Free Republic

About 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” he writes. The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to...

Researchers consider it safe because it doesn't involve the need for any drugs It thought to release the body's innate 'happy' chemicals, called endorphins Acupuncture is also thought to increase blood flow to skin and muscle How does it work? Western medical acupuncture is the use of acupuncture following a medical diagnosis. It involves stimulating sensory nerves under the skin and in the muscles. This results in the body producing natural substances, such as pain-relieving endorphins. It's likely that these naturally released substances are responsible for the beneficial effects experienced with acupuncture.

Israel’s health minister cited “room for optimism” in the fight against the emerging Omicron variant, saying people who have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and a booster are “most likely protected” against it. “There is already room for optimism, and there are initial indications that those who are vaccinated with a vaccine still valid or with a booster will also be protected from this variant,” Nitzan Horowitz said Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported. “The vaccine is really crucial right now. Anyone who is exposed to the variant without a vaccine will put themselves at unnecessary risk,” he added...

President Biden inadvertently disclosed Tuesday that one of his granddaughters works for billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who briefly was one of his Democratic primary rivals. Biden made the revelation during a press conference in Glasgow, Scotland, when he called on reporter “Jen Epstein of the Wall Street Journal” to ask him a question. Epstein corrected the president that she works for Bloomberg News, which is owned by the financial entrepreneur, who was mayor from 2002 to 2013. “Excuse me. I beg your pardon,” Biden told Epstein. “I hope — I got it. I got it, especially since...

And what is MTD exactly? Ms. Barna answers: “The moralistic perspective is we’re here to be good people and to try to do good…The therapeutic aspect is everything is supposed to be geared to making me feel good about myself, ultimately to make me happy. Deism is the idea that God created the world but has no direct involvement in it. Basically, according to MTD, there is a distant God who just wants everyone to be nice, and the purpose of life is to be happy. American ‘Christians’ who have adopted this philosophy have… elevate[d] personal definitions of right and...

Despite a population that is now more prosperous and more educated by several orders of magnitude, we clearly have become more lazy.To celebrate another $1,400 in stimulus checks, a quickly withdrawn video from Wisconsin Democrats showed people dancing to a catchy rap song with captions of “$$$ IN THE POCKET” and “THANK YOU POTU$.” As Joy Pullmann noted, its release on the same day abysmal job numbers came out was a testament to Democrats’ blindness to economic reality. It also attested to our culture’s devolving expectation of something for nothing.America has definitely changed. Juxtapose that video with images from the...

Dear comrades and friends, citizens of Bucharest, capital of socialist Romania. First let me send my sincere revolutionary wishes to those of you participating in this great demonstration and to all the inhabitants of the city. I wish you success in all your fields of activity. I also wish to thank the initiators and organizers of this great demonstration in Bucharest. Who is shooting? Someone is shooting. They are entering the building. An earthquake? What? Keep calm! Keep calm! Keep calm! Stop that! At the very last his lunatic wife yells: Securitate- stop them. Stop that now! arrest! Dear comrades,...

In what has been called a once-in-a-generation event, a complete and original copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio sold for a record-setting price just under $10 million at auction earlier this week. The First Folio, published in 1623, was the first complete printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays. Published seven years after the author’s death, the book marked not only the first complete collection of Shakespeare’s works, but also the first time those works were organized as comedies, tragedies and histories. There are around 235 copies known to exist, and only six complete ones owned privately.

What must I do to be saved? Some people ask this question, and it must be answered! Have you ever heard someone say they are a Born Again Christian? Do you know what it means to be "Born Again"? The Bible says, "John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: Jn 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jn 3:3 Jesus...

27Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27 NASB

Denver Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca is getting major blowback over a controversial tweet sent on Friday. CdeBaca quoted a tweet that said, “For the record, if I do get the coronavirus I’m attending every MAGA rally I can.” CdeBaca responded and quoted the tweet by saying, “#solidarity Yaaaas!!”

The average Christian, reading his Bible in happy devotion, stumbles across this passage: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church… (Col 1:24) The passage is particularly disturbing for a certain strain of Protestant thought that emphasizes Christ’s sufficiency for all things. Christ has accomplished all things necessary to our salvation and we are thus able to “rest” in His completed work. For many, this is at the heart of grace. God has done for...

You know that my focus lately has been on correctly preaching the Gospel of Grace.  The Gospel + anything = nothing.  There can be no mixture of law and grace (Romans 11:6).  It's either all law or all grace and we know that no one has ever been able to keep the law except Christ (Psalm 14:3, 53:3, Isaiah 64:6-7, Romans 3:9-23, James 2:10).  The law was not given to make us righteous, but to show us our desperate need for a Savior who actually can make us righteous (Romans 3:19-26, Galatians 3:24).  You can summarize all of Paul's...

Everyone ultimately has to make a decision: will they trust themselves and their understanding or will they trust God and His.  This choice isn't just for unbelievers, but for those who call themselves "Christian", as well.  For very, very soon those who have placed their faith in themselves and their works and abilities will discover whether that was a wise or foolish decision.  As for me, I have nothing to boast or glory in save the Cross of Christ.  I'm staking everything - my life, my soul, and my future on Jesus Christ and Him alone.  I'm taking the...

Faith vs. works.  Christians have debated this topic for two thousand years and still do.  At the heart of the debate you have two (seemingly) opposing sides: Team Faith says works are not required for salvation.  Salvation is received by grace through faith alone (John 6:28-29, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:5, Romans 11:6, Galatians 2:21).  They believe that making works a requirement for salvation ignores the very message of the Gospel that Jesus died for our sins and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), which the Apostle Paul calls "of first importance."  This is Christianity 101.  If Jesus died for your...

"A law-driver insists with threats and penalties; a preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to us; for He wants no unwilling works and reluctant services, He wants joyful and delightful services of God." - Martin Luther, Father of the Reformation Nowadays it has become popular in the Catholic Church and among many works-righteousness proponents to label stalwart preachers of the Gospel such as Joseph Prince, Tony Evans, Paul Ellis, and even Louie Giglio as "hyper-grace", as if somehow the Bible teaches that there can be too much mercy, too much forgiveness, or too much...

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For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. - Galatians 6:13, 14Ideas have consequences. So does doctrine. That there are true Christians who trust the blood of Jesus Christ alone to make their garments white who worship in the Roman Catholic church is no less extraordinary for being true. They...

DOCTRINE OF SALVATION BY WORKS Eph 2:8-10 (8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Definition. Salvation by works is a false doctrine which rejects God's grace policy in the provision of eternal salvation for the human race. Salvation by works rejects the total helplessness of mankind under real spiritual death. Real spiritual death not only means...

It's really so very simple.  Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. Do you accept that message? I often over complicate the message to my own shame, but it is just that simple.  It amazes me how there are entire denominations (thinking RCC) that constantly refer to "the Gospel", yet when pressed they cannot even define what "the Gospel" is anymore... or if they do define it, it is some sort of faith + works complicated mess, far beyond what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4: "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached...