Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV) And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
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The Amen Corner
Woe unto that man who conceals the Light when men are stumbling in the darkness! Woe unto him who keeps back the Bread of Life in the season of famine! -Charles H. Spurgeon
Faith has nothing to do with feelings or with impressions, with improbabilities or with outward experiences. If we desire to couple such things with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His word, the heart is at peace. -George Muller
Dr. W. B. Henson, a Bible-believing preacher of past years, preached a mighty sermon on the second coming of Christ.
A group of young ministers heard the message. At the close of the service, they said to Dr. Henson, “We don’t see it as you do; we cannot get it out of the New Testament.”
To this he replied, “Of course you can’t get it out of the New Testament. It’s there to stay!” -Vance Havner
Some want to live within the sound of church chapel bells. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell. -C. T. Studd
Adversities do not make the man either weak or strong, but they reveal what he is. -Faith Foesyte
To reach the port, we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail and not drift or lie at anchor. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Many churches are asleep and I know of no better way of awakening them than to get them to look for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. -D. L. Moody
You will understand the Bible much more easily and much better if you get well acquainted with its Author.
Our churches need revival, but our nation needs regeneration. -Dennis Leatherman
Criminals are not born. They are reared in an era which has discarded morality. They are victims of spiritual starvation. Irreligion has obviously become the major contributing factor to our national juvenile crisis. -Judge Julius Miner, Chicago
There is no news equal to the news of Christmas. To those who receive it, who feed on it in their hearts, it is like news of a great victory. It tells of an enemy defeated – and a cruel, malicious enemy who is alike the foe of God and man – and that is the Devil. Satan’s power was shaken to the center on the day that the angels sang their hymn of joy in the fields about Bethlehem. Today, instead of the “gods many and lords many” we are presented with a truer and nobler Object of our homage. We have shown to us One who is the brightness of His Father’s glory and the express image of His Person.
This is the first bold statement the Conservative Baptist Network has made in their nearly three years of existence. Now my question is what will be done about the plethora of apostasy within the Southern Baptist Convention? In Christ, Pastor Steve <><
In an explosive new report, the Conservative Baptist Network, a powerful network of Southern Baptist Convention leaders, has indicted a number of denominational figures for their advancement and propagation of liberal ideologies within the denomination. The report, compiled by Klayton A. Carson, is a call to action for a new conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention.
The report names Southern Baptist leaders at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS), Matthew Hall and Jarvis Williams, for their controversial statements on racial reconciliation and the influence of Critical Race Theory. Hall, a former dean and provost of SBTS, made shocking statements in 2018, referring to himself as a “racist” and a “white supremacist,” yet was appointed as provost and senior vice president of Biola University four years later, raising questions about the influence of liberal ideas within the Southern Baptist Convention. Williams, an associate professor of New Testament interpretation at SBTS, also spoke about the issue of white supremacy at a panel discussion, raising concerns about the push of liberal ideas in theological education.
The report also calls out Walter Strickland, associate vice president for Kingdom Diversity Initiatives at Southeastern Seminary, and Southeastern President Danny Akin, for promoting the teachings of Liberation Theologian James Cone at the school, and allowing these ideologies to flourish under their leadership. Kevin Smith, former Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware Executive Director and current teaching pastor of the Go Family Church Village Campus, and former vice chair of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, is also named in the report for calling Southern Baptists who voted for Donald Trump “whores.”
The Conservative Baptist Network also indicted NAMB leader Dhati Lews and Southeastern Professor and Dean of Theology Jeffrey Bingham, raising concerns about the influence of these liberal ideas and ideologies and has called for action to be taken in order to protect the integrity of the SBC.
The report also criticizes Al Mohler for speaking out against a pro-Critical Race Theory resolution in 2019 yet failing to speak out against it when he had the opportunity to during the annual meeting. The report also mentions the failure to pass a resolution to rescind the pro-Critical Race Theory resolution and the Committee on Resolutions, led by now-SBC President Bart Barter, declining to bring forward a resolution that was co-submitted by over 1300 Southern Baptists in 2021.
The report also points to “Kingdom Race Theology” being promoted by serial plagiarist and former Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Litton, and prominent non-SBC pastor, Tony Evans as nothing more than Critical Race Theory wrapped up in some Christian language.
It further goes on to argue that in recent years, there has been a growing trend of female preachers within the Southern Baptist Convention, despite the traditional belief that scripture reserves the pastorate for qualified men alone. This trend includes popular teacher and Bible study writer Beth Moore, who preached at a Southern Baptist church on Mother’s Day in 2019, and at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary National Preaching Conference in 2022. Despite the rise of women preachers, the report states that some Southern Baptists continue to express concern that these actions contradict the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
Additionally, the report highlights some concerning trends in the Southern Baptist Convention, such as declining baptisms and Cooperative Program giving, and double standards, particularly around areas of sex abuse, lack of transparency, and softening stances on homosexuality. The report argues that the denomination has turned a blind eye to progressive SBC leaders who have been accused of participating in covering up sex abuse, such as Bryan Loritts, who works at former SBC president, JD Greear’s Summit Church, while being much harder on conservatives who are accused, whether or not the accusations are credible.
Former SBC Presidents JD Greear and Ed Litton were criticized for softening their stance on LGBTQ issues. In a 2019 sermon, Greear suggested that the Bible is more lenient on sexual sin compared to other sins, and Litton made a similar statement in a since-deleted sermon video, arguments that this kind of rhetoric is problematic and sends a message of tolerance for LGBTQ individuals, despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s traditional views on the matter. The network also implicated Southeastern professor, Karen Swallow Prior, for her promotion of Revoice, the “gay Christianity” movement that suggests that same-sex celibate couples can live together in marriage-like arrangements so long as they stop short of bodily penetration.
The report also targets current SBC president, Bart Barber, who is criticized for defending former SBC president, Ed Litton’s serial plagiarism. Barber, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, made several tweets and statements in September 2021 and August 2022. In a September 2021 tweet, Barber stated that Mark’s gospel is Peter’s account offered without attribution and that God inspired Mark to plagiarize Peter. In a different tweet, Barber said that Mark was not bound by any such authority and that he plagiarized as God inspired him to do.
Finally, the dossier criticized the North American Mission Board for its lack of transparency and called for a forensic audit of the organization’s spending and argued that over $1.2 billion spent by NAMB over the last 10 years has only resulted in diminishing evangelism and church planting. NAMB was also criticized for its promotion of a compromised advertisement program called “He Gets Us” which watered down the gospel message and presented Jesus as a social justice activist.
The Conservative Baptist Network is calling on all Southern Baptists to take action and protect the integrity of the denomination by fighting against the influence of liberal ideas and ideologies.
BY KENNETH CHAN/THE WASHINGTON STAND JANUARY 16, 2023
Americans who are young, single, or self-identified liberals have long experienced declines in religious membership, practice, and identity. But the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accelerated those declines, pushing out those who had maintained the weakest commitments to regular religious attendance, according to a new study.
“The pandemic did not entirely scramble America’s religious landscape; rather it accelerated existing trends of religious decline,” study co-author Daniel A. Cox of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) told The Washington Stand. “For instance, it did not make a dent, at least in aggregate, in patterns of religious affiliation. But it may have exacerbated religious polarization. Increasingly, the U.S. is a country that includes very religious and very secular people.”
To better understand how COVID-19 and the closing of houses of worship influenced patterns of religious attendance and identity, AEI’s Survey Center on American Life teamed up with researchers at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC) to measure religious affiliation and attendance both before the pandemic (from 2018 to March 2020) and again in spring 2022.
Not surprisingly, the 2022 American Religious Benchmark Survey found religious attendance was significantly lower in spring 2022 than it was pre-pandemic. In spring 2022, 33% of Americans reported that they never attend religious services, compared to one in four (25%) who reported this before the pandemic.
“After much speculation, this study was able to confirm what many pastors and religious leaders suspected — that it (the pandemic) did adversely impact religious participation,” said Cox. “What’s more, it impacted certain people and communities more than others.”
“Younger Americans were much more affected by the pandemic and the social disruptions it caused,” Cox highlighted.
Religious Attendance
According to the study, adults under 50, adults with less than a college degree, black Protestants, and Hispanic Catholics experienced the largest changes in religious attendance. These groups each saw the largest percentages of those who attended religious services “less often” or “much less often” — 30% of adults under 30, 24% of adults age 30-49, 23% of adults with less than a college degree, 24% of black Protestants, and 27% of Hispanic Catholic Protestants.
But they also saw some of the largest percentages of those who attended religious services “more often” or “much more often” — 11% of adults under 30, 11% of adults age 30-49, 13% of adults with less than a college degree, 15% of black Protestants, and 13% of Hispanic Catholics.
The groups that experienced the least changes in religious attendance were adults 65 and older, adults with post graduate education, Latter-day Saints, and white evangelical Christians. Notably, Latter-day Saints were also the only group that saw more people attending religious services more often than less. All other groups across the board saw two to three times more decreased attendance than increased attendance, with the other exception being Jews, who saw roughly the same percentage (16%) of people attending religious services more often as they did less.
Overall, 11% of U.S. adults reported attending religious services “more often” or “much more often” while 22% reported attending religious services “less often” or “much less often.” Sixty-eight percent reported similar levels of religious attendance as they did pre-pandemic.
Religious Identity
As for religious identity among American adults, the study found that the religious composition of the public in the years before the pandemic and after are nearly identical.
Before the pandemic, 17% of American adults were white mainline Protestant; 14% were white evangelical Protestants. White Catholics comprised one in 10 Americans before the pandemic. Nine percent of Americans were black Protestants. Another 6% of Americans identified as Hispanic Catholic. Latter-day Saints made up 2% of the public, and 1% of Americans were Jewish. One in four Americans (25%) claimed no religious affiliation — or were religiously unaffiliated. These remained essentially unchanged in spring 2022, with religious groups nearly identically sized before and after the pandemic.
While the national distribution of religious affiliations stayed consistent, the study found some movement at the individual level. Nineteen percent of individuals changed their religious affiliation between pre-pandemic and spring 2022, including 6% who were unaffiliated pre-pandemic but reported belonging to a religious tradition in spring 2022. A similar number (5%) identified with a religious tradition pre-pandemic but then were unaffiliated in spring 2022.
Future Religious Shifts
According to George Barna, the director of research at Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center, shifts in religious beliefs will translate to shifts in religious behavior later down the road.
“Typically, we experience shifts in belief months or even years before religious behavior catches up to reflect those altered beliefs,” Barna told The Washington Stand.
In his research, Barna had similarly found little change in measures such as engagement in worship within the total adult population since the start of the pandemic — except among certain subgroups, such as younger adults and parents of young children, where some of the measures indicate significant shifts. Aside from engagement in worship, the research at Arizona Christian’s Cultural Research Center also measured Bible reading frequency, trust in the Bible, belief in absolute moral truth, and pursuit of God’s forgiveness for sins.
But Barna said more noticeable — and more significant — have been the changes in people’s core beliefs.
“Among the beliefs that have changed are belief in the God described in the Bible, claims to be deeply committed to one’s faith, believing that success is best indicated by obedience to God, and contending that a person’s chief purpose is to relate to and live for God,” noted Barna, who is also a senior research fellow at Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview. “In every case we have identified of significant change, that shift has shown adults moving away from biblical positions to alternative beliefs.”
“These are the kinds of transitions that are not uncovered through the standard measures of church attendance, prayer, and faith identification,” he added.
According to Barna, the impact of COVID-19 may not be fully realized even now — three years after the start of the pandemic.
“Just as it is taking time for the health impact of pandemic ‘solutions’ to appear, so will we continue to see the pandemic’s effect on America’s faith for several years to come,” he concluded.
James White Rebukes SBC Megachurch Pastor for Praising Queers Serving in His Church
January 25, 2023
…After I posted that, Reformed apologist, James White picked up on it and talked about it on his podcast. “It’s beyond astonishing to me,” White said, “that the man has a bible in his hand, and he’s going to say at the end of this thing that hey, this is who we are, this is FBC Orlando, and he means all this in a positive sense.” …
Last year, we broke the news that Danny de Armas, the former chairman of the board of trustees for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Missions Board preached a sermon praising homosexuals, transgenders, unmarried cohabitating couples, pro-choice people, and all sorts of immoral people for serving in his church and making the worship experience at First Baptist Orlando “beautiful.”
Since then, it has become a melting pot of sexual immorality, transgenderism, and all-around ungodly filth. There are homosexuals baptizing other homosexuals, and “married” man-to-man practicing homosexuals who have been baptized while openly practicing their degenerate lifestyles and are members in good standing at this Southern Baptist church.
Despite that, the Southern Baptist Convention leadership has said or done nothing about it and this queer-affirming church is still in good standing and in fellowship with the denomination. (Yet another of the many reasons we left the SBC. They ignore the abominations at Saddleback and FBC Orlando. It is time to get out of Sodom. Pastor Steve <><)
While we have put out a lot on this church over the last year, it wasn’t until recently that it really began to pick up steam. After another episode where Andy Stanley, a non-SBC megachurch pastor, made similar comments from the pulpit, Southern Baptist leaders came out of the woodwork to condemn Stanley for it—and rightfully so. However, their hypocrisy is exemplified in the fact that even though they’re willing to call out Stanley for his words, they’ve all been silent on these Southern Baptist pastors who are doing the exact same thing.
In a post on Twitter yesterday, I stated such, and the post got a decent amount of attention, finally.
After I posted that, Reformed apologist, James White picked up on it and talked about it on his podcast. “It’s beyond astonishing to me,” White said, “that the man has a bible in his hand, and he’s going to say at the end of this thing that hey, this is who we are, this is FBC Orlando, and he means all this in a positive sense.”
White goes on to lambast De Armas for exposing his church to all of this worldly doctrine when they should be providing an escape for it. Below is a clip of the podcast where he speaks to this.
What if being a Christian cost something — like your popularity, your job, your rights, your family, or your life? This is the stark reality of many Christians overseas, particularly in China.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like living in a society that blamed you for their problems? What if being a Christian cost something — like your popularity, your job, your rights, your family, or your life? This is the stark reality of many Christians overseas, particularly in China, and this type of persecution is foreign to U.S. Christians.
In America, Christians attend worship services without any thought of facing judgment, slander, or persecution. While there is evidence that American society and legislation is becoming more hostile to Christianity, believers by and large do not face anywhere near the same level of threats or persecution that their Christian brothers and sisters see every day in many eastern countries.
Ironically (or perhaps consequently), a nation with arguably the most freedom and prosperity in the world is seeing a steady decline in Christianity. Pew Research reported that 65% of American adults identified as Christian in 2019 (a decrease of 12 percentage points since 2009), and 76% of Baby Boomers identify as Christian while only 49% of Millennials identify as Christian.
Secularization has overtaken much of Europe as well. In Western Europe, where many identify as Christian because of historical religious tradition, most Western Europeans are non-practicing and reject the God described by the Bible. In 1910, 66% of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, but in 2010 Europe made up only 26% of all Christians.
Back to Jerusalem
While Christianity is declining in the West, it continues to grow in the East. The percentage of Christians living in Africa and Asia grew from 6% in 1910 to 37% in 2010 and is projected to reach 50% by 2050.
In China today, some experts believe there are 130 to 150 million Christians growing at a rate of 30,000 new believers a day according to Dr. Eugene Bach, co-author of “The Underground Church.”
Bach has been a Chinese missionary since 2000 and is part of an organization called Back to Jerusalem (BTJ), a Chinese-based Christian mission organization dedicated to evangelizing the nations between China and Israel. BTJ trains and sends Chinese missionaries to evangelize the primarily Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim nations in the “10/40 window” where 90% of unreached people groups in the world are located. The BTJ vision began in the 1920s, but the first team of missionaries from China wasn’t sent until 2000. Since then, China has sent thousands of missionaries to many countries in the in 10/40 window.
BTJ recently hosted its first Voices of the Persecuted Church conference and invited several missionaries from some of the most heavily persecuted nations in the world: North Korea, Iran, Sudan, and China. According to the Open Doors World Watch List, these countries rank #2, #9, #13, and #17, respectively. These missionaries shared their stories of God’s grace through tremendous trials, and they revealed how God is using the faithfulness of the persecuted church to expand the kingdom.
I attended this conference in October 2022 and will share the stories of the speakers in a three-part series. Part one of this series will unveil the circumstances of Christians in China and will focus on the stories of two missionaries from China; part two will focus on North Korea and the story of one missionary who has spent her life serving the citizens of North Korea within the country and refugees fleeing the country; and part three will discuss what churches face in Islamic countries in the Middle East and Africa and will focus on the stories of two Christian women from Sudan and Iran.
A Brief History — Christianity in China
Christianity has faced many challenges in China since Mao Zedong came to power in 1949. Most Christians in China meet illegally in the Chinese House Church, a vast network of underground churches. Before the rise of the Chinese House Church movement, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formed a state-recognized church, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Like many tyrannical regimes, the CCP portrayed TSPM as an opportunity to foster patriotism, fight imperialism, and promote freedom of religion.
Many Christians optimistically bought into this message, and some of the key tenets of communism appeared to align with Christian values — fostering community, helping the poor, and fighting greed. However, after cutting through the propaganda and examining some of TSPM’s requirements, the true colors of communism bleed through the mirage of rhetoric.
In TSPM, “Christian believers must strictly abide by all the laws, regulations, and policies of the Communist Party and the State and strive to be patriotic and law-abiding citizens.” To be “patriotic and law-abiding citizens,” Christians “must comply with the government’s labor codes and strive to contribute to the development of the ‘Four Modernizations’ established by the Communist Party.
When scheduled religious activities are in conflict with production and work schedules, the economic activities must take priority” (emphasis added). Additionally, “no unauthorized meeting points are allowed,” and Christians cannot “persuade and force others to believe in Christianity,” “brainwash teenagers under 18 with religious beliefs,” or “bring children under 18 to religious activities.”
The prohibition on evangelism continues. Christians cannot “preach their religion outside the church building and specific places which have been designated for religious activities,” nor can they “receive self-proclaimed evangelists into their homes, churches or meeting points.” There are also additional codes — which are typically not written but still enforced by the government — that prohibit baptisms, formal or informal Bible studies, praying for healing, and teachings about the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, and the second coming of Christ.
The CCP hunts down Christians who fail to comply with these regulations and gives them two choices: deny Christ by swearing allegiance to the CCP, or refuse to recant and face torture, imprisonment, or execution. For those who choose the former, the CCP rewards them with leadership positions in TSPM and goads them to spy on Christians in the underground churches to reveal key details about their leaders, meetings, and members. This has created deep animosity and distrust between the Chinese House Church and TSPM.
“Do Not Be Afraid; Jesus Loves You” — Brother Yun
One of the speakers at the conference, Brother Yun, author of the 2002 autobiography “The Heavenly Man,” shared his story of overcoming the brutality of the CCP. Yun was born in China’s Henan Province in the late 1950s and grew up during Mao’s Great Leap Forward, a time of famine, starvation, and intense religious persecution. After God miraculously healed his father of cancer, he surrendered his life to God and hungered to know more about Jesus.
At the time, Bibles were nearly impossible to find in China. Mao’s Little Red Book became the new religious text, and anyone who possessed a Bible would face severe punishment from the government. After listening to the advice of a pastor, Yun prayed and fasted for months, pleading with God to bring him a Bible. After 100 days, Yun received a vision of two men pulling a Bible out of a bag of fresh bread and giving him this precious gift, and that same day the same two men came to his home and gifted him a Bible.
Now armed with the Word of God, Yun began memorizing a chapter from the New Testament every day, and eventually he received another vision to preach the gospel to the south and west of his village. This was the beginning of his heavenly call to evangelize the nations. He has faced tremendous suffering and persecution for his commitment to the Great Commission, and he has numerous stories of God’s miraculous provision in his life.
Like many of the speakers from the conference, Yun emphasized the simple yet profound truth — knowing that God loves you with a perfect, everlasting love which casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and this love enabled Yun to conquer some of the most painful and terrifying situations — imprisonment, torture, separation from family, weeks without food, and intense hatred and ridicule.
He also shared what it means to be called by God. “If there’s a calling on your life, you cannot easily die,” Yun said. Toward the beginning of Yun’s ministry, his mother prophesied that he would not be a martyr for Christ but rather a living sacrifice, and this has proven quite true after nearly 50 years of ministry.
Yun emphasized that living for the Lord is far more important than dying for him. While all Christians must be ready to die for the sake of Christ and the gospel, Christ’s call to die daily to ourselves is far more challenging. “To die is very easy,” said Brother Yun. “To deny Christ is very easy. But to live for Christ day by day until the last day is very difficult.”
“Here I Am! Send Me” — Pastor Isaac Liu
Brother Yun’s son, Pastor Isaac Liu, author of “Son of the Underground,” shared his story at the conference as well. When Yun was in prison, he and his wife prayed for a God-fearing son. When Liu’s mother became pregnant, the Chinese government ordered her to have an abortion because of her husband’s status as an enemy of the state. Just days before her scheduled abortion, she gave birth to a premature baby weighing less than three pounds.
Liu grew up in his father’s poor rural village, and he saw his father for the first time when he was four years old. His father charged him to follow Christ faithfully, and Liu was baptized at seven years old. He began is walk with Christ with baptism in a frozen lake late at night in the middle of winter. The church often held baptisms this way to hide illegal religious activity from the Chinese government.
At age eight, he began memorizing one chapter of the Bible each day just like his father, and at age 11, he received a vision from God and began sharing the gospel to the surrounding villages. At age 18, he moved to Germany to start the All Nations Church where he currently serves as a pastor.
As the son of a missionary, Isaac had a direct calling on his life. He grew up with the expectation of serving God, and he didn’t always welcome that calling. After turning 13, he prayed not to become a preacher because of the many hardships he faced due to his family’s commitment to Christ. His father and mother were imprisoned many times, he went to 11 different schools in 10 years to flee persecution, and he grew up in poverty and isolation — all because of his parents’ calling to serve God. He grew bitter toward God and began to doubt God’s goodness and power.
However, he held to the word of God as a teenager, and eventually God won the battle in Liu’s heart. He compared himself to Jonah and how God used an unwilling prophet and a terrible sermon to turn the hearts of many to repentance and faith. Liu shared that like Jeremiah, we may have many excuses for why we’re inadequate to serve the Lord, but the Lord is simply looking for faithful servants who will simply trust in his power and obey his commands.
“We have millions of excuses,” said Liu, “but we must just obey and trust the Lord.”
“Wine That Is Pleasing to the Winemaker” — Eugene Bach
Bach also spoke at the conference and compared the Chinese persecuted church to a Napa Valley vineyard. Bach explained that to make the best tasting wine, the winemaker must restrict the vine’s access to water, forcing its roots to grow deep into the soil to obtain more water and nutrients. “Lazy grapes,” the large, plump, bland grapes sold at grocery stores, grow on vines that have been overwatered, and while these grapes look the most appealing, they lack flavor and nutrients.
In contrast, the grapes on the struggling vine appear shriveled, but these grapes contain the most flavor and create the best tasting wine. As struggling and deprivation create a flavor of grapes that is most pleasing to the winemaker, the struggling and deprivation of the church creates a flavor of faithfulness, godliness, and obedience that is most pleasing to the Winemaker.
As many of the speakers emphasized, suffering is a gift from God. It is the purifying furnace that purges the dross from the precious gold (1 Peter 1:3-9). It is the pruning of the vine that yields a more bountiful harvest (John 15:1-11), and it is an instrument that molds us into the humble, gentle, and compassionate image of Christ (Philippians 3:7-11). Suffering is a painful and undesirable reality of this world, but perhaps it is the bitter medicine for a Western church diagnosed with a lethal case of secularism.
“Behold, the tempest of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.” —Jeremiah 23:19
The statement “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers” is often attributed to John Calvin, the 16th-century theologian and Reformer. This statement is particularly relevant today, as many people are expressing concern about the state of America under liberal leadership.
One of the reasons why this statement is relevant to the current state of America is the increasing persecution of Bible-believing Christians. Liberal politicians and activists have targeted Christians who hold to the traditional teachings of the Bible, labeling them as bigots and haters. They have sought to silence their voices and deprive them of their rights, all in the name of “tolerance” and “inclusivity.” This persecution of Christians is a clear sign of God’s judgment upon our nation.
Another reason why this statement is relevant is the widespread killing of unborn children. Liberal politicians have embraced the pro-abortion movement, which seeks to legalize and normalize the killing of unborn babies. They have passed laws that allow for late-term abortions and have even defended infanticide. This disregard for the sanctity of human life is a clear sign of God’s judgment upon our nation.
Additionally, the advancement of LGBTQ ideology is another sign of God’s judgment upon America. Liberal politicians and activists have sought to normalize and promote homosexuality and other forms of sexual immorality. They have pushed for the legalization of same-sex marriage and have worked to silence those who oppose their agenda. This rejection of God’s design for human sexuality is a clear sign of his judgment upon our nation.
Furthermore, the rise of Critical Race Theory, cultural Marxism, and other forms of identity politics is a sign of God’s judgment upon America. These ideologies, which are promoted by liberal politicians and activists, seek to divide people into groups based on race, gender, and other factors. They promote hatred and division, leading to conflict and unrest in our society. This rejection of the biblical teaching that all people are created in the image of God is a clear sign of God’s judgment upon our nation.
Calvin’s statement is particularly relevant to the current state of America under liberal leadership. The moral decline of our society, the failure of liberal leaders to address challenges, and the growing sense of division and discontent are all symptoms of God’s judgment upon our nation, as indicated by the Biblical text in Jeremiah 23:19. It is time for America to turn back to God and repent of its sins in order to escape his judgment and receive his blessings.
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Yes indeed. God is judging our nation. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ and in a nationwide, windswept revival!
BY SUZANNE BOWDEY/WASHINGTON STAND JANUARY 20, 2023
While his team was wrapping their sticks in rainbow tape and skating onto the ice like an advertisement for a LGTB commercial, Provorov waited in the locker room, ready for warm-ups — and the NHL’s annual LGBT lovefest — to be over.
As someone who’s been a season ticket holder of the Washington Capitals since before Alex Ovechkin could drive, the idea of sitting through another NHL Pride Night — when everything we love about hockey is drenched in politics and phony rainbow pageantry — was a non-starter.
So we sold our tickets for Tuesday’s game. Unfortunately, not everyone who wants to sit out the league’s pandering can make such an easy choice. But for Philadelphia Flyers’ defenseman Ivan Provorov, easy isn’t what mattered. Staying true to his convictions was.
While his team was wrapping their sticks in rainbow tape and skating onto the ice like an advertisement for the Human Rights Campaign, Provorov waited in the locker room, ready for warm-ups — and the NHL’s annual LGBT lovefest — to be over.
His decision to opt out of the special Pride jerseys and forced worship of an in-your-face agenda, was brave, especially for a league that’s increasingly following in the woke footsteps of sports’ other big three: the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
“I respect everybody, and I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov, who’s Russian, told reporters after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion. That’s all I’m going to say.”
But respect — which used to be the rallying cry of the LGBT movement — isn’t enough. Not anymore. Longtime hockey commentators eviscerated Provorov on social media, accusing him of insulting everyone simply for holding different beliefs. Senior NHL columnist Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wasted no time bashing the decision, arguing that if the defenseman truly respected “everyone,” “he would have taken part in warm-up [sic] and worn the Pride Night jersey. Don’t hide behind religion.”
My husband, bless his heart, tweeted back that since LeBrun is Canadian, he probably doesn’t understand things like the freedom of speech and religion. “I can respect someone without agreeing with them,” Bob fired back. “Being forced to wear political speech isn’t an American value.”
Instead of living and letting live, like the Left claimed it wanted all those years, the mob demands 100% conformity now. That means bowing down to their altar of sexual confusion — or else.
The Twitter world piled on LeBrun, pointing out the irony of the Left’s “choice” mantra. “Ohhh,” another tweeted, “so if he did ‘respect everyone’ he would have submitted. Gotcha. The problem with today is, if you don’t do as I say and kneel … or wear a pride jersey, you are immediately labelled homophobic or racist. It’s his choice. Do you understand that? “Choice”.”
TSN’s Gord Miller was just as hostile as LeBrun, admitting that while Provorov “had the right to refuse to participate,” the team should have punished him for it. “The Flyers should have responded by not allowing him to play in the game. Freedom of expression doesn’t give you freedom from the consequences of your words or actions.”
On both men’s Twitter feeds, Provorov’s defenders far outweighed his critics. “Why are we forcing other people’s beliefs on him?” one user asked. Another pointed out the hypocrisy. “It’s interesting that people are wanting him scratched for not being inclusive on a night celebrating the inclusiveness of all beliefs.” “He wasn’t disrespectful,” people pointed out. “At least he stood by his convictions. That’s more than I can say for most people today,” another said.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Andrew T. Walker highlighted the story on his account, writing, “Given today’s culture, it takes more courage to do this than it does to defend the legitimacy of miracles or even the exclusivity of Christ. Elite culture may reject or ridicule miracles and exclusivity, but it seethes at having the idols of identity questioned.”
Other moral high-horsers, like outspoken hockey writer Greg Wyshynski, tried to drag Ukrainian politics into it, taking cheap shots at the fact that Provorov didn’t mind wearing a military appreciation jersey. “Wait, so Greg, what are you suggesting here? Support of the US military is a bad thing? All military supporters are homophobic? I’m happy to let you explain further, b/c I would hope that my initial reaction is wrong and that this isn’t you sending out a bat signal of sorts,” one user fired back.
To his credit, Flyers’ coach John Tortorella had the defenseman’s back. “It was really a great night. With Provy, he is being true to himself and to his religion. This has to do with his beliefs and his religion. That is one thing I respect about Provy, he is always true to himself, so that’s where we’re at with that.”
Asked why he didn’t bench Provorov for his decision, Tortorella replied, “I just think it’s unfair. I know you’re probably going to talk to Provy,” he said. “I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it. I think it was a great night, and I’m not going to get too deep into the conversation.”
Although Provorov probably felt isolated in his decision, he’s far from alone. The sports world is full of professional athletes taking courageous stands for their faith. Soccer’s Jaelene Daniels lost her spot on the women’s national team when she refused to wear a Pride jersey in 2017. Last year, she stared down the same mob, getting benched for telling the North Carolina Courage she wouldn’t sport a transgender and rainbow-themed uniform because of her moral convictions. The Courage responded by publicly apologizing for ever signing Daniels.
Over in Major League Baseball, Tampa Bay Rays’ pitchers Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson caught the team by surprise when they told management they wouldn’t wear the rainbow logo because of their biblical beliefs. In a month when even the bases were rainbow props, the idea that any player — let alone several — would refuse to go along was a shock to the pro-sports’ system.
As for the NHL, the league’s leftward lurch has come with its share of bad PR. Not only did an internal review shame the NHL as “too white,” but their overcorrection managed to create a political mess they’re still trying to clean up. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) was especially outraged by one of the NHL’s job postings in Fort Lauderdale, where only people who “identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability” were invited to apply.
“Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida,” DeSantis’s office said in a statement, “and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic. We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity.”
“We call upon the National Hockey League to immediately remove and denounce the discriminatory prohibitions it has imposed on attendance to the 2023 ‘Pathway to Hockey’ summit,” the office urged.
Meanwhile, in its rush to embrace transgenderism, the NHL held an All-Trans Draft Tournament in Wisconsin in December, bragging, “This was the first tournament comprised entirely of transgender and nonbinary players, with around 80 folks participating!”
Despite declaring “Trans women are women. Trans men are men,” the league found out just how reckless that mentality is when a biological female in their game was hospitalized after being slammed into the boards by a biological male. Because of the man’s strength and size, an otherwise innocent check turned violent. “Get a stretcher! Get a medic!” players shouted when she fell to the ice. It took 17 minutes to get her out of the rink. The league never did announce the winner of the game.
At the end of the day, Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm told The Washington Stand, “We shouldn’t be surprised” by the vitriol directed at Provorov. “This is a competing religion,” he said of the LGBT agenda. But “nobody should be forced to celebrate a belief system they don’t share. It’s like asking a Muslim hockey player to celebrate Hanukkah and wear a menorah.”
Frankly, Backholm said, “The surprising thing is that only one player objected — because we can guarantee there are more players than Provorov who don’t agree with the league’s extremism. But they’re hostages to the culture. So the fact that Provorov did it alone made it even more courageous.”
The irony, Backholm pointed out, is the NHL was supposed to be celebrating people living out their truth — but when Provorov tried to live out his, he was attacked. “Pride Night wasn’t a celebration of tolerance and inclusion. It was a celebration of conformity.”
The NHL loves to say, “Hockey is for everyone.” It’s time to prove it.
This is the same Rick Warren who was going to bring in the “Millenium” through his World Peace Plan. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ will bring in the Millenium at the end of the Great Tribulation period. Rick Warren’s false teachings are replete throughout this site. Now we can add to this his unbelievable hubris. Even Billy Graham said about himself: “He is not sure he ever won a soul to Christ. Billy calls all the people who came forward at his crusades, “Inquirers.” In Christ, Pastor Steve <>< Video at bottom
Upon perusing a recent discourse with the “highly-esteemed” former pastor of Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, I was struck with a sense of familiarity, as if I were listening to none other than the notorious and boastful Donald Trump himself. Though the latter is notorious for his grandiose and self-aggrandizing rhetoric, I dare say that he may have met his match in Warren, who, when queried about his tenure as a minister, launched into an excessive and prolix oration of self-praise, declaring with great bombast that “I am the only pastor that my congregation has ever known. I have administered the sacrament of baptism to a staggering 70-something percent of the church in my 43 years as pastor. I have baptized 57,000 believers. I am not aware of any other church that has accomplished such a feat. In my 43 years as pastor, we have baptized five people every day for 43 years. This is truly a phenomenon that is beyond compare.”
Warren, though, is no stranger to the art of self-aggrandizement. When faced with the potential for ex-communication from the Southern Baptist Convention during its annual convocation in 2022 for ordaining female pastors in contradiction to the denomination’s statement of faith, Warren seized the microphone and proceeded to lavish himself with grandiose praise, trumpet his own accomplishments, and implore the messengers to permit him to remain within the fold.
Among the many accolades he bestowed upon himself, was the assertion that he had trained a staggering 1.1 million pastors throughout the course of his illustrious career. I am compelled to subject this claim to rigorous scrutiny and examination in order to determine its veracity and credibility. Warren then doubled down on his delusions of grandeur later in a tweet re-iterating his accomplishments:
Further, Warren recently released a video boasting about the size of his theological library, which is apparently larger than most people’s homes, raising questions about why Warren’s theology is so poor despite having access to such a wealth of knowledge and resources.
During the interview, Warren compares himself to Jesus suggesting that he’s responsible for adding a lot of people to the church daily. “At Saddleback, we have a very defined culture, ” Warren said in the interview.
“…I’m the only pastor our people have ever known. 70-something percent of the church, I baptized in the 43 years that I was pastor. I baptized 57,000 believers in the 43 years I’ve pastored. I don’t know any church that’s ever done that. In Acts it says, the Lord added daily to the church. That would mean 365 a year, at minimum. One a day. Well, in the 43 years I’ve pastored, we baptized five people every day for 43 years. That’s unheard of.
LGBTQ ideology, also sometimes spoken of as “queer theory,” is a harmful and insidious force that is attempting to tear apart the fabric of the Church and threatening to destroy centuries of Christian tradition that has been built upon a foundation of solid, biblical theology.
This dangerous and misguided ideology promotes the idea that being LGBTQ is a natural and normal part of the human experience and that those who experience abnormal sexual feelings are “born that way” and their feelings are immutable. But this is simply not true and denies the power of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the believer who has been born again and saved by the washing regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
The Bible is clear in its condemnation of homosexuality and other forms of sexual deviance, and the true Church has always stood firm in its belief that such behavior is sinful and unacceptable. But in recent years, even mainstream Evangelical denominations have become more tolerant of immoral sexual behavior and it has been advanced through Evangelical organizations like The Gospel Coalition and its same-sex attracted contributors like Sam Allberry, who identifies as a “same-sex attracted Christian” who has “sexual, romantic and deep-emotional attractions to people of the same sex.”
While The Gospel Coalition advances this ideology insidiously, cloaked in the notion that homosexual acts are sinful but with varying degrees, arguing that homosexuality, in general, can be sanctified and used for good (as opposed to something that needs to be repented of), other influential organizations have been more blatant about their promotion of LGBTQ ideology. One such organization is Revoice, which has been pushed through Presbyterian (PCA) and Southern Baptist churches and used to promote intimate same-sex marriage-like relationships that merely stop short of bodily penetration.
Advocates of LGBTQ rights often argue that “love is love” and that people should be free to express their sexuality however they choose. But this ignores the fundamental truth that homosexuality is a choice—and a sinful one at that. Scripture is clear in its teaching that sexual relations are reserved for the sacred bond of marriage between one man and one woman, and that any deviation from this is a violation of God’s plan for human flourishing.
Furthermore, the tolerance of LGBTQ ideology within the ranks of the Church is leading to the erosion of traditional family values and the breakdown of the nuclear family. Sam Allberry of The Gospel Coalition has argued that churches should begin to support single-parent adoption including same-sex attracted adoption. Children need a mother and a father in order to grow and develop properly, and the normalization of same-sex relationships and parenting is undermining this fundamental truth.
The Church must take a stand against this destructive and immoral ideology and defend the traditional values that have always been at the heart of our faith. We must not be swayed by the false promises of those who seek to undermine the teachings of the Bible and the traditions of the Church.
Let us stand firm in our beliefs and reject the corrosive influence of LGBTQ ideology, for the sake of the Church and for the sake of future generations.
In describing the apostasy of Israel, God gave these words through the anonymous writer of Psalm 106:36-39: “They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.”
In my own mind, I recognize in this description my own culture, 21st-Century America. True, worshiping idols has not become widespread. Wicca, Hinduism, and other pagan religions, both ancient and new, even the explicit worship of Satan, are spreading and becoming more visible, as they are mainstreamed by the broadcast media, such as the TV shows “Charmed” and “Supernatural.” These traditions are being mixed with fashion trends, such as the Goth movement. But they are still relatively small compared to the overall size of the American population.
On the other hand, the sacrifice of sons and daughters is far more companion than any explicit idolatry. Sixty million Americans were murdered in their mothers’ wombs between 1973 when the Supreme Court declared abortion a “constitutional right,” and the overturning of that decision in June of this year (2022). Why? For about 99% of abortions, it was merely for convenience: “A baby would interfere with my lifestyle.” Babies cost money, and parenthood interferes with an irresponsible lifestyle. Worst of all, a baby puts a block in a lifestyle of promiscuous sex. Thus we have both the prosperity and lasciviousness of the ancient human sacrifice cults.
America is a land soaked in innocent blood. There has never been, and can never be, a just accusation of a capital crime against an unborn child. The mere suggestion of it is specious. Among humankind since the Fall, there can never be true innocence, but there can be justice. And capital punishment for someone who has never committed a crime is not justice, but is itself a crime.
I am writing this just after the 2022 midterm elections, so I am thinking especially of leftwing candidates who campaigned on the protection of the supposed right to kill the innocent. I have tried to warn them that the blood of those innocents will testify against them in the judgment, but they don’t care. May God grant them repentance! Until then, if ever, the innocent blood drips from their hands and stains every word they speak or action they take. And God holds this nation accountable for not removing that evil from our civil government.
Americans are quick to point out the atrocities of the World War II holocaust where six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Our nation has allowed well over sixty million babies to be murdered while in the womb. I shudder to even ponder over God’s plan to judge this sin sick nation. In Christ, Pastor Steve <><
Even Steven 