Free Republic

“To keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). God sometimes uses trials to humble believers. Professional athletics, as a whole, makes up one of the least humble sectors in modern American society. Players with multi-million dollar salaries and extravagant benefits have replaced those who played because they loved their sport and had great community loyalty. One such noble model from the past was Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Fame first baseman with the New York Yankees, whose career ended in 1939 after he...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! Христос Воскресе! Воистину Воскресе! Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any...

Pope's titles, the great misunderstanding about the primacy of PeterThe reintroduction of the title "Patriarch of the West" for the pope in the Pontifical Yearbook, combined with the already consummated downgrading of the title "Vicar of Christ" appears to be a move to please the Orthodox; but it is a historical and theological error.On 9 April, the Pontifical Yearbook 2024 was published. Among the titles attributed to the pope, the reinsertion of 'Patriarch of the West', which had been removed by Benedict XV, immediately stood out. What does this decision mean? Is it just a trifle or is there more...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — United Methodists meeting for their top legislative assembly Wednesday (May 1) overwhelmingly overturned a measure that barred gay clergy from ordination in the denomination, a historic step for the nation’s second-largest Protestant body. With a simple vote call and without debate, delegates to the General Conference removed the ban on the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” — a prohibition that dates to 1984. With that vote, the worldwide denomination of some 11 million members joins the majority of liberal Protestant denominations such as the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...

“Would you ever consider altering your genetics?” It was late in the afternoon when I popped the question to my unsaved friend. It was a complete change of subject, but she was used to that. We’ve known each other a long time. She fingered the stem of her glass and glanced at me sideways. “I don’t think I understand,” she replied. “Do I need to?” “I mean, would you ever knowingly choose to do anything at all that would change your body’s DNA structure from what it is now to something else?” She flushed and set her jaw. Her gaze...

As I read this article on LifeSite News, I was greatly saddened to see the lack of compassion and the callous regard for human life in the Canadian health system. On March 29, Normand Meunier, a 66-year-old quadriplegic man, was euthanized at home after developing bed sores and a major pressure ulcer on his backside. The ulcer and bed sores, resulting from a lack of specialized care (and a lack of common decency) at the hospital in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, were so severe that muscle and bone were exposed and visible. First off, he was placed on a hospital stretcher for...

Barren women dominate the biblical narrative, and by no means are these women perfect. Sarai, Abraham’s wife, displayed unbelief, impatience, anger, and disrespect after waiting a lifetime for children. Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, waited twenty years to have a son. Leah and Rachel, sisters, married to Jacob, spent years in competition and felt deep envy towards one another. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, was taunted for years by Peninnah and experienced depression. Elizabeth, wife of Zachariah, and Samson’s mother, wife to Manoah, both stood firm in their faith even when their husbands doubted God’s plans. The Shunammite woman begged...

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but...

Black and Latino Christians often turn to their pastors for mental health care, even when those clergy have limited expertise in working with those who are mentally struggling, according to a new study by the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University. For the study, co-authored by [Daniel Bolger and] Pamela Prickett at the University of Amsterdam, the researchers held focus groups in 2015 and 2016 with 14 Black and Latino pastors from different Protestant denominations and conducted 20 interviews with church members across two congregations in Houston, Texas. Church members were between 24 and 65 years old. More...

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.” It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for my high school band. It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications. In fact, they actively distorted the real implications of love by overly-eroticizing the concept. Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could...

John-Paul Miller, founder and pastor at Solid Rock at Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, made the shocking announcement at the end Sunday’s (April 28) worship service that his wife, Mica Miller, died by suicide. Miller and his 30-year-old wife were married in 2017—a marriage that provided her with five stepchildren. The church’s website describes their family as ones “who have a heart to love God and love people.” According to Mica’s obituary, which was written by her husband but doesn’t list her cause of death, the pastor’s wife died on Saturday, April 27. She is described as a...

A group of African delegates to the United Methodist Church General Conference have denounced the recent votes to allow for same-sex marriage and noncelibate LGBT clergy. This week, delegates at the UMC General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a series of measures removing from the Book of Discipline rules preventing the officiating of same-sex weddings and the funding of LGBT advocacy groups. On Thursday, the churchwide legislative gathering voted 523 to 161 to remove from the Book of Discipline the statement that the "practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching," which had been originally added to the rule...

Priest Celebrates Lesbian [Pseudo] Marriage - One "Bride" Is Protestant PreacherRev. Joseph Williams, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Chicago, Illinois, officiated at a pseudo-marriage for two women in his church. They posted video footage on social media on 22 April and Rev. Williams confirmed that the video is real (OsvNews.com, 1 May).One of the women, Kelli Beard, is a United Methodist minister. She will become an associate pastor at an Arizona church starting in July. The other, Myah Knight, is a mental health therapist who runs a 'religious trauma support group'.Beard wore an off-the-shoulder champagne-coloured sequined dress, Knight...

There is a demonic massive power shift underway in Washington D.C. today, which has fully abandoned our Judeo/ Christian heritage and founding principles (1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5)! Many evangelical Christians are seeing this EXPONENTIAL shift and change in our country toward a demonic secular, socialist state – especially in the last ten years – which is, quite frankly, scaring them to death! This concern is noteworthy and quite merited in light of the significant changes that are now happening, but many Evangelicals are IGNORANT of the Scriptural prophecies (predictions) describing these very events. They are stumbling over and...

Dear friends, being May 4th and if you can get past the title and read this full post you will be truly amazed at what the Word of Almighty God has to say about His precious Word, which is established FOREVER (Psalm 119:89, 144, 152, 160, 138:2, John 17:17)! One of the things that I have been taught from the very beginning in helping children, adults and people in general how to learn a particular biblical truth is to use what they mentally know by experience or association. I have found by using what people know that it is easy...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: A ‘confused understanding of authority’ has invaded the ChurchSt. Robert Bellarmine wrote: 'Just as it is licit to resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks souls, or who disturbs the civil order, or, even more, who tries to destroy the Church.'The following is a May 3, 2024, letter from Bishop Joseph Strickland, the bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,“Roma locuta; causa finita est!” “Rome has spoken; the matter is finished!” In these pastoral letters that I have been publishing, I have been...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Gregory XVI’s Mirari Vos Condemns the Cardinal Sin of the Vatican II RevolutionAs profitable and enlightening as it is to reflect on how Mirari Vos condemns the specific novelties of Vatican II, though, we might draw greatest value from the encyclical if we can truly appreciate what it said about the permissibility of novelties in general.Like many other papal encyclicals prior to Vatican II, several aspects of Pope Gregory XVI’s 1832 encyclical on “Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism,” Mirari Vos, directly contradict ideas that were explicitly promoted at the Council. For instance, whereas Vatican II’s “Declaration on Religious...

4 May 2024 Saturday of the 5th week of Eastertide San Ciriaco – Ancona's Cathedral Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).First readingActs 16:1-10 ©'Come across to Macedonia and help us'From Cilicia Paul went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra. Here there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess who had become a believer; but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy, and Paul, who wanted to have him as a travelling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality where...