Free Republic

Will the United Methodist Church soon have to drop the “United” part of its name? A group of 80 pastors, including at least two from North Carolina, says the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination faces a split because of an inability to resolve long-standing theological disputes about homosexuality and church doctrine. But more than lamenting the divisions, the pastors indicated there is little reason to think reconciliation – or even coexistence – could be found. Like a couple heading to divorce court, the pastors cited irreconcilable differences that can’t be mended.

On April 27, 2014, University Reformed Church (URC) voted 282-9 in favor of leaving the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and affiliating with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). The following Wednesday, the consistory of URC voted unanimously (14-0) to file a petition with the Classis of South Grand Rapids that we might leave the RCA with all our real and personal property and join the Presbytery of the Great Lakes in the PCA.For the past three years, our church has wrestled with our place in the Reformed Church in America. We have prayed, studied, strategized, spoke, listened, prayed, asked...

Michael Davies, in the context of Pope Leo XIII's Apostolicae Curae, herein explains the history behind Anglican ordinations and the Church's reasons for finding them invalid. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4DwFZ_BAtY Available for purchase here: http://www.keepthefaith.org/detail.aspx?ID=988—“Follow” me on Twitter, “Like” Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis on Facebook, Add Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis to your Circles on Google+, and “Subscribe” to my YouTube videos.

In the mind of late-term abortionist Dr. Willie Parker, the story of the Good Samaritan ends with the Samaritan tearing a live baby from the womb of a woman. I don't particularly remember that part of the Bible but maybe I have an old version. Dr. Parker actually said that his faith has driven him to abort babies up to 24 weeks. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the mad cash some people are willing to pay to rid themselves of the responsibility of a baby. Think Progress reports:For the first 12 years of his medical practice, Dr....

Praying to Mary, celebrating the Mass, venerating the Pope—you won’t find those doctrines in the Bible. And yet more than one billion Roman Catholics throughout the world follow such practices in line with the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. With that many Catholics around the globe, it’s likely you know some of them as relatives, friends, neighbors, or co-workers. Find out what they don’t know—the origin and error of Catholic doctrine—so you can help the Catholics you know out of the darkness and into the light.

Pope Francis privately visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome this morning to pray and entrust to the Virgin Mary his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After 15 minutes of meditation and prayer before the image of Mary known as Salus Populi Romani, Pope Francis offered a bouquet of white and yellow roses at the feet of the Virgin. Since the beginning of his papal ministry in March 2013, this is the eighth visit Pope Francis has made to the Virgin Mary, under whose protection he has placed his pontificate. Speaking to Vatican Radio, the archpriest of the basilica,...

It is over, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Conservatives have unconditionally surrendered, at least on the gay marriage debate and probably on the “culture wars” more generally. Or perhaps I should say that any who haven’t surrendered will soon become like the fabled Japanese soldiers who fought WWII long after 1945. It’s been prophesied by academia, declared by the judges’ rulings, and ratified by Hollywood, so there is no going back. You will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically, like Dickens speaking of Marley, that it is over. The culture formed around traditional marriage is...

Primary Election Day--.like almost every Tuesday throughout the academic year---began in its customary manner of assembling with other Lutheran clergy of various judicatories to pray Matins. The lessons for that day, the Fifth Tuesday of Paschaltide had a penitential tone. Leviticus 16:20-34 details the ritual for the annual Day of Atonement, in which the sins of the people were laid on the head of a goat which was to be banished from the camp, and the holocaust offerings. Then the Epistle to the Thessalonians warned of the sudden snare of the day of the Lord, with the exhortation to take...

You are mine entirely now for My Flames have touched you and bathed you in My Glory among the coals and now I AM the Gold and Silver in your life for "The Veil is torn " and now the Fullness and Saphire of My Spirit (( ( RESIDES ) )) in you in a abundantly overflowing manner and My Eyes( 7 Spirits of The Lord) are yours for you have already obediently sat quietly at my feet and listened intently for my Voice and will . So now "Take" the Fullness of My Kingdom to the reckless and lost...

CHARLOTTE, NC, May 20, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On Saturday, just 24 hours after backlash from the American people convinced SunTrust bank to reopen its partnerships with Benham REO Group, David and Jason Benham thanked supporters on their YouTube channel. "We just wanted to say thank you. We were overwhelmed yesterday with this SunTrust debacle, and SunTrust heard from America. It was unbelievable what took place," David said in the video. On May 15, the Benhams reported on social media that SunTrust had ended its partnership with their company due to their support for the unborn and traditional marriage. The next...

On Wednesday, May 14, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison and Patti Garibay, national executive director of American Heritage Girls (AHG), signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining how the two organizations will work together in the future. It was a moment many years in the making. Garibay and a group of concerned parents started AHG in 1995 in Cincinnati, Ohio. They wanted to provide a Christ-centered scouting alternative for girls ages 5 to 18. Since then, the nonprofit organization has grown to more than 34,000 members in 772 troops, including 67 troops chartered by LCMS congregations. Through the Memorandum...

Morning and Evening Charles H. Spurgeon May 19, 2014 Morning Reading I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. —Ecclesiastes 10:7 Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact, that none of us should murmur if it should fall to our own lot. When our Lord was upon earth, although He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, yet He walked the footpath...

“I am a Christian, I have not apostatized.” Thus Sudanese Doctor Maryam Yahya Ibrahim, declared to the court, after a Muslim religious tried for 30 minutes to convince her to “return to Islam” or retract her apostasy. The story, namely Maryam’s nightmare, who is a 27-year-old mother of an almost two-year old boy and eight months pregnant, shows what a long way some Muslim countries have to go to ensure the fundamental rights of their citizens. On May 15, 2014 she was sentenced to death for apostasy and to 100 lashes for adultery. Initially, in August of 2013, Maryam was...

Kansas City, MO, May 16, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Coordinator of Social Ministries at the Jesuit-run St. Francis Xavier Catholic Parish in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has been removed from her duties after she revealed publicly in an interview with a local magazine that she had “married” her lesbian lover. Colleen Simon – a lapsed Catholic and divorced mother of two adult children who now embraces the faith of her same-sex partner, Lutheran pastor Donna Simon – was asked to resign last week after 816 Magazine ran a profile of local community leaders which stated Colleen and Donna...

Need a ham operator for one hour per month able to reach Africa. Preacher says some areas can only receive short wave. More details if someone is interested in helping.

Morning and Evening Charles H. Spurgeon May 14, 2014 Morning Reading Joint heirs with Christ. —Romans 8:17 The boundless realms of His Father's universe are Christ's by prescriptive right. As "heir of all things," He is the sole proprietor of the vast creation of God, and He has admitted us to claim the whole as ours, by virtue of that deed of joint-heirship which the Lord hath ratified with His chosen people. The golden streets of paradise, the pearly gates, the river of life, the transcendent bliss, and the unutterable glory, are, by our blessed Lord, made over to us...

One of the most common questions asked by students of the Bible concerns the relationship between Israel and the church. We read the Old Testament, and it is evident that most of it concerns the story of Israel. From Jacob to the exile, the people of God is Israel, and Israel is the people of God. Despite the constant sin of king and people leading to the judgment of exile, the prophets look beyond this judgment with hope to a time of restoration for Israel. When we turn to the New Testament, the same story continues, and Israel is still...

Morning and Evening Charles H. Spurgeon May 12, 2014 Morning Reading And will manifest myself to him. —John 14:21 The Lord Jesus gives special revelations of Himself to His people. Even if Scripture did not declare this, there are many of the children of God who could testify the truth of it from their own experience. They have had manifestations of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a peculiar manner, such as no mere reading or hearing could afford. In the biographies of eminent saints, you will find many instances recorded in which Jesus has been pleased, in a...

Over 175 Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Archbishop Charles Chaput, have signed a statement calling upon the Obama administration to do more to assist the persecuted Christians of Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. “Scores of churches-- some while full of worshippers-- monasteries, cemeteries, and Bible centers have been deliberately demolished and crosses on others have been removed,” the signatories noted. “Young women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry their captors. In some instances, Christians have been told to convert to Islam or be killed; some have been forced to pay protection...

Riga, May 6, Interfax - Archbishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Latvia Janis Vanags praises Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticizes a model of public life imposed by the West. "They (Latvians - IF) hear a voice of reason in Putin's speeches when he speaks of traditional values and need to believe. Putin in their eyes looks as God's messenger," Vanags said in his interview to Latvian paper Diena. Answering the question about reevaluation of family values, calls to refuse a traditional marriage and attempts to legalize pedophilia, he noted that many Latvians can consider these tendencies only as suicidal....