eChurch Christian Blog

Bastards.

From Harry’s Place:-

They took the staff into a separate room and executed them one by one, according to a news report on ABC.

The charity said they thought the office was targeted because it was running programmes to help women.

World Vision has decided to suspend its programmes and pull out of the country following the “brutal and senseless” attacks on its staff.

From World Vision:-

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.

Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, World Vision serves alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people.

World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.

Financial support is received from; the UK Government, the European Union, charitable trusts, corporate supporters and also more than 100,000 individuals, who sponsor children in poor communities overseas. Lives are also transformed through the Alternative Gift Catalogue and events such as the 24 Hour famine

World Vision works to change the root causes of poverty through campaigning, church partnerships, education and influencing policy makers.

In whatever we do, we place a special emphasis on ensuring the needs and rights of children are met, because they are often the hardest hit by conflict, disaster and chronic poverty.

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LA Times – Pakistan militants attack U.S. Christian aid group, killing six
All of the dead were Pakistanis employed by World Vision, which has been helping victims of a devastating 2005 earthquake in the country’s north.

The Long War Journal – Earlier today, armed fighters attacked an office operated by World Vision International, a Christian charity that has been aiding victims of the devastating earthquake in 2005. The aid group has sought to provide schooling, jobs, food, and other basic needs for Pakistanis impacted by the earthquake and other natural disasters.

UPDATE: From World Vision:-

World Vision: Pakistan attack “brutal and senseless”

World Vision is today mourning the brutal and senseless deaths of six members of staff in the Mansehra District of Pakistan, killed in an unprovoked attack by gunmen.

The international humanitarian organisation is seeking to confirm reports that gunmen first set off bombs or grenades, then opened fire on the office, located 65 kilometres north of the capital, Islamabad, at 9.20am local time today.

In addition to the four men and two women killed, seven employees have been hospitalised with injuries.

No threatening letters were received prior to the attack.

World Vision’s relief and development work in Pakistan is conducted by local citizens.

All of World Vision’s operations in the country have been suspended indefinitely.

World Vision remembers those staff who have died as dedicated people seeking to improve the lives of people affected by poverty and disasters.

Since 1992, World Vision has primarily focused on relief interventions in Pakistan. The work expanded in 2001, when the agency began collaborating with other aid groups in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Punjab Province with emergency relief assistance and community development initiatives.

After the devastating October 2005 earthquake, World Vision expanded its operations in Pakistan.

Original Source EZGToons

A little encouragement for Christian Zionists from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and let’s face it, we are in need of some positive gestures from Israel at times, it really does help.

Israel National News

Netanyahu reiterated the amazing turn of events that the presence of Israel-loving Christians in the Jewish state represents after centuries of Christian persecution of Jewish minorities.

“Your presence here today represents a profound transformation in the relationship between Christians and Jews,” said the prime minister. “This transformation has its roots in the 19th century when the early Christian Zionists came to the Land Israel and when they began exploring the land of the Bible, when they began to yearn for the Jewish restoration in this land, the restoration of our numbers, the restoration of our sovereignty.”

Netanyahu noted the Christian Zionism actually preceded modern Jewish Zionism, and acted as a stepping stone for the reestablishment of Israeli sovereignty. In the same spirit as those 19th century Christian Zionists, Netanyahu said leaders like CUFI Director John Hagee are continuing to hold Israel aloft in both prayer and advocacy.

“Time after time, through thick and thin, you have stood shoulder to shoulder with our state, and I have come here tonight to thank you for your unwavering friendship,” said Netanyahu. “I salute you, the people of Israel salute you, the Jewish people salute you.”

The summit was attended by 1,000 Christian delegates and led by Hagee, who took the opportunity to reaffirm his support and the support of tens of millions of American Christians for Israel.

Here are some of Hagee’s comments from the summit:-

Voice of the Copts – Ahmadinejad the ‘Hitler of the Middle East’

Previous posts here, here, here and here.

Telegraph:-

Lilian Ladele’s situation does not raise legal points of “general public importance”, according to the highest court in the land.

She is now considering whether to try to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights, as she believes it shows that the right to religious conscience has been “trampled” by the rights of homosexuals.

It comes just days after senior bishops and peers warned that clergy could be sued if they refuse to perform civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples in church, as an amendment approved by the House of Lords now permits.

There were already fears that Christians enjoy less legal protection than minority groups after the Appeal Court ruled last month that British Airways had not discriminated against an employee by banning her from wearing a cross.

Miss Ladele, speaking via her lawyer, said: “I am naturally disappointed by the Supreme Court’s rejection of my application for appeal. I am actively discussing with my lawyers the possibility of an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“When the rights of different groups clash, as they have in my case, surely there must be a proportionate attempt to balance those competing rights. In my case, one set of rights was trampled by another set of rights. That cannot be right in a free and democratic society. I believe my case raises important issues of liberty that deserve further consideration by the courts.”

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I’m sure there will be a fair amount of activity online as a result of this decision, and if there’s anything interesting I’ll post the link here.

Update: First out of the blocks is the Christian Institute, which is unsurprising as they are backing Ladele.

Next out of the blocks is PinkNews.

And now the British Humanist Association, who are rather pleased with the result as you can imagine.

Quick spiritual check-up, courtesy of CyberBrethren:-

Christ-Centered or Just Religious? Three Ways to Tell

1. Your reaction when things fall apart.

Do you catch yourself saying, “God, why is this happening? I’ve done x, y, and z?” Do suffering, difficulty, and obstacles provoke “why?” questions predicated on your goodness or effort? You’ve been working so hard, reading your Bible, going to church, serving others . . . why would God let this happen to you now? If that’s your line of thinking, it reveals you believe God owes you. And that’s religion, not Christ-centered thinking.

2. Your reaction to others.

Do you compare yourself, bad or good, against others? Do you belittle, mock, condescend, even if just internally? Do you resent others’ successes? Do you celebrate others’ failures? Do you really wish people would get their act together, or do you really wish people knew Jesus? Are you frequently annoyed, put out, irritated, embarrassed, or inconvenienced by others? Is it about you, or others? If you, that’s religion, but not Christ-centeredness.

3. Your appraisal of Jesus.

Is he your greatest treasure? That’s the number one indicator of gospel-conformity. You may know right off the bat if this is true or not. For some, it’s true only sentimentally or religiously. You may think it’s true ultimately, but your time, talents, words, emotions, and bank account testify differently. These are all heart issues. Anybody can get the behavior right. The Pharisees certainly did, and most of them went to hell. But this isn’t even about looking Pharisaical or legalistic or churchy. There’s a lot of Christian hipsters out there in coffee shop churches who have no idea they’re just religious, not Christ-centered.

Calvin L Smith (Principal of King’s Evangelical Divinity School) is “live blogging” his trip to the US, and I found his latest post to be an interesting follow up to yesterdays post entitled: Why Christians should be politically conservative:-

The Christian Academy and Christians in Politics

At the Evangelical theological conference I’ve been attending I am struck by how a substantial number of people I’ve listened to at debates or chatted with lean towards the political left (I think the preferred term is “progressive”). Now it is a truism that the academy always tends towards radicalism and the left. But it is also the case that in politics many politicians on the left move somewhat towards the right when they gain power (according to my politics professor during my MA studies, a classic historical example is the British Labour Party). Of course, there are exceptions to this and most rules. Thus, some people within the academy are on the right, while some on the left do seem to shift further leftwards when in power (though some of these, I think, are actually populists employing leftist rhetoric, but that is an issue for another day).

So the exceptions aside, what are the reasons for a left-leaning academy and politicians who shift rightwards towards the centre? I’m not sure, though I suspect in the case of the academy it is a place driven by idealism, as well as an arena in which to exchange ideas and in doing so challenge the status quo and the Establishment. Meanwhile, I suggest the cold, hard realities of the political world arguably lead politicians to ditch idealism in favour of pragmatism, firstly to get things done, and secondly, because there is a realisation that academic idealism and utopianism is somewhat of a pipedream in the real world. Enter Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism.

Whatever the reasons for both these political tendencies, I do not believe these two stereotypes of the academy and political world should be permitted to influence Christians in either arena. The Christian academy should certainly not be shaped by the world’s currents, trends, political outlook, worldview and philosophy. Such postmodern ideals will pass one day, as indeed the scepticism of modernity’s biblical criticism – and indeed various philosophical influences upon Christianity during its 2000 year history – has now passed into oblivion. And that’s the point, isn’t it? When the Christian academy permits the world to influence its mindset and worldview it enslaves itself to the dominant fashion of the pervadign Zeitgeist. This is, in a very real sense, worldliness, that is, allowing the world’s values to rub off and influence the Church and its actions. Instead, the Christian academy should be thoroughly biblicist in its approach to issues (and not just issues but in shaping its own agenda and worldview), seeking to establish and walk its own path rather than emulate that of the secular academy. It should be radical by all means (after all, Jesus was incredibly radical), but being radical means being something completely different to what is already out there. Yet all too often, Christianity offers a carbon copy (and a poor one at that) of what the world has to offer. In short, the Christian Evangelical Left should not look much like the Democrats or Labour Party, while the Evangelical Right should not be a religious carbon copy of the Republican or Conservative parties. Indeed, there should be no Evangelical Left or Evangelical Right in the first place, as these are simply examples of how the world has rubbed off on us so that we even categorise ourselves on that basis. But of course human nature and things like political cleavage make it hard for us to shake off these ways of thinking.

Meanwhile, from the political perspective (and here is why, perhaps, Christians don’t make good politicians) Christian politicians should not be driven by pragmatism and realism, because this is the route of compromise and watering down one’s Christian, biblical values. Rather, the Christian politician should be driven by idealism and firmly challenging the status quo. But of course in this route lies a short political career.

It seems to me, then, Christian radicalism means a Christian academy which espouses realism and pragmatism, while Christian political outlook and activity should be zealously idealist and keen to challenge the status quo. But of course the opposite very often seems to be the case. Everything just seems so messed up, doesn’t it?

Hat-tip Polycarp:-

Study Links Religious Groups and Racial Bias

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus warned religious listeners against what today would be called “ingroup prejudice”: the tendency to think less of outsiders, especially those of another race.

The Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Israelites of that time, proves himself more charitable to an injured traveler than two members of the Jewish clergy.

Devout listeners startled by the Samaritan’s charity would have had to confront a difficult message: Piety and prejudice keep close company.

It appears not much has changed.

A meta-analysis of 55 independent studies carried out in the United States with more than 20,000 mostly Christian participants has found that members of religious congregations tend to harbor prejudiced views of other races.

In general, the more devout the community, the greater the racism, according to the authors of the analysis, led by Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC College and the USC Marshall School of Business. The study appears in the February issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.

“Religious groups distinguish between believers and non-believers and moral people and immoral ones,” Wood said. “So perhaps it’s no surprise that the strongly religious people in our research, who were mostly white Christians, discriminated against others who were different from them — blacks and minorities.”

Most of the studies reviewed by Wood’s team focused on Christians because Christianity is the most common religion in the United States.

Her analysis found significantly less racism among people without strong religious beliefs.

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Rather depressing if true.

There is a fantastic, “must read” article in the Times, which is so refreshing and uplifting and quite funny too:-

I’m a Roman Catholic and I go to church every Sunday. Towards the end of Mass, there’s a thing called the Sign of Peace. We all shake hands with everyone in shaking distance and say “peace be with you”. Last Sunday the priest told us to drop the handshaking element to show our solidarity with Wayne Bridge.

That’s one of the things I love about being Catholic. You can tell the highly suspicious non-Catholics — their imaginations fired by talk of kissed statues and venerated fibulas — about almost any odd behaviour in a Roman Catholic church and they’ll believe you.

To many British people, Christianity seems like a weird but unexciting theme park. Personally, I like our ever-dwindling status. I even like our ever-dwindling numbers. There was a time when social pressure made people go to church. If anything the reverse is now true. Most adults you see in church nowadays are there because they want to be there. That’s not decline, it’s progress. The wheat has been separated from the chaff. We get quality, not quantity, in the churches and the chaff can enjoy a nice lie-in. That’s just as well, because there’ll be little opportunity for slumber when they’ve got a demon’s pitchfork up their arse.

That’s why I think Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is wrong to get his cassock in a twist about changing attitudes to Christianity in this country. He speaks of a “strident and bullying campaign” to marginalise Christianity. But that’s great news. “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

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I remember quite a few years ago the Anglican church published statistics that analysed the average congregants Bible reading patterns, and the results were revealing. One-third had read the New Testament in full and only one-fifth had the read the Bible in its entirety.

Although these results were dismal at best, it highlighted the fact that among those who actually bothered to read the Bible, most were majoring exclusively on the new testament.

Why is this a problem? Let me use a famous quote from St. Augustine:-

“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New Testament”

In other words Scripture reveals and illuminates Scripture.

Gev over at the Rosh Pina Project has put together some excellent thoughts based around the question of: “Why the ‘Old’ Testament for the ‘New’ Testament believer?” This is well worth a read in my opinion, so do pop across:-

Rosh Pina Project: The Wholly Bible!

Joseph over at the Rosh Pina Project has put together some interesting thoughts on the role of Gentiles within the Messianic movement.

Gentiles in the Messianic movement: Bnei Noach or Bnei Avraham?

This extract sums up nicely how I view myself as a Gentile believer in Yeshua:-

The bnei Avraham are exactly who God intended Gentile believers and Christians to be. You don’t need to keep halachah or prove you’re descended from a Lost Tribe – in fact if you’re a Gentile Christian who takes the right approach to Israel from the New Testament, then you already are a bnei Avraham without realising it!

Popping this one on the blog as it is timely and beneficial for me personally at the moment:-

CyberBrethren

When our faith is experienced very weakly in our hearts, we should, as God’s Word itself teaches us, do the following things:

1. Recognize that faith is God’s work and his gift, 1 Thess. 3.; John 6.

2. Inquire and examine ourselves if we gladly want to believe, and if we wish that our faith would be stronger and better. If this desire is present, then God’s work and his power is present, as St. Paul bears witness, that God also works this desire in us. Therefore even a weak, poor desire is God’s work.

3. Pay attention to the foundation and the bedrock of our faith, which is not our feelings, our nature, our strength, worthiness, word and service, but rather solely the service, innocence, satisfaction, obedience, suffering, bleeding and death and the blood of JESUS Christ, which we grasp, hold and appropriate to ourselves by faith, as through an instrument, a means, a hand. Obviously, a little weak toddler grasps an expensive ring with his weak little fingers just as surely as a big, strong Sampson can grasp that ring with his big fist. Yet it is one and the same ring that is not made less through the child’s weakness nor made greater by the strength of mighty Sampson. It is and remains one ring, that is, the ring of the service, of the satisfaction of Christ for the weak and for the strong, yes, even more for the weak than for those who let themselves imagine they’re strong.

4. Realize that the dear prayer from out of a humble heart is heard above all after the example of that afflicted man who had a poor child who was possessed and to whom the LORD said: “If you could believe then you would be helped. For all things are possible for those who believe.” “Oh LORD, (said the beleaguered father, weeping fervent tears), I believe, help my unbelief.”

5. Know that the Holy Ghost himself works and supports, heats up and gives courage to our prayer, sighing and tears, that it proceeds effectively and presses through the clouds and fills God’s ears. As Paul bears witness in Romans 8 that the Holy Ghost aids us in our weakness and advocates for us with unutterable groans and we cry out through him, “Abba, Father.” Therefore he is called the Spirit of prayer and of grace, Prov. 12, who bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children.

6. Receive the comforting promise that God the LORD will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoldering flax. Mt. 12.

If we would take to our hearts these six little points, we will be able to endure and overcome by God’s grace the trial that comes to us by our weakness of faith or, at last, after all, we will arrive at our salvation through the greater adversities yet to come. For as we live, so shall we die and so shall we be saved.

Source:

Instruction for Those Who are Afflicted because of their Weakness in Faith. (Taken from Nicol. Selnecker’s Conc. Funeb. I. P. 130.) Reprinted in Der Lutheraner, April 1845.

One of the authors of the Formula of Concord, Nicolaus Selnecker, penned these thoughts to help those who were suffering particular trials and temptations because of their weak faith. It was reprinted in Der Lutheraner. Thanks to Pastor Joel Basely for his translation.

There has been an inordinate amount of outrage online relating to this small article in Dutch News today:-

Christians can’t vote for Wilders, say vicars

A Christian cannot vote for Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party PVV, say 75% of church leaders in a poll of 1,200 ministers and church workers in the Nederlands Dagblad.

The ministers represent a cross-section of all the Netherlands’ Protestant churches, representing 2.3 million people, the paper says.

One third of the people polled said there were people who supported Wilders in their communities and 5% said Wilders had a lot of support.

‘Wilders and the PVV’s views contradict Christianity,’ one minister told the paper.

As you will note from comments on this article, there is little sympathy for these church leaders simply stating that Christians cannot vote for Geert Wilders, and the accusation that these leaders are “out of touch”.

Church leaders in the UK have made similar comments in recent times relating to the British National Party. Most notably in July last year, BNP members were banned from joining the Methodist Church,

It was back in October that a joint statement was issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, stating that; “Christians have been deeply disturbed by the conscious adoption by the BNP  of the language of our faith“.

Towards the end of last year the Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan became embroiled in a furious war of words with the BNP, over the far-right party’s claim to represent “Christian values”.

We also had the embarrassing episode whereby, David North a Churchwarden from Melton Mowbray, was bullied into resigning, after church leaders deemed that his membership of the British National Party (BNP) was “incompatible” with Christianity.

The truth is that I do not believe that church leaders should be banning or discriminating against folks who vote for, or are members of, any legal political body, no matter how distasteful we may find their “politics”.

This may sound a little ironic to regular readers, as I have often posted rebuttals of the BNP claims to represent Christianity, especially articles written by Edmund Standing, see; here, here, here & here.

My point in saying this, is that it is pointless church leaders simply saying Christians mustn’t be involved with political parties such as the BNP, they must make a strong case as to why this is so.

I personally know of some Christians who are leaning towards the BNP right now. These are good folk, who are utterly disillusioned with the “main” political parties on a number of issues, especially, immigration, the perceived rise of Islamic extremism and the erosion of a “Christian British cultural identity”. Readers have to be aware that as Christians we are acutely aware of the horrific persecution of our brothers and sisters in Islamic lands, which gives additional impetus to the fear of the rise of Islamic extremism in this country.

The BNP are cunningly attempting to fill a vacuum and tap in to a Christian sense of abandonment by the “main” political parties, and have gone as far as to clone and hijack Christianity through the Rev West West’s Christian Council of Britain. Do take the time to read the interesting comments on this blog relating to the Rev Robert West, including some from Rev West himself.

The British National Party (BNP) candidate styles himself as Rev.

I agree with the Communities Secretary John Denham, who last October called on faith groups to “nail the lie that the BNP is a “Christian party”, however, this does not take place by “bashing” those Christians who have been duped by the BNP, but by informing them and peeling off the skin of the BNP Christian claims.

I’ll say publicly that at one stage I was personally leaning toward the BNP, until I began reading articles written by Edmund Standing, who worked tirelessly to highlight the inconsistency of the BNP’s Christian claims (even though he himself is an atheist), but sadly has now stopped this work (tired of swimming in the sewers), which left a worrying gaping hole.

Thankfully, the website “There is nothing British about the BNP” has picked up the gauntlet today:-

Why there’s Nothing British about the BNP’s “Christian values”

Nick Griffin and the British National Party are keen to portray themselves as on the sides of traditional British culture.  They see a gap in the market that they can fill. While other parties surrender to multiculturalism, Islam, and politically correct secularism, the BNP stand up for traditional British Christianity. This is nonsense. There is nothing Christian about the BNP.

On the BBC’s ‘Question Time’ programme, British National Party leader Nick Griffin stated: ‘If Muslims do stay in this country they must remember that Britain is essentially a fundamentally British and Christian country’. The BNP is a ‘Christian’ party that can save ‘Christian culture’

The BNP have created a front organisation called the ‘Christian Council of Britain’, headed by BNP activist and electoral candidate Robert West who leads religious services at various BNP events, including the party’s ‘Red, White & Blue’ and reportedly preaches on topics such as ‘the importance of nationalism’ and how “homosexuals do greatly err”. For West, a multi-racial society is a form of ‘Holocaust’, with immigration used to create “Lebensraum” for the Third  World. Despite initially denying any connection with the BNP, West has admitted that the BNP “encouraged and facilitated” its establishment.

Why the BNP are not Christian

-          There’s nothing Christian about the BNP’s ethics. For Jesus Christ, humanity was all part of one family. Christianity from the outset taught a universal message which dissolved the idea of race or nation, teaching that it is of no significance to God. He said that we should love our neighbour, preach the good news and understanding to all nations. He taught the parable of the Good Samaritan, to show our true neighbours were not just those from the same race. Most of all, he abhorred violence and the hatred that is fascism’s speciality.

-          The BNP use Christianity as an excuse to attack Muslims. Rather than refer to the actual teachings of Christ, the BNP’s favoured role model are the Crusaders. In a letter, Nick Griffin wrote “We will never allow our children to become a minority in our homeland! We will fight to the bitter end, just like our Crusader ancestors, to preserve our Christian culture and heritage. The spirit of the Medieval Knights lives on in all of us!”

-          The BNP’s use Christianity as an excuse for their homophobia. British fascism has a history of extreme homophobia. While the party’s policy is no longer officially to ban homosexual activity, they are always keen to claim that homosexuals are an affront to Britain’s ‘Christian heritage’. 

-          The BNP’s real ideology is pagan. Christianity, of course, is a “foreign import”, and for the extreme activists within the BNP inner circle, like all other imports it must be purged.

The BNP’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Arthur Kemp wrote in his March of Titans that “the introduction of Christianity has to count as the single greatest ideological catastrophe to ever strike Europe.”

Ever since Himmler’s obsession with the occult, there has been a strain of Paganism with fascism, as zealots attempt to reclaim a purely European religion.

Lee Barnes, the BNP’s legal director, is a particular fan: ‘Christianity is a semitic religion, it is creature [sic] of the deserts of the Middle East not the forests of the Northern Europe [sic] and its symbol the cross is an instrument of torture not of living redemption’. In place of Christianity, Barnes advocates Odinism, the worship of the Norse pagan gods of pre-Christian Europe, and he connects the Odinic ‘tree of life’ (Yggdrasil) with a religion based on race: ‘The roots represent our descent from the Gods and our connection to the Earth, the trunk represents our shared European racial heritage, the main branches of the tree our nations and tribes, the twigs on each branch represent each family unit and each single leaf symbolises an individual life’.

Previous post here.

Cross-Post from the Rosh Pina Project:-

It’s 3.53am GMT and I’m having trouble sleeping. It doesn’t help that I have been poorly for a while (man flu?) and sleeping in the day.

I woke up with sickness and death on my mind, which is not conducive to getting back to sleep.

Not so many years ago I was working a Friday night shift as a nurse in a local hospital and we had an unusually young female patient on the ward, in her early twenties.

As usual I was advised of this patients status in the “hand over” period from the afternoon shift and learnt that she had a meeting with Social Services on the Monday, to ascertain who would take care of her very young daughter when she died.

Around midnight, she pressed the buzzer to call a nurse and I found her quite distressed as she was vomiting black bile (this was probably caused as a by-product of the medication) and so I assisted and cleaned her up.

As I was leaving her room she said to me; “Why is this happening to me?” Guess what, I didn’t have an answer and I still don’t have an answer.

It might of been feasible to trot out some droll theological answer, but how inappropriate and insensitive would that have been?

I wish to God I could have provided an answer that would have furnished some comfort to her, but I couldn’t. I simply told her that I didn’t know, apologised and left the room.

This incident has plagued me since, but I know I couldn’t have done any better and the reason is, that as a human and a Christian I simply don’t have all of the answers.

An important message from Polycarp.

According to Bible prophecy, false Messiahs, false prophets and false apostles arise as this age draws to a close, and later work great miracles, signs and wonders to deceive multitudes worldwide. Spiritual deception will dramatically increase, eventually so convincing that even the elect will find it difficult to resist.

Even today, faith healers and spiritual healers draw multitudes with promises of miracle healings and deliverance. We hear more and more about miracles and spiritual gifts, but how can we discern among real miracles of God, miracles, signs and wonders of the occult, and fake miracles via deceptions of men?

Surely we or our loved ones couldn’t be deceived? Or could we? See the article here.

This one made me smile….for once:-

Daily Mail:-

As an experienced police officer Inspector Roger Bartlett knows all about fighting crime.

But when he realised the crime detection rate in his district was one of the lowest in the force area, he decided the long arm of the law might need a bit of help.

He asked churchgoers to pool their efforts in calling on a higher power. God.

Now three years after encouraging locals to say their prayers to help the boys in blue – detection rates have soared, road accidents have fallen and Insp Bartlett is convinced it is evidence that God really does move in mysterious ways.

The 44-year-old policeman decided conventional policing could benefit from a little bit of help when he saw that the crime detection rate in his force area of Banstaple was one of the lowest in the Devon and Cornwall Police area.

The policeman who has 23 years experience, asked Christians to pray for the crime detection rate in 2007 – which at 26 per cent was one of the poorest in the region.

Every quarter since the detection rate has risen, so that now at more than 40 per cent it is one of the highest in the country.

Insp Bartlett asked for prayers for a reduction in the number of serious or fatal road accidents – and it fell from 97 in 2007/8 to 32 in 2008/9.

Last night the policeman said he was ‘convinced’ that people’s faith has had a positive impact on policing in Barnstaple.

The policeman, part of the leadership team of the local Christian Policing Team, began reporting at quarterly meetings of Christians from different churches in the town who want to pray for policing issues six years ago.

He said he has seen his prayers answered ‘on a number of occasions’.

There was the ‘unprecedented’ Halloween night when police did not have to attend a single incident of disorder.

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Perhaps CoAct, who are a Christian policing group, and believe that the power of prayer can catch criminals and keep officers safe, were right.

This is a cross-post by Chris Lazenby over at the King’s Evangelical Divinity School Blog. A simple message, but desperately needed in this day and age in my ‘umble opinion.

What is the Gospel? Or, to translate the word ‘gospel’, what is the Good News? You may think it a rather unexpected, or even silly question, to be asking on the website of a college which exists to teach the bible and Christian theology. And yet, I would suggest it is not. I believe there is a great deal of confusion over this word and guess that if you were to put this question to a number of churchgoers, you would get various answers. In the majority of the larger denominations for example, you’d most likely be told something along the lines that the Gospel is simply the love of God. Or that Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life. Some people asked may also talk about Jesus dying for us, but not be clear as to how this works.

The thing is, we can answer this question in many different ways. The Gospel is like a multi-faceted gemstone which has beauty running through it which looks different when viewed from different angles. And of course, part of this beauty is the good news that God loves us. But the message left there could apply to dozens of religions. What really makes Christianity different is Christ. Christians believe that God has sent his Son into the world to show what he, God, is like; to demonstrate his love for us and to reconcile us with himself. In Jesus’ death we see that no matter what we human beings do to him, he will still love; ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’

And yet, profound as these these things are, there is still more. And here is where we come to what I see as being the heart of the Gospel. The key word missing above is ’sin’. Such an old fashioned word is it not? And yet, we are all steeped in it; born into it; unable to avoid it, in thought, word and deed. How do we get rid of this sin; the things we say and do which we shouldn’t; or the things we don’t say and do which we should?

If we are honest, we’ll admit that we can’t sort this out ourselves. We can’t go back and put right everything we’ve ever done wrong. And we can’t pay God some kind of compensation, because he doesn’t need anything we can offer. And anyway, everything we do have, he gave us in the first place, including life itself. We know that God is a God of justice and that wrongdoing should be punished. And this is where the angle of so-called ’substitutionary atonement’ comes in. We can’t always do right or put right our wrongs, but Christ could and did. He lived a perfect life and, in his death, took the punishment for sin that we deserve.

Now it is precisely here that we seem to run into problems for so many people in the 21st century. Substitutionary atonement is now seen by many as a liability for the Christian church and even evangelical individuals and organisations are falling out about it. For many today, the doctrine is seen as an embarrassment or even an offence. We should not talk about sin and punishment to people in church; we should not point out the hopeless predicament we’re in and the desperate need of a Saviour. No! all of this is too negative. We might even put people off coming to our services! The idea that God should send his own Son to be punished for our transgressions has been rejected by many today as being a monstrously unjust idea. Steve Chalke, the well-known Baptist pastor, speaker and writer, has described the doctrine as ‘cosmic child abuse.’

And yet, throughout the Old Testament we read of a people who know they are sinners and who are instructed by God to offer substitutionary atonement to him so that they may be forgiven; their best goats, lambs, bulls, turtle-doves, whatever it may be; cosmic animal abuse if you care to use Steve Chalke’s disturbing terminology. And all of these sin atoning sacrifices are, in the New Testament, said to have been shadows of an ultimate sacrificial atonement to come. ‘(Christ) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption’ (Hebrews 9:12).

God has always reached down to bring his people up out of the mire. We can’t lift ourselves up because in our natural state, we are at enmity with God (James 4:4) ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ (Romans 3:10). So the coming of Christ is the ultimate demonstration of love; not a warm, fluffy love, but a love as hard as nails which refuses to be deflected. God the Son became a human being as we are (though without sin) and reached down into this murky world to raise up all those who would believe out of the mire, washed clean and ready to be presented to their heavenly Father; ‘Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation’ (Colossians 1:21-22).

God knows that we need to know we are forgiven and that therefore, we need to know that justice has been done. Jesus ‘was delivered over to death for our sins’ (Romans 4:25) through a love for us that is so great that, not only does this love pay the price – take the punishment – for sin, it leaves us in do doubt that the price is paid, so that we can know for sure that we are free and forgiven. But, for us to be in this condition of freedom and forgiveness, we must attach ourselves by faith to this Saviour, this lifebelt which has been thrown down to us, so that we are pulled from the slime into the very kingdom of God, where he has ‘raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.’ In this joyous state, we rejoice in St. Paul’s words in Romans 8:1; ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’: and in Ephesians 1:7; ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.’

Let me reiterate again that there is absolutely no way that we could do this by ourselves. We need a Saviour. There are many people calling themselves Christians today who do not know they need a Saviour and indeed, do not know what they need to be saved from. Let’s be absolutely clear on this. If we for one moment believe we do not need a Saviour; that we can somehow earn our own way into God’s favour by our own good deeds, we blaspheme against God. ‘I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die’ (Gal 2:21).

Whatever your own views on this topic, I’d urge you to think on it carefully, to search the scriptures and examine ‘whether these things be so’ (Acts 17:11). And I pray that God will bless you in your efforts.

JTA

To the Editor:

Re: the David Brog Op-Ed, I have read many such articles and letters about Christian support for Israel making some Jewish people uncomfortable. Many people like myself, who are Jewish and try to be practicing Jews, are deeply appreciative of the actions of Christians like Brog.

I laugh at those of my people who do not fully realize what a blessing it is to have Christians who take their faith and the Bible as an obligations to support and protect the State of Israel to the extent that they can.

To the members of the Tribe that may question our Christian brothers sincerity to Israel because of the long historical tragedy of Jewish-Christian animosity, I ask that it be remembered  that not all Christians looked upon Jews as enemies, We must judge men upon their individual acts today and not upon the past of their fathers.

It is most important that all Christians who stand with Israel in its never-ending battle for existence do not forget that many Jews feel tremendous gratitude for Christian support.

Kenneth Ellman
Newton, N.J.

Just for a larf:-

Stuff Christians Like:-

I shouldn’t be writing this one.

I shouldn’t be putting this on a blog, especially not on a day like Monday.

But there might be others out there who need this information. There might be other people who will benefit, greatly, from this. You’ll need to lean in close though, because I’m only going to say it once:

I’m part of a secret Christian underground at work.

I know, I know, it’s pretty exciting. I’m not sure how it started, but it’s true. For the last year or so I’ve become deeply immersed in a covert society of Christians that operates in the shadows. (I really feel like I should get a cloak of some sort as a member of this world, but no one agrees with me yet on this point.)

If you’ve never personally been involved in a group like this, there are a few things you need to know:

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