Free Republic

You have been waiting in suspense for Me to move in a spectacular way , not for yourselves but for the Body and the Bride and to AWE the lost and stolen those wandering aimlessly in the darkness with no hope ! YEA ! I Declare Hope is Here ! And your Glory Cloud has landed but it is the key of Faith swinging in the incense of worship that causes My smoke to Gather , My wings to spread as over the Mercy Seat ! And My Eyes and My Heart to Rest upon you as I nestle you...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce "very important" achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported. He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organized rallies across the country to mark the occasion. Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who arrived in Iran on Friday for three-day trip, also spoke at the ceremony. Haniyeh vowed that the Hamas movement will never recognize the State of...

FBI Terrorist Alert: Beware of Those Who 'Reference the Constitution or Bible' By Mark Alexander · Thursday, February 9, 2012

FBI Terrorist Alert: Beware of Those Who 'Reference the Constitution or Bible' By Mark Alexander · Thursday, February 9, 2012

Moshe Aharon Shak has researched the Republican primary candidates in the Bible code and has presented them in a YouTube video. We present this information to our readers with the following caveat. Because of his belief that the Bible code carries the same validity as the Word of G-d, he presents the codes as G-d's divine revelation regarding who will be elected. Although he claims that the search is done by established methodology guided by scientific principles, there are two critical caveats that must be understood. Interpretation of the codes can be faulty. Undiscovered codes can shed more light on...

Several years ago, prior to my retirement from the CIA, I was meeting with a senior Iranian asset in the Middle East. I had finished debriefing him on the intelligence he had to provide, and we had launched into a more expansive conversation about the overall direction of American policy toward Iran. I was trying to explain the rationale behind our sanctions regime and the thought process that had led us to conclude that we could persuade the Islamic Republic of Iran to modify its behavior. The asset interrupted me. "You really don't have any idea who you are dealing...

Many of us who are biblical scholars have watched Mr. Obama’s use, or should I say abuse, of the Bible with dismay. Who can forget when he gave a speech mocking the ceremonial law of the Old Testament then saying something to the effect of, “How can you govern by the Sermon on the Mount?” Well, he did it again at the National Prayer Breakfast. I never understood that name since very little prayer, if any, takes place. Instead, perhaps it should be called the National Breakfast Gathering. The president quoted the Bible to justify punishing those who have worked...

Obama, The Bible, and Taxes Feb 2, 2012 Obama offended many people yesterday with his abuse of our Heavenly Father, and His Son's teachings. First, let's go to USA TODAY's article Obama: 'We can't leave our moral values at the door' and read the article at the link. Next, let's go to the Bible and get the full contest of the verse Luke 12:48 KJV. To do that we have to start at Luke verse 1 and read. ... he began to say unto his disciples first of all,Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.For...

Tim Tebow is back in the news after cancelling an appearance with a group of pastors spouting the Prosperity Gospel. Apparently, Mr. Tebow agreed to speak before he realized whom he was supporting. The Prosperity Gospel reflects a new variant on an ancient apostasy presuming our material standing proportionate to our moral stature. Many of America's fastest growing churches feature this errant blending of theology with materialism. Megachurches espousing this feel good nonsense litter the landscape while televangelists have been catapulted into the public face of Christianity. It's compelling and easily misleads because it's intuitive. Those who serve God best...

It’s fascinating how frequently modern dilettantes re-make Christ in their image via Matthew 25. Socialists finesse Scripture to justify redistributing wealth to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), while capitalists overplay the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Both tout Christ’s teachings as a trump card. Other passages are mentioned. Socialists highlight descriptions in Acts of voluntary, privately orchestrated, local and temporary communalization to prescribe permanent, coerced communism under a distant, godless government. But Matthew 25 leads from both directions. The rapidity and carelessness of these misappropriations of “End Time” parables startles anyone who actually reads Matthew 25. Either these...

Study of the New and Old Testament may be coming into public schools if the Arizona House Education Committee is able to convince the rest of the Legislature that The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture, will use Books of the Bible as part of literature and history courses.

Who would have expected that in a Republican primary campaign the single biggest complaint among candidates would be that the front-runner has taken capitalism too far? As if his success and achievement were evidence of something unethical and immoral? President Obama and other redistributionists must be rejoicing that their assumptions about rugged capitalism and the 1% have been given such legitimacy. More than any other nation, the United States was founded on broad themes of morality rooted in a specific religious perspective. We call this the Judeo-Christian ethos, and within it resides a ringing endorsement of capitalism as a moral...

Why Does My Bible Read that Way? This question may have come to mind while you were reading and particularly so if you read and compare different translations of the Bible. The differences can be quite minor, word order and choice of words that carry much the same the thought or of a rather substantial nature that will affect our understanding of the Scriptures as a whole. John 1:18 serves as a good example since much has been written about it with experts offering quite opposite opinions. Here The New American Standard Version reads' "No one has seen God at...

Palestinian Authority Mufti Calls for Death to Jews‎ Christian Broadcasting Network (blog)The moderator first states, "Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (ie, Jews) is a war of religion and faith." Then the moderator invites the...

madrasa in Pakistan  Like other boys in his Pashtun tribe along the Pakistan-Afghan border, he was sent to a madrasa at age four, where he was compelled to read, recite and memorize the Koran.“The children mimic or copy the mullah, who is very heavy-handed. You have to memorize out of fear,” says John Taimoor, founder of The Crossbearers, a ministry devoted to presenting biblical Christianity within an Islamic context.By age 14 he was reading Shakespeare and searching for heroes, when he stumbled across the name ‘Isa,’ the Arabic name for Jesus in the Koran. “I read the name of Jesus...

The racism bluff By GUSTAVO D. PEREDNIK 12/21/2011 21:46 Judaism brought anti-racism to the world via the idea that all mankind was derived from Adam, the first man. Haitian anthropologist Antenor Firmin pioneered in 1885 the rebuttal of racist theories; since then there has been a constant endeavor to defeat racism through education and legislation. These efforts are undermined by those who deliberately exaggerate the problem of racism in present times in order to avoid criticisms of the many other evils in their societies. In a world in which Barack Obama was elected president of America, and that put a...

It is suggested that the viewer not change his mind about Bible prophecy based on this video. But as preterism is probably the fastest growing view of eschatology in the church, we are going to be hearing more and more about it. This video might encourage the viewer to do more study. It is by a young pastor in Florida: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWHiykrDzGo&list=UUeL-YuC4w5ZryACp5B-DWzQ&index=6&feature=plcp.

After his stunning surge in Iowa, Rick Santorum's virtual tie for fourth place in New Hampshire is being interpreted negatively by some commentators and pundits who are gleefully declaring that the social conservative and evangelical voters -- those "guns and Bible" folks -- have run out of steam. They are also claiming that Santorum, Gingrich, and Perry are splitting the evangelical vote, making it likely that Romney will coast to a win in South Carolina as well. The New Hampshire facts are complex and defy easy interpretation. Romney won handily with 39.6 percent of the votes cast. Between them, Paul...

FRiends, Simple question to resolve a debate I'm having with a family member. How did David kill Goliath? Was it with the stone from his sling or with the sword when he cut off his head?

SOMEONE has been kind enough to send me a copy of a prophetical magazine issue just fourteen years ago (August, 1880). My unknown friend gives no indication of his reason for sending me this paper; but one article contained in it attracts my attention, and I seize on it "to point a moral." "THE CRISIS OF THE END" is the startling title of this article, and its avowed purpose is to meet the unbelievers objection to the study of prophecy that no two expositors agree. To refute this it gives a list of 120 writers—many of them authors of repute,...

Featured Term (selected at random):HAGGAI Also called Aggeus, the tenth among the Minor Prophets. About 520 B.C. he appeared among the Jews to rebuke them for apathy in building the second Temple. The book of Haggai contains four utterances: urging the rebuilding of the Temple, foretelling the glory of the new house of the Lord, threatening the Jews with misfortune until the Temple is rebuilt, and promising God's blessings on the people through Zorobabel, the representative of the royal house of David. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with...

Featured Term (selected at random):LABAN Son of Bethuel, a descendant of Nahor from the land of the Aramaeans. When the aged Abraham sought a wife for his son Isaac, he sent a trusted servant back to his kinfolk to find a suitable wife. With Yahweh's help he chose Rebekah. Bethuel, her father, and Laban, her brother, willingly supported the choice and so Rebekah married Isaac (Genesis 24). Years later Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, was sent by his parents to live with his uncle in the hope that he would take one of Laban's daughters to be his...

Israel is preparing for an Iran with nuclear capabilities within the next 12 months, according to a report by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an Israeli think tank. The U.K. daily Times newspaper published extracts of the report by the Tel Aviv University institute on Monday, according to an AFP report. The INSS was asked to prepare possible scenarios in case Iran carries out nuclear weapons tests by security, intelligence and diplomatic officials, AFP reported the Times as saying.

Whenever we, as biblical Christians, think that things couldn't possibly become more preposterous in Christendom, we need to call to mind the Scriptures that tell us that the time will come when Christians will not endure sound doctrine, and many will corrupt the Word of God (2 Timothy:4:3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;; 2 Corinthian 2:17; 2 Peter:3:16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they...

The Visit of the Wise Men 1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose[b] and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he enquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told...

The latest version of the popular NIV Bible translation has had its verses on homosexuality reworded, making them clearer in denouncing the practice, a theologian who helped with the translation says. These clarifications include the verse in 1 Corinthians 6:9, where the 1984 NIV version uses the phrase “homosexual offenders,” while the 2011 translation changes the phrase to "men who have sex with men." The Committee on Bible Translation, chaired by Dr. Douglas J. Moo, who also serves as Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College, released the 2011 New International Version last year. “Debates among Christians about the...

Featured Term (selected at random):   PSALTER Translation, often in verse, of the Book of Psalms into the vernacular for home or church use. Also an ancient stringed instrument with a soundboard, the strings being plucked. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Ministry of Reconciliation “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” — II Corinthians 5:17,18

A Revolutionary Resolution Make this the year when you’ll really get to know the Bible. Every new year presents us with an exciting challenge and opportunity. As another year fades into memory and as we stand on the brink of a new beginning, we almost naturally ask ourselves, “What can I do this year to better myself?” Some choose to lose a few extra pounds or to establish a new exercise regimen. Others decide to spend more time with their families. Still others establish a new budget and set some kind of financial goal for the year. Finally, others...

GOD made two covenants. 1 with Ishmael and the other with Isaac. Let's remember what they are and learn from them, and not be surprised as the gospel is being fulfilled. All must come to pass.

Despite many a pundit's tale, it wasn't secular society that just evicted Christ from Christmas. This assault on faith is neither new nor limited to the holidays. Instead of a peculiar people living as salt and light to a lost world, far too many Believers let the divine splendor of Light descending to Earth be eclipsed under the dull luster of consumerism. We Christians seem unsatisfied by Christ's coming and instead compensate through seeking worldly ends. But if we are too busy living the same lives as unbelievers, who else will give an account of the rich hope that's within...

Believers! Let us always remember to edify one another so that we can be stronger in love towards one another. Love to all in the Holy Precious Name of JESUS CHRIST!

HE is the sacrifice!! Let's spread HIS HOLY NAME through reading, believing, and living HIS word and will in our daily lives. Showing the world how it is to walk in HIS LOVE and not shaken by anything. Be the peculiar joy in this world for HE is victorious!!

This Christmas let us spare a thought and say a prayer for countless Christian victims of Muslim brutality, over the centuries and in our own time.An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Sunday morning, killing at least 25 people. A radical Muslim group, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the attack and another bombing in the city of Jos, as explosions also struck the nation’s predominantly Muslim northeast. The Christmas Day attacks show the growing national ambition of Boko Haram, was responsible for some 500 murders this year alone. The assaults come a...

Love everyone as Jesus tells us!! Never forget HIS love in our lives!! Let's live this love that has changed and still changing our lives. Praise HIS HOLY NAME by trying to daily live the same.

The USA’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, has responded to presidential hopeful Rick Perry's anti-gay TV promotion suggesting that "it must break God's heart to see religion used in a political campaign like this." Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church showed his distaste in a TV interview with MSNBC and also by writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post newspaper. Perry had stated in his commercial that “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t...

This morning, I was reading the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, and “got” something I've never gotten before. It had a very profound effect on me, and thought I'd pass it along. As the story goes, a man woke early in the morning to go hire workers for his vineyard. The first men he hired agreed to work for one penny per day. After those workers had been laboring for 3 hours, the man observed there were many still unemployed and standing around idle in the marketplace. He hires the men and tells them to work in his...

What is Sola Scriptura? "We believe in the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety as the sole rule of faith for the Christian!" You may have heard these words or something very similar to them from a Fundamentalist or Evangelical Protestant. They are, in essence, the meaning of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, or "Scripture alone," which alleges that the Bible – as interpreted by the individual believer – is the only source of religious authority and is the Christian’s sole rule of faith or criterion regarding what is to be believed. By this doctrine, which is one...

A young quarterback who dropped to his knee after humiliating the Chicago Bears in an unbelievable overtime win is doing more to exemplify his faith in God to our young people than a president’s dismissive Sunday golf games. The example of Tim Tebow’s mother refusing to abort him when her doctors told her to do so is in stunning contrast to Barack Obama’s actions in the Illinois State Senate when he voted against the Baby Born Alive bill. Remember when he said soon upon entering the White House that America is no longer a Christian nation? Just go to tebowing.com...

In this time of worry about the future of our nation let us pause to remember the gift God gave us on the first Christmas morning. Here is the story of Christ’s birth as told to us by St. Luke @2: 1-20) 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. 2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirin’i-us was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to...

It's one of the most famous and widely shared pieces of music in history. Handel intended his oratorio "Messiah" for Lent, and it was first performed just after Easter 1742. But over the centuries, public performances of the masterwork became a rite of Christmas. It is 270 years since Handel composed the classic, yet crowds continue to gather and listen, once again, for hours. Today's audiences typically reserve that kind of time for a Lady Gaga concert or the opening of a new "Mission Impossible" movie. What explains the enduring attraction of Handel's "Messiah"? For one thing, the sheer beauty...

Featured Term (selected at random):EPISTLE OF JAMES Traditionally attributed to James the Less, "the brother of the Lord." It was written in Greek, and its style and language were typically Jewish, indicating that it was originally intended for converts from Judaism. Its main stress is on the moral conduct of Christians, notably their perseverance under trial, respect for the poor, and the need to bridle one's tongue. It is especially clear on the duty of living one's faith and not merely professing it (James 2:14-26). Among the good works binding on Christians, the practice of charity and the avoidance of...

A Reddit.com user posed the question to Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet?�Below, you will find the book list offered up by the astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science. Where possible, we have included links to free versions of the books, all taken from our Free Audio Books and Free eBooks collections. Or you can always download a professionally-narrated book for free from Audible.com. Details here. If you’re looking for a more extensive list of essential works, don’t miss The Harvard Classics, a 51 volume series...

Occupy Wall Street is not yet over, and it's not a religious movement, though some would like it to be. The protest movement and the world's faith traditions seem, to some, naturally aligned. As Tom Heneghan, religion editor for Reuters, writes: "Religions condemn greed. The 'Occupy Wall Street' protests around the world condemn greed. So theoretically, religious leaders should find common ground with the rallies denouncing the inequalities of capitalism." Yet few religious authorities have committed their support. If the OWS movement were merely opposed to crony capitalism, or political favor trading, or even executive compensation structures, then it would...

Following are excerpts from an address delivered by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on the Day of Ashura, which aired on Al-Manar TV on December 6, 2011: Hassan Nasrallah: I wanted to be with you for a few minutes on the Day of Ashura, so that together, before the entire world, we reiterate our choice, and we renew our commitment to Hussein. […] Brother and sisters, on the Day of Ashura, we renew our commitment and our pledge of allegiance. Wait a few minutes, and I will appear on the screen. Don't go away. We will renew our commitment to Hussein,...

On Wednesday, a group of high school athletes at a Long Island school were suspended for staging a spontaneous bout of Tebowing in their high school's hallway. According to Connor Carroll, a senior, the Riverhead administration handed out one-day suspensions to four student athletes after a group of Riverhead students decided to spontaneously hold a group Tebowing session in the school. Tebowing, a relatively harmless act which emerged amidst the rapid rise of the Denver Broncos quarterback, is meant to be an homage to the second-year passer's religiously focused touchdown celebrations. While as many as 40 teens (with some participants...

Yesterday, we highlighted a story from Moral Outcry on a new pink Bible for breast cancer awareness, published by Southern Baptist-affiliated B&H, a division of LifeWay Resources. Each sale would have given $1 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which is a financial supporter of Planned Parenthood. Moral Outcry and its readers wrote to the publisher when the story originally broke, with one commenter receiving a response confirming the fact that LifeWay intended to continue the Bible’s sale and finish the contract with Komen. But it appears the company has had second thoughts and today released this statement: Yesterday, we...

Many passages in Holy Scriptures implore rulers to treat the poor fairly. It is only a slight exaggeration to suggest God measures nations largely by justice towards "the least of these." Is charity best dispensed publicly through a secular state or privately by churches? Does Washington really not do enough? Let's not confuse justice with grace. Despite the demagoguery trumpeted every election, America's rich pay almost all our taxes while the less fortunate are net recipients of government largesse. Washington's focus has shifted from defense and foreign affairs into social programs advancing egalitarianism. The federal government's primary endeavor reflects paying...

The Rev. Mariann Budde, the newly consecrated and seated bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, wants to make a stronger voice for progressive Christians. “I want to build up the liberal church again so we can be a legitimate conversation partner in the public arena religiously,” said Budde to the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein. Budde stated that she believed this “public arena” is presently “dominated by evangelical Christians and what many would call the Christian right, and I would agree.” “It’s legitimate for them to be there, but they’re drowning us out,” said Budde. In talking with the Washington...

Police and fire officials are trying to figure out who set the Christmas tree on the New Haven Green on fire on Saturday night Officials said they found Bibles burning under the tree. "It's a wonderful beautiful Christmas tree for families to see," one resident said. The fire department shut down the power which lights up the tree because some of the wires were damaged. The city says fire investigators are looking to see if the Bibles were intentionally set on fire. "It's wrong. They're disrespecting the holidays," another resident said. "There can't be Christmas without lights," someone else said....