
It’s funny because it’s true! Well, it’s not funny because it’s true.
Direct from the “I-Couldn’t-Make-This Crap-Up-if-I-Tried” Department comes the news that the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis (where else but Minneapolis? Okay, maybe Denver, Chicago, or L.A. Possibly somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard) recently hosted a family night to help people learn how to summon and trap demons. Who needs Monopoly or Uno when you have the entire Realm of Darkness to play in? “No, kids, we’re not playing ‘Sorry’ tonight! Andy, you put the dishes away. Cindy, get your crayons and draw us a pentagram on the basement floor. Honey? Do you have dessert ready?”
Sheesh.
This past Saturday, the center hosted Tamar Ettun, an artist who specializes in creating demon traps. Yep, that’s a thing. According to a report in Alpha News, this was the event description:
Demons have a bad reputation, but maybe we’re just not very good at getting to know them. Families are invited to create a vessel to trap the demon that knows them best — perhaps the ‘demon of overthinking’ — and then participate in a playful ceremony to summon and befriend their demon. After designing your trap, Lilit the Empathic Demon will come from the dark side of the moon to lead you in locating your feelings using ancient Babylonian techniques. This collective and playful demon summoning session will conclude with a somatic movement meditation, designed to help you befriend your shadows. (sic)
Forget “Candy Land,” let’s make a demon trap! Didn’t anybody see the original “Ghostbusters”? Summoning demons using ancient Babylonian techniques never ends well.
And here’s the best part! The Walker Center receives money from the taxpayers!
Here is Alpha News on Etten's last exhibit in NYC:
The exhibition parts with the historical gender binarism that associates Lilith’s archetype with unchecked violence and manipulation; here, Lilit mediates the inner demons and renegade instincts that are deliberately silenced,” the exhibition details read. One image shows Ettun washing what appears to be a placenta with a watering can.
There is an old saying: “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.” Well, I do happen to know a few things about art, and this isn’t art. This is someone working out some serious issues. With a watering can. If we’re really being honest, I don’t know what the hell it is. (Pun intended. Yell at me in the comments section.)
As C.S. Lewis observed it is dangerous to become too fascinated with demons. But it is equally dangerous to ignore them, and one does so at one’s peril. After all, demons operate by deception. Demons know that if people truly understood what they really were, no one would get within ten city blocks of them. So they pretend to be innocuous. Demons portray themselves as helpful, playful, misunderstood creatures that just got a bad rap for being freethinkers. They only want to expand your mind and let you express yourself. Worse yet, they may be able to convince you that they are metaphorical. And you may believe that until you become a slave to all that free thought and self-expression and can’t even recognize yourself in a mirror. It may be a game to Ettun and the misguided families who showed up for this event. But to the demons, it’s deadly serious.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
No religious minority is safe in Pakistan.
“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60)
Meanwhile, 129 Muslims have been arrested, but it is unlikely that there will be a serious or thorough investigation, or any severe consequences for the men who have done this, as most Pakistani authorities in cases of this kind are more sympathetic to the attackers than the victims.
“Pakistani police arrest 129 Muslims after mob attacks Christian churches,” PA News Agency, August 17, 2023:
Police arrested more than 100 Muslims in overnight raids from an area in eastern Pakistan where a Muslim mob attacked churches and homes of minority Christians, prompting authorities to summon troops to restore order, officials said on Thursday.
The attack by the mob was prompted by the alleged desecration of the Koran by a Christian man.
There were no casualties as Christians living in a residential area in the city of Jaranwala in the Faisalabad district moved to safer places following one of the country’s most deadly attacks against Christians.
Christians slowly returned to their homes Thursday, only to see the destruction of at least one church that was burned.
Four other churches were also damaged and two dozen homes were torched or badly damaged during the riots.
Speaking outside her home, which had been torched, Shazia Amjad said: “We were sitting at home when suddenly we heard that a mob is coming and it is burning homes and attacking churches.”
She told The Associated Press that the rioters burned household items and furniture. Some of her possessions were stolen as she moved to a safer place with her family, she added.
Mrs Amjad said the rioters sprinkled petrol to burn homes in their area and they stole jewellery and other things. Other Christians described similar ordeals and expressed bewilderment.
Local Christians consoled each other outside their damaged homes, as many women wept and cried over the destruction. Those whose homes were burned had no idea where to go or what to do now.
On Wednesday, Khalid Mukhtar, a local priest, said that most Christians living in the area had fled to safer places.
“Even my house was burned,” he said, adding that he believes most of Jaranwala’s 17 churches had been attacked.
Delegations of Muslim clerics arrived in Jaranwala to help calm the situation, as troops and police patrolled the area.
Local authorities have shut schools and offices and banned rallies for a week to prevent more violence.
The violence drew nationwide condemnation, with caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar ordering police to ensure the rioters are arrested.
On Thursday, Rizwan Khan, the regional police chief, said 129 suspects had been arrested and the situation was under control.
The violence erupted after some Muslims living in the area claimed they had seen a local Christian, Raja Amir, and his friend tearing out pages from a Koran, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages.
Police say they are trying to arrest Mr Amir to determine whether he desecrated Islam’s holy book.
According to Mr Khan, the mob quickly gathered and began attacking multiple churches and several Christian homes…
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2023/08/09/five-nauseating-reasons-why-joe-biden-is-a-garbage-human-being-n1717192; Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
President* Joe Biden has spent his entire career fomenting his faux “blue-collar Joe” persona but as his actions show, he is at best a repugnant reptilian.
The headline for this piece could just as easily be, “579 Nauseating Reasons Why Joe Biden Is a Terrible Human Being” if I wanted to go back and list every time he lied, called a college girl a “lying dog-faced pony soldier,” was said to have taken a huge bribe, or perhaps plagiarized from a person with a brain not made of mashed potatoes. But I thought I’d stick with the most repulsive examples that show our Salamander-in-Chief is a bacon strip.
FACT-O-RAMA! As per Urban Dictionary, a “bacon strip” is an amusing name for stained underwear, defined as,”brown marks that are left on the inside of one’s underwear as a result of improper butt wiping.”
5. Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley, wrote that he showered with her when she was a girl
It would be easy to shrug off this horrific suggestion as a phony smear if Biden’s FBI hadn’t searched the homes of three journalists from Project Veritas involved with Ashley’s lost-and-found diary.
It would be even easier if we didn’t now know with certainty that the diary belongs to the Big Guy’s daughter, but it would appear that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. did take “probably not appropriate” showers with his young female offspring.
4. Biden was accused of sexually assaulting a young staffer
ATTACKED-O-RAMA! In 2019, Gropey Joe Biden apologized for touching women inappropriately.
Summoned to bring Gropey Joe his gym bag back in the 1990s, young Tara Reade found herself alone with Biden. “There was no exchange, really, he just had me up against the wall,” Reade stated to podcast host Katie Halper.
“I remember it happened all at once… his hands were on me and underneath my clothes.” He then penetrated her with his fingers, she said.
“I remember him saying, first, as he was doing it ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ and then him saying to me, when I pulled away… he said ‘Come on man, I heard you liked me,'” she said.
“That phrase stayed with me.”
Sure, it would be easy for your purple-haired, trans-pansexual sister harpie-in-law to scream, “Eighty-eight women have accused Trump of sexual assault, KDJ!” But none of Trump’s accusers had their mothers call into Larry King’s show in the 1990s to ask for advice on how to deal with a senator who attacked her daughter.
“Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington,” Reade’s mother asked King. “My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.”
FACT-O-RAMA! Joe Biden deserves no respect.
You can watch Tucker Carlson break the story of the contemporaneous confirmation of Reade’s claim below:
STALK-O-RAMA! Jill Biden’s ex-husband recently stated the Biden family persecuted him for years after he and Jill divorced.
3. Biden got 13 American heroes slaughtered in Afghanistan
We all know about the humiliating Afghanistan debacle that occurred when Biden decided to abandon Afghanistan. Biden deserted a strategically important airbase 400 miles from China, leaving nearly $80 billion worth of military equipment to our enemies in the Taliban (which then needed to be replaced — score one each for the military-industrial-complex, the Taliban, and China). Worse, he got 13 American service members killed and 18 wounded. He also got 169 Afghans killed and left thousands of allies at the mercy of the Taliban.
SHAME-O-RAMA! Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews testified he and his team had been following the suicide bomber who killed the service members “throughout the entirety of the day,” but they were told not to take him out.
This segues directly into the next reason Joe Biden is a stain.
2. Biden continues to use his son’s death for sympathy, even with Gold Star families
We've recently heard from the mother of a fallen service member killed in Biden’s Afghanistan calamity, who stated that the presidential reptile pretended, again, that his son Beau died in battle.
“His words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill, and I know how you feel,'” Cheryl Rex, the mother of deceased Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola stated. “‘We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin,'” Rex continued. “My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side.”
Biden has also frequently claimed his first wife, Neilia, and their young daughter, Naomi, were killed by a drunk driver. This is blatantly untrue. Neilia and Naomi died tragically in an accident while the family, sans Joe, was going to get a Christmas tree. Sadly, their car collided with a truck — the driver was not drunk.
“It was an errant driver who stopped to drink instead of drive and hit a tractor-trailer, hit my children and my wife, and killed them,” Biden has stated for years.
Evidence shows Biden’s first wife may have actually caused the accident, but why let that prevent Biden from using the Christmas-time tragedy to rack up a lifetime of sympathy points?
FACT-O-RAMA! Joe Biden, who has long propagated the myth that “white supremacy” is America’s greatest threat, couldn’t be bothered to visit Waukesha, Wisc., after a black nationalist and domestic terrorist plowed into a crowd of people at a Christmas parade, killing six and injuring 62 more. He did, however, visit Jacob Blake, a black man who was accused of sexual assault and domestic abuse by a former girlfriend and was shot by police when they stopped him and he reached for a knife.
I asked my fellow PJ Media teammates to help me come up with the #1 reason Joe Biden is a detestable reprobate. We have so many options: Biden allegedly using his crackhead son as his bagman for his international bribes; his history of racist remarks; ignoring his grandaughter in Arkansas; and the highly irregular 2020 election. The options are limitless, but I can pick only one.
Choose wisely, KDJ!
1. Joe Biden is allegedly a puppet for China
There is overwhelming evidence that the Biden racketeering family has taken in mad stacks from nations around the world. The Oversight Committee has produced and continues to produce a steady flow of documentation and witnesses demonstrating that Biden used his power to line his pockets. But the most terrifying aspect of his potential treason is his never-ending willingness to lick the boots of our greatest enemy — China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
No one seems to be able to otherwise explain why Biden would:
There could be a very good reason Biden allows China to get away with these monstrosities, but the evidence strongly suggests that China, our greatest adversary, has something on Biden.
Perhaps it’s the $31 million Chinese communists “allegedly” paid the Bidens.
I can name at least one anti-commie columnist and funny commie-chasing radio host who believes Joe Biden is a globalist who is handing our nation over to the Chinese-dominated slimesters in the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, and the International Monetary Fund.
I can’t think of anything more loathsome for a president to engage in.
A federal judge ordered three Southwest Airlines attorneys to attend “religious liberty training” from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group well known for its high-profile defense of conservative causes.
Naturally, left-wing heads exploded all across the country. You can’t do that! Only left-wing judges can demand that right-wing fascists attend ‘sensitivity training’ and other bogus seminars.
More than that, the left immediately leaped on the charge that ADF was a “hate group” because the Southern Poverty Law Center says so. Since they’ve never been wrong, it must be so. Well, almost never.
The fact that the judge in the case was appointed by Donald Trump only added to the left’s hysteria.
The Southwest Airlines lawyers got exactly what they deserved. District Judge Brantley Starr sanctioned the lawyers for violating his rule in a religious discrimination case. In a case involving flight attendant Charlene Carter last year, a jury found that both Southwest and Transport Union Workers discriminated against Carter when they fired the flight attendant after she “expressed her pro-life beliefs to her union president.”
It’s what happened after the verdict that got the Southwest Airlines lawyers in trouble with Judge Starr.
Following the verdict, Starr ordered Southwest to reinstate Carter and take several other corrective actions, including requiring both the airline and the union to “inform Southwest flight attendants that, under Title VII, they may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including – but not limited to – those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion.”
But in messages sent by three Southwest attorneys to the company’s employees, according to a sanctions order handed down by Starr, the airline instead said that “Southwest does not discriminate against our Employees for their religious practices and beliefs.”
The judge said Southwest also sent around a memo to flight attendants in which the company “lambasts Carter” by taking issue with the conduct she was fired over.
Blatantly violating the orders of a federal judge is not a way to win friends and influence people — unless the judge was appointed by Donald Trump and the people you want to impress are left-wing hacks.
“The Court concludes that training on religious freedom for three lawyers at Southwest the Court finds responsible (Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry) is the least restrictive means of achieving compliance with the Court’s order,” the judge said. “The Alliance Defending Freedom (‘ADF’) has conducted such training in the past, and the Court deems that appropriate here.”
Actually, ADF has no such formal training program on religious freedom, although they indicated they would be happy to create one for Southwest Airlines. And the choice of ADF to conduct the training is a little strange, considering that the Alliance Defending Freedom wasn’t even formally involved in the flight attendant’s case in the first place.
That will probably matter a great deal when the appeal is filed.
In fillings submitted ahead of Monday’s order, attorneys for Southwest urged the judge not to order the trainings, saying that “ordering religious-liberty training would be an inappropriate remedy for the alleged civil contempt.”
“Although Southwest contends the Email Notice still substantially complied with the judgment, Southwest has already offered to purge this alleged contempt by providing a corrective notice replacing the ‘does not discriminate’ language with ‘may not discriminate,’” they wrote. “Put another way, there is no conduct for religious-liberty training to remedy.”
Law Dork Chris Geidner, who broke the news on the sanctions, wonders how the religious liberty training was added to the punishments.
It’s not precisely clear how religious-liberty training, let alone ADF, became a part of this. ADF is not representing the plaintiff, Charlene Carter, or in any other way involved in the case at all that I can tell.
Carter and her lawyers did not ask for anything like this “religious-liberty training” when she filed her motion for sanctions on Dec. 30, 2022.
It wasn’t until Starr filed an order on May 16 that he announced he was considering adding “religious-liberty training” into his sanctions order in the case.
Judge Starr apparently took it upon himself to include the religious liberty training in the sanctions against the Southwest lawyers. And those sanctions — regardless of whether they pass muster on appeal — were well-deserved, considering the arrogant dismissal by the attorneys of the judges’ orders.
(@ImMeme0) 
