Free Republic

While it may seem that religion is more deeply involved in politics today than in past generations, in truth, politics has become a theological struggle. It is not unreasonable to see contemporary American politics as a struggle between a fully Biblical religion and one that takes it point of departure from the second century heretic Marcion of Sinope. Historically, American civilization attempted to be fully Biblical. From the explicitly religious basis of much of colonial America (Congregationalism in New England, Anglicanism in the South), the new American nation thrived and grew with formal disestablishment of religious bodies which had a...

North Point Community Church Senior Pastor Andy Stanley has stated that Christians need to "unhitch" the Old Testament from their faith. In the final part of a recent sermon series, Stanley explained that while he believes that the Old Testament is "divinely inspired," it should not be "the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church." To justify this, Stanley preached last month about Acts 15, which described how the early church decided that Gentile converts did not need to strictly observe Jewish law to become Christians. "[First century] Church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and...

Doctrine and discipline We must distinguish between the doctrine of Marcion himself and that of his followers. Marcion was no Gnostic dreamer. He wanted a Christianity untrammeled and undefiled by association with Judaism. Christianity was the New Covenant pure and simple. Abstract questions on the origin of evil or on the essence of the Godhead interested him little, but the Old Testament was a scandal to the faithful and a stumbling-block to the refined and intellectual gentiles by its crudity and cruelty, and the Old Testament had to be set aside. The two great obstacles in his way he removed...

The Anti-Defamation League is at it again, rewriting history in an attempt to secularize America. The latest fight is over using “Jesus Christ” during a prayer at government meetings in Wellington, Florida. The ADL claims that such prayers are “unconstitutional.” I’m going to assume that “unconstitutional” means contrary to the United States Constitution. The Constitution of the United States declares, in words just above George Washington’s signature, that the proceedings were “DONE . . . in the Year of our Lord,” an obvious reference to Jesus Christ. What do we make of the 1774 congressional prayer offered by Jacob Duché...

QUESTION: How do I handle professors that don't like to hear "King James only" arguments? They are evaluating using a certain Bible version. They say that they'll listen to evidence about other Bible versions, but do not want the King James mentioned specifically. What do I do?

The Old Testament is full of barbaric cruelty, and it thus in conflict dramatically with the New Testament, which teaches forgiveness and meekness to the believers. Historically, a Bishop theologian by the name of Marcion has begun a movement that disregarded the Old Testament. That was an effort to keep Christianity from having too many contradictions. His church prospered for a few hundred years, and vanished finally. This post is to allow the believer to vent their views regarding the conflicting messages of the OT, and NT! Are there people like me who contemplate that glaring difference between God's guidance...