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You are subject to none Conquerer of all for My Presence "IN" you "IS" Holy and True !  Do you see My children the enemy would attempt to convince you of your unholiness but My Righteousness STANDS ETERNAL and is " subject to none " !  Thererfore wear the garments of Righteousness that I have given you and walk in My ways for I HAVE finished the fight you are in against darkness !  Merely APPLY MY WORD to each situation you are in and I will shut the mouth of the lions for you for THE BATTLE IS MINE "SAYS" THE LORD...

A new text for the Catholic Mass which integrates centuries old Anglican prayers into the Roman Rite was officially introduced in a London church on Thursday. The new liturgy, known as the Ordinariate Use, has been devised for the personal ordinariates – the structures set up by Benedict XVI to allow Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Pope, while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican liturgical and pastoral traditions. The Mass, at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, was celebrated by the leader – or Ordinary – of the Personal Ordinariate...

The Most Rev Justin Welby advised churchgoers that it could be an “enormously powerful” experience to unburden themselves to a confessor, even if it was not always a “bunch of laughs”. His comments came as he addressed the heads of other churches –including the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England Wales, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols – about divisions between Christians. Although Archbishop Welby comes from the evangelical wing of Anglicanism, his personal spiritual director is a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Fr Nicolas Buttet, and he is a strong advocate of Catholic worship styles. He spoke of being...

A new exhibition at Tate Britain highlights the scale of destruction to artworks in the Tudor period – a staggering amount of books and music were also destroyedThe slashed and broken medieval images displayed in the new Art Under Attack exhibition at the Tate are a reminder of what we lost in the hundred and fifty years after the Reformation. Even now there is denial about the scale of the erasing of our medieval past. The Tate estimates we lost 90% of our religious art. It was probably even more than that. The destruction was on a scale that far...

The New York Times this weekend offered something surprising, a profile of the popular vestment manufacturer CM Almy, which is creating new fashions for female clergy: Stephen Fendler, president of CM Almy, shows off a rack of samples from his brand-new women’s collection, pointing out a piece he’s particularly proud of: a black blouse in a stretchy jersey knit.But Mr. Fendler’s collections won’t be seen on the runways anytime soon. CM Almy says it is the largest, and one of the oldest, American producers of clerical clothing, and its models are hitting the pulpit instead of the catwalk. Their designers...

Calvinists get a bad rap, but how many of the critics really understand him? James R. Rogers points out how few of us read the Institutes or bother to think seriously about Calvin in today’s On the Square. Instead, we rely on easy stereotypes: Some of the answer certainly derives from misunderstandings of Calvinism. I recall in elementary school my teacher instructing the class that when the Puritans sailed to America on ships, if someone fell off the ship into the water, the others would not attempt to save him, because they believed that God had predestined that person to...

Last week the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America installed Rev. Guy Erwin as Bishop of the Southwest California Synod. Rev. Erwin is the first practicing homosexual to be a bishop in the ELCA. The ELCA's Living Lutheran website reported that there were at least 10 ELCA bishops in attendance. (see here) Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson, the highest ranking ELCA leader, delivered the sermon at the installation. Bishop Hanson's sermon made it clear that there is no more debate in the denomination about whether homosexuality is sinful or godly. He then proclaimed the ELCA's repentance for once holding the Biblical...

Calvin placed preaching the Scripture squarely at the center of the church. In his words, “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ; there, it is not to be doubted, is a church of God.” Out of his many writings on Scripture, a few choice quotes remind us how to handle God’s written Word properly—and why it’s important to do so. 1. Scripture should be treated with reverence. “We owe to the Scripture the same reverence that we owe to God; because it has proceeded from him...

OTTAWA, September 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) has appointed an openly homosexual Anglican priest as Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces in a ceremony earlier this month in Ottawa. According to a DND news release, Brigadier-General John Fletcher was appointed Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces in a ceremony at the Beechwood Memorial Centre in Ottawa. The event was presided over by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, with Fletcher taking over responsibility for the religious needs of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and their families from the outgoing Chaplain...

One of the most controversial issues in the study of the New Testament canon is the date when these books were regarded as Scripture. When were these books first used as an authoritative guide for the church? Critical scholars will argue that these books were not written to be Scripture and were not even used as Scripture until the end of the second century. But one of the most basic facts that Christians should know is that some New Testament writers actually quote other New Testament writers as Scripture. This demonstrates that the concept of a new corpus of biblical...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUxYcIySvHY

Fifty hand-picked Christians were part of a seminal conference last week planned by Matthew Vines, a 23-year-old gay Christian who believes Scripture allows for monogamous homosexual activity, in an effort to spread the idea in the American church over the next decade. Vines says he has had success in convincing lay members of churches over the last year that monogamous homosexual activity is allowed by Scripture, but is encountering resistance from Scriptural scholars. He is likely to encounter much more, say theologians.

Next week Washington DC will be treated to the arrival of a pro-life Catholic who is also a member of the British royal family. How is that possible? Nicholas Windsor gave up his place in line to the British throne when he converted to the Catholic Church in 2001. He became “the first male blood Royal to convert to Catholicism since Charles II on his deathbed in 1685.”Lord Nicholas—now 43—was married to his wife Paola Frankopan, who is descended from the noble line in Croatia, and became the first British royal ever married in the Vatican. His godfather is Prince...

This book is going to be big, a near-lock for the bestseller lists. First Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard teamed up to write a book about Killing Lincoln and it sold more than a million copies. They followed it up with Killing Kennedy and it sold briskly as well. And now they turn their attention to their greatest subject: Jesus of Nazareth. Killing Jesus: A History is a short biography of Jesus, focusing on the events leading to his death. From the outset, the authors make it clear that though they are Roman Catholics, they are not writing a religious...

This appeared this week in an online Orthodox parish bulletin in a friend’s parish. She knows the people to whom this happened. It has to do with a Greek Orthodox saint Nektarios of Aegina. [1] I’ve slightly edited this to protect the privacy of the people to whom this happened. Read: Over the summer, OCF [Orthodox Christian Fellowship -- RD] members MS and ND traveled to Aegina to visit the monastery and to pray at the tomb of St. Nektarios. Following the customary practice of pilgrims, the two members prayed with their ear against the tomb. This practice originates in the...

10.4 Baptism and Salvation Baptism associating us with the death of Christ means that it is only through baptism that we can have access to forgiveness. We are "buried with (Christ) in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through...the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins...hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:12,13). We are "washed...in the name of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 6:11) - i.e. baptism into the name of Jesus is the means by which our sins are washed...

CALVINISM’S FALSE DOCTRINE Posted on September 14, 2007 by Cathy “Calvinism” is very popular and many Christians, though they would not identify themselves as Calvinists, may have embraced some of Calvin’s doctrine without realizing it. The doctrine is named after a man named John Calvin, a reformer, who lived in the 1500′s. Calvinism propagates error. Knowledge of error helps us to be discerning when listening to or reading Christian material. If a teacher is a Calvinist, all that they teach will be taught through the lens of Calvinism. The result of this Calvinistic “bent” will be teachings that are dangerously...

Archbishop Justin Welby spins problems in communion as "contextual"[Anglican Covenant] A group of archbishops and bishops from the Global South meeting in Toronto recently said there was little hope that an Anglican Covenant initiated by former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams would heal the conflict over homosexuality in the communion. They gathered in the ultra-liberal Anglican Province of Canada to mark the 50th anniversary of the Toronto Anglican Congress just weeks before a second Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON II) is due to meet in Nairobi. Reconciliation now seems impossible. Archbishop Ian Ernest, primate of the province of the...

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A blast at a Protestant church in northwest Pakistan killed at least 72 people and wounded more than 120, a local hospital said Sunday. The attack took place at the All Saints Church of Pakistan, in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad. Witnesses told CNN affiliate Geo News that at least one suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar near the church entrance as crowds of worshipers were leaving a Sunday morning service. Some of the victims were children, the witnesses said. The outside of...

A Tennessee pastor says he didn't intend to start a controversy when he put a message on his church's marquee last weekend that said, "Jesus had two dads and he turned out just fine." Many people have interpreted the message, which refers to God and Joseph, to be a statement about gay and lesbian parents. But Bill Campbell, pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in Nashville, told CP that wasn't his intention. "For me it was a very simple statement affirming families and children who are in situations where they have multiple parents or there's a divorce or a...

On New Year’s Eve, 1936, in a Roman Catholic hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, J. Gresham Machen was one day away from death at the age of 55. It was Christmas break at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, where he taught New Testament. His colleagues said he looked “deadly tired.” But instead of resting, he took the train from Philadelphia to the 20-below-zero winds of North Dakota to preach in a few Presbyterian churches at the request of Pastor Samuel Allen. ... He had pneumonia and could scarcely breath. Pastor Allen came to pray for him that last day of 1936,...

Editor note: This essay below is worth the read. [The following essay explores the role that Francis Schaeffer played in the rise of the pro-life movement.  It examines the place of How Should We Then Live?, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, and A Christian Manifesto in that process.]One of the most enigmatic, controversial, and influential figures in the growth of the “pro-life� movement was Francis August Schaeffer.  It was the issue of abortion in particular that drove Schaeffer to shift his later work in the direction of political involvement and mobilization.(1)  Yet, despite the enormous impact of his books...

There is an interesting, albeit at times concerning, article over at Marketwatch.com that reports the simple fact that being a member of a believing community “costs� you something. And while the article is directed to a Jewish context, its implications reach all of us who believe and belong to the Church.Underlying the article and those it interviews is a not so subtle premise that it is somehow wrong for faith to “cost� much. Never mind that just about anything in life costs something, involves tradeoffs and that the things we value are often where we chose to spend more. Somehow...

Christians in the United States are witnessing a subtle but mounting transformation in our relationship with the American empire. Some would say the changes are not so subtle. Believers have enjoyed an enviable status throughout the history of this country, largely due to our own efforts in helping to secure certain liberties during it’s founding decades. These “unalienable Rights” were seen, not as rights created by Government, but as gifts given to mankind by the Creator. The Bill of Rights, for example, was composed in order to impel the government to secure rights which already existed. This climate of liberty...

The evolutionary biologist was speaking before the launch of his new book which explains his passion for education and how he fears the profession has become dominated by a ‘box ticking mentality.’ Prof Dawkins admitted he would consider going into a church, and would miss ‘aesthetic elements’ such as church bells if they were gone. And he said he was “grateful” to Anglicanism which he claims has a “benign tolerance” - enabling people to enjoy its traditions without necessarily believing in them. He told the Spectator: “I sort of suspect that many who profess Anglicanism probably don’t believe any of...

Full Title: Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #1: “The New Testament Books are the Earliest Christian Writings We Possess” _______________________________________________________ This new blog series is designed to help the lay believer learn some basic facts about the New Testament canon—the kind of facts that might be helpful in a conversation with a skeptic or inquisitive friend. The first of these facts is one that is so basic that it is often overlooked. It is simply that the New Testament books are the earliest Christian writings we possess. One of the most formidable challenges...

A lesbian couple claims a Church of England vicar refused to baptize a baby after they both insisted on being registered as the mother, according to the UK Telegraph. Aimi, from Gosport, Hants, said: "Rev Gebauer sat there and told us no child could have parents of the same sex, no child could have two mothers. "There was no way one of us was going to be listed as the Godparent. We are both Alfie's mum. "He did all this for about 10 or 15 minutes and was asking us why we want Alfie brought into the church. "I'm baptised...

A Watershed Not far from where we live in Switzerland is a high ridge of rock with a valley on both sides. One time I was there when there was snow on the ground along that ridge. The snow was lying there unbroken, a seeming unity. However, that unity was an illusion, for it lay along a great divide; it lay along a watershed. One portion of the snow when it melted would flow into one valley. The snow which lay close beside would flow into another valley when it melted. Now it just so happens on that particular ridge...

Few matters have initiated more litigation in the courts than the presence of Ten Commandments monuments and other displays of the Decalogue across the country located on public property. The presence of most of these is the result of a joint campaign by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, working with Hollywood Royalty and movie-magnate, the late great Cecil B. DeMille. Today the radical left has erroneously argued these displays are an unconstitutional violation of the "separation of church and state" and disparage them as nothing more than a publicity stunt by DeMille to hype his movie at the time, The...

I'm curious to hear if anyone heard a pro-amnesty or pro-immigration-reform message in worship today. Note: this is a Reformed/Evangelical Caucus thread. Meaning if you are anything but a currently practicing Reformed or Evangelical Christian, please feel free to read...but don't post. And for those who are Reformed and Evangelical Christians, please do not post or make comments about other believers.

"Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics": In his latest book, Ross Douthat, a public intellectual and a Catholic, argues that “bad religion” poses a greater danger to our nation than does secularism. His book is divided into two parts: in the first he chronicles the decline of traditional Christianity since 1965; in the second he examines four heresies that have flourished since then.

A relic hunter dubbed 'Indiana Bones' has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe. Art historian Paul Koudounaris hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments. Incredibly, some of the skeletons, said to be the remains of early Christian martyrs, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers. They are now the subject of a new book, which sheds light on the forgotten ornamented relics for the first time. Thousands of skeletons were dug up from Roman catacombs in the 16th...

A FEW centuries ago it would have been difficult to tell Europe apart from the rest of the world—in economic terms, at least. Indeed, half a millenium ago Europe might justly have been considered a laggard. The three inventions which, in the words of Karl Marx, “ushered in bourgeois society” were not invented in Europe. Gunpowder, the compass and the printing press were probably all invented in China. But by the 19th century, things were rather different. Western Europe and parts of North America had become fabulously wealthy. Almost everywhere else was horribly poor. Economic historians refer to this as...

Tyrants have always wanted to control the minds of their subjects, which is why the schools are so important for the future of liberty.  Once the state gets its claws on the schools, it imposes texts and curricula that enhance its power and advance its ideology.  The advocates of statism understand this well, and they are willing to fight violently to maintain and extend their control. The Europeans are a tempo ahead of us in this very nasty business, but our guys are doing their best to catch up.  A recent story deals with American injustice working in tandem with...

Radical. Epic. Revolutionary. Transformative. Ultimate. Extreme. Emergent. Alternative. Next. Impactful. On The Edge. Beyond. Awesome. Legendary. Innovative. Breakthrough. Everything has to have an exclamation point to catch our attention these days. For many of us, the worst word in our vocabulary is “ordinary.” Who wants a bumper sticker that announces to the neighborhood, “My child is an ordinary student at Bubbling Brook Elementary”? Who wants to be an ordinary person in an ordinary town, a member of an ordinary church with ordinary friends and callings? Our life has to count. We have to leave our mark, a legacy, make a...

Aimi Leggett, 25, and civil partner Victoria, 22, had planned to have one-year-old son Alfie christened at St Mary's Church, Gosport, Hants, in two weeks. However, when both women asked to be listed as the mother in a meeting with Reverend George Gebauer he said the church baptism register would not allow it. He suggested one be registered as the mother while the other be put down as the Godmother instead. He said he had to be sure the child had not been “pinched” as it was “impossible” that Alfie was a child of both the women. Aimi and Victoria...

Police had to storm into a church to break up an angry protest staged by part of a congregation demonstrating against their minister. At one stage officers had to stop a man trying to pull the power plug to the church organ. Tensions between two groups within the Ballynahinch Congregational Church reached breaking point during angry scenes yesterday. The dramatic climax in the evening service came amid a furious row between some members of a congregation and Rev George Speers. Years of underlying issues came to a head at both the morning and evening service in the rural church in...

One of the dirtiest little secrets about preaching is that many preachers are using what we used to call in radio “a service.” There are, or at least there used to be, businesses that sell jokes and one liners and gags and the like to “radio personalities.” We referred to these business as “a service” as in, “Wow, his show is terrible.” “Well, I’m not surprised, he uses a service.” If a “personality” needs a service he isn’t really much of a personality is he?

Rachel Maddow loves this, and of course she would, but as for me . . . know what? It's Saturday. I'm going to let you do the analysis. Scriptural ignorance. Cultural wimpiness. Downright blasphemy. They're giving you lots to work with.

How did Elizabeth Eaton pull off the year's biggest surprise in Pittsburgh, not counting the Pirates? The unheralded bishop of Northeastern Ohio beat out the two-term incumbent, Mark Hanson, by better than 2-1 for the office of presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, despite trailing him by a 19-1 margin on the first (nominating) ballot. Let us count the ways. These Mainline Lutherans turned out to be literalists. The convention theme, as veteran attendee Eric Shafer pointed out last week, was "Always Being Made New." Thus many delegates decided to uphold Isaiah 43:19 and "do a new...

Now whenever I have the opportunity to preach on the doctrine of the Word of God, there is a great danger that this could go on for a long time and that you may feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose at full volume because this is my passion, as you know, the Word of God. I love the truth, I live for the truth, I proclaim the truth, nothing is as important as the truth of God revealed in Scripture. And so, as we began last Sunday night talking about this issue of Scripture, we shall continue...

Christine Leigh Heyrman http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/chureng.htm TEACHER SERVE August 2013 Although the Church of England (also known as the Anglican Church, and, today, as the Protestant Episcopal Church) commanded the loyalties of a great many churchgoers in early America, its history has received relatively little treatment from historians-especially compared with the attention lavished on the Puritans. True, the Church of England in the colonies suffered from a sluggish rate of growth and a shortage of clergymen throughout much of the seventeenth century. But in the century before the American Revolution, that communion's fortunes prospered: Anglican churches spread along the length of the...

BEVERLY — Before Mass on a recent Sunday, the Rev. Jurgen Liias stood in a cramped sacristy of a Catholic church with an acolyte and cantor and began a call-and-response prayer of preparation. Incense smoldered. The men thumped their chests in a gesture of contrition. The elaborate ritual would seem unusual to most Catholic priests, who pray silently before Mass as they don their vestments, or quietly focus on the sacred work ahead. But Liias, who is 65, is different. He entered the church through a new doorway that lets members of the Anglican Communion return to the mother church...

Someone I know recently expressed an opinion that surprised and in some ways disappointed me. I said to myself, “I thought he would have more discernment than that.” The experience caused me to reflect on the importance of discernment and the lack of it in our world. We know that people often do not see issues clearly and are easily misled because they do not think biblically. But, sadly, one cannot help reflecting on how true this is of the church community, too. Most of us doubtless want to distance ourselves from what might be regarded as “the lunatic fringe”...

The assault on America’s churches has begun, with commentators like Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post and Matthew Yglesias of Slate calling on the government to tax churches. “Whichever faith you think is the one true faith, it’s undeniable that the majority of this church-spending is going to support false doctrines,” Yglesias wrote on Thursday. He added, “upgrading a church’s physical plant doesn’t enhance the soul-saving capacity of its clergy.” This is part of the new assault on religion in America that has seen its apex in the New Mexico Supreme Court decision to force religious photographers to cover same-sex...

God’s Strange Providence David stood waiting and watching by the stone Ezel. It was his stone of destiny. His dear friend Jonathan was to determine whether King Saul still harbored murderous intentions toward David. If so, David would have to flee. If not, he would be able to return to normal living. David and Jonathan had agreed upon a signal. If it were safe for him to return, Jonathan would shoot three arrows and cry to the lad with him, “Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come…” (v. 21). But if Saul still harbored...

WASHINGTON — Although Martin Luther likely simply sent his Ninety-Five Theses — his harsh critique of contemporary Catholicism — to the local archbishop instead of dramatically nailing them to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, the event is commonly regarded as marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. A new document, “From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017,” has been released to pave the way for joint observances of Luther’s action by both Lutherans and Catholics, a development that certainly could not have been foreseen in previous centuries.

The numbers are in and they are not good for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Yet they do show that a faithful remnant have placed God's Word over their affinity for the ELCA. The 2012 numbers show that there are now 9,533 ELCA congregations. (this includes “155 congregations under development”) In 2011, the ELCA had 9,638 congregations. That means there has been a loss of 105 ELCA congregations (happening for a variety of reasons) in one year. The total number of baptized members in the ELCA as of 2012 is 3,950,924. This is significant in that the ELCA is...

"Hold high the great red banner of Mao Zedong Thought--thoroughly smash the rotting counterrevolutionary revisionist line in literature and art" - 1967 During the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976 – the time when the greatest damage was being done in the name of the Spirit of Vatican II) people were bullied into rejection of the sì jiù, the Four “Olds”: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas.  The Four Olds were equated with monsters and demons, “cow ghosts and snake spirits”, that had to be purged.The conforming hoards, taken up in a frenzy of fear and zeal, marched in...

Full Title: Let the Little Ones Come to Me — Social Justice Gone Awry This is an anti-gospel—learning morality from nature and being successful from within ourselves, without depending on the Creator and Redeemer of nature. _______________ A further danger lurks—that Christian good works can be recuperated by movements of pagan utopianism. A case in point. In January 2013 World Vision (WV) sent an Easter funding appeal to those sponsoring needy children. WV began as an evangelistic ministry of Bob Pierce, a powerful preacher whom I heard preach when I was just a lad in my hometown in Liverpool in...