Persecution

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While Jews are persecuted, Evangelicals are captivated...

What goes down while UK Evangelicals are up in Keswick being "captivated" by OM's Peter Maiden, Alistair Begg, and "Research Professor" Don Carson?

London's private Vishnitz Orthodox girls' school fails its third inspection for conformity to the UK's Equalities Act and is on the verge of being shut down. Their crime?

The young Jewish women were not indoctrinated in “sexual orientation." Government inspectors declared "this restricts pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and does not promote equality of opportunity in ways that take account of differing lifestyles."

What happens when UK pastors farm out their Biblical witness against the homosexualist juggernaut to the SSA chatterboxes of...


Lighthouse Christian Academy: a press release...

Here's the press release Lighthouse Christian Academy issued this morning in response to the Huffington Post's faith-shaming of Christians. 1 


Bill Nye wants to sacrifice children for his Earth Goddess...

It's long been evident to me, at least, that greens and Scientism's Calamity Janes will get government to take reproduction in-house, granting some the right to bear children and forbidding others. At first parents like my own who had bad genes that passed on cystic fibrosis and hemophilia will be told "no." Dad wrote the novel Winterflight with this premise as its plot. The book was published back in the late seventies and if you haven't read it, you should.

In time, the justification won't be the cost of healthcare and eugenics, but a one or two-child policy similar to the one China is trying to leave behind. Our policy will only differ from China in that we won't be able to justify it by saying there's not enough food. There always will be...


The Inauguration: Donald Trump and his haters...

The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like dew on the grass. (Proverbs 19:12)

The Trump haters are in high dudgeon and they may just succeed in giving us one of the best presidents we've had in decades. Years ago, a friend said it's more important you have the right enemies than the right friends. Trump seems almost a genius in choosing his enemies. The pretty girls and boys of Hollywood. The drug-addled, sexually debauched music stars. The intellectually debauched talking heads of the media. All the Demoncrats united in their three-legged platform of grand theft from future generations, sodomy, and the slaughter of one-quarter of our nation's babies. Some gang, huh? 

So I think we've hit the Thomas principle. You remember what they tried to do to Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings? Attack a man relentlessly, trying to keep him out of office, and if he gets the position, you've succeeded in making him your implacable foe. It's bad enough when he becomes a sitting and sitting and sitting and sitting justice of the Supreme Court, but watch out when he's inaugurated the forty-fifth president of these United States...


On the occasion of Michael Farris leaving HSLDA: thoughts on the church's reformation...

Neither the slaughter of one-quarter of our children we liltingly refer to as "abortion," nor the promotion of sodomy and the denial of First Amendment rights of Christians who object to it, will be repealed in our courts. Any remedy will have to be legislative.

Legislation, though, depends upon the will of the people and at this point we, the people, do not have the will to stop either of these obscenities. Nor very many others.

How might this change?

The history of the early church shows the way. The men who knew Jesus went out preaching, and in time the Roman Empire turned away from effeminacy, sodomy, female rebellion, and child slaughter that was characteristic of their pagan religion.

Now, though, Christendom is in its death throes. Seventy-five years ago, J. Gresham Machen said America was living...


Pastor Andrew Brunson falsely imprisoned by our ally, Turkey...

Please pray for Pastor Andrew Brunson, imprisoned October 6 last year and being held on false charges by our ally, Turkey:

If the White House won’t do anything to resolve this situation as Obama’s team prepares to exit, Donald Trump needs to get on the phone and demonstrate the sort of leadership he has promised the nation. This would be an excellent opportunity to come out of the gate strong on the foreign diplomacy front. Andrew Brunson must be freed and either returned to his ministry or brought home to the United States.

 


Is there a Christian ghetto in our future...

This is a talk given by ruling elder Ken Patrick at a conference held this past Saturday at his church, Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA), in Ludlow, Kentucky. Titled "Maintaining a Christian Witness in an Increasingly Pagan Culture," the conference's other speakers were Trinity's pastor Chuck Hickey and an attorney from the Alliance Defending Freedom, Jeff Shafer. I attended the conference with my son, Joseph, and his fellow pastor Paul Belcher (both serving Christ Church in Cincinnati). Hope you find this talk as wise and helpful as Joseph, Paul, and I did.

* * *

Maintaining a Christian Witness in an Increasingly Pagan Culture

by Ken Patrick

Before we begin, let me talk about my qualifications to divine the future: I’m not a prophet; I don’t have a “word from the Lord” in the sense that I’m about to share any divinely sourced revelation with you; God didn’t appear to me in a dream.

What I’m going to share are simply observations on what may come to pass if current trends continue, and what I would do if I were in charge. If you find yourself disagreeing with what I say, hopefully you’ll stay until I’m finished. We’ll have a Q&A session where you can ask a question, and of course you can pigeon-hole me afterward.

So, to answer my own question right up front—is there a Christian ghetto in our future?—I think the most likely answer is “of course, yes” at least in an intellectual sense and perhaps in a real, physical way as well. I think it’s very possible that we’ll see both. Before I begin describing what these Christian “ghetto” scenarios might look like, let’s establish why many of us think...


Mothers and children first...

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?  - Psalm 137:1-4

Yes, I voted for The Donald, today. In the final analysis, I considered not voting for President at all, writing in a candidate, or going third party to be roughly equivalent. At this late date nationally, none of them commend themselves to me. Years ago when Joe Sobran was still alive and I had some hope that pastors might start preaching again, the third party option had some credibility. But then we saw a real third party develop in the Tea Party movement and it became apparent third parties provide no solution to the larger problem—which now appears to be permanent.

Our two candidates accurately reflect who our nation is...


Phil Jensen talks about his mistakes...

Here's a good interview with my friend, Phil Jensen, of Sydney, Australia. Phil and his wife, Helen, spent a weekend with us in Bloomington twenty years ago, and we've often been helped by our conversations then as we have done the work of ministry in a university community.


Lessons from China: "the government must be the big brother..."

Beijing lawyer Zhang Kai was arrested August 25, 2015. Zhang had been giving legal counsel to churches in Wenzhou where pastors had been arrested for opposing a systematic campaign by government officials to relegate churches' crosses from the peaks of their roofs to interior courtyards and other places hidden from the public eye.

Here's the noteworthy quote from the World article:

Yang recalled officials explaining to him that the church and the government were competing for the role of “elder brother” in society: “There can only be one big brother. The government must be the big brother.”

This is precisely the issue in these United States, also. I have no desire to aid the White House campaign of Donald Trump by saying this, but the intolerant liberalism of the West is just as authoritarian as the intolerant Communism of China. The issues are different, but the dictatorial aspirations are the same. Washington's central committees will not stop... 


The persecution of Judge Roy Moore for guarding the rule of law...

If you didn't know, the so-called Southern Poverty Law Center is a witches' brew of rabble rousing and has nothing whatsoever to do with the rule of law. It's much worse than any chapter of the ACLU. As to the "poverty" of their causes, lately they've been spending their time and resources serving as advocates for the poverty-stricken and oppressed gay lobby.


Pastor Saeed Abedini released by Iran...

Iran just released Pastor Saeed Abedini, an Iranian American from Boise, Idaho who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2012. Pastor Abedini was arrested on a trumped-up charge of harming Iran's national security because of his work strengthening the Church in Iran through house churches. We thank God for His kindness to Pastor Abedini, his wife Naghmeh, his two children Rebekka (9) and Jacob (7), and our brothers and sisters in Christ there in Iran who Pastor Abedini has served and strengthened by his witness.


John, get your gun...

(NOTE: “Johnny” is a diminutive of “John.” After titling this piece, it occurred to me that using the title “Johnny get your gun” would be seen as disrespectful, so I’ve changed it to “John, get your gun.” I respect John Piper and apologize for a title that didn’t show proper respect for him.)

The Reformed church has been all atwitter over John Piper’s response to Jerry Falwell encouraging the students of his Baptist college to get a gun and help protect the campus against armed attack. John tells his readers that he talked with Jerry before writing him up. Then, he frames his response to Jerry this way: 

The issue is about the whole tenor and focus and demeanor and heart-attitude of the Christian life. Does it accord with the New Testament to encourage the attitude that says, “I have the power to kill you in my pocket, so don’t mess with me”? My answer is, No.

Of course, this is an uncharitable summary of President Falwell’s position since no one carrying a gun on Liberty’s campus is primarily concerned about himself. Christians don’t carry guns because they don’t want to be killed themselves, but because they want to be faithful to defend others—particularly women and children. This is our calling as Christian men. We defend the innocent and defenseless. It would have been more kind for John to phrase it this way: “I have the power to defend my sisters in Christ here in my holster, so don’t mess with them!”

(Henry Holsters are the superb work of a member of our church, Andrew Henry. Buy one.)

I haven’t read any of the responses to John’s anti-gun piece except Doug Wilson’s. Doug makes a good point when he begins his defense of John this way...


The Paris slaughter...

Daughter Heather Ummel forwarded a link to this piece on the Paris slaughter by Fr. George Rutler, pastor of St. Michael's church in New York City. As always, today, Roman Catholics have a much better understanding of history and culture than Protestants, particularly Reformed Protestants. I say it to our shame. Thus someone like Fr. Rutler is able to put Paris in its proper historical context. He also points out the decadence of the end of Christendom which Muslims use to justify their present bloodlust—decadence to which R2K men and their willing helpers at LivingOut.org, the Gospel Coalition, and Covenant Theological Seminary have made significant contributions both past and present.

Culture doesn't lead the church. The church leads the culture, and each of these groups have led and still lead the church into compromise and silence concerning the wickedness of homosexualists. It's no accident, then, that Muslims see Christianity as morally repugnant. We've done what Covenant Theological Seminary's Professor David Jones said we should, making sodomy legal. It's time now to follow the footsteps of Gospel Coalition and their LivingOUT buddies in solidifying Professor Jones' revolution by commending the "gay Christian," "LivingOUT" Trojan horse. We'll also cave to the passage of pro-homosexualist laws by our civil magistrates because Two-Kingdom men want their shame at the Lord's commands to be affirmed and adopted by all churches to the end that no pastor or elder ever is so foolish as to preach publicly against any perversion, no matter how wicked.

So here we are, putting French flags up on FB and praying for the victims while pastors and preachers of the Gospel are silent about the destruction carried out by homosexualists and Islam.

Never forget that the atrocities committed by Islamic jihadists are only the present manifestation of the bloodlust that has characterized their Christian heresy from its inception. Muslims evangelize by the sword. Christians evangelize by the preaching of God's Word. Sadly, though, the victims of this particular Islamic bloodletting were not men and women who, with their deaths, entered Heaven to hear their blessed Master's words, "well done, my good and faithful servants."

The very opposite. There are only two masters of souls here on this earth, Almighty God and Satan. So says Jesus (Acts 26:16-18).

Satan was the master of those who died in the Bataclan concert hall...


The Armenian massacre by the Turks: evil is real...

(Note from TB: This post is by longtime contributor, Rev. David Wegener.)

Evil is real. It is in our hearts and families, our churches and synagogues, our city councils and state houses the world over. We’d like to pretend it doesn’t exist, but it still appears in all its horror from time to time, in ways we cannot ignore. Our attention is drawn to it when we read about …

  • Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka, concentration camps where Jews were exterminated.
  • Josef Stalin or Idi Amin or Pol Pot and their murderous reigns of terror.
  • Genocide in Rwanda and Burundi and Bosnia in the 1990s.
  • American dumpsters filled with unborn babies, killed just prior to their due date.
  • The Chinese government’s one-child per family policy.
  • ISIS and the atrocities they commit against Christians in Iraq and Syria.

This year, I read a book about evil. Peter Balakian, an Armenian-American historian, has written about the genocide committed by the Turks against the Armenians prior to, during and after World War I in The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. 24 April 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the massacre. On that date in 1915, the Turks killed hundreds of Armenian leaders (poets and writers and priests and politicians and teachers).  

Sadly, talking about this massacre is difficult today since the Turkish government will still not admit that the massacres occurred...


Germany: Church reformed, always reforming...

Heartening. Please pray for Pastor Olaf Latzel; but more, for Germany:


Unpatriotic Christians in China and the U.S...

Believers in China are divided by whether they are a part of a so-called "patriotic" church or not. And if not, we can suppose their churches are thought to be unpatriotic and are persecuted.

Sure enough, China's President Xi Jinping and his Communist Party have announced a crackdown on Christian churches. Those followers of Christ and their churches who associate with foreigners and don't declare their loyalty to communist socialism may expect the state to punish them. About 1,000 people were arrested for their defense of human rights last year, many of whom are Christians. Breitbart reports:

In late August, police arrested China’s most prominent Christian lawyer, Zhang Kai, who defended and gave legal counsel to a number of Christian churches throughout the country, especially against the government’s cross-removal campaign. When Zhang’s father approached the authorities in early October to request information on his son’s detention, he was told that Zhang is a “threat to national security” and that his whereabouts are a state secret...

[President] Xi declared that all religions must adapt to socialist policy, calling this “a common principle for all religions to comply with... The Chinese government has set up internal “patriotic associations” for all five recognized religions—Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and Protestantism—in an effort to keep control over religion within China.

China's socialism is America's egalitarianism. Both nations have their national demons they worship and both nation's demons demand their children for their sacrificial rites...


Black-robed tyrants vs. Mrs. Kim Davis...

[T]he candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln (1861) 

[Note from TB: This post was written almost a month ago, but somehow slipped my mind so I didn't post it until now. I apologize for the delay.]

What Lincoln predicted in the aftermath of the Dred Scott decision came to pass in the 20th Century with a vengeance. State legislatures, school boards, county governments—none of which have political checks against the Supreme Court—all fell prey to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Laws against Pornography. Sorry, violates Freedom of Expression, says SCOTUS. Laws criminalizing abortion. No can do, infringes on the Right to Privacy. The death penalty. Nope, cruel and unusual punishment or violates due process or maybe it doesn't or maybe it does under certain (most) circumstances. Laws defining marriage between one man and one woman. Outta here, interferes with the Right to Define One's Own Concept of Existence and the Meaning of the Universe. No matter how long these laws had been on the books or how overwhelming the majorities were that passed them, SCOTUS swung its overruling scythe.

And for some reason Mrs. Kim Davis is accused of subverting the rule of law.... 


The death of sodomy and sodomites...

For over a decade on this blog, I've used the word 'sodomy' to refer to... well... sodomy. One of the first to explain to me that the word was offensive was my seminary advisor, Dan Jessen. Since responding to Dan, I've been forced to respond continuously,1 and do still. On FB this week a young woman faulted me for using the word. She pronounced what I'd written to be "extreme," adding helpfully that "extremism of all kinds is dangerous."

What's really dangerous, though, is sodomy. Sodom shows how dangerous it is. God rained fire and brimstone, executing all the people of the city for their indulgence in "gross immorality." And what are we to learn from this? Jude tells us God killed the Sodomites so they would be "exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

But at the time, I'm guessing Sodomites would have laughed at being called "sodomites." They would have thought it extreme and pointed out that extremism is dangerous. They would have been tight with Darryl Hart and David VanDrunen's call for the nakedness of their public square. They liked naked...


A judge judges righteously and is judged for it...

Here in Toledo, Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell seeks to perform his duties in accord with his Christian faith...and he says so, forthrightly in the midst of a ruckus caused by his declining to "marry" a lesbian couple. 

As can be expected, many are incensed by his nonconformity:

Although the initial motivation for McConnell's refusal was vague, his subsequent statement not only makes clear the religious motivation for his abdication of duty, but also indicates that he plans to continue seeking some sort of "religious exemption" from performing the duties required by his title.

Please keep Judge McConnell in your prayers. He is not only a professing Christian he is an elder within what appears to be a Bible-believing church...