Free Republic

Orwell, call your office. In the name of tolerance Emmanuel College is actually refusing to permit its athletes to play a game with Gordon College athletes: “At Emmanuel College, a Catholic school in Boston, athletic director Pam Roecker said that Emmanuel would no longer compete against Gordon sports teams after the 2014-15 academic year, according to the student newspaper The Hub,” reports the Washington Times. “‘The foundation of everything [in Emmanuel athletics] is based on fair and equitable treatment,’ said Ms. Roecker in a statement.” The ugliness of kicking around a small island of Evangelical Christianity in a sea of...

The last time I posted here I examined Bryan Cross’s claim for unity in the Roman Catholic Church.  It was my intention to apply Bryan’s guidelines to a specific case that he mentioned – i.e. abortion – to show that his claim, in at least that instance, did not meet the “visibility” standard he required for unity to exist.  I hope to have been fair in my examination and believe that said examination disproved Bryan’s thesis on his own grounds.But that exercise caused me to reflect more broadly on the Roman claim to unity as it might apply to other...

Lord of all being! Thou alone canst affirm I AM THAT I AM; yet we who are made in Thine image may each one repeat ”I am,” so confessing that we derive from Thee and that our words are but an echo of Thine own. We acknowledge Thee to be the great Original of which we through Thy goodness are grateful if imperfect copies. We worship Thee, O Father Everlasting. Amen. ”God has no origin,” said Novatian and it is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes That-which-is-God from whatever is not God. Origin is a word that can apply...

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PSALM 37 admonishes us to beware of irritation in our religious lives: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity." The word "fret" comes to us from the Anglo-Saxon and carries with it such a variety of meanings as bring a rather pained smile to our faces. Notice how they expose us and locate us behind our disguises. The primary meaning of the word is to eat, and from there it has been extended with rare honesty to cover most of the manifestations of an irritable disposition. "To eat...

Services for Crystal Cathedral founder, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, will be held in the very iconic sanctuary that his ministry created. While it's now under the ownership of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and named Christ Cathedral, the large southern California church building will be used for the famous televangelist's funeral. Carol Schuller-Milner, daughter of the former "Hour of Power" host and head of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, announced the details last weekend. "A funeral service for Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller has been scheduled for 10 a.m. April 20 at the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove," noted...

Yesterday, humorist Andy Borowitz published a piece at the New Yorker with the headline “Cruz’s Constant References to Jesus Drive Millions to Atheism“: The Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s constant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong interest in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report. … “It’s been amazing,” [executive director of the American Society of Atheists Carol] Foyler said. “We’re getting calls from people who are curious about atheism for the first time in their lives. And when we ask them what got them thinking about it, they all say...

MARY'S VIRGINITYThe Bible gives us many ways whereby we can clearly identify the Messiah. One of these ways is called a "sign" and is specifically linked to his miraculous birth. In the Book of Isaiah we read: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isa. 7:14, KJV). Along with many other Scriptures, that passage clearly points us to the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, who was born of a "virgin". But even among those who agree that Mary was a virgin, at that...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who signed an April 3 open letter on religious liberty. Credit: Javier de la Flor/CNA. Trenton, N.J., Apr 6, 2015 / 03:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic and Southern Baptist leaders called Friday for a recommitment to religious freedom, lamenting the “acrimony and lies” surrounding efforts to protect religious freedom in Indiana and across the U.S. “America was founded on the idea that religious liberty matters because religious belief matters in a uniquely life-giving and powerful way. We need to take that birthright seriously, or we become a people alien to our own founding principles,” they...

You are not alone look beside you and find me filling your Wellspring with hope even now as the enemy flees with his lies and " T "rue hope becomes your warmth and understanding, that My light is upon you to shed all darkness and though things now seem out of reach "Truly " (( ( I AM ) )) and this is all you Truly need to know for I have already laid out your steps before Me and nothing can alter your path in Me alone . So come closer and completely dissolve all your worries into Me...

If you went looking for the Apostle Paul an aeon ago, you might expect to find him mumbling platitudes in a dusty monastery, fumbling beads in some inane act of farcical devotion, locked for all time in a dingy prayer closet lit only by the nimbus of sainthood; or maybe, having assumed a vow of poverty, laboring in “full time Christian service,” whatever that means—in practical obscurity. If this is your idea of Pauline Christianity, you are profoundly wrong, and are among the majority of those who claim the nearly meaningless appellation of “Christian.” It is fashionable among those who...

Morning and Evening Charles H. Spurgeon April 6, 2015 Morning Reading Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp. —Hebrews 13:13 Jesus, bearing His cross, went forth to suffer without the gate. The Christian's reason for leaving the camp of the world's sin and religion is not because he loves to be singular, but because Jesus did so; and the disciple must follow his Master. Christ was "not of the world:" His life and His testimony were a constant protest against conformity with the world. Never was such overflowing affection for men as you find in Him; but...

"If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." — Gal. 2:21."I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then is Christ dead in vain." You have heard of the connection of this verse with the preceding part of the chapter; and of its relation to the scope of the apostle, and to that point of gospel doctrine that he is there proving; and that is, "That a man is not justified by the law, but by Christ, or by faith in him. And this verse contains two arguments, the...

Biblical Conspiracies 3 of 4 Secrets of the Crucifixion

Roman Catholicism teaches that Jesus instituted the Mass at the Last Supper. According to Rome, Jesus actually turned the bread and wine into his physical body and blood. Since that time, whenever the priest says the same words Jesus said at the Last Supper, the bread and wine of the Mass miraculously turns into the actual body and blood of Christ. While the outer appearance of the bread and wine remain the same, supposedly the inner essence - the substance - changes to Christ’s body and blood and remains that way as long as the bread and wine remain “incorrupted.”...

Nine out of ten.That's a lot.Nine out of ten churches in America have an average worship attendance of less than 350. And that percentage has not changed significantly for many years. Yet the unchurched pool of persons is increasing in most communities. There are people yet to be reached.But most churches will never exceed 350 in attendance. Why? A Few CaveatsAllow me to preface my analysis. First, big is not necessarily better. A church with more people in attendance is not necessarily more faithful than a smaller church. Second, some churches are in very sparsely populated areas. There may not...

Here it is, the first television ad of the 2016 presidential campaign, courtesy of the first official presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. No beating around the bush here—we get a mention of Jesus in the very first sentence:(VIDEO-AT-LINK) "Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the house. God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation. Over and over again when we faced impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. This is our fight, and that is why I'm...

Countdown to the Cross 39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat...

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.(Isaiah 53:12)The last verse of this fourth Servant Song has always struck me as anti-climatic. But this is because I believe the King James version confuses the meaning somewhat, for it reads as though the Servant takes his place among other great and strong ones. But the according to evangelical scholar Alec Motyer,...

Sermon1. Tonight we remember the death of our Lord and Saviour. Death is often a horrible experience. What makes our Lord’s death even more horrible is that He was killed, murder by the brutal act of crucufixion. 2. This evening, we ask - who could have done such a thing? Who killed Jesus? There are many we might blame. 3. Perhaps we would blame the Pharisees and the religious leaders. Jesus had denounced their false worship and religion and had become a threat to them Mat 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. After...

A devout Mormon and an evangelical street preacher exchange words near Temple Square. Next thing you know, they're dining together on roadkill In 2007, Bryan Hall was almost finished filming his documentary, Us and Them: Religious Rivalry in America. He still didn't know how to end the film. A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the now-42-year-old from Orem, thought about the protesters on Temple Square. He finally said, "Let's go talk to those crazy street preachers." There he met the outspoken leader of the street preachers, Ruben Israel, a 53-year-old Whittier, Calif., native who...