Brian McLaren Confused About Homosexuality?

This ought to be a very clear warning to the entire Evangelical Church how bad Mr. McLaren's theology is.

Brian McLaren 's statement / suggestion is an outright insult to the intellect of our LORD Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Holiness and Truth who inspired the writers of Scripture, and the Almighty, Holy, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent His Son into this world to deliver sinners - including homosexuals.

God has given and made His viewpoint on this issue very, very clear in His Word plenty of times. God is not confused about the sin of homosexuality. It appears Brian McLaren is. And if the Emerging Church leader [and so-called 'Theologian'] Brian McLaren is confused about the issue of homosexuality, no doubt the multitudes he leads will eventually be as well.

The following post was received in a Berean Call Daily E-Update

TBC: This is from pastor Brian McLaren, Leadership Columnist for Christianity Today.
"Frankly, many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality. We've heard all sides, but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us." ... If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex."

"Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements [about homosexuality]. In the meantime, we'll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they'll be admittedly provisional. We'll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we'll speak; if not, we'll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out.

Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the "winds of doctrine" blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course."

Read Brian McLaren's article on Homosexuality at Chrtistianity Today

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A Moratorium...5-10 years? Is not God's Revealed Word enough?

Brian McLaren's statement is in itself a challenge against the Word's of the Most High God of the Universe. It takes literally less than one minute to read the verses below that are directly from God's own Word. And Brian McLaren suggests that we need 5-10 years to make a decision.

This is blasphemous and is an absolute affront to Jesus Christ Himself, who declared that no fornicator would enter the Kingdom of God.

"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23).

Jesus Christ knew full well what he was saying in this passage. This passage includes "fornications" - which were part of the homosexual activities of the surrounding culture of where Jesus spoke this statement.

Is not the Word of God very clear on this? Here are the references of the Bible about homosexuality.

'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.' (Leviticus 18:22)

'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood willbe on their own heads.' (Leviticus 20:13)

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” (Romans 1:26-27)

“Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." (Genesis 19:4-5)

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

“…knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, …” (1 Timothy 1:9-10)

Jesus came to save sinners, and this includes homosexuals who can come to Christ, be forgiven of their sins, BE MADE NEW IN AND THROUGH CHRIST, and who can then live normal heterosexual lives.

It is time for Evangelicals to wake up to Brian McLaren's perverse challenges to God's Word. Satan himself challenged God's Word as we see in Genesis 3. Is this statement by Brian McLaren any less evil?

Read Brian McLaren's article on Homosexuality at Chrtistianity Today

Leader's Insight: No Cowardly Flip-FlopHow should pastors respond to "the Homosexual Question"?

by Brian McLaren, Leadership columnist
http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2006/cln60123.html

Christians Websitse Are Attracting Many From the Muslim World

Matthew 24:14
"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Romans 10:15
How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS !"

Psalms 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.


Christians website are attracting many from the Muslim world
MISSION NETWORK NEWS - February 16, 2006
- While hard-line Muslim nations make accessing Chrsitians websites difficult, it's not impossible and these websites are making an incredible impact for the kingdom.

Strategic Resource Group (SRG) helps organizations reach out to the lost inside the 10/40 Window. SRG reports Christian websites are receiving nearly 9 million hits per month from the Middle East. One Christian organization hosting chat rooms for Arabic-speaking web users estimates that more than 42,000 people visit those sites daily.
About 2,000 Arabic language Bibles are downloaded from the Internet each month. One organization estimates that 20 people per month are giving their hearts to Christ as a result of learning about the Christian faith on these websites.

Although some Islamic governments try to block these websites, the Internet generally knows no borders. More than half of the population in the Middle East is 25 years old or younger, and many of these young people own computers or have access to them. This technology has connected people together through e-mail groups, networks, blogs and chat rooms.

Christian organizations are seizing the Internet opportunity to create communities of people who can openly talk about faith issues in a safe environment. In the greater Middle East, the Internet represents a crucial growth sector for communicating the Christian message in Arabic, Farsi and regional languages.
http://www.mnnonline.org/article/8313

Bill Gaither's, dc Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Rebecca St. James, Jennifer Knapp, The W's, and the Supertones Joining Hands With Rome?

The following article is about how 'Evangelicals' (Bill Gaither's and others) in the Christian music industry are becoming Ecumenical with the Roman Catholic Church.

It is a tragic thing that we have come to a day and age where the Reformation is forgotten and millions of Bible believers are turning away from Biblical truth because they refuse to stand up for basic Bible doctrines. We live in a time where large crowds and followings seem to dictacte what leaders will do and say. 'Compromising Biblical truth for the sake of Ecumenical unity 'and the vain glory of 'Manpleasing' now sadly seem to rule the convictions of many Christians. Most are simply ignorant, but many willfully disregard the warnings of Scripture.

We must not forget where this mentality comes from. Remember Pilate?

Mark 15:15 - "Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified."

In like manner, countless leaders - Wanting to satisfy the crowd - compromise the truth of God's Word by seeking to PLEASE THE CROWDS. In doing so they not only hand themselves over to disobedience before a thrice Holy God, but they set a reprehensible example for countless others to follow. Would the Apostles of Scripture join hands with the Judaizers and Gnostics or would the Reformers join hands with Rome - CERTAINLY NOT! They chose rather to be burned at the stake or crucified or drowned than to join hands in Ecumenical unity with apostates.

We have posted the following article not to poke fun and point the finger at well intentioned professing believers who have compromised, but to help show that there is a mass of deception blowing through the Christian Music Industry and Church.

Let no man, woman, Christian leader, or Christiasn Music artist lead you astray by a compromised and ungodly ecumenical example.

Chris at SRN
Jude 3
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In the News:
BILL GAITHER'S DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD'S WORD
by David Cloud Feb 20, 2006
Updated and enlarged February 20, 2006 (first published July 30, 1998)
Fundamental Baptist Information Service

Article excerpt...
BILL GAITHER AND ROME: THE ECUMENICAL PHILOSOPHY
Bill Gaither has had an ecumenical philosophy from the beginning of his musical career. In his autobiography "It's More Than the Music," he states that one of the fringe benefits of playing their concerts in "neutral, nonchurch environments" was that people from "all church denominations" attended. "Before long, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, charismatics, Catholics, and Pentecostals were all praising the Lord together. Subtly, the walls between denominations began to crumble..." (p. 115)..........

"...............In 1999, Bill Gaither joined forces with dc Talk founder Toby McKeehan to "create a new modern worship music label, 40 Records" (CCM magazine, July 1999, p. 11). The goal is "to stretch the boundary of worship music" and to "give a youthful spirit to worship music for ANY DENOMINATIONŠ"

Speaking of the new music company, Gaither said:

"I view building bridges of understanding of different cultures and PHILOSOPHICAL POINTS OF VIEW as part of my calling. UNITY DOES NOT DEPEND ON OUR CONSENSUS OF OPINION, but on our unity in Christ."

This is a false and dangerous statement. Biblical unity does depend on a consensus of opinion about doctrine. Ephesians 4:1-6, which speaks of Christian unity, says there is only "one faith" (verse 5). This refers to the body of truth delivered by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and recorded in the New Testament Scriptures.

Philippians 1:27 also speaks of Christian unity, and it demands "one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." That is not a description of modern ecumenism. Timothy was instructed to allow "no other doctrine" in the churches he was overseeing (1 Timothy 3:16). Paul taught the church at Rome that false doctrine is the basis for separation (Romans 16:17).

Like Gaither, McKeehan and dc Talk are unscripturally ecumenical and even accept Roman Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ in spite of Rome's false sacramental gospel, heresies pertaining to the papacy, Mary, the priesthood, etc. When Pope John Paul II visited the States in January 1999, dc Talk joined hands with hundreds of thousands of Catholics to welcome him. Featured at a Catholic youth rally connected with the Pope's visit, were dc Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Rebecca St. James, Jennifer Knapp, The W's, and the Supertones (CCM Magazine, April 1999, p. 12). dc Talk's Kevin Max praised the Catholic youth for coming out to hear the Pope, describing John Paul II as "someone with something of substance to say" (Ibid.). Each attendee received a rosary with instructions about how to pray to Mary..."

".....................CONCLUSION
The Gaithers represent the very heart and soul of Southern gospel music today. In recent years they have held "homecoming" specials which have brought together most of the well known Southern gospel groups. These include members of the Statesmen, the Blackwood Brothers, the Cathedrals, the Goodman's, the Speer Family, the Florida Boys, the Gatlin Brothers, and many others. Those who have attended these gatherings have put their stamp of approval upon the ecumenical-charismatic-rock music side of Southern gospel by not separating from those who are guilty of these things and by not lifting their voices to reprove them.

The Bible instructs us to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:11). Revelation 18:4 warns God's people to come out from among the apostasy of the last hours "that ye be not partakers of her sins." COMPLICITY WITH DOCTRINAL AND SPIRITUAL ERROR MAKES ME A PARTAKER WITH THAT ERROR. 2 John warns that even to bid God speed to a false teacher makes me "partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 11). I realize this is a very hard line and one that is completely foreign to the thinking of this ecumenical-crazed age, but this is what the Word of God says.

I also realize that the Gaithers have produced some lovely sacred music in the past, but this is no excuse for disobedience to God's Word. When the Gaithers greet 12,000 Roman Catholics, including many priests and nuns, as brethren in Christ, as they did at Indianapolis '90, they are partakers of the evil deeds of Rome and God's people should protest.

It is wrong to associate with those who walk in open disobedience to God's Word and to support them with record sales and to bring their jazzed up music with its ecumenical philosophy into our churches and homes."
See Apostasy Database - Music at http://www.wayoflife.org

Clergy and Scientists Stand Together for Evolution?

Clergy and Scientists Stand Together for Evolution?
As we have stated before, when men turn their backs on the simple and plain teachings of Sripture, all manner of Scripture twisting comes into play. We ask, just how far will these 10,000 clergy now go? If they can try to justify evolution in the name of Christ, what else will they try to stand for. Time will tell.

Genesis 1:1
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Job 38:4
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,... "

Romans 1:18-25
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

Chris at SRN
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In the News:
US Scientists enlist clergy in evolution battle
REUTERS - By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
- February 19, 2006

- American scientists fighting back against creationism, intelligent design and other theories that seek to deny or downgrade the importance of evolution have recruited unlikely allies -- the clergy.

And they have taken their battle to a new level, trying to educate high school and even elementary school teachers on how to hold their own against parents and school boards who want to mix religion with science.

While they feel they have won the latest round against efforts to bring God into the classroom, the scientists say they have little doubt their opponents are merely regrouping.
"It's time to recognize that science and religion should never be pitted against one another," American Association for the Advancement of Science President Gilbert Omenn told a news conference on Sunday. The AAAS has held several sessions on the evolution issue at its annual meeting in St. Louis.

"The faith community needs to step up to the plate," agreed Eugenie Scott, Executive Director, National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California.
Scott said many people held the "toxic" idea that "you are either a Christian creationist or you are a bad-guy atheist".

Recent court and electoral battles have made clear that judges and voters will reject efforts to sneak creationism into the classroom under the guise of making a scientific curriculum clearer or fairer, Scott said.

By a vote of 11 to 4, the Ohio Board of Education last week pulled a model lesson plan it had approved in 2004. The plan had permitted science teachers to encourage students to look at questions about evolution, something proponents of "intelligent design" call "teaching the controversy."

Last year in Pennsylvania, a federal court ruled the theory could not be taught in a public school and the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, which approved the teaching, was voted out.

Intelligent design proponents see the hand of God behind evolution because, they say, life is too complex to be random.
"As a legal strategy intelligent design is dead. It will be very difficult for any school district in the future to successfully survive a legal challenge," Scott said. "That doesn't mean intelligent design is dead as a very popular social movement. This is an idea that has got legs."

But pastors are speaking out against it. Warren Eschbach, a retired Church of the Brethren pastor and professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania helped sponsor a letter signed by more than 10,000 other clergy.

"We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests," they wrote.

Catholic experts have also joined the movement.
"The intelligent design movement belittles God. It makes God a designer, an engineer," said Vatican Observatory Director George Coyne, an astrophysicist who is also ordained. "The God of religious faith is a god of love. He did not design me."

Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association said some teachers feared losing their jobs if they taught evolution. "The pressures come from the students and the parents," he said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-02-19T233547Z_01_N19206908_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-EVOLUTION.xml&rpc=22

Thousands Expected in Portugal for Final Move of Fatima Witness

"Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many."
Matthew 24:11

Countless millions today believe that The Virgin Mary is appearing all around the globe through these so-called Marian Apparitions. Here, in the article below, is simply another illustration of the mass deception that is gaining momentum. Please see our Recommended Discernment Resources on Marian Apparitions, UFO's, Lying Signs and Wonders, etc. in conjunction with reading the article below.

In our research we have found and conclude that these so-called Marian Apparitions deliver the same type of occult empowered anti-BIblical message as seen in many anti-Christian religions. Furthermore, the Apparitions manifest phenomena and demonic revelation that is clearly not Biblical and is leading people away from Jesus Christ into the arms of 'Mary'...who in the case of Apparitions is not the Savior of the world, but a counterfeit deceiving spirit.

The documention at our Recommended Discernment Resources on Marian Apparitions, UFO's, Lying Signs and Wonders, etc. shows irrefutable proof that this is the case.

Let no man, or angel or 'Apparition' deceive you!
"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 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. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Galatians 1:6-9 (KJV)

Chris at SRN
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In The News:
Thousands expected in Portugal for final move of Fatima witness
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - February 19, 2006 - More than 250,000 Roman Catholic faithful are expected at services in Portugal as the remains of the last of three shepherd children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in 1917 were to be moved to the shrine of Fatima.

Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, the eldest of the three children who said the Virgin appeared to them on six occasions near Fatima, then a small farming town, died at the age of 97 on February 13 last year.

She was buried in the graveyard of the Carmelite convent in the central city of Coimbra, some 70 kilometres (45 miles away), where she had lived in virtual isolation as a Roman Catholic nun since 1948.

A private mass was held at the convent on Sunday morning before her remains were to be moved at 12:30 pm (1230 GMT) to the shrine at Fatima, built on the site where the visions are said to have taken place.

As was Sister Lucia's request, she will be laid to rest near the remains of her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, the two other children who said they saw the mother of Jesus Christ.

Jacinta and Francisco died of respiratory diseases within three years of the visions, which transformed Fatima, about 110 kilometres north of Lisbon, into one of Catholicism's most revered sites that is visited by millions of people each year.

The high point of the ceremonies is expected to be a mass held at the Fatima shrine at 3:00 pm (1500 GMT) after Sister Lucia's remains are placed in their final resting spot, with pilgrims expected from around the world at the open-air service.

The children said the first sighting of the Virgin was on May 13, 1917 and that Marian apparitions took place for another five months, ending abruptly in October.
Sister Lucia was the only one of the three children who claimed to have heard clearly what the Virgin said, including three prophecies about key 20th-century events.
The first two were interpreted as predicting the end of World War I and the start of World War II, and the rise and fall of Soviet communism.

But the third "secret" of Fatima was not unveiled until 2000, spawning dozens of books and Internet sites which speculated it was a doomsday prophecy foretelling the end of the world.

When it finaly was revealed the Vatican said it foretold the attempted assassination attempt of then pope John Paul II in 1981...
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/060219113334.92pp8mji.html

See our Recommended Discernment Resources on Marian Apparitions, UFO's, Lying Signs and Wonders, etc.

ISLAM IN AMERICA: Probe Finds Terrorists in U.S. 'Training for War'

Joel 2:1-3
Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations. A fire consumes before them And behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them But a desolate wilderness behind them, And nothing at all escapes them.

1 John 2:22
Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

Zechariah 1:14-16
So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. "But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster." `Therefore thus says the LORD, "I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it," declares the LORD of hosts, "and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem."'

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Probe Finds Terrorists in U.S. 'Training for War'
WORLDNETDAILY - February 17, 2006
- The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter.

A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities, said the report by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an interim report.

The neighbors interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said they feared retaliation if they were to make a report to law enforcement officials.
"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."

The resident said his household gets "nothing but menacing looks from the people who go in and out of the camp, and sometimes they yell at us to mind our own business when we are just driving by."

"We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," the resident said. "They own this mountain and they know it, and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy property next to that?"

Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or "community of the impoverished," was formed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in New York in 1980. Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," has stated his objective is to "purify" Islam through violence. Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called "Holy Islamville."

The encampment in Hancock, N.Y., is run by a front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra called Muslims of the Americas Inc., which operates a school known as the International Quranic Open University Inc.

The facility is on 70 acres of remote land on the western edge of the Catskill Mountains, about 40 miles southeast of Binghamton, N.Y. A sign at the entrance identifies the place as "Islamberg." The other side of the sign says "International Quranic Open University" and "Muslims of the Americas Inc."

Every one of the neighboring residents interviewed expressed disappointment and additional concern that federal law enforcement is not investigating the activities, the report said.

"These people need to be investigated," a resident said. "They are training for war, either for war here in this country or against our troops. Who in the h--- is allowing this stuff to happen right here in our own backyard, and why?"...
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48868

False Prophets of Evangelicalism

False Prophets of Evangelicalism
WORLDNETDAILY - by Joseph Farah - February 16, 2006

- We Americans are being thoroughly indoctrinated by the mass media, the government schools, the propaganda arms of the federal government and the pseudoscience-government complex on the phony issue of global warming.
Now, if all that is not enough, some significant church leaders are attempting to make the global, pagan, socialistic agenda behind the conspiracy a matter of faith.

You probably heard the news – 85 "evangelical leaders" have formed a coalition to raise visibility about global warming.

Raise visibility? How could this make-believe, fake, phony crisis have any higher visibility? Why should it?
If it exists, which is highly questionable, it certainly wasn't caused by man and there is nothing mankind can do about it. If it doesn't exist, which is probable, these charlatans are going to rob you blind paying for it any way.
That's basically all you need to know about global warming. It's a bunch of hot air, all right – hot air generated by people whose goal is always the same, redistributing wealth and reordering civilization.

Now I expect this sort of thing from Al Gore. The man is a liar. That's what he does for a living. And he has done well for himself in purposely, knowingly deceiving people in his quest for a global utopia run by his puppeteers, whoever they may be.

But Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life"?

Todd Bassett, national commander of the Salvation Army?

Leith Anderson, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals?

That's right. Those are just three of the Christian luminaries who signed on to this pact with the globalist devil – who sold their American birthrights for a mess of political correctness.

Joining them in this scam are World Vision President Rich Stearns, Wheaton College President Duane Litfin, Christianity Today Editor David Neff and Executive Editor Timothy George.

They all signed on to the "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action" – and climbed into bed with funding sources that hate God, hate Christianity and hate freedom. Among them, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund – a group determined to bring the world under the yoke of global government and global religion.

But I guess none of this should really surprise us. After all, just a month ago, Rick Warren was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer as indicting Christian fundamentalism as a moral and spiritual equivalent of Islamic fundamentalism.

"Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism – they're all motivated by fear," he said. "Fear of each other."

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was talking about – who He was talking about – in Matthew 7:22-23 in the context of turning people away on Judgment Day? These are people who seem to believe they are Christians.
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

"And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
That is tough language. It sounds like there are going to be some people shocked, disappointed, devastated when they finally get to meet Jesus face to face.

Who are these false prophets – these workers of iniquity – who prophesied in the name of Jesus, but never knew Him?

I would suggest to those signing on to the lies of global warming, to the coercive government and supra-government plans to tackle it, to the confiscation of wealth and the destruction of private property that this fake crisis portends to give those verses some serious consideration.

Before attempting to work out the salvation of the world by government force, maybe these folks, too, should be certain they work out their own personal salvation with fear and trembling.

I'm not the judge of where they will spend eternity. But I do know they are about the business of making earth a living hell.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48855

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Spiritual delusion and Evangelical Compromise is reaching incredible levels. Yes we are to take care of the environment but our main goal is to preach the Gospel.

Let us not rush headlong with evangelical compromisers who see Ungodly Alliances with the world as a God ordained thing.

This world is going to burn up one day...THE BIBLE SAYS SO! Would to God that we would spend our time, money and efforts warning people to flee from sin and the wrath that is to come...INSTEAD OF playing Earth clean-up and signing onto Global Warming Initiatives with a world that is hateful and hostile in every way imagineable to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 34:8
"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock;...

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Ephesians 4:14
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;...

Top 10 Largest Churches in America

Does having a Big Church make it a 'good church'?
Read the following article to learn how to test, discern and judge rightly regarding what makes a church a healthy church.

How To Discern, Test & Judge Rightly by Sandy Simpson, 7/30/02
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/discerntestjudge.html

BRAND NEW DVD BIBLE STUDY SERIES!
Discernment Tool Kit - Boook and DVD by Sandy Simpson
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/toolkitbook.html

You can also do a Google Discernment Power Search here with 19 Discernment Ministries.

Chris at SRN
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In the News:
Top 10 Largest Churches [in America]
SLICE OF LAODICEA - February 16, 2006

- You could have predicted most of these, but here is a list of the top 10 largest churches in America, and links to their websites:

1 Lakewood - Joel Osteen Houston TX 30,000 people
2 Saddleback Valley Community Church - Rick Warren Lake Forest CA 22,000
3 Willow Creek Community Church - Bill Hybels South Barrington IL 20,000
4 Fellowship Church - Ed Young Grapevine TX 19,500
5 Southeast Christian Church - Robert Russell Louisville KY 18,757
6 The Potter's House - T.D. Jakes Dallas TX 18,500
7 Calvary Chapel - Robert Coy Ft. Lauderdale FL 18,000
8 New Birth Missionary Baptist - Eddie Long Lithonia GA 18,000
9 Crenshaw Christian Center - Fred Price Los Angeles CA 17,000
10 Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa - Chuck Smith, Sr Santa Ana CA 16,500
These stats came from a blog that did some analysis on the 1,300 largest churches on a report from Harvard Institute for Religion Research.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/02/top_10_largest.php

DNA vs. The Book of Mormon

"Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many."
Matthew 24:11

After reading the L.A. Times news article below, you may want to purchase your own copy of the DNA vs. The Book of Mormon video.

After showing this to a handful of Mormon missionaries who have come ot our own front door, we see that it is a very useful tool to help them see that Joseph Smith's so-called 'revelation' is not only a wrong account, but an outright fraud. The DNA vs. The Book of Mormon video will surely be a serious wake up call to any Mormon who watches it. Our prayer is that more Mormons will come to know the real Jesus Christ, not the counterfeit one of Mormonism who is 'the spirit brothert of Lucifer' (link to Discernment article) and just another god among billions of gods.

Chris at SRN
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In the News:
Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted
LA TIMES - By William Lobdell - February 16, 2006
- From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose A. Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans were descended from a lost tribe of Israel that reached the New World more than 2,000 years ago.

"We were taught all the blessings of that Hebrew lineage belonged to us and that we were special people," said Loayza, now a Salt Lake City attorney. "It not only made me feel special, but it gave me a sense of transcendental identity, an identity with God."

A few years ago, Loayza said, his faith was shaken and his identity stripped away by DNA evidence showing that the ancestors of American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East.

"I've gone through stages," he said. "Absolutely denial. Utter amazement and surprise. Anger and bitterness."

For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error.

For those outside the faith, the depth of the church's dilemma can be explained this way: Imagine if DNA evidence revealed that the Pilgrims didn't sail from Europe to escape religious persecution but rather were part of a migration from Iceland — and that U.S. history books were wrong.

Critics want the church to admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted. Church leaders have shown no inclination to do so. Indeed, they have dismissed as heresy any suggestion that Native American genetics undermine the Mormon creed.

Yet at the same time, the church has subtly promoted a fresh interpretation of the Book of Mormon intended to reconcile the DNA findings with the scriptures. This analysis is radically at odds with long-standing Mormon teachings.

Some longtime observers believe that ultimately, the vast majority of Mormons will disregard the genetic research as an unworthy distraction from their faith.

"This may look like the crushing blow to Mormonism from the outside," said Jan Shipps, a professor emeritus of religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who has studied the church for 40 years. "But religion ultimately does not rest on scientific evidence, but on mystical experiences. There are different ways of looking at truth."

According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an angel named Moroni led Joseph Smith in 1827 to a divine set of golden plates buried in a hillside near his New York home.

God provided the 22-year-old Smith with a pair of glasses and seer stones that allowed him to translate the "Reformed Egyptian" writings on the golden plates into the "Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ."

Mormons believe these scriptures restored the church to God's original vision and left the rest of Christianity in a state of apostasy.

The book's narrative focuses on a tribe of Jews who sailed from Jerusalem to the New World in 600 BC and split into two main warring factions.

The God-fearing Nephites were "pure" (the word was officially changed from "white" in 1981) and "delightsome." The idol-worshiping Lamanites received the "curse of blackness," turning their skin dark.

According to the Book of Mormon, by 385 AD the dark-skinned Lamanites had wiped out other Hebrews. The Mormon church called the victors "the principal ancestors of the American Indians." If the Lamanites returned to the church, their skin could once again become white.

Over the years, church prophets — believed by Mormons to receive revelations from God — and missionaries have used the supposed ancestral link between the ancient Hebrews and Native Americans and later Polynesians as a prime conversion tool in Central and South America and the South Pacific.

"As I look into your faces, I think of Father Lehi [patriarch of the Lamanites], whose sons and daughters you are," church president and prophet Gordon B. Hinckley said in 1997 during a Mormon conference in Lima, Peru. "I think he must be shedding tears today, tears of love and gratitude…. This is but the beginning of the work in Peru."
In recent decades, Mormonism has flourished in those regions, which now have nearly 4 million members — about a third of Mormon membership worldwide, according to church figures.

"That was the big sell," said Damon Kali, an attorney who practices law in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is descended from Pacific Islanders. "And quite frankly, that was the big sell for me. I was a Lamanite. I was told the day of the Lamanite will come."...
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-mormon16feb16,1,4709667.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

10,000 Ministers: Theory of Evolution Is "A Foundational Scientific Truth"?

When men forsake the strait-forward meaning AND teaching of Scripture, all manner of chaos follows. The following article, posted on the Moriel Be Alert Update, is just one example among many of the wisdom of man undermining the basic interpretation of the Genesis Creation account.

HERE IS A VERY SIMPLE, PRACTICAL, AND BASIC QUESTION: Did God intend for us to confuse our children when teaching them the first pages of the Bible?

To confuse the basic creation account is to betray our children with lies by TURNING God's OWN CREATION ACCOUNT IN HIS WORD into MYTHOLOGY. This has to be one of the finest lies of Satan has ever concocted. If the Devil can confuse our children about the fisrt pages of the Bible, then they will grow up not only confused about the Creation account, but they will most likely not trust the rest of God's Holy Word.

One wonders what these 10,000 ministers have taught their own children and all the children who come to the churches they minister at.

Chris at SRN
----Read on folks...

At Churches Nationwide, Good Words for Evolution
NEW YORK TIMES - By NEELA BANERJEE and ANNE BERRYMAN - February 13, 2006

On the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin, ministers at several hundred churches around the country preached yesterday against recent efforts to undermine the theory of evolution, asserting that the opposition many Christians say exists between science and faith is false.

At St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, a small contemporary structure among the pricey homes of north Atlanta, the Rev. Patricia Templeton told the 85 worshipers gathered yesterday, "A faith that requires you to close your mind in order to believe is not much of a faith at all."

In the basement of an apartment building in Evanston, Ill., the Rev. Mitchell Brown said to the 21 people who came to services at the Evanston Mennonite Church that Darwin's theories in fact had compelled people to have faith rather than look for "special effects" to confirm the existence of God.

"He forced religion to grow up, to become, really, faith for the first time," Mr. Brown said. "The life of community, that is where we know God today."

The event, called Evolution Sunday, is an outgrowth of the Clergy Letter Project, started by academics and ministers in Wisconsin in early 2005 as a response to efforts, most notably in Dover, Pa., to discredit the teaching of evolutionary theory in public schools.

"There was a growing need to demonstrate that the loud, shrill voices of fundamentalists claiming that Christians had to choose between modern science and religion were presenting a false dichotomy," said Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and the major organizer of the letter project.

Mr. Zimmerman said more than 10,000 ministers had signed the letter, which states, in part, that the theory of evolution is "a foundational scientific truth." To reject it, the letter continues, "is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children."...

Most of the signatories to the project and those preaching on Sunday were from the mainline Protestant denominations. Their congregations have shrunk sharply over the last 30 years. At the same time, the number of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians has risen considerably, and many of them, because of their literalist view of the Bible, doubt evolutionary theory.

The Clergy Letter Project said that 441 congregations in 48 states and the District of Columbia were taking part in Evolution Sunday, but that was impossible to verify independently. Around Chicago, two churches that were listed on the project's Web site as participants in the event said they were in fact not planning to deliver sermons on the subject...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13evolution.html?th&emc=th

What Does God Say on the Subject?

Romans 1:20-24

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness..."

National Prayer Breakfast or Spiritual Tower of Babel?

National Prayer Breakfast or Spiritual Tower of Babel?
SLICE OF LAODICEA - by Ingrid Schlueter - February 7, 2006

- When the Muslim King of Jordan rose to give the benediction at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on February 2, thousands of evangelical Christians rose with him to pray as he petitioned Allah for his blessings on the assembled crowd. When the breakfast was opened in prayer by an Orthodox Jew who has rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the crowd of evangelicals bowed duly and prayed to a God that did not include their Saviour. The name of Jesus Christ was, in fact, barely mentioned at the event, according to the Washington Times. Evangelical leaders of the annual breakfast had been criticized for having too much of Jesus at past events. They made up for it this year by all but ignoring Jesus Christ and giving the benediction prayer to a Muslim for the first time.

Following the event there was a luncheon meeting at which the King of Jordan, King Abdullah II, was the keynote speaker. In his speech to over 2,000 Christian leaders, the king read 8 verses from the Koran and six from the Bible. The attendees clapped like seals as the Muslim king called for unity among moderate Jews, Christians and Muslims in order to face down what he called, “our common enemy” -- extremism. King Abdullah called for “moderates” of the world's big three religions to find common ground and unity.

After the luncheon, Christian leaders met with the king for an hour. Evangelicals in the meeting included Richard Cizik, VP for Governmental Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, Rick Warren, mega pastor from Saddleback, Don Argue from Northwestern University in Washington State, Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary and various Jewish rabbis and sundry others.

Amidst the glad handing and the adrenaline rush of supping with power, something very vital was ignored by the thousands of Christians in attendance. What was ignored was the fact that praying with those who reject Christ as God come in the flesh is to disobey the Word of God.
“Be not equally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” II Corinthians 6:14-17

The conduct of the leadership and attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast was in direct violation of God's clear command. To pray with and to meet for religious purposes with those who worship idols is sin. Whatever political unity or religious unity is forged because of events like this, we can be sure that it has a foundation of rebellion against the dictates of God's Word and as such, can never be blessed.

Increasingly, we are seeing an ecumenical drive for unity that is being spearheaded by evangelicals. Richard Mouw from Fuller Seminary and his disgraceful participation in the Mormon/Christian event in Salt Lake City not long ago was yet another example of this. Purity of Christian doctrine no longer matters in an age when family values political muscle is valued over the truth of the Gospel.

What is the truth of the Gospel? The truth of the Gospel is that outside of faith in the merits of Christ alone and His atoning work on the cross, a soul will be eternally damned. The truth of the Gospel is that no amount of conservative rhetoric or political sympathy will merit eternal life. The truth of the Gospel is that rejection of Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God is a fatal error that upon death, can never be remedied. The truth of the Gospel, by definition, excludes all other truth claims and exposes their error. This is the crux of the evangelical problem today. Ted Haggard is leading the National Association of Evangelicals into the same terminal mistake made by the National Council of Churches and the mainline churches just a few decades ago. In the interest of political expediency and popularity, the hard edge of the Gospel has been blurred and has nearly disappeared altogether. Adding to the compromise of the hour, emergent evangelical church leaders are reintroducing universalism and eastern religious practices to a new generation, mega church pastors and the Purpose Driven movement are subtly redefining the Gospel with man at the center, churches are using every carnal means imaginable to draw crowds and meanwhile, the world is not hearing the ringing call of the Gospel. The unsaved are not hearing the message to throw down their rebel arms at the cross and find forgiveness. As a result, millions of souls are being lost for eternity.

We must resist the lure of the current spiritual tower of Babel in evangelicalism. In the closing hours of history, the enemy is making a last power play for the heart and soul of Christ's true church. Through the power of the blood of Christ and the word of our testimonies, we can overcome the enemy and refuse to deny our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Taking this road will not be easy and those who do will find themselves increasingly outside the mainstream. But if we believe Christ's description of the narrow way as being the way of Life, how can we do anything else?
http://www.moriel.org/articles/notice_board/national_prayer_breakfast.htm

Read More at Slice of Laodicea
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/

Warren-Driven or Bible-Obedient?...And Ken Blanchard?

Warren-Driven or Bible-Obedient?...And Ken Blanchard?
Spiritual Research Network recommends that those who call themselves Christians examine the following links. It is interesting just how far the Purpose Driven Empire is going and just how deep the church is running headlong into all manner of spiritual deception.

What else is interesting is just how divisive many unbiblical movements are becoming within 'Evangelical' churches.

Comparison Charts

Warren-Driven or Bible-Obedient?
Article by Sandy Simpson at Deception in the Church
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/warren-drivenorbible-obedient.html

Every man did that which was right in his own eyes
Article by Sandy Simpson at Deception in the Church
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/everyman.html

And for those who think Rick Warren has made a good choice in partnering with Ken Blanchard (Lead Like Jesus) , an unrepentant 'New Age' Christian, one would all do well to take a sobering look at the facts.

Ken Blanchard is definitely not Leading Like Jesus as he is Still Endorsing the New Age.

Read the article below by Bud Press at Christian Research Service

Ken Blanchard Still Endorsing the New Age
Update on Ken Blanchard #3
February 11, 2006

"To the Reader: During the writing of this update, the words hypocrisy, fine-tuned deception, and outrageous compromise came to mind. Right now--more than any period in the Christian church--the body of Christ is experiencing an overkill of spiritual deception that is so fine-tuned it is becoming difficult to detect. Christians are suffering from toxic levels of compromise, and causing other Christians to stumble. Silver-tongued wolves have sheepishly grinned and smiled their way into the Christian church by paying lip-service to Jesus Christ, while being an intrinsic part of the New Age Movement at the same time. "
Read Entire Article

Rick Warren: There is Salvation Outside of Knowing Christ

Rick Warren: There is Salvation Outside of Knowing Christ
Source: Slice of Laodicea
Posted by Ingrid on February 13, 2006 @ 07:58 PM

Rick Warren believes that there is salvation today for those who have never heard of Jesus. This is from his Saddleback Family website. Read it carefully, both what it says and does not say. Here's an excerpt:

"Question: What about people who live in a country where they have never heard about Jesus? Will they be able to get into heaven by some other way?

Answer: There is only one way to get into heaven, through what Jesus did on the cross for us. He paid the price for our sins on the cross, no one else could do that because He alone is God.
What about those who haven't heard about the cross?

They can be saved the same way that the people in the Old Testament were saved. The book of Romans tells us again and again that Abraham was saved the same way that we are, by his faith. Abraham didn't know the name of Jesus or that one day Jesus would die on the cross for his sins, but he trusted all that he knew about the God who had shown Himself to Abraham. Because of that trust, when Jesus died thousands of years after Abraham, the same forgiveness that was offered to us was given to Abraham.

God still reveals Himself to people who haven't heard the name of Jesus today. Romans 1:19-23;10:13-21 tells us that, even by nature itself, we can all clearly see who God really is. None of us can stand before God and say, I didn't understand." We all live as His creations in the world that He has made... the evidence of the love and grace of God are all around us! Let me be clear about what this means. A person who trusted in God without hearing the name of Jesus would be of the heart to immediately recognize that Jesus was the name of the one they believed in if they were ever to hear His name and story. They would know, just as Abraham would have known, that this is the truth about the God they have been following all of their lives. Someone who has begun to walk in the light is always able to recognize a brighter light.."

We can begin to "walk in the light" without the Light of the World? Where does the light come from, Rick, if our hearts are dark with sin as Romans 3:23 states?

With this theology, we have no need for missions or true evangelism at all. (And with Saddleback, of course, we get none.) As Christians we can spend our time like Bill and Melinda Gates--conducting purpose driven social work to cure the world's physical ills. After all, you can be saved without knowing about Christ or the cross, Warren says. This is rank apostasy.
What Rick is saying is that we are saved through what Jesus did on the cross for us, not believing in Christ and what He did on the cross for us. He says we can be saved even without knowing Jesus and his atoning work. He says that we can "trust God" without ever having heard of Christ and that when we finally hear of Christ, we'll then recognize Him and say, "ah, that was who I was trusting!" This is the underlying belief of interspiritualists like Dave Fleming who has taken Warren's beliefs a step farther and stated that all world religions are essentially the same, worshipping the same God, beneath the superficial differences. That, friends, is where Rick Warren is taking the church.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/02/rick_warren_the.php

Mardi Gras, Carnival Goers Feel Call Of Dionysus

This Scripture verse is very appropriate to read before the following sad article:

Romans 1:18-32
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them..."

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Mardi Gras, Carnival Goers Feel Call Of Dionysus
RAIDERS NEWS UPDATE - By Thomas Horn - February 12, 2006

- The Associated Press reported this week that Louisiana's battered residents are putting their "months of heartache, frustration and anger on parade, in effigies, blue-tarp trailers and themes like 'Fridge Over Troubled Water,'" and giving themselves the first of many desperately needed Mardi Gras laughs.

Mardi Gras has long been an occasion for the city to laugh at tragedy and aim barbs at authorities, the AP said, "and given all the pain New Orleans has suffered in the past year the irreverence should reach new heights this season."

This year there is a particular edge in the Big Easy as clubs that historically staged Mardi Gras parades "are targeting Hurricane Katrina and the politicians they blame for the chaotic response to the catastrophe."
Does this mean, perverts beware!? Are the topless muses and nude dancers giving way to more political caricatures as masked revelers stumble home following dusk-to-dawn parties?

Never fear, the mood is different across the world in Rio de Janeiro, where organizers have started parades they plan will lead up to the four-day, pre-Lenten festival, opening Feb. 25. The over-the-top, anything-goes celebration of feathers and bare flesh promises that, unlike Louisiana's battered citizens, sun, fun and samba -- not politics -- will remain the messages of Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival, despite socialist President Hugo Chavez's sponsorship of one of the top dance groups.

The Brazilian government even plans to distribute 25 million free condoms to promote sex during the country's Carnival, but the city's seamy underbelly may provide darker moments that some people are prepared for. Angry Brazilian police officers demanding higher pay are warning tourists not to rely on the crime-ridden city's cops to save them.

In Australia, the rainbow remains bright as the 2006 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Party races toward Saturday, March 4, where at the Moore Park Entertainment Precinct (formerly Fox Studios) the world's "biggest queer gathering" is already selling out some of the planned events. Past Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras have seen attendance as high as 700,000 participants.

Some may be wondering, with so much uncertainty in the world today, why do we continue the need to cast off inhibition and to party? Is the deep compulsion purely psychological, or is another, unseen force pulling at us, compelling us to don 'the mask'?

Errol Laborde investigated the masquerade tradition in his book, Mardi Gras! (Picayune Press). He wrote "Roman aristocracy of the time preferred debauchery and licentiousness to legality and morality. Men donned women's clothing, the better to abandon themselves to orgy; thus the masquerade tradition began."

Professor Fred Koening of Tulane University supported conclusions of Laborde, saying, "Masks are a way of being anonymous, and if you wear a mask, you take on a different persona. You can be a little drunker, a little wilder, a little more primitive. Furthermore, at Carnival people will be more tolerant of you. Normal rules are gone. Traditional routines are put on hold."

In ancient times, the Greek god Dionysus was depicted as the inventor of such revelry. Followers of Dionysus believed that he was the presence that is otherwise defined as the craving within man that longs to "let itself go" and to "give itself over" to base desires. What Christians might resist as the lustful wants of the carnal man, the followers of Dionysus embraced as the incarnate power that would, in the next life, liberate the souls of mankind from the constraints of this present world and from the customs which sought to define respectability through a person’s obedience to moral law. Until then, worshippers of Dionysus attempted to bring themselves into union with the god through a ritual casting off of the bonds of sexual denial and primal constraint by seeking to attain a higher state of ecstasy.

The uninhibited rituals of ecstasy (Greek for "outside the body") employed wine, abandon, and perversion to bring the followers of Dionysus into a supernatural condition which enabled them to escape the temporary limitations of the body and mind and to achieve a state of enthousiasmos -- outside the body and "inside the god."...
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/mardigras2.htm

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PS - We are not Homophobic, fearful of Gays. We ARE however concerned about the sexual perversion that is contrary to nature, medicine, heterosexuality, human physiology, good mental health, healthy bodies, norman living, etc. Statistics PROVE beyond any shadow of a doubt that sexual perversion, promiscuity, sex outside of heterosexual marriage, etc, is damaging to human beings in many more ways than one. Caveat Emptor!

Let those who think otherwise study the demise and destruction of over 20 past civilizatiosn who have been given over to Witchcraft, Homosexualtiy and Child Sacrifice.

Rick Warren Predicts a "NEW REFORMATION"?

Rick Warren predicted a "New Reformation" or a "Third Great Awakening" for America but as many are now seeing, the Purpose Driven Life and movement are not based out sound Bible teaching. The following is an excerpt from the Friday Church News Notes.

RICK WARREN PREDICTS A "NEW REFORMATION."
Friday Church News Notes, February 10, 2006
In his appearance before the Pew Forum last May, Rick Warren predicted a "New Reformation" or a "Third Great Awakening" for America. He said:

"You know, 500 years ago, the first Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was about beliefs. I think a new reformation is going to be about behavior. The first Reformation was about creeds; I think this one will be about deeds. ... The first Reformation actually split Christianity into dozens and then hundreds of different segments. I think this one is actually going to bring them together. Now, you're never going to get Christians, of all their stripes and varieties, to agree on all of the different doctrinal disputes and things like that, but what I am seeing them agree on are the purposes of the church. ... Last week I spoke to 4,000 pastors at my church who came from over 100 denominations in over 50 countries. Now, that's wide spread. We had Catholic priests, we had Pentecostal ministers, we had Lutheran bishops, we had Anglican bishops, we had Baptist preachers. They're all there together and you know what? I'd never get them to agree on communion or baptism or a bunch of stuff like that, but I could get them to agree on what the church should be doing in the world" ("Myths of the Modern Mega-Church," May 23, 2005, transcript of the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life).

Warren's New Reformation is not about beliefs or creeds or doctrinal purity; it is rather about "the purpose of the church." Let me see if I understand this. It is not essential that a church hold biblical doctrine and practice (e.g., Episcopalian, Lutheran) or even that it preach a biblical gospel (e.g., Catholic priests). It is only important that "churches" agree on their purpose? How can a "church" have a biblical purpose when it does not have biblical doctrine? How can it have a biblical purpose when it preaches a false sacramental gospel? If sound doctrine is not a foundational issue, I wonder why Paul instructed Timothy to "charge some that they teach NO OTHER DOCTRINE" (1 Tim. 1:3)? I wonder why he didn't rather instruct Timothy to go easy on the doctrine issue? Could it be that the apostle Paul's teaching is contrary to Rick Warren's? I, for one, am certain of it!

Delirious Helping Joyce Meyer Spread the Word Faith Gospel in India

Recently we received an email from a Pastor in India asking the Spiritual Research Network to help counter the Word Faith heresies of Benny Hinn and and other Word Faith teachers whose teachings are infecting believers in India. This is a great concern to us because we know that many Pastors in India do not have discernment resources and the Word Faith heresies are being spread across the nation.

Now, Joyce Meyer too is spreading Word Faith Prosperity teachings in India. Sadly, the Christian rock band Delirious is helping her. It should be stated and remembered that Joyce Meyer's unbiblical prosperity Gospel teachings have been exposed countless times by Bible based discernment ministries. Still, many do not know that she is teaching heresy as are many other big name Christian authors.

"Joyce Meyer says God has made her rich. Everything she has came from Him: the $10 million corporate jet, her husband's $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children — all blessings, she says, straight from the hand of God. Here is a short news clip from Christianity Today."

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Delirious and Joyce Meyer Reach Out to 1.2 Million in India
CHRISTIAN TODAY - by Courtney Lee - February 8, 2006
- British rock band Delirious? and NY Times best-selling author, legendary evangelist Joyce Meyer recently travelled to Hyderabad, India, to join India’s own Sounds of the Nations for one of the largest Christian events in India.

More than 1.2 million people gathered to hear Delirious? play songs from its widely acclaimed new album, The Mission Bell and hear Joyce Meyer deliver the word each night. During the four-day gathering, hundreds of thousands made commitments to faith in Jesus Christ.
“The incredible gift that Delirious? brings to an event like this is immeasurable,” says Joyce Meyer.

“The ability to go from completely rock'n down the house to absolute pure worship is awesome! It was an honour to share the stage with them and look forward to doing more in the future! India will never ever be the same!”...

Known for her transparency and dynamic speech, Joyce Meyer conducts close to 20 conferences per year, and has authored over 70 books. In 2004, almost 2.5 million copies of her books were sold, and well over 1 million were donated around the world. Her television program is broadcast to two-thirds of the globe and her radio program is broadcast on hundreds of stations worldwide.

This year, she will be conducting conferences in Rwanda and Ukraine in addition to cities in the U.S.
Read Entire Article
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/ministries/delirious.and.joyce.meyer.reach.out.to.1.2.million.in.india./521.htm

Click here to see be educated about Joyce Meyer's unbiblical teachings

Joyce Meyer: From Fenton To Fortune In The Name Of God by Carolyn Tuft and Bill Smith, ©2003, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/15/2003
Joyce Meyer by G. Richard Fisher and Paul R. Belli
The Preacher Who Doesn't Tell It Like It Is - The Truth Twisting And Tall Tales Of Joyce Meyer by Paul R. Belli and G. Richard Fisher
"Doctrinal Ambiguity Of A Wandering Star - The Changing Views Of Joyce Meyer"
Joyce Meyer - Views by Bob Hunter, The Contenders
No Prophetic Word About Fire From Meyer by MKG, PFO
Joyce Meyer by Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason Ministries
Series Of Articles On Joyce Meyer by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Preaching Prosperity - Joyce Meyer by Mary Warner, Religion News Service, The Salt Lake Tribune, 5/16/04