Free Republic

Faith Without Works? Do Calvinists Actually Read the Christian Bible? Is anyone as mystified as I am at this contradictory and unbiblical Calvinist “Sola Fide” idea that faith without works is sufficient for salvation? How can Calvinists reject James Chapter 2 which states that; “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14) and "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). To do so is antithetical to Scripture. The Calvinist rejection of James is at best substitutional, permitting Calvinists to conclude that works naturally follow...

Women have a sacred role in the sanctification and purification of men, Elder Glenn L. Pace of the Seventy told students and faculty during the campus devotional in the Marriott Center at BYU on Tuesday, March 9. Reflecting on the love he felt from his mother, sister, wife and daughters, Elder Pace spoke of the positive influence women have had on his life. Speaking specifically about a time when his daughter fell asleep in his arms, Elder Pace noted the comfort it must have brought his daughter to be held by her father. He realized afterward that even greater was...

Hanukkah may have ended over 2 weeks ago, Kwanzaa week may have just begun, and New Years may still be 6 days away, but major retailers have once again started their "After Holiday" sales on December 26. Retailers that went to great lengths to avoid using the word Christmas, in favor of the more inclusive term "Holidays", now seem to not care that many holidays are still to come while others ended long ago. Companies such as Barnes and Nobel as well as Old navy/Gap went to such extremes to avoid using the term Christmas that they ended up being...

One of the most effective ways to overturn a culture is not to take it on directly, but to undermine it gradually. If you carry out a full-frontal assault on majority opinion, people become alarmed and fight back. But when you do it slowly, step-by-step, you can make your destruction look harmless... even reasonable. That's exactly what's happening in this country. For the past half century, there has been a slow but unrelenting attack on the Christian foundations of the United States. The evidence is beyond dispute. First, secularists took prayer out of the public schools, because it "promoted religion...

(CathNews) Santa will not be visiting students in St. Peter, Minnesota this year. Muslim immigrants got him cancelled. The MinnPost reported, via Pat Dollard: Santa Claus, as portrayed by Dennis Jackson, won’t be visiting students at the Head Start classes in St. Peter this year. Jackson has made appearances the past four years at the classes for students who need help preparing for school, but this year officials said, “No, no, no.” The reason: The classes have many immigrant children who don’t celebrate Christmas, says the Mankato Free Press. Santa’s a little frosted, the paper says. It kind of burnt...

Christmas trees 'make non-Christians feel excluded' Christmas trees should be removed from public places to avoid making non-Christians feel “excluded”, scientists have suggested By Andy Bloxham 11:43AM GMT 20 Dec 2010 Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada, found non-Christians feel less self-assured and have fewer positive feelings if a Christmas tree was in the room. The scientists conducted the study using 77 Christians and 57 non-believers, including Buddhists and Sikhs. The participants did not know the survey was about Christmas, and were asked to fill in questions about themselves both when a 12-inch Christmas tree was in the room...

The atheist group behind last year's controversial bus ads suggesting "there's probably no God" is rolling out a provocative new set of posters on buses across the country that places Allah beside Bigfoot and Christ beside psychics. The new posters bear the slogan: "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" with "Allah, Bigfoot, UFOs, Homeopathy, Zeus, Psychics, Christ" listed below. They will hit Toronto streetcars in January, pending final approval from the Toronto Transit Commission, said Justin Trottier, national executive director of the Centre for Inquiry, an atheist organization. After the Toronto debut, the organization plans to post the ads to buses...

It begins… A Florida school not only banned Christmas but banned everything associated with Christmas including Christmas colors… Because someone might be offended.

Prompted by a billboard calling Christmas a myth, the Catholic League erected a pro-Jesus billboard Tuesday. MANHATTAN — The Catholic League, upset over an anti-Christmas billboard at the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, threw a "counterpunch" at atheists Tuesday with a billboard of their own on the New York side of the tunnel.The new 26-by-24-foot billboard at Dyer Avenue and West 31st Street features a depiction of Joseph and Mary looking adoringly at baby Jesus, with the message: "You know it's real. This season, celebrate Jesus. Merry Christmas from the Catholic League," according to the Catholic League's website....

It's that season again, which means that for the third year in a row, the German Christmas Village has set up a cozy collection of wooden booths and tree vendors in Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall. But a few shoppers noticed something amiss yesterday on the tall metal archways signaling the entrances to the shops. The archways had just one word on top - "Village." Sounds festive, eh? Read more: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20101130_Let_s_call_it_the_German__Holiday__Village.html?111029469=Y&submit=Vote&oid=2&mr=1&cid=8500281&pid=111029469#ixzz16mxvBYNI Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else

No matter what one thinks of the homosexuality-affirming "It Gets Better" project, do we really want the president of the United States to be associated with radical sex columnist Dan Savage, the creator of this campaign? "It Gets Better" is the online video project that Chicago native Dan Savage created in which he seeks to end bullying by affirming homosexuality. Joining him in this effort are Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton. Savage--the even more offensive doppelganger of our Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings--celebrates homosexuality in general and his own in particular. He has chosen...

While far too many Americans are still unaware of the internal threat of Islam, Muslims continue to move forward with their goal of creating an Islamic world. A mission in which they have no concerns whatsoever for the beliefs of non-Muslims. Earlier this month I posted about the Islamic-World website, and their article which calls for Muslim parents to teach their children to join the jihad. Today I continue with another one of their articles. This one advices Muslim on getting their children to do their part in creating an Islamic world. As usual the site is very busy, and...

I've always liked Director Peter Weir's films. Master and Commander, Witness, Gallipoli. Even things I didn't care for like The Year Of Living Dangerously and The Dead Poets Society were still well done and stylish. Now he has this coming out in January about an escape from a Soviet gulag in 1940 (be sure to click on the link to the trailer below): Trailer here ---------------------------------------------------- Then there is this little number from Director Kevin Smith. I'll provide the synopsis from IMDB but I'll be damned if I'm going to provide a link to the trailer. From IMDB: "A horror...

A series of bomb blasts targeting Christians in Baghdad has killed at least three people and injured two dozen more, security sources have said. At least 14 roadside bombs were detonated and a mortar round was fired in Christian districts across the Iraqi capital last night and early this morning. An interior ministry source told Reuters that the attacks were a “continuation” of the massacre at Our Lady of Salvation church which killed dozens of worshippers last week. According to one report, today’s bombings targeted the family of one of the victims of the massacre. The Islamic State of Iraq...

The battle over America's Judeo-Christian identity is heating up, and at least one author isn't taking the fight lying down. Two new books from best-selling author Brad O'Leary put the lie to secularist claims that America is not a Christian nation and that Christianity isn't under an intense attack. "God and America's Leaders" is the definitive collection of quotations by our Founding Fathers and past presidents on matters pertaining to God, Jesus Christ and Christianity. This invaluable resource leaves no doubt that America's top leaders were men of faith, and that ultimately, their strong faith in God inspired their faith...

They gathered in Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church for an evening Mass. They are members of an increasingly besieged and forgotten minority in Iraq, Catholic Christians. Their herosm and love for the Lord has inspired them to continue to practice the ancient faith in the midst of what is a steadily deteriorating situation for them in this land they have called home for centuries. Our Lady of Salvation Church is no stranger to violence. Churches have been bombed before in Iraq, including Our Lady of Salvation. The Christian faithful have had to contend with an increasingly hostile culture. However,...

WASHINGTON – A package containing explosive materials was intercepted in Dubai on its way from Yemen to a Chicago Jewish institution, and authorities in London were investigating a suspicious package in England as part of a terror probe that spanned three continents, officials said Friday. U.S. officials said they were increasingly confident that the packages were part of a plot by Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, the same group responsible for an attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner last Christmas. Intelligence officials have been monitoring the suspected plot for days, an official said. The packages were discovered in England and Dubai late...

A luxury resort in the Maldives has sparked outrage after a video appeared on You Tube showing members of staff abusing and mocking their guests using a language they were unable to understand. Employees at the Vilu Reef Beach and Spa resort can be seen calling an English-speaking couple ‘infidel’ and ‘swine’ and calling their guests' marriage illegal in their native Dhivehi tongue throughout the 15-minute wedding ceremony. According to the Maldives news service Minivan News, the video which was uploaded to You Tube ‘as a joke’, shows an employee named Hussein Didi conducting a service as a 'celebrant' -...

A Torah scroll and several other ritual items were stolen this week from an Arizona synagogue. Congregants arrived Monday morning to discover the door broken open and a gaping spot within the ark where the holy scroll had stood in the Young Israel Synagogue of Phoenix. The synagogue members were preparing for a circumcision ceremony for a new baby boy when they became aware of the tragedy. The women’s entrance to the synagogue was smashed as well. The theft at 7th Street and Maryland was described as “emotionally devastating,” by spiritual leader Rabbi Reuven Mann, who told local reporters, “The...

If you believe any of the hogwash about the irrelevance of the religious right to this election, take a look at the numerous right-wing evangelical websites promoting the 40/40 Prayer Vigil, which began in September with a prayer for Christian voter registration and ends--you guessed it--just before election day, Nov. 2. The 40/40 stands for the forty days and forty nights that Jesus supposedly spent wandering in the desert before finally saying no to Satan's temptations. I'm sure that you won't have any trouble figuring out which political party the Southern Baptist Convention--America's largest religious denomination and one of the...