Martin Luther Diet of Worms Speech

"Since your most serene majesty and your lordships require of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason (for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. 

My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. (Source)

Craig Huey: Three Powerful Insights for Easter

 March 29th, 2024

Hi Arthur,

Here are three powerful insights for Easter Sunday:

1. Isaac Watts on the Cross.

“When I survey the wondrous Cross,

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count, but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.” – Isaac Watts

2. C.S. Lewis on the Son of God:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” – C. S. Lewis.

3. Ronald Reagan on the Miracle of the Cross.

“I still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived, and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where … is the miracle I spoke of? Well, consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time—possibly to your own hometown.

A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop. One day, he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He never gets farther than an area, perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He has done this for three years. Then, he is arrested, tried, and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33, along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing—the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him, so he is interred in a borrowed tomb.

End of story? No, this uneducated, property-less young man has, for 2,000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors, conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists, and philosophers who have ever lived—all of them put together. How do we explain that—unless He really was who He said He was?” – Ronald Reagan

To all of you, a very Happy Easter – He is risen! And all God’s people say…

Craig Huey

President | Election Forum

Questions or comments? Email me at craig@craighuey.com.

Yours in gratitude,

Craig A. Huey The Huey Report craig@craighuey.org craighuey.com

Trump Evangelicals are not ... Evangelical

If you want to know the larger reason for the cultural rot in our country, look no further than the truth beliefs and dynamics of the Trump Evangelical voters.

Check out this article from the New York Times: Trump is Connecting with a Different Type of Evangelical Voter

Karen Johnson went to her Lutheran church so regularly as a child that she won a perfect attendance award. As an adult, she taught Sunday school. But these days, Ms. Johnson, a 67-year-old counter attendant at a slot-machine parlor, no longer goes to church.

She still identifies as an evangelical Christian, but she doesn’t believe going to church is necessary to commune with God. “I have my own little thing with the Lord,” she says.

Christian faith is about more than our subjective identification. We are called to believe in a real, objective Savior.

What kind of Christianity is this? It's not the real deal, but rather shows the declining religious fervor in this country, and why this country is in big trouble.

Ms. Johnson’s thing includes frequent prayer, she said, as well as podcasts and YouTube channels that discuss politics and “what’s going on in the world” from a right-wing, and sometimes Christian, worldview. No one plays a more central role in her perspective than Donald J. Trump, the man she believes can defeat the Democrats who, she is certain, are destroying the country and bound for hell.

“Trump is our David and our Goliath,” Ms. Johnson said recently as she waited outside a hotel in eastern Iowa to hear the former president speak.

"Trump is our David and our Goliath." Huh? Those two persons in the Biblical accounts were polar opposites, one determined to destroy the other, and one destroyed the other. This kind of self-destruction is why the culture is in trouble in the United States.

White evangelical Christian voters have lined up behind Republican candidates for decades, driving conservative cultural issues into the heart of the party’s politics and making nominees and presidents of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

But no Republican has had a closer — or more counterintuitive — relationship with evangelicals than Mr. Trump.

The reason for the counter-intuitive realities is that too many Christians are not reading their Bibles and they are not connecting with their living Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is not a means to a political end, either. He is the leader. He is not just our king, but the King of Kings. Yet the growing idolatry among many so-called Christians towards Trump is really disturbing.

But religion scholars, drawing on a growing body of data, suggest another explanation: Evangelicals are not exactly who they used to be.

Being evangelical once suggested regular church attendance, a focus on salvation and conversion and strongly held views on specific issues such as abortion. Today, it is as often used to describe a cultural and political identity: one in which Christians are considered a persecuted minority, traditional institutions are viewed skeptically and Mr. Trump looms large.

And this is precisely the problem. Church has become a cultural thing, an identifier for political and social purposes, rather than an identity fully ensconced in Christ Jesus. This is beyond unacceptable.

People are basically worshipping a different Christ when they start establishing their own norms and customs for what defines faith.

“Politics has become the master identity,” said Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor. “Everything else lines up behind partisanship.”

This assessment is astute in its correctness. Ben Shapiro has been sounding the alarm on people using politics as their main source of identity, will, and purpose. That kind of low-leveling thinking has led to the growing divide in our country, and the growing weakness of the Church in the United States.

The head of the Church is Christ Jesus, not Trump, and a political agenda must not push aside, or "trump," the necessity of the Gospel being preached. I don't come to church just to learn how to vote. I come to church to see Jesus, to be transformed by His Holy Spirit to be more like Him.

In his last (written) words to the Church, Peter told us to "Grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord." (2 Peter 3:18). 

It's all about Jesus, not political outcomes. It's about Jesus, not our limited goals and our feel-good interests.

These "Evangelical" voters are not really all the evangelical, since they aren't all that interested in spreading the Good News, unless it's good news about Donald Trump.

Emptying Pews

Ms. Johnson’s Sunday morning routine changed well before Mr. Trump arrived on the political scene. In her early 20s, she was married to a man who didn’t believe, so she “dropped off going to the building.” She didn’t lose her faith, but life, including children and a few moves, pulled her in other directions.

In this she was typical. Church membership in the United States has been slipping for decades, along with the share of Americans who identify as Christian — and particularly as Protestants, the branch that has historically been the gravitational center of American religion. In the middle of the 20th century, 68 percent of Americans described themselves as Protestant. By 2022, 34 percent did, according to Gallup. (A further 11 percent described themselves as simply “Christian,” a category Gallup did not include until the late 1990s.)

Here's the core cause of our nation's ills. We have lost our identity in Christ, in Church, in faith, and we have gravitated toward our little goals and limited interests. Social cohesion is falling apart, in large part because people are not going to church anymore, either.

And recall at the beginning of the New York Times article, how Ms. Johnson considers herself a faithul believing Christian, even though she forsakes the assembly of herself with other Believers in Christ.

At first, declines mostly affected the more liberal mainline Protestant denominations. But in recent years, self-identified evangelical church attendance has dropped as well, and a larger share of conservatives than liberals report leaving church. In 2021, for the first time on record, less than 50 percent of Americans were members of a church.

COVID-19 and the horrid government backlash to this disease revealed the spiritual weaknesses in America. So many churches went along with the closures, required masks, or settled for online gatherings, despite the guarantees for freedom of religion in the United States Constitution. The fact that churches would cave so quickly to the state exposed their doctrinal and spiritual weakness.

“It’s the largest and fastest religious shift in our nation’s history,” said Michael Graham, the former executive pastor of a nondenominational church in Orlando, Fla., and the co-author of the recent book “The Great Dechurching.”

The transformation has been particularly visible in Iowa, where self-identified evangelicals, who make up about a quarter of the state’s population, are influential bellwethers in Republican politics — but where religious practice has changed more starkly than almost anywhere else in the country.

From 2010 to 2020, the state’s population of church adherents — people with some level of involvement in a congregation — fell almost 13 percent, a sharper decline than in any state except New Hampshire, according to the U.S. Religion Census, a comprehensive decennial survey of congregations.

No wonder Iowa went for Trump again, even though DeSantis demonstrated more religious adherents and political bona fides than Trump.

And the schedules of blue-collar jobs and youth sports no longer consider Sunday mornings sacrosanct, making regular attendance more difficult for working people and families.

Tricia Shuffty, 42, a Republican-leaning independent in Lucas County, said she voted mostly on “biblical issues.” But “unfortunately, I work Sundays,” Ms. Shuffty, a security guard, said, “so I don’t get to go to church regularly.”

The economy has taken a bad turn, for sure, and more people are working two or three jobs just to stay ahead. I do not view this challenge as the bigger reason why the Church in the United States is in trouble.

Clergy and religion experts are quick to note that people who have left church, or did not attend in the first place, have not necessarily abandoned religion. Evangelicalism has long had an individualistic strain that resists the idea that personal faith requires church attendance. Many people whose connection to organized religion has eroded continue to strongly identify as Christians.

That individualistic strain is straining this country. Civilization is not possible without societal cohesion, and that cohesion gives way when people focused on their little lives to the exclusion of everyone else. The Republican Party's drift toward license in the name of liberty, coupled with a complete abandonment of virtue, reflects this larger societal problem.

‘The Only Savior I Can See’

There was little sign at the outset of the 2016 Republican primary season that evangelicals would take to Mr. Trump as enthusiastically as they eventually did. When World magazine, an influential Christian publication, surveyed about 100 evangelical leaders in December 2015, none of them named Mr. Trump as their preferred candidate.

But as Mr. Trump gained ground in the early primaries, his growing strength among white evangelical voters became clear. Polls showed that the future nominee was most popular among one group in particular: white evangelicals who seldom or never went to church.

These are the same "evangelicals" who likely do not read their books and have used Trump as the replacement Savior for Christ, whom they are not encountering, in part because they don't read their Bibles, and in part because they don't go to church.

Final Comment

Let's face it: the "Trump Evangelicals" are more in love with Trump than they are with Jesus.

They are not going to church.

They are not reading their Bibles.

They are not walking by faith.

They are reframing Jesus and adherence to His grace and truth based on their limited political and cultural interests.

And this trend is a larger reason why our country is in trouble right now.

No presidential candidate is a savior or a Messiah for the country. No one person in the White House is going to fix the spiritual and societal ills ruining this country.

We need a Great Awakening, and that means a restoration of the Gospel, which necessarily rests on the Centrality of Christ.

Anti-Semitic Catholic Fraud E. Michael Jones Caves, Caters to Apostate Pope's Celebration of Homosexual "Couples"

These anti-Semitic "Trad-Con" fraudulent traditional Catholics are just as fake as the liberals. 

 Look at this hateful "Trad Con," who has made a large industry out of hating Jews and pushing "LOGOS", apart from the full revelation of Christ Jesus as Savior:

Here's an e-mail I received from a priest I respect.

Dear Mike,

Reading the statements from the Vatican, it seems perfectly reasonable what they have done. There is already a blessing for addicts (as well as journalists, intellectuals, and politicians, ha ha). Here is the…

— E. Michael Jones (@EMichaelJones1) December 19, 2023

E. Michael Jones is actually OK with the Pope's latest heretic directive.

He is actually justifying it, because some priest whom he "respects" says that it is OK.

NO!

This is all wrong.

And this capitulation by a hatemonger like E. Michael Jones just goes to show that people are more obsessed with what they can see, with authoritarian measures from some power or authority that they can recognize with their flesh, rather than honoring the King of Kings, Lord of Lords who is invisible to our limited, physical eyes.

The Church MUST Influence Goverment

 

FEC United Faith Pillar Devotional November 7, 2022

The Church Should Influence Government   When did the Church decide we shouldn't be a part of government decisions?  Why did we fall for the incorrect interpretation of "separation of church and state?"  That seems like a scheme of the devil to me.  Without the influence of God in our government offices, the laws change to more lawlessness, Biblical values are taken out of the public square, and we wind up with the mess we are in now.    Recently, I was reminded of many Bible prophets, and leaders that were willing to listen to God for guidance and wisdom.  Let me share a few to remind us that the Church (its people) should very much be right in the middle of what happens in our government offices locally and nationally!   Abraham—the father of all nations by God's promise to be his shield and his very great reward (Genesis 15)   Joseph—interprets Pharaoh's Dream and becomes the 2nd in command of Egypt (Genesis 37)   Moses—God gave him the Ten Commandments and much more to teach to the people on how they should live (Deuteronomy 5)   Joshua—God fights for His people when they are strong and courageous (Joshua 1)   Deborah—Used by God to judge the people when they once again turned from God and did what was evil in the sight God (Judges 4)   Gideon—Commanded 300 men to defeat an army of 1000s because he listened to God (Judges 7)   Prophet Samuel—Advised 2 Kings (Saul:  1 Samuel 9-16 David:  1 Samuel 16-25)   King David—Serves God throughout his reign as king (2 Samuel)   Prophet Nathan—Rebukes King David (2 Samuel 12)   Prophet Elijah—Tries to warn King Ahad that turning from God would be his demise (1 Kings 17-22)   Esther and Mordecai—changed Israel's future through King Ahasuerus by standing firm on God's promises even though all seemed lost (Esther)   Prophet Isaiah—advised four Kings (Isaiah)   Nehemiah—Even as a cup barrier he influenced the king (Nehemiah) Jeremiah—tried to warn the leaders of Israel that the country would fall into the hand of Babylon (Jeremiah)   Ezekiel—prophesied hope and reassurance to God's people while enslaved in Babylon (Ezekiel)   Daniel-- serving king Nebuchadnezzar and his successors with loyalty and ability until the time of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, all the while remaining true to the God of Israel (Daniel)   John the Baptist—Warned King Herod that his lifestyle would be his demise (Matthew 14)   Jesus—Our savior from the dying world (throughout Bible)   Paul—Spoke with Government leaders throughout his journeys across the nations (Paul wrote 13 books of the New Testament)   These are just a few people that served the Lord faithfully during their lifetime that had  major influences on their governments.  I encourage you to read the Bible chapters and books listed above to help encourage us that we, as a church, must be an integral part of the decisions made within our government today.   PLEASE VOTE!!!   If you would like to be a part of the FEC UNITED Pikes Peak Faith Pillar, CONTACT:   National FEC Chaplin and Pikes Peak Faith Pillar Pastor Garrett Graupner:    ggraupner@fecunited.com    Pikes Peak Faith Pillar Admin. Jeri S: jeri@fecunited.com

Pastor John MacArthur's Open Letter to Governor Gavin "Groomer" Newsom

Governor Gavin Newsom

1021 O Street, Suite 9000

Sacramento, CA 95814

 

Sir,

Almighty God says in His Word, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Scripture also teaches that it is the chief duty of any civic leader to reward those who do well and to punish evildoers (Romans 13:1–7). You have not only failed in that responsibility; you routinely turn it on its head, rewarding evildoers and punishing the righteous.

The Word of God pronounces judgment on those who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20), and yet many of your policies reflect this unholy, upside-down view of honor and morality. The diabolical effects of your worldview are evident in the statistics of California’s epidemics of crime, homelessness, sexual perversions (like homosexuality and transgenderism), and other malignant expressions of human misery that stem directly from corrupt public policy. I don’t need to itemize or elaborate on the many immoral decisions you have perpetrated against God and the people of our state, which have only exacerbated these problems. Nevertheless, my goal in writing is not to contend with your politics, but rather to plead with you to hear and heed what the Word of God says to men in your position.

“Let all kings bow down before Him, all nations serve Him” (Psalm 72:11).

“He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises” (2 Samuel 23:3–4).

“It is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, for a throne is established on righteousness” (Proverbs 16:12).

What God said to Cyrus is a truth you should take to heart: “I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:5–6).

In mid-September, you revealed to the entire nation how thoroughly rebellious against God you are when you sponsored billboards across America promoting the slaughter of children, whom He creates in the womb (Psalm 139:13–16; Isaiah 45:9–12). You further compounded the wickedness of that murderous campaign with a reprehensible act of gross blasphemy, quoting the very words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 as if you could somehow twist His meaning and arrogate His name in favor of butchering unborn infants. You used the name and the words of Christ to promote the credo of Molech (Leviticus 20:1–5). It would be hard to imagine a greater sacrilege.

Furthermore, you chose words from the lips of Jesus without admitting that in the same moment He gave the greatest commandment: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). You cannot love God as He commands while aiding in the murder of His image-bearers.

Psalm 50:16–19 speaks to people who pervert the Word of God for their own sinful ends:

But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recount My statutes
And to take My covenant in your mouth?
For you hate discipline,
And you cast My words behind you.
When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
And you associate with adulterers.
You let your mouth loose in evil
And you harness your tongue for deceit.”

My concern, Governor Newsom, is that your own soul lies in grave, eternal peril. “Each one of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). One day, not very long from now, you will face that reality. Nothing is more certain. “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). You will stand in the presence of the Holy God who created you, who is your Judge, and He will demand that you give an account for how you have flouted His authority in your governing, and how you have twisted His own Holy Word to rationalize it. As you look over the precipice of eternity, what will your answer be? When you look ahead of you and see that nothing awaits you but eternal misery—the just punishment for your sins—what will all the clever rationalizations and political talking points avail for you then? And by then it will be too late for any remedy or redemption. “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

My plea to you, Sir, is that you would not let it come to that—that you would not go to that day of judgment apart from receiving forgiveness and righteousness through faith in Christ alone. In Psalm 50, after rebuking the wicked for uttering God’s words in a profane way, Scripture makes this promise: “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me; and he who orders his way, I shall show the salvation of God” (Psalm 50:22–23).

So there is salvation for those who repent. Christ purchased full redemption for all who will turn from wickedness, forsake their evil thoughts and actions, and trust fully in Him as Lord and Savior.

Our church, and countless Christians nationwide, are praying for your full repentance. Please respond to the gospel, forsake the path of wickedness you have pursued all your life, turn to Christ, ask for forgiveness, and use your office to advance the cause of righteousness (as is your duty) instead of undermining it (as has been your pattern).

Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6–7)

Governor Newsom, “now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

 

For the Master,

John MacArthur
Pastor-Teacher

No Such Thing as Christian Anti-Semitism

Dr. Michael Brown is a good friend of mine. He has been a long-time supporter of MassResistance, the pro-family organization I worked for for a number of a years. I have enjoyed joining his radio program from time-to-time as well. I really appreciate his outreach to Christians on all matters political, and I respect his support for the state of Israel as well as his Christian missionary outreach to Jews in the United States and around the world.

I must take exception, however, to the title of his latest article, in which he denounces “Christian Anti-Semitism.” With all due respect, there is no such thing. That’s like talking about Satanists for Christ, or Jews for Hitler. It makes no sense. There is religious anti-Semitism, certainly, but there is nothing Christian about Christians hating Jews or (justifiably) hating Israel. To his credit, Dr. Brown in his article was clearly denouncing the so-called “progressive” Christians of the so-called Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Still, the joining of “Christian” and “Anti-Semitism” is wrong.

This discussion is timely, for sure. Anti-Semitism is a catch-all smear used all too often against conservatives, when the Democratic Party has a long history of anti-Semitism (one that has barely abated, I might add). Furthermore, even some so-called nationalists and populists are embracing a total hatred of Israel and of Jews, as though support for Israel is anti-America First. It’s about time that we confronted this matter.

Again, I take exception with the title and the notion “Christian Anti-Semitism,” not with Brown’s criticism of the regressive church in South Africa that he was calling out. I must add that an estimable missionary movement, One For Israel Ministries, also talks about Christian Anti-Semitism, and I think that their use of that moniker is wrong, too.

For starters, what does the Bible say about Christians and their calling in relationship to the Jews? Paul the Apostle writes to the Romans: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:3) He then writes: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)

Wanting Jewish people to be saved does not quite square with “The Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” or “Jews are going to hell, and I don’t care” or “Jews control everything, and we must stop them.” You cannot be a Christian and hate Jews. It makes no sense, just as someone who lives under the grace of God would have no compunction to go out and live in sin (cf. Romans 6:11-14).

Of course, the common retort from some critics is “The Jews killed Christ.”

Was it just “the Jews”? True, the Israelite religious leaders during Jesus’ earthly ministry plotted to destroy Him, and they corrupted the legal process to rush through an immediate execution of our Lord and Savior. There are numerous passages testifying to this throughout the Gospels. But let’s not forget that it was Roman leaders and soldiers along with a crowd of Jews and Gentiles which rejected Jesus before He was crucified. At this point, it’s necessary for us to embrace a humbling spiritual truth. If everyone of us had been in that crowd that day, standing before Pilate and the beaten, bleeding Christ, we all would have shouted “Away with this man! Crucify Him!” And why? Isaiah declares it so: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Biblical Hebrew uses a number of words for “man”: adam, ish, enosh, gibbor, etc. In the Messianic verse above, “ish” is used in the passage “rejected of men.” There is no difference there among the different groups of men in the world. The verse does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile. Abandon this notion “Well, if I had been there, I would have called for His release!” No, you would not.

Furthermore, there were many Jews who believed on Jesus, before, during, and after His Crucifixtion! (John 11:45, John 12:11; Acts 17:12, 21:20). No, it was not “The Jews” who killed Christ.

Some scholars distort Scriptures show that we should fear and oppose Jews. Here’s one example: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (John 20:19).

When you read the Bible, don’t discard your reason. The disciples in the upper room were Jews themselves! Were they afraid of themselves, too? The context alone bears out that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, since they were the ones trying to suppress the Gospel.

Even in the Catholic Church, if one follows the old-school Latin rite of the traditional Good Friday liturgy, there is a recitation in which the congregants pray for the conversion of the Jews: “Oremus et pro perfidies Judaeis,” i.e. “Let us pray for the unbelieving Jews.” That is not anti-Semitism. Why would anyone pray for anyone else to believe if they have a hatred towards them?!

Consider once again that prayer in the traditional Latin Mass: “Let us pray for the Jews who don’t believe,” which implies that there are Jews who DO believe! Of course there were, and there are (Michael Brown, among hundreds of thousands, if not millions around the world)!  Christianity would not exist but for those believing Jews, starting with the apostles and their adherents, who spread the Good News.

The Bible does not support anti-Semitism. True Christian faith is incommensurate with anti-Semitism, as well. Christian faith, revelation of God’s Word, Christ and Him Crucified does not teach let alone justify anti-Semitism. In fact, it outright rejects it (cf. Romans 11:18-21). Religious anti-Semitism, yes, but let’s stop calling it “Christian Anti-Semitism.”

Why I Loathe Alcoholics Anonymous

 

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

For years, I was stepped in this terrible cult called Alcoholics Anonymous.

My mother was a recovering alcoholic, according to her statements, testimony, blah. She worked "the steps" every day of her life, so she claimed. She got sober in 1978, having had a spiritual revelation after drinking a morning mimosa. Something in her spirit told her "You don't have to do this anymore."

And that was the last time she drank alcohol. For the record, I feel compelled to point out that she received a spiritual revelation from God, not help or support from working Twelve Steps. However, the evil genius of Alcoholics Anonymous is to teach people that "It works if you work it" and the Big Book offers this guarantee that people who follow the Twelve Steps rarely fail.

The truth is, my Mom got sober without AA, but she still believed that she had to work the Twelve Steps every day of her life just to get through the day.

On another note, my mother quit smoking when she prayed, when she asked the LORD for help and stopped relying on her own efforts to quit. "I have no faith in me, and I have very little faith in you."

But God can use our little faith to do great things, and my mother was set free from smoking.

Sadly, she was still addicted to AA, and she worked that awful program, until it worked her to death.

Why do I loathe AA? It's not just that that legalistic, self-loathing cult damaged my mother, it's not just that that awful cult turned my mother into an abusive therapy who put her own "recovery" ahead of the needs of her children, her family, and anyone else--even Christ Himself!

I loathe AA because it teaches people to identify with a lie.

At every meeting, every member of the club in the "rewms" will say: "Hi, my name is ... , and I am an alcoholic."

Now, tell me ... how can we really expect anyone to break free of a damaging perversion if we teach people to identify with it? If you are "born" an alcoholic, then you should just drink and drink until you pass out or die.

BUT ... people are NOT born alcoholic. Just as there is no evidence that people are born gay, there is no gene for alcoholic. Granted, patterns of alcoholism do ensue in families, but it has to do with the abuse and trauma which children suffer from their parents, and there is this uncanny tendency for children to replicate the bad behaviors of their parents based on the imprinting and the wrong believing that comes with identifying with one's parents--no matter how bad they may be,

To sum up: no, people are not born "alcoholic." What's more, many people get over alcoholism without taking those ridiculous Twelve Steps.

The AA cult teaches lies to its members. It purports to not be a religious program, and yet members are instructed to turn their will and their life over to a "Higher Power" as they understand Him. Going beyond that, however, this Higher Power is still subject to the Twelve Steps--which have no pattern or value in the Old or New Testaments. In effect, the higher power for everyone in AA is not the Lord God as revealed in the Scriptures.

It's the creepy God of Bill W.'s insidious creation. (For those who don't know, Bill Wilson--or Bill W.--founded Alcoholics Anonymous.) Bill W. is treated with almost divine reverence in the meeting rewms of AA. It's really sickening. Let's state this fact plaintly once more: this "Higher Power" is an invention of Bill W.

It is total idolatry. Christians, Muslims, Jews, anyone who belongs to any faith community should reject AA out of hand. 

But for those who believe in Jesus, who recognize the Bible as God's Word, AA is all the more fully incompatible.

This terrible cult teaches people to identify with a sin, with an addiction, a moral failing.

What does the Bible say about our new identity in Christ?

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We receive a new standing before our Loving Father. God is no more some distant deity, but our Loving Father!

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

and

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:17)

Yes, AA's Big Book makes one reference that "He is our Father. We are His children," but then goes back to leveling adherents with religious demands. The truth is, the AA program does not reveal anything about the Higher Power, aside from what is in the book. This notion of "God as I understand Him" is absolutely ludicrous. If I could understand God, He would not be God anymore, now, would He?

But I digress.

The biggest fraud about the AA cult is that it teaches people to identify with their sins, with their failures, with their faults.

At the top of this post, I quote Romans 6:11, in which Paul clearly declares to the Christian believers in Roman: "Reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ."

When you are born again, you are no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You are a child of God. Yes, there is training, there is the process of sanctification, which the Holy Spirit works on and in us as we see more of Jesus in the Word (cf 2 Corinthians 3:18)

You don't need to take steps to be one with your Heavenly Father.

In fact, even in the Old Testament, taking steps to God's altar was expressly forbidden:

"Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20:26)

If we try in our own efforts to get right with God, we merely expose our nakedness, our sin, our shame:

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

But in Christ, we have the fullness of His work. He declared "It is Finished" (John 19:30)

But you are no longer a sinner, and you are called to no longer identify with sin or any sins in your life.

Alcoholics Anonymous urges people to keep identifying with their sins, to keep rehashing their failures, to keep going to the joyless AA meeting, to keep repeating the empty mantras, to fall in line with the mob mentality, the mob identity.

My mother worked the program all right ... until she ended up taking her own life in 2012. This is the first time I have made this revelation public, but it needs to be said. Anyone who learns that he has to keep looking at his own sins and failures, that he must keep "taking his inventory" to stay one step ahead of an alcohol relapse, is looking at an empty life full of shame, hurt, and loss.

The number of people who have committed suicide while going to the AA "rewms" is pretty staggering, as well. But is anyone really surprised? A relentless program of self-loathing and self-abnegation is not going to produce happiness, joy, or freedom. 

Did I forget to mention that AA members often tout that their program is a "selfish" program, as if that is something to be proud of ...?

At any rate, I hope I have explained fully why I loathe Alcoholics Anonymous. The blood of Jesus cleanses everyone of us from all sins (1 John 1:9), and Jesus rests as the propitiation (full payment) for our sins and the sins of the entire world. If He has paid for all the sins of all the world, then there is no reason for people to rehash their sins or rest in their failures. It's time to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on Christ Jesus! Forget the false god of Alcoholics Anonymous and believe in Christ and Him Crucified:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:8)

If you find that you are still struggling with certain behaviors or bad habits, you just need to receive more favor, a greater revelation of Christ Jesus, and who you are in Christ:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

and

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 

5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Colossians 3:1-5)

and

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)

We don't need AA. Let us have grace, which we receive through Christ Jesus!

Pastor Scott Lively Explains: "Replacement Theology is a Fraud"

 A CAUTION TO THORN KICKERS

The most famous Jew of the Bible, after the Judean Jesus, was Paul, the self-described “Pharisee of Pharisees.” That chief persecutor of Christians, who was known first by his Hebrew name Saul, adopted the Latinized version “Paul” after being famously, uniquely saved and anointed for service by the ascended Christ Himself on the road to Damascus in Acts 22. When giving that testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26:14, Paul reported that Jesus had said “in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

To kick against pricks (thorns) has ever since been a metaphor for foolishly harming oneself by persisting in futile acts against God’s will. Significantly, the thorns in question were almost certainly from the same plant of which Jesus’ Crown of Thorns was made: “Euphorbia Milii,” known commonly today as “Christ thorn.” That crown was the first element of the Romans' mocking tribute to "The King of the Jews" in John 19. 

Paul believed he was serving God by opposing the Christians but was only hurting himself because he didn’t understand God’s plan for the church until his spiritual eyes were opened -- by being (temporarily) physically struck blind. 

Likewise, many Christians in today’s “anti-Zionist” camp don’t understand God’s plan for the Jews and are thus “kicking against the pricks” by denying their right to the Holy Land.

As God’s post-conversion Apostle to the Gentiles, the Jews’-Jew-become-Christian Paul was uniquely qualified for his special mission as God’s messenger to non-Jews and his letters provide us most of the reasoned systematic theology that defines Christianity. God’s perspective about the Jews and Judaism is scattered throughout Paul’s letters, but is most complete in his Letter to the Romans, including the critical question of how Gentiles are to treat Jews in the Gentile age, filling the entire 11th chapter, key excerpts of which follow: 

“I [Paul] ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew....What Israel [as a whole] was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect [those few Jews who accepted Christ] did. The others were hardened...I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous...For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?...Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

“You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ That is correct: ... And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved [at the Second Coming, when]...The Deliverer will come from Zion...For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.”

Romans 11 is an unequivocal proof-text against “supercessionism” (replacement theology) which holds that the church fully replaced the Hebrews as the beneficiary of His covenant. Supercessionism (and its pernicious cousin punative supercessionism) is the great error of Roman Catholicism (which was largely retained by Protestantism in the reformation), justifying the persecution of the Jews in many pogroms throughout history, and in turn causing Jews to create their own culture-shaping/controlling mechanisms in self-defense, as God gave them the power to do (Genesis 22:17c). 

[My only goal in stating this observation is to seek the objective truth above that fray. I have come to believe that much, or perhaps most of world history in the Age of the Gentiles has been shaped by a largely behind-the-scenes war for world control between the institutions of Roman Catholicism and Talmudic Judaism. I have launched a new book research project on this hypothesis with the working title of "Judah Under the Gentiles."] 

As much as I love both Roman Catholic and Talmudic Jewish friends whom I have known, both religious camps represent a departure from Scripture through the undue elevation of (sometimes but not always false) human-created doctrines and interpretations that came to define them. But just as Paul noted in Romans 11:2-5, there has always been a remnant of true believers in both Christianity and Judaism (which fact does not nullify John 14:6). 

True Conservative Influencer: Porn Destroyed My Life, Jesus Set Me Free

Kangmin Lee has been establishing a true, conservative, most importantly CHRISTIAN profile on social media.

He has been open about his faith, unashamed of the Gospel:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

He started denouncing the spread and promotion of pornography to youth. Recently, he criticized TPUSA for allowing a "conservative" porn start to attend one of their events in Florida.

He wanted to make it very clear that he was not standing on some throne of sanctimonious self-righteousness when he condemned this porn star's appearance at an event with kids.

Check out what he shared below. This is the kind of conservative influencing we need to see in our culture today:

I am not speaking out against pornography as if I’m some righteous Pharisaical paradigm of purity.

I was addicted to pornography for 10 years. God radically delivered me from it last year.

It is destructive, dehumanizing, and degrading.

— Kangmin Lee 🇰🇷✝️🇺🇸 (@thekangminlee) July 19, 2021

It takes a great deal of courage for someone to come out about such a struggle. For someone like this young man to talk about the great pains, dangers, and losses which follow from pornography is truly inspiring. These are the young men and women whom we should cherish and support. We need to encourage more young people to realize that they are not alone in this world, but that in Christ, they have everything that they need. 

Discussing the Scofield Bible, The Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and Israel

I have been conversing with a Christian friend of mine, one who does not support Israel, who believes that the current state should not exist. He also adheres to "replacement theology," which suggests that God has abandoned the Jews and now only works with Christians.

Here was the first question that I posed to him:

Hey -----!

The Scofield Bible is getting some massive excoriation at this time [on social media].

I have never read that version, since I am not interested in any version of the Bible which has someone else's comments or ideas embedded into it.

Your reasons for being vocally opposed to the Scofield, and what are the errors which it teaches? -- Please share when you have time.

Here are the responses that I received:

It altered who all Christians believed - for nearly 2,000 years - that NT Israel was. His Bible was bankrolled by the biggest Zionists in America....to swing millions of Christians into their political camp. Palestinian Christians and non-violent Muslims have paid a huge price. World peace has been altered. And due to this poor theology we treat Israel different then all other nations, in desperate need of the Gospel of the Messiah. Send me your personal email address again Arthur. I will send you a two-page short Bible study and a theological reading list that has impacted a lot of other dispensationalists.

Here is the second message I received:

Arthur:

 I fear your hermeneutical view of Scripture starts with your support of a political entity lost, apart from Jesus Christ.  The Zionist Jews of Israel are not being threatened from others.  Their hatred of the Triune God makes themselves their greatest enemy.  They have the highest tax-payer funded abortion rate in the world.  Tel Aviv is the homosexual capital of the world.  (Ask the Jewish psychologist who used to practice in San Francisco until they ran him out….and who called to thank me for burning those transgender library books.)  And they just vaccinated 61% of their population with the deadly mNRA full of spike proteins.  And they are brutally cruel to their neighbors, whom the Zionists in charge see as goyim or cattle.  God is dealing with Israel for rejecting the Messiah.  May we one day see them return to Christ, via Romans 11.  But not through more nuclear bombs and American aid.

 See my attached piece I use to ‘lit-drop’ dispensational churches in the region and my reading list.  Those who adhere to the erroneous ‘end times’ doctrine have done such harm to take Christians off the battle field.  Such harm!

And see the Meme, I produced.  The best Reformed Covenantal (we never use the word ‘Replacement’….that was made up by dispensationalists) theologians came from former pro-Israel dispensational backgrounds.  They stopped reading the Scofield margin notes and started reading the Bible.  Some of the best people sounding the warning against Zionists are Karaite Jewish Rabbis.  I appreciate them and think they could be good neighbors.

 BTW, does ‘Schaper’ have any Jewish roots to it?

Here is my first response, and extensive set of remarks to contrast with what he had shared with me:

Hey P-----!

You've made a number of great responses to me regarding this issue.

I want to make it very clear that I recognize that there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. I do not suggest that people can be saved apart from believing in his perfect sacrifice of the cross. Amen!

The notion however that God has cut off Jews from his loving power is just not true. He wants them to believe, and he continues to reach out to them just as he reaches out to us. He does have a special covenant with them, as he established not just in Genesis chapter 12, but has been affirmed in other passages as well throughout the old and new testaments.

Consider these passages:

"19And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, 20Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; 21Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 22As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me." (Jeremiah 33:19-22)

And

"Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." Hosea 1:10

 I did not accept this replacement theology. The fact is that we are blessed with believing Abraham, every person who believes in Jesus Christ. This is available to everyone, including the Jewish people. God has not cut off his covenant with them. However, because they insist on staying under the old covenant, they endure the old covenant curses. That is why, for example, they were dispersed throughout the world in AD 70.

Consider these passages, too:

"Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus."( John 12:11)

 During Jesus earthly ministry, many Jews ended up believing in him! If he had cut them off, they would have never believed in him.

Ask for today, or in our current times, Many Jews don't even believe in God, right now, because of a great blindness due to seeing Moses and not Jesus:

"13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2  Corinthians 3, versus 13 through 16)

 Regarding the rebirth of Israel as a nation:

"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isaiah 66:8)

And

"But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jeremiah 23:8)

And

"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither." (Jeremiah 31:8)

 I wish to affirm that everything that I've shared with you is from The Bible, specifically the King James version. I have not drawn any inspiration or insight from the so-called Scofield bible. In fact I've never even read that version. I agree that nobody should settle for a version of The Bible that is replete with passages, messages and notes from someone else. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us in the scriptures. We don't need to keep running to Other people to do that for us.

 My starting point is not a nation state. My starting point is Jesus Christ! My starting point is that Jesus will fufill the old covenant, and enacted a new covenant.

My last name is not a Jewish last name. I find it interesting that you're bringing up ethnic backgrounds. That's very strange. Truth has nothing to do with one's ethnic status or ancestry.

My second response:

Believe me, I am well aware of the hostility that rabbis and secular Jews have towards Christianity. That hostility is quite rampant among Muslims and other secular groups as well, so it doesn't make a lot of sense just to target Jews regarding this issue.

As we speak, especially in spite of covid 19, an incredible Christian messianic Jewish ministry has been sharing the gospel with Jews throughout Israel, and more of them are believing in Jesus!

https://www.oneforisrael.org/

I then followed up with this question:

Another question, P---:

Do you believe that christians today are still bound to try to keep the 10 commandments?

Here were the final responses that I wrote to him:

Hey P---:

I am responding now to your points about Under Law vs. Under Grace.

That is two different things.

Being under law (as to justification) where the answer is No; 

AGREED!

 opposed to we are expected to keep them (as to sanctification), where the answer is Yes.

If that is the case, then how do you respond to Paul's own words in these Epistles (these are not comments from Paul Scofield)?

"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4)

And

"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:6)

And also:

13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The passage about "handwriting of ordinances" is the Law, and it has been rendered inoperative against us because Jesus fulfilled the Law.

I agree that the WORLD needs to the Ten Commandments. We need to post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse. But for us who are believers in Christ, who have received the adoption of children. We are taught by His GRACE!

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

Again, Jesus fulfilled the Law. He declared as much in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

Since He fulfilled the law, why would we try to keep it?

How do you respond to these statements from Paul, after receiving incredible revelation from The Lord?

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3:19)

and

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" (Romans 5:20)

and

"23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:23-25)

Based on the revelation which Paul shares in the Epistle to the Romans, for example, the law is not a standard to live by, but rather a standard which condemns us and shows us our need for a Savior. Do you agree with what Paul writes, or do you read this differently?

Your point about holiness, sanctification is well noted. How do we become holy?

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:" (1 Corinthians 1:30)

and

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Christ is our sanctification, not the Law, as Paul declares to the Corinthian Church. The more that we see Him in the Word, the more that His Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory. AMEN.

I wanted to share these remarks with you, as well, following your statement about Old Covenant v. New Covenant. You have helped me to understand why there is such a harsh opposition to Israel and Jews. If Christians do not enter fully in the Grace of God, but attempt to go with mixture (grace and law), then inevitably they will persecute those who recognize that we no longer keep the law (Christians like me) or Jews, who do not (yet) believe in Jesus.

Thanks for your time, P---.

Take care!