Free Republic

More than 1.5 million people converged on the Philippine capital on Monday for a powerful Christian sect's evangelical event, causing traffic chaos that shut down large parts of the megacity. The gathering of the secretive and politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in the historic district of Manila forced all schools and some government offices to close. See your ad here The Supreme Court, as well as some basketball games in the highly popular college league, were also suspended, while Manila's governing authority urged private employers to give their staff a paid day off to avoid the traffic....

One of the pamphlets LDS missionaries hand out is entitled, “The Plan of Salvation”. As it title indicates, it summarizes Mormonism’s plan of salvation. Interestingly, when it deals with eternity, it only mentions the LDS three kingdoms of glory. There is no mention of hell or outer darkness. Rather it states: “After you are judged, you will live in a state of glory. Because everyone’s works and desires vary, heaven includes different kingdoms, or degrees of glory.” (p.14) Note, as that states, the kingdoms are all part of heaven. With that in mind listen to whom, according to Mormonism, inhabits...

Our Transition of Faith Everyone knows the story about our political ups and downs, if you don’t you can read back to the beginning of our blog. But what no one knows, and what we didn’t expect to come out at this time is the story about our religious transition. Recently, a door opened that offered Carl an opportunity to run for the Utah State Legislature, a position that he once held and thoroughly enjoyed. My first instinct was to say, “H*ll no!” But, since I don’t use that sort of language, I settled for, “I know you’ll make the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The federal shutdown has found its angry prophet. Senate Chaplain Barry Black is usually a calm, pastoral presence on Capitol Hill, doling out spiritual wisdom and moral counsel to his high-powered flock. But the Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral is mad as hell about the shutdown — and he’s letting the Senate, and the Lord, know about it. “Lord, when the federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of (soldiers) dying on far-away battlefields, it’s time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough,” Black said in his prayer opening the Senate on Wednesday. “Cover...

Mormon is allegedly a prophet-historian who was the native American believed by Mormons to have written the Book of Mormon – the main religious text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). Mormonism is a religion less than two centuries old, but in this short time it has managed to accrue a long list of embarrassments which the church leaders would prefer were kept silent. These embarrassments range from textual inaccuracies to scandals in the life of the founder, Joseph Smith. Of all religions, it’s difficult to believe this one has caught on given the long...

One of the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament, a son of Zebedee, and a brother of James. In his early life he was a fisherman (Mark 1:17–20). He is probably the unnamed disciple of John the Baptist mentioned in John 1:40. Later he received a call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:21–22; Luke 5:1–11). He wrote the Gospel of John, three epistles, and the book of Revelation. He was one of three who were with the Lord at the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:35–42), at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–9), and in Gethsemane (Matt....

FULL TITLE: Pastor shot dead mid-sermon by disgruntled ex-deacon, who turned himself into police after the horrific murder A Louisiana pastor was fatally shot as he preached to a crowd of more than 60 during a revival service. Pastor Ronald J. Harris Sr. was preaching at about 8:20 pm on Friday at Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center when he was shot twice by former deacon Woodrow Karey. Mr Karey entered the church as Mr Harris was preaching to over 60 churchgoers and 'walked up to him and shot him at close range,' officials said. The pastor was then shot a...

OKLAHOMA CITY, September 26, 2013 (LifeSIteNews.com) – Four Christian universities in Oklahoma have filed a joint lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn the HHS mandate. All four schools — Oklahoma Baptist University, Mid-America Christian University, Southern Nazarene University, and Oklahoma Wesleyan University – assert that the ObamaCare stipulation violates their constitutional rights, forcing them to violate their deeply held Christian beliefs against abortion in order to avoid massive governmental fines. The Oklahoma schools join dozens of other religious employers who have sued the federal government over the contraceptive/abortifacient mandate. While the Obama administration has offered a limited “compromise” arrangement...

An attempt was recently made to vandalize a war memorial at an Oregon park at the center of a church and state controversy with an improvised explosive device. An unknown individual detonated the IED near the memorial, located at Mingus Park in the City of Coos Bay, sometime late night between last Thursday and last Friday.... Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/vandal-attempts-to-blow-up-oregon-memorial-embroiled-in-church-state-controversy-103128/#l4eKDdzkvpFj6zWq.99

History of the Coptic Christians

Des Moines police arrested a former youth pastor and charged him with sexual abuse. “This has been going on for a brief period of time, but I can’t go into details as exactly how long,” says Des Moines Police Sgt. Daniel Blom. Police were contacted Monday by a teenage girl and her parents. The girl reported an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by 27-year-old Ryan McKelvey. “Looking into it, doing their investigation, they discovered there might be a second victim. They made contact with the second victim and confirmed that there was an inappropriate sexual contact,” says Blom. McKelvey is a...

The Wild Goose Festival — named after the Celtic imagery for the Holy Spirit—draws in aging Protestant Mainliners and disenchanted ex-evangelicals. The festival highlights what its apologists call “emergence Christianity,” but Wild Goose certainly does not shy away from liberal politics. [SNIP] Featured speaker Frank Schaeffer (outspoken critic of his father Francis’ legacy) was more direct: “Certainty is the enemy of the truth.” Indeed, many wild goslings boasted they were “seekers who haven’t found the answers,” but were “looking for companions on each of our respective faith journeys.” Wild Goose “elder” Vincent Harding addressed the opening invocation to “Mother-Father God,...

Wife just got a phone call with horrible news from niece in Bombay. Ceiling collapsed in multi-story apartment building in the middle of the night. Very poor area. Wife's older sister currently is semi-conscious and bleeding. There seems to be no emergency service who will pick her up and family has no vehicle. The next few hours would seem to be critical. The sister, Margaret, was practically a saint in helping raise my wife as a child. A wonderful person. Prayers badly needed. Thank you. I will read but probably not reply tonight. Thank you.

Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians and Muslims to promote mutual respect , especially through the education of new generations. His remarks came at the end of his Angelus address when he sent greetings to Muslims throughout the world who have just celebrated the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/08/11/pope_francis_greets_muslims_and_urges_both_christians_and_muslims_to/en1-718872 of the Vatican Radio website

To borrow from the musical group The Kinks, you know “it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world” when Russian president Vladimir Putin becomes the leading voice for stopping the violent persecutions against Christians while the president of the United States stands silent. Speaking at a meeting with Orthodox Christian leaders in Moscow last week, according to Life Site News, Putin said he noted “with alarm” that “in many of the world’s regions… inter-confessional tensions are mounting, and the rights of religious minorities are infringed, including Christians and Orthodox Christians.” In emphasizing the Middle East and North Africa, Putin...

When rebel forces, led by Arab-speaking Muslims, seized control of the Central African Republic this March, it deepened fears that a co-ordinated Islamist insurgency could now be spreading through swathes of the continent. Four months on, the landlocked country is living through a reign of terror, largely directed against its Christian minority.“Churches have been routinely robbed and pillaged here, while Muslim mosques have been left untouched,” Mgr Cyriaque Gbate Doumalo, secretary-general of the Central African Republic’s Catholic bishops’ conference, told me in an interview. “Our public institutions aren’t functioning and our hospitals have been ransacked, leaving the sick and destitute...

You are always on my mind , As you inhibit mankind, For there can be no hint of you , Just Me through and through ~ ~ ~ A justice of true love, An eternal bond Hand ~ Ring and Dove , My Spirit and you "AS ONE", My Signet seal pressed into The Father's Will "DONE" , So ALL of us are woven together into Heaven's Tapestry "8" , The dance of The Groom and Bride is heavenly, The Father's GRACE you in Me , Together "AS ONE" with ALL 3 , Song of Songs 6:1-9 Friends 6 Where...

There are no curses left you see, For they all belong to me , The adversary only has a lie , Do not believe it or you may die, It is Faith in Spirit that is your cause , I Said " IT IS FINISHED " with NO pause ! It was DONE in My blood for you , An eternal covenant unbreakable through and through , I AM your hedge to every lie, Let Me remove the speck from your eye, You are "FORGIVEN" I AM your Seal ! This is an ETERNAL DEAL ! I AM the same...

The apostle Paul -- and other Biblical men of God who constructed the New Testament -- at times used athletic words and analogies of the day. James used the word "swift" (James 1:19); John talked about overcoming (1 John 5:4); and the apostle Paul wrote about exercise (1 Tim. 4:7); wrestling (Eph. 6:12); striving (within preparation boundaries) (2 Tim. 2:5), and running a race (1 Cor. 9:24). The author of Hebrews also discussed the need to "lay aside every weight" (Heb. 12:1). The Greek word for "weight" -- ogkos -- was a burden or something heavy or cumberson enough that...

This is a transcript from a meeting between Mormon church historians and some rather intelligent "disaffected Swedish LDS Saints." Once you get past the greetings and enter the question and answer phase, it basically transforms into a bloodbath for the official "church historians." Quite embarrassing and breathtaking for the LDS. One of the interesting things that came out from this exchange was, unlike most LDS, the Mormon defenders from the LDS History department admitted that Joseph Smith was guilty of polyandry. (Marrying women still married to righteous Mormon men.) Their response was not a response, but basically saying that "times...

Progressive faith leader Jim Wallis joined in on issuing commentary in the wake of the George Zimmerman acquittal. In a Huffington Post blog piece entitled, “Lament From a White Father,” he alleged that, had shooting victim Trayvon Martin been white, he would still be alive today. Wallis also pleaded with Caucasians — and parents, in particular — to “listen, to learn, and to speak out” about the tragic death. Race, he contended, was at the center of the incident from the start. “If my white 14-year-old son Luke had walked out that same night, in that same neighborhood, just to...

My love for you is endless and so must your faith in me to overcome for you as I Am the one that rebukes the enemy ,chastises My children into obedience and causes the waters of their ways to part so that My righteousness "becomes" the grounded path unto Me "their inheritance" and I AM your All . These are days of blessing for those that seek My face for I AM your Shewbread of placement "The Manna of Revelation for YOUR DAYS IN ME ", I AM THAT I AM ForEverMore. Joshua 3 New International Version (NIV) Crossing the...

Jehovah Witnesses have long been frowned upon regarding their approach. Their mission is the study of the Bible to gain enlightenment and to spread the word of the Bible or the "good news." They also teach of a Armageddon, which they claim is nearer than most think. The religion is fairly new compared to others and is based on Bible teachings of Charles Taze Russell who formed a Bible study group in 1870 and later founded the Bible Student movement comprised of "witnesses." It is based on intense study of their own version of the Bible called the New World...

Jehovah’s Witnesses have received global media attention for their child protection policies, which put children at risk and serve to protect pedophiles. It has been estimated that Watchtower policies are responsible for thousands of children being harmed. To protect these policies, and the image of the organization, Watchtower has been forced to pay out vast sums of money in settlements. When a child reports a case of abuse, the correct response would be to report the accusation to the proper, trained authorities for them to investigate as a matter of urgency. However, the Watchtower instructs elders to handle such accusations...

St. George Mormon Temple Haunted? Did the Declaration of Independence signers appear as ghosts to a later Lds 'prophet'? Without saying his name, Mormon leaders and grassroots Mormons daily reference Wilford Woodruff when they interact with non-Mormons and the media. How so? Well, they like to tell others how polygamy is a supposed bygone of another era; how a certain Lds "prophet" in 1890 put the kabosh on it...or, at least, started a mainstream Mormon move toward monogamy. Yet, there's a little-known episode that this same Wilford Woodruff said that occurred in the 1870s -- before becoming the head "prophet"...

And lo, it is written: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor thy neighbor’s seat… Unless that seat is being saved, apparently. Wayne Dodge, 51, was arrested Sunday following a violent row at a Mormon church that reportedly started over seat-saving. According to Deseret News, Dodge, a regular at the Meadows Ward LDS Church in Plain City, Utah, sat in a section of pews being reserved by a family who does not usually attend the ward. “There [were] some seats that were allegedly saved, and there was a disagreement over whether they were saved or not… This continued to...

Moscow, July 3, Interfax - With the Russian patriarch and Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece's blessing the Foundation of St. Andrew the First Called will start organizing the delivery of the cross of the Apostle St. Andrew the First Called to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the domain of the Russian Orthodox Church. "The cross on which the Apostle was crucified is kept at an Orthodox church in Patras, Greece, in Peloponnese. It is a holy relic for the Christian world. Its delivery into the domain of the Russian Orthodox Church is timed to coincide with the 1025th anniversary...

...There are many things that you will recognize, including concepts and even scriptures, but they will be recast in a way that is weird, in fact, utterly foreign to you. Sure, members of this relatively new faith will use the same Hebrew Bible, but they will call it something different, the “Old Testament,” which hints at a divide. They also use other authoritative books, and their method of interpretation has little to nothing to do with your own tradition. They have transformed the Passover meal into something barely recognizable to you. They profess faith in a messiah, but their idea...

Deuteronomy repeats the laws of blessing clearly in My Word, That revolve around My spirit so as you listen My will is heard, So stay within the sound of My voice , abide in my courts entered by My door, Thanksgiving opens blessings and praises I adore, To "find" the KEYS 0----c I give you just surrender ALL ! The enemy will deceive you but I bring "clarity" to call, Just raise the sound of your voice thanking Me each day, For this is "FAITH in action THE KEY" that lights the way ! For if it opens My gates...

A judge is expected to issue a ruling Monday on whether yoga is a religious practice that shouldn't be allowed to be taught in public schools. An attorney representing a family bent out of shape over the public school program in the beach city of Encinitas filed a lawsuit in February to stop the district-wide classes. In the lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court, attorney Dean Broyles argued that the twice weekly, 30-minute classes are inherently religious, in violation of the separation between church and state. Judge John S. Meyer is expected to issue his ruling in the case...

Do you see it coming my children? For even your leaders attempt to "REMOVE" the Power and Truth of My Word ?! And so as the king "REMOVED" treasures from My temple "The writing is on the wall". So now your voices shall be the Shofar of My Truth as YOU (( ( Declare ) )) My WORD to the Nations ( People ) Daniel 5 The Writing on the Wall 5 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to...

When Baptist Jacqueline Allen of Chapel Hill began participating this month in the Moral Monday protests against the Republican-led North Carolina legislature, she got a loving-but-firm admonition from her daughter and son-in-law: don’t get arrested. “An 81-year-old doesn’t need to be in jail,” Allen said with a laugh today while attending CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C. “I don’t want to get arrested.” But she does want to join the thousands of other protesters, many of them driven by religious beliefs, and make known her dismay at budget cuts that threaten education, health care and other social programs in North...

When considering the forces pulling at the Boy Scouts of America, one thing journalists really needed to consider was a simple statistical chart that can be found (.pdf) on the organization’s homepage. Here are the crucial numbers found at the top of this file: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — 37,856.United Methodist Church — 10,868.Catholic Church — 8,397.Presbyterian Church — 3,597.Lutheran Church — 3,827.Baptist churches — 3,981.These are these numbers? That would be the number of Scouting units hosted by these particular religious groups. I am well aware, as I have written in a previous post, that this...

MHA Mormon History Association Preliminary Program Layton, Utah, Conference June 6-9, 2013 SNIP Friday, June 7, 2013 SNIP Janiece Johnson (University of Leicester, England): In Search of Reform: The Mountain Meadows Massacre Prosecution and Solving the Mormon Problem SNIP Patricia Lyn Scott (Salt Lake City, Utah): “The Wickedness of this Place is Dreadful”: A Presbyterian Teacher’s View of Fillmore, Utah, 1881-1885 SNIP Kenneth L. Alford (BYU-Provo): Saving Utah from Itself: The Grand Army of the Republic’s Anti-Polygamy Campaign SNIP

The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that the LDS Church is expecting to hit a milestone of 85,000 missionaries in late 2013. This is half again as many missionaries as were serving before the Church made its landmark October 2012 announcement that the missionary age was being lowered, spurring thousands of young men and women to turn in their applications.

Your certainty of my truth is your saving grace . so contend for the faith you carry into battle confronting the enemy IS your sword of truth for in your knowing the battle is already mine subsides all doubt and quenches the fiery darts that pierces one's soul . So protect your heart with the Knowledge of the Overcomer for it IS THE ANSWER to the arsenal that IS yours as you OVERCOME ALL DOUBT ! Revelation 2:7 He who is able to hear, let him listen to and give heed to what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches)....

Q. My co-worker, who is a pastor in a local church, gave me a whole bunch of handouts that he received at a training session. (The session was in preparation for a temple open house in our area.) He gave them to me and asked me to respond, but I don’t know where to start. A. (by Allen L. Wyatt) Thank you for sending the materials so I could look at them. They are the normal “shotgun approach” that we see among many anti-Mormons. They take everything they can, load it into a series of documents, and then fling it...

ROOSEVELT — A man responsible for teaching religious education classes to LDS high school students is facing criminal charges after investigators say he burglarized a home on a Sunday afternoon to steal prescription painkillers. Brian Dean Thacker was charged Wednesday in 8th District Court with burglary, a second-degree felony, theft, a class B misdemeanor, and possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor. On May 26, Thacker entered a home about 2 p.m. and took Lortab from a medicine cabinet, according to Duchesne County sheriff's detective Dela Rowley. A woman was upstairs in the home at the time and...

Dear Stacey: You have written demanding an apology for my recent characterization of the Mormon religion as "non-Christian." I am happy to write a public letter of apology to you and to the countless Mormon readers who responded negatively to my characterization. I am sorry that so many of my Mormon readers have brazenly accused me of ignorance of their religion and suggested that I read the Book of Mormon. I am sorry that they were unaware that I read the Book of Mormon back in 2006. I am sorry that the science of genetics has refuted claims made in...

You are my Rod (of Obedience) for I AM your Staff ( of Authority) What worked for you yesterday, Will not work for you today , Come to me in the early morning that My WORD may light your path , For in it lies my will in peace where you will find NO wrath , So cover yourself in My Zeal for it is the fire that will lead the way , As I did for the Israelites I will do for you each day ! For my Fire guides your morning and shall be your eyes at night...

How truly pitiful it is to see women who should be dedicated to the Lord performing their own personal  farce. Here are two nuns who need a good ecclessial smack-down for undermining the faith and scandalizing the faithful: The cast of dissenters: Catholic Sister Elaine Hirschenberger from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is Executive Director of a secular organization called Woman's Space (sic) in Rockford IL.​ If you go to the Womanspace website it's filled with somewhat innocuous events and ambiguous statements. They are, of course, "empowering" women and changing the world "one woman at a time." But are they transforming...

...Bruce R. McConkie was a boy growing up in Monticello, Utah... ...the son grew to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1972 until his death in 1985, well respected and remembered for his written and spoken discourses in which he taught the doctrines of the gospel with clarity and power. The above...was recounted by Elder McConkie’s son Joseph Fielding McConkie on April 11 in an address in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City for the monthly Men and Women of Faith Lecture Series sponsored by the Church History Library. His topic was...

What really happened on Sunday, April 7, 2013, during the St. Mark Cathedral attack in Cairo, where two Christians were killed and dozens wounded by Egyptian forces? As usual, different reports gave different versions, but now that the smoke has settled, the truth as first asserted during the attack by Coptic activists has been confirmed.Back during the conflict, when state security was actually besieging the St. Mark cathedral—the most sacred building for millions of Coptic Christians and the only apostolic see serving the entire continent of Africa—Amir Ramzi, a Coptic man who managed to escape the compound where hundreds of...

I am troubled by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s crackdown on florist Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, for refusing to make a flower arrangement for a same-sex wedding. #I’m not arguing here against gay marriage. I voted for it. I’m not even sure that Stutzman has a legal right to refuse the business. Ferguson says that under Washington’s anti-discrimination statute, she doesn’t, and probably he’s right. She might, however, have a superior right under the state constitution, depending on how you interpret it. #The constitution has nothing in it about freedom from private discrimination. But Article 1, Section...

My children die through a lack of knowledge and this is from a position and choice of abidance or avoidance for there can only be one cup you drink. Protruding your head(vanity) into the heavenlies to take instead of what is given through abiding in my presence as my friend bears no fruit , BUT to those that rest in me as Benjamin the gates and storehouses of my kingdom are freely given and received as Jacob at Peniel for I have opened heaven for those that receive my friendship in loyal trust yet those that waiver are as a...

My Wellspring is everlasting not requiring anything it does not lack ! SO "IS" My Love and Understanding ! You see My sacrifice was complete and not whaning in any way , such IS My understanding for I AM your Pavilion of strength built in the Unity of The Father and I , and it is is through My spirit alone that you receive the Abundance of My WONDERFUL GRACE that supplies "ALL" your needs and more ! For "I AM" a Cornucopia of wealth that My kingdom alone supplies ! So tap into My Wellspring in Spirit and Truth...

Hundreds of Snow College students, alumni, employees, and community members gathered in the Heritage Plaza on November 1 for the dedication of the Karen H. Huntsman Library, Snow College’s new state-of-the-art facility. President Scott Wyatt welcomed those in attendance and discussed the importance of tradition at Snow College. SNIP “When I see my name on the building, it doesn’t seem quite right,” said Karen H. Huntsman, who recognized her husband, Jon M. Huntsman, Sr., and her ancestors who lived in Sanpete County as those who should share the honor with her. SNIP Jon M. Huntsman Sr., a General Authority of...

United Church of God, An International Association, is one of the major breakoffs from the Worldwide Church of God. It was founded in 1995, within six weeks of the WCG changes, by Bob Dick and David Hulme in Arcadia, CA. In December 2007 UCG-AIA announced that their headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio would be moved to property near the town of Denton, Texas that they purchased for $1.6 million dollars.1 Clyde Kilough (former Ambassador College graduate) was the new President of UCG in 2009; however, in April 2010 he was asked by the UCG Council to resign and Roy Holladay became...

Mormon women cannot be priests. Catholic women cannot be priests. Muslim women cannot lead prayers in mixed-gender congregations. Jewish women are restricted in praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. But Mormons have the “Let Women Pray” campaign. Catholics have the “Women’s Ordination Conference.” Muslims have “Muslims for Progressive Values.” Jews have “Women of the Wall.” What is going on here? Last week, a Mormon woman led a prayer before 100,000 people gathered in Salt Lake City — a first for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also last week, 150 Jewish women prayed at the Western Wall,...

Jesus only did the Father's will ! Do not be disarmed by others any more or care for their concerns but be filled with MY will for you, for in this alone shall you be able to do all things. You see it is in this place where truly the flesh dies yet I remain and this IS complete surrender as true as the sky is blue for in my atmosphere all else pales to compare for My Glory even rests here ! I establish all things so where I AM you "MUST BE" and begin to inhabit for "I...