Archive for the ‘Relevant News (and Testimonies)’ Category
Chief rabbi challenges Atheist Stephen Hawking in row over origins of the universe
Chief rabbi challenges Atheist Stephen Hawking in row over origins of the universe
Lord Sacks accuses astrophysicist of logical fallacy in book excluding possibility of supernatural creation
* Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
* guardian.co.UK, Thursday 2 September 2010 19.48 BST
Chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks Lord Sacks warns that the hostility between religion and science is equally damaging to both.
The chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, hit back at Stephen Hawking after the Astrophysicist said a god did not create the universe.
In his new book, The Grand Design, published next week, Hawking concludes that science excludes the possibility of a deity and that it is unnecessary to “invoke a god to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”.
But his finding were described by Sacks as an “elementary fallacy” of logic.
Writing in the Times, the chief rabbi said: “There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn’t interested in how the universe came into being.”
Sacks also said the mutual hostility between religion and science was one of “the curses of our age” and warned it would be equally damaging to both.
“But there is more to wisdom than science. It cannot tell us why we are here or how we should live. Science masquerading as religion is as unseemly as religion masquerading as science.”
Atheist Claim: “A God did not create The universe”
Atheist Stephen Hawking: “A God did not create the universe”
From World News Net
Stephen Hawking The Universe can create itself from nothing, says Prof. Hawking
There is no place for a God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.
He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.
The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke a God to set the Universe going.
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something,” he concluded.
‘Planetary conditions’
In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain’s most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.
Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our sun, he said: “That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.”
He adds: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
“It is not necessary to invoke a God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
The book was co-written by US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and is published on 9 September.
In his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the Universe.
“If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason” he said.
CONFRONTING THE SUPERSTITIOUS CHURCH OF THE 21st CENTURY
Perilous Times and The Great Falling Away
CONFRONTING THE SUPERSTITIOUS CHURCH OF THE 21st CENTURY
By G. Richard Fisher
(World News Net)
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:16).
As we move into the twenty-first century, even the comments of comedian and award-winning filmmaker Woody Allen seem to make sense. Allen remarked: “History repeats itself. It has to — nobody listens the first time around.”
We have been fighting and will continue to fight battles which we thought were won or put to rest in the first three centuries of the Church’s history. What used to be commonplace in the world of the occult and in the world of hyper-liberalism is now common in the world of both
Charismatic and Evangelical Christianity.
There has been an incredible paradigm shift in the world of Christianity. This shift has been so radical that the Church of Jesus Christ is beginning to resemble the culture of Athens found in Acts 17.
Luke speaks out in verse 21 and describes the confusion in this way: “For all the Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing.” Luke then concludes in verse 22 by quoting the Apostle Paul as saying, “in all things you are very religious.” Indeed, the god of novelty was reigning in Athens.
The word “religious” in Acts 17:22 (translated in some versions as superstitious) is the Greek word deisidaimon.1 It has to do with fear of the supernatural. It was a practice that was all-embracing and non-discerning with a reverence for all kinds of deities, religious notions, religious fads and religious claims. It lacked discretionary thought and would try anything with the word “religion” tacked to it. It was mindless reverence and mindless religion with a love for newness and novelty.
The parallels to our own age are stark and frightening. Just pick up a copy of Charisma magazine and glance at its advertisements and its promotional items. It is Athens all over again — with a vengeance. How can the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth be leading in so many
contradictory paths? The confusion (and the nonbiblical mysticism) is palpable. Many of these new quirks are touted as the end time revival and people jump on the new bandwagon until they tire of it or a more exciting wagon rolls in.
We must come to grips not only with the reality of superstition in the Church but have a plan to resist that superstition. Let’s look first at:
THE REALITY OF SUPERSTITION IN THE CHURCH
Dr. Peter Jones, professor of New Testament at Westminster Seminary in Southern California, captures the large view as he surveys how our churches have moved toward experience-driven religion and eastern mysticism:
”Belief that the human is divine, and thus essentially good, helps explain the burgeoning quest for personal spiritual discovery, to the detriment of doctrine and truth. Mysticism has replaced true spirituality. Companies in the West, seeing commercial value in such optimism, are using these ideas to produce better sales personnel. Madison Avenue and the gurus could be an unstoppable, unholy alliance feeding the machine of political correctness. As an expression of Divinity, each self is a source of truth.”2
If anyone doubts that this is an age of religious fadism, confusion and superstition, just visit a Christian bookstore. There you will find:
. Hannah Hurnard — New Age occultist and aura reader.
. Madame Guyon — a mystic heretic.
. Madeleine L’Engle — who says the God of the Old Testament is “a male
chauvinistic pig.”
. Many of the latest psychobabble theories.
. Dream interpretation and prophetic words for the 1990s by Vineyard Prophets.
. Alternative medicine and Bible Codes.
. So-called revival stories with people acting like crass fools or animals.
. Instructions on how to get rid of ancestral demons and curses and do spiritual mapping.
. And on and on, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
Truly it is like Athens and like the second-century age of heresy described by Philip Schaff when he said of that era, “strange medleys of Christian and unchristian elements in chaotic ferment.”3
Modern reformer Michael Horton has written to show that there are many religious trends in the world today alerting us to the reemerging heresy of Gnosticism. He lays it out clearly:
”So far, we have seen an emerging shape to this elusive heresy of the ancient church, distinct from orthodoxy in the following preferences:
. The subjective over the objective
. The secret and private over the public
. Mystical experience over critical understanding
. The feminine over the masculine
. Spirit over matter
. Eternity over time
. Direct encounters with God over events mediated by matter and history
. Spiritual techniques for gaining access to and control over the
secrets of the universe
. salvation from the body, time, institutions, and escape into a
realm of pure spirit.”4
Faith-healer Benny Hinn can boast to his Hawaiian audience that he has received visions of the dead Kathryn Kuhlman and from these revelations has received direction for his ministry from her.5 Sadly, his admission of necromancy and spiritism does not raise even a whimper or cry of shock and outrage anywhere from inside his camp. Necromancy is now being
advocated in the Church of Jesus Christ and it was the very thing that brought the demise of King Saul (1 Chronicles 10:13).
In a recent Christianity Today article, “The Future of Evangelical Theology,” Thomas Oden laments:
”The Babylonian captivity to novelty is the temptation of all modern reflection. It is invading evangelical leadership at an alarming rate in ways disturbing to evangelicals in the mainline who have suffered from its bewitchments for two centuries.”6
Dr. Virginia Mollenkott, professor of English at New Jersey’s William Patterson College and who is promoted in some evangelical churches, though an admitted lesbian, is now proposing the shocking and bewildering claim that Jesus Christ was really a woman. At a news conference for the National Council of Churches she cited a Journal of American Scientific Affiliation article which argued:
”Jesus was born in parthenogenesis; that parthenogenetic births are always female; that in some cases, therefore, he would be willing to refer to Jesus as ’she’ — up until the last minute of sex reversal, in which case Jesus remains chromosomally female throughout life, but functions as a normal male and looks like a normal male.”7
Kathryn Riss, the wife of twentieth-century revival historian Richard M. Riss, claims to have gotten the following song directly from the Lord. In part its lyrics are:
”I just laugh like an idiot and bark like a dog,
If I don’t sober up, I’ll likely hop like a frog!
I’ll crow like a rooster at the break of day,
’Cause the Holy Ghost is moving, and I can’t stay away!
I’ll roar like a lioness who’s on the prowl,
I’ll laugh and shake, maybe hoot like an owl!
Since God’s holy river started bubbling in me,
It spills outside, and now it’s setting me free!
So, I’ll crunch and I’ll dip and I’ll dance round and round,
The pew was fine, but it’s more fun on the ground!
So I’ll jump like a pogo stick, then fall to the floor,
’Cause the Holy Ghost is moving, and I just want MORE!”8
Authors James R. Coggins and Paul G. Hiebert express their view as to why there is such a low level of discernment and doctrinal understanding in today’s Church:
”There is a dangerous tendency in our age to seek infallible gurus, faultless leaders, and follow them blindly. Professional athletes who have been Christians for two years become our role models. Evangelists are asked to advise us on theology. Professional Christian singers become our Bible teachers.”9
The Church at large is in deep trouble because its leaders and people no longer believe in the absolute sufficiency of the Scriptures for life and godliness, as both Peter and Paul proposed (2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Peter 1:2-4). And doubly sad is the fact that if these things are pointed out, the one crying out for discernment and reformation is bashed as a Pharisee and heretic hunter.
People are running everywhere looking for esoteric solutions to conditions caused by lack of attention to God’s Word. People like Mark Bubeck are combining smatterings of clinical psychology with bizarre and subjective practices and advising people to pray that God would search their sexual organ, blood, bones, muscles, glands, hair, skin and cells for demon activity.10
These are repulsive things to have to write about but such activities are being promoted by so-called bondage breakers and demon busters. Such things cannot be even remotely found anywhere in the Bible. They are figments of wild and convoluted imaginations. It is Athens all over again. Bubeck continues to be a lucrative and brisk seller for Moody Press and it offers no apologies. It is difficult to question a best-selling author.
The Church today is adrift on a sea of neo-gnosticism and subjectivism. It is spending its time in just hearing and telling new things. Sadly, the smorgasbord for Athens is many of the Christian magazines because of the large amounts of income generated through advertising and sales. Truth has been sacrificed for Athens. Hocus-pocus is now groovy and the
Bible is a drag. “Does it feel good?” and “Will it sell?” is all that is being asked. Again we would state that the massive move away from the sufficiency of Scripture is creating incredible problems that all the false solutions and fad panaceas will never repair or heal.
Added to this deplorable state will be the Millennial madness centered around our move into the year 2000. The best kept secret is that, because of a calendar discrepancy, we had actually crossed into the year 2000 a few years ago. Remember King Herod, by all the historical accounts, died between 4 and 6 B.C. We have been through the year 2000
without a whimper and no one even noticed. What does that do to all the prophetic scenarios? In Athens no one really cares. It is the thought and the novelty that count.
Radio talk show host and author Bob Larson offers “A Live Exorcism Captured on Video!” featuring “A 20-hour exorcism condensed into two incredible hours. Scenes of the supernatural in action!” And all this for only $100.11 This is the same Bob Larson who claimed on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to have raised a comatose body by simply waving a Bible over it. The devil “told” Larson he was going to “kill” the person and caused his body temperature to plummet. Larson asserted that the Word is a lamp and God showed him it was a “heat lamp.”12 And the people who flock to Athens instead of being outraged, send their money and beg for more.
Then there is the angel craze and angel stories.13 They are almost
mandatory in the writing of any book in recent years. Even Joni
Eareckson Tada has an angel story and says she saw one as “a brilliant
golden shape that glowed whisked by the large bay window I was facing
— it didn’t move from left to right, but from bottom to top.”14
Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield writes about
the angel who used to appear in his kitchen when he was a child. He
would actually have us believe it was a black, bald headed angel!15
Benny Hinn has been spinning angel stories for years but like most of
Hinn’s material, no one else ever sees these things and they are
unverifiable.16 They also go a long way in boosting one’s superstar status.
The pursuit of angels should be off-limits for a Bible-believing
Christian for a number of reasons. Paramount is a warning in Colossians
2:18 regarding intruding into the unseen realm of angels. The pursuit of
angelic beings is a subtle diversion from the only Mediator who is
superior by comparison and from the study of Scripture.
The historic creeds from the fourth century forbid even the naming of
angels.17 Satan can pose as an angel of light we are told in 2
Corinthians 11:14 and that should make any Christian extremely cautious.
The Scriptures are clear that all of our guidance is to be sought in the
Word through the Spirit.
So the reality of Athens and superstition is in our face. How do we go
about resisting the superstition, the fads, the nonsense and mysticism
that has overtaken the Church at large?
Let’s move on to our second point:
RESISTING THE SUPERSTITION IN THE CHURCH
If we are going to successfully keep our balance and confront Athens,
there must be the following posture:
1) A Total Commitment To The Doctrines Of Scripture.
The early Church is shown to have been committed to doctrine. In Acts
2:42 Luke reports that “they continued in the Apostles’ doctrine and
fellowship and in the breaking of bread and prayers.”
William Evans saw the need to know doctrine as one of the greatest needs
of the Church, writing that, “There is probably no greater need in the
Christian Church today than that its membership should be made
acquainted with the fundamental facts and doctrines of the Christian
faith.”18
John Calvin, long ago, addressed the dangers of denigrating doctrine:
”It is an illusory belief of the enthusiasts that those who keep
reading Scripture or hearing the Word are children, as if no one were
spiritual unless he scorned doctrine. In their pride, therefore, they
despise the ministry of men and even Scripture itself, in order to
attain the Spirit. They then proudly try to peddle all the delusions
that Satan suggests to them as secret revelations of the Spirit.”19
What we need is a revival of study and memorization of Scripture. That,
followed by practical obedience to its commands, would eliminate the
need to fabricate revival with ear-splitting music, bizarre
manifestations, altered states of consciousness, and emotional frenzies.
Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola is now issuing revival reports
which include the practice of “sweeping.” People run around frantically
“sweeping” the demons out of the building and off the property.20
Consider the commitment of the Apostle Paul to the importance of sound
doctrine and hear him command our allegiance:
”That you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1
Timothy 1:3).
”Knowing that the law is not made for a righteous person but for
the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners. … and
if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine” (1
Timothy 1:9-10).
”Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times some will
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).
”If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of good
doctrine which you have carefully followed” (1 Timothy 4:6).
”Till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to
doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13).
”Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for
in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1
Timothy 4:16).
”Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own
masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine
may not be blasphemed” (1 Timothy 6:1).
”If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine
which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is
obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy,
strife, reviling, evil suspicions” (1 Timothy 6:3-4).
”You have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose,
faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance” (2 Timothy 3:10).
In 2 Timothy we are told to:
Hold to sound doctrine (1:13).
Teach sound doctrine (2:2).
Abide in sound doctrine (3:14).
Preach sound doctrine (4:1-2).
From these verses we see that doctrine is not only vital but crucial
and indispensable.
Doctrine denotes teaching and what is taught. The clear message of the
Bible is that we are to give urgent and undivided attention to the
Apostles’ teachings now made permanent because they are inscripturated
within the pages of the Bible. The Greek words for doctrine, didache and
didaskalia, as used by Paul, stress not only the act of his delivering
God’s message to them but also the absolute authority of that
teaching.21 Paul forcefully reminds the Corinthians: “If anyone thinks
himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1
Corinthians 14:37).
Peter says of the Apostles’ doctrine:
”That you be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior” (2 Peter 3:2).
Baker’s Dictionary of Theology tells us on page 171 that, “Doctrine is
the teaching of Scripture on theological themes.”
Abraham Friesen, professor of history at the University of California in
Santa Barbara, gets to the heart of the problem of people trying to live
by phenomenon rather than solid doctrine. He says the issue is:
”… the problem of the relationship of the written Word to the
Holy Spirit. This is not a new problem. In the sixteenth century Martin
Luther struggled against Thomas Muentzer, who sought to subordinate the
Word to his mystical experience of the Spirit. In opposition, Luther
repeatedly asserted the unity of the Word and Spirit. The Word was not
merely a ‘testimony’ or ‘witness’ to the experience of the Spirit. Any
experience, even one of the Spirit, could not be self-authenticating; it
need always to be tested by the revealed Word of God. Not the experience
but the Word was the final arbiter of God’s truth.”22
We need to get back to reading, memorizing and living out the Scripture.
Not only do we need a total commitment to the doctrines of the Scripture
but we need as well:
2) A Total Commitment To The Local Church.
Christians need to be in a balanced, healthy, Bible-teaching church.
Christians as well need to plead with their pastors to preach doctrine
and then pray consistently for them. Worship, fellowship and Bible
teaching keep us in balance and protects us from the deceptions that not
only fill our world but fill our churches. Every pastor should have in
his library Jay Adams’ three volumes on Studies in Preaching or Andrew
Blackwood’s Doctrinal Preaching for Today.
People use all kinds of excuses for not being in a good church. How
silly it would be to apply the same shallow rationale to sports events:
“I won’t go to that ballgame because there are too many hypocrites
there.” “I won’t go to that game because my parents made me go as a
child.” “I won’t go to that stadium because all they want is money.” “I
won’t go to that event because it lasts too long.” Frankly, we go to
what interests us. If there is no heart for God or His house, it tells
so much about us and our spiritual state. Hebrews 10:25 commands us to
consistently attend church. How can we love and serve the brethren as
commanded in so many of the Epistles if we are never around them?
3) Total Commitment To and Reliance On The Christ Of The Scriptures.
Hymn writer Joseph Scriven was a man who knew great personal loss and
was thrown into tragedy and grief after the drowning of his fiancé.
Later he met another and intended to marry when she died suddenly. Yet
he was able to write:
”What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!”
Surely he knew Christ and found his stability in knowing what Christ had
done and was doing for Him. What kept him going was not a chill up his
spine but a sure knowledge of a Savior who cared for and carried him.
Life’s challenges do not have to break us. They can bend us toward Christ.
When emotions run out and the feelings are gone we need to fall back on
our Lord and on promises like Romans 8:38-39, knowing by faith that
nothing can separate us from His love.
Erich Sauer pointedly reminds us:
”… the one who has been called to the kingdom has not only to
decide at his conversion which master he will serve but has thereupon to
make the same decision every day and in each practical detail of his
life of sanctification.”23
If we are going to resist and overcome Athens in our day, we must at all
costs be sold out to the doctrines of the Bible, to the work of the
Church and to a daily living fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Endnotes:
1. See further, Gerhardt Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964,
Vol. 2, pg. 20.
2. Peter Jones, Spirit Wars, Mukilteo, Wash.: WinePress Publishing,
1997, pg. 27.
3. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1910, Vol., 2, pg. 429.
4. Michael Horton, In the Face of God, The Dangers and Delights of
Spiritual Intimacy. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996, pg. 46.
5. G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman, The Confusing World of Benny
Hinn. Saint Louis: Personal Freedom Outreach, 1997, pp. 195-196.
6. Christianity Today, Feb. 9, 1998, pg. 46.
7. See further, The Christian News, July 21, 1997, “Jesus Christ Was
Really a Woman,” pg. 9.
8. Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997,
pp. 245-246.
9. James R. Coggins and Paul G. Hiebert, Wonders And The Word. Winnipeg,
Manitoba: Kindred Press, 1989, pp. 10-11.
10. See further, Mark Bubeck, Spiritual Warfare Basics. Sioux City,
Iowa: International Center for Biblical Counseling, no date, pg. 23.
11. “Bob Larson Resources 1998,” ministry resource catalog.
12. Audio clip of Bob Larson on the Trinity Broadcasting Network
(4/16/96) featured by Hank Hanegraaff on various editions of The Bible
Answer Man radio broadcast, (tape on file).
13. See further The Quarterly Journal, July-September 1994, “Angels We
Have Heard on High? — What Are We Really Hearing in the New Obsession
with Angels?”, pp. 4, 10-12.
14. Joni Eareckson Tada, Heaven Your Real Home. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan Publishing Co., 1995, pg. 84.
15. Evander Holyfield and Bernard Holyfield, Holyfield The Humble
Warrior. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996, pp. 7-12.
16. See further, The Confusing World of Benny Hinn, op. cit., pp. 1, 45, 52.
17. See further, Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers of the
Christian Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
Vol. 14, pg. 150. 18. William Evans, The Great Doctrines of the Bible.
Chicago: Moody Press, 1974, pg. 5.
19. Cited in In the Face of God, op. cit., pg. 134.
20. For more information on the “Pensacola Outpouring” and the
Brownsville Revival, see The Quarterly Journal, April-June 1997 and
January-March 1998.
21. W.E. Vine, The Expanded Vine’s: Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1984, pp. 323-324.
22. Wonders And The Word, op. cit., pg. 36.
23. Erich Sauer, In The Arena Of Faith. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956, pg. 70.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beloved…Please note that the physical state of the Word has no spiritual value except to bind the pages of the Bible and provide protection for it. It is the contents of the Bible, vis-a-vis being read audibly that does God’s work on earth by appealing to the Spiritual aspect of us humans, contrary to popular contention(s) by the best of “scholars”.. We are to follow Jesus’ example!
I was preaching a Pastors’ Conference as keynote speaker as well as conducting a 5-day evangelistic campaign in the Philippines in 1990 on the Island province of Negros at Kabankalan, Negros Oriental. A lady ran down the aisle , interrupting my message, shouting obsceneties in the vernacular or dialect of Ilongo, the local mode of communication which I do not understand (but I had an interpreter who translated everythng and then she laid on the floor of the church we were in, the Shepherd Church of Kabankalan. .. I began reading the Word to her audibly and praying commanding spirits not the Holy Spirit to loosen from her, binding them, and commanding them to leave her. I cannot remember the text I was reading from the Bible.
I called for some pastors to come to the front to help me pray to deliver this lady from the demons which were controlling her, reminding them\ that we as Christian believers have the authority in Jesus Christ to bind ans command the demonic beings present . I also quoted what Jesus said… “Whatever is bound on Earth will be bound in heaven and whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven!”.
So several pastors canme and corporately put their Bibles on the lady as though there were any redeeming value of the physical Bible and nothing was happening. The Bible is not a “Holy relic with magical powers.” The lady just kept yelling out in the dialect. Immediately I told these pastors to “read the Word instead” to her because that is where the value/power is. A missionary present in the congregation shouted out her support for what I was telling these pastors. So they complied and began audibly to read the Word to our subject and each taking their turn to pray. All of a sudden, after a few minutes of this latter application, the cursing stopped and a glow appeared on her face and a smile! Praise the Lord for hte results of “binding and commanding to leave these enemies of the cross!!!
By the way…The lady was delivered of several demonic entities including demons of lust and sex. By the way, after she was delivefred, she was gloriously saved! The demonic beings had to be taken out of her before her spirit could be appealed to to receive Jesus as her Savior! Well…glory!!!
I said all that to refute Bob Larson’s practice of putting his Bible on people and “delivering” them. Based on what I already told you, you can judge for yourself the truth or untruth of what he claimed in recovering a person from a comatosed state. I just do not nor will I accept his practice as valid.
Life With Big Brother…….
Life With Big Brother…….
Schools put Big Brother GPS trackers in kids’ backpacks
‘A little piece of mind helps you get through the day’
NBC News
Updated 7:21 PM CDT, Wed, Sep 1, 2010
In a bid to set parents’ nerves at ease, a southwest suburban school district has become one of the first in the state to begin tracking students riding buses to and from school each day with Global Positioning System and Radio Frequenty Identification technology.
Palos Heights School District 128 had previously been using ZPass, a GPS technology provided by Seattle-based Zonar Systems, to track the buses. But now the district is outfitting students’ backpacks with a luggage tag-sized unit that logs when the student steps on and off the bus.
“A little piece of mind helps you get through the day,” said Ann O’Brien, a mother of four children in Palos Heights School District 128. “They can locate kid and bus in seconds.”
Palos School Superintendent Kathleen Casey said the system helps alleviate parents’ concerns.
“We can track the bus with the GPS, alleviate a parent’s fear if they got on or off bus, look up their ID number and find out what bus and what time boarded or if still on or exited,” she said.
The district spent $16,000 for the technology, which currently covers 10 buses. Parents say the cost is minimal for the benefits.
As a parent, the safety of your child taking a bus is a number one concern” says Leslie Baudo.
Last year, Baudo’s son was over an hour late coming home. If that happens again, Baudo can now simply call the school and get immediate information from the secure database, making the waiting game just a little bit easier.
Related Link:
World Report-1 – Mark of The Beast Technologies
http://www3.telus.net/thegoodnews/report-1.htm
‘Jesus Saves’ banner ordered off farmhouse roof
‘Jesus Saves’ banner ordered off farmhouse roof
‘You’re allowed to believe in anything, as long as it’s nothing to do
With Christians’
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
“If it’d said ‘Allah Akbar’, the council wouldn’t have dared to try and remove it,” says Marianne Bons, a member of the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church. She’s talking about a farm roof on which ‘Jesus Saves’’s is painted in enormous letters. The council says the text has to
Go. The farm’s owner, evangelical Christian Joop van Ooijen, is refusing to obey. The affair has united Christians of all persuasions behind the message.
“You’re allowed to believe in anything in this country, as long as it’s nothing to do with Christians or the Church,” says Ms Bos, describing the prevailing Dutch attitude to religion.
Mr Van Ooijen has held out for two years, refusing to remove the message from his roof. Giessenlanden local council is fining him 500 euros a week, but he refuses to pay. He has been fighting the council decision for two years and says he’s willing to go to the European Court if necessary.
Mr Van Ooijen and Ms Bons both live in Alblasserwaard, an area near Rotterdam, in the heart of the Dutch bible belt. The position adopted by Giessenlanden Council has met with disbelief in this predominantly Christian region.
The council argues that it’s pollution of the landscape. Giessenlanden Councillor Berend Buddingh explains that white letters on a red roof is too big a colour contrast. Mr Van Ooijen counters that it is “too big a contrast with the councillor’s own beliefs”.
The farmer is receiving support from all over the Netherlands, from secular as well as religious people and from ordinary Christians, not just members of his evangelical church. And from less strict members of his own church, such as the Bons family. “He’s literally shouting it from the rooftops,” says the father of the family, Menno Bons, admiringly.
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Friends…Christian values are being eroded by atheists and agnostics. But they will get their own just desserts in due time. This is not going by deaf ears in Heaven. What a man (or woman ) sows will be harvested. Evil out evil in.
Rev. Joe Diaz
Gay and lesbian (Christians??) Criticise plans to disrupt the pope’s visit
The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement?? Wants papal critics to ’disagree with respect’
* Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
* guardian.co.UK, Wednesday 1 September 2010 13.48 BST
Pope Benedict XVI Gay and lesbian Christians?? Are urging secularist groups not to protest against Pope Benedict’s UK visit.
Gay and lesbian Christians?? Have criticised secularists planning to protest during the pope’s visit to Britain for their “unhelpful and counterproductive” tactics.
The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement?? (LGCM) said that it wanted papal critics — who are voicing their opposition to this month’s state visit for a number of reasons, including the Vatican’s rejection of equal rights for homosexuals — to “disagree with respect”.
It said that it would hold a prayer vigil, not a protest, so the pope could see the faces of those he spoke against, and become aware that his “homophobic comments affect real people”.
It said: “The Protest the Pope coalition of secularist groups has opposed the trip and promised noisy protests, but progressive Christians believe that this is unhelpful and counterproductive.”
But its call for restraint went unheeded, with Protest the Pope refusing to change its strategy.
Andrew Copson, from the British Humanist Association, said that the LGCM statement failed to recognise that Protest the Pope objected to the state aspect of the visit, not the pastoral or religious one. “As a religious leader and a citizen of Europe, we have said he is obviously
Entitled to visit.
“As a head of a state which many see as enormously destructive of human rights and equality on the international stage it is legitimate and morally right to question him, and the idea that heads of states should receive automatic ‘respect’ because they also happen to be religious leaders we see as entirely mistaken.”
At its first public meeting last month there was support for an attempt to stop Benedict XVI reaching an event. The audience, in Richmond Library, heard that Benedict XVI would have to travel down a narrow suburban road to reach the campus of St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, where he would meet thousands of schoolchildren and students. The forum said that it would not support such a blockade, having decided against direct protest, but it was a matter for individuals if they wished to pursue this option.
Organisers behind its flagship event, a march through central London on 17 September, say they are co-operating with local authorities and law-enforcement agencies.
Today the group is staging a debate about whether the papal visit should be a state one.
Proposing that it should not be are human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and the philosopher AC Grayling. Their opposition comprises Christopher Jamison and the Catholic commentator Austen Ivereigh.
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Friends…homosexuality violates Scripture. God hates the sin but loves the sinner. My friend, Joe Smith, a former homosexual said or hinted in his testimony in my ministry’s website, (www.hisloveextended.com that this sin is demoralyzing and opposed to God’s Law and interests. They should decry the sin of homosexuality. No one who practices this is a Christian because Christians seek to obey God and follow Jesus’ walk. Contrary to Hollywood’s ideal(s) movies that follow these immoral movies cannot consider themselves to be Christian. That notion is also blasphemous and we ought not to have anything to do with homosexuality.Jesus is considered by these ignorant people to have been a homosexual. So it is also immoral and ought not to be part of our lives if we want salvation. Therefore, contrary to popular beliefs, THERE ARE NO HOMOSEXUAL “CHRISTIANS.” But God offers His love and salvation. Please look for my explanation of salvation at “Essentials of Eternal Life” on the Home Page of my website at www.hisloveextended.com
May God have His way with all wqho read this and are involved in homosexuality or lesbianism as well as any others who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior!
In His love,
Rev. Joe Diaz
Founder, His love Extended Ministries, International, Circa 2000.
Wheat shortage pushes world food prices up
From World News Net Daily
BBC – The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says that world food prices have risen to their highest level in two years.
It says the increase is due partly to a drought in Russia and to government export restrictions which have brought about a surge in the price of wheat.
The Rome-based agency says that its food price index shot up 5% between July and August.
However, this is 38% down from its peak in June 2008.
The UN agency says there are sharp differences between the current situation and the spring of 2008, when the price of oil and demand for biofuels pushed world food stocks to their lowest levels since 1982.
It also reduced its forecast for global production of food staples in 2010.
The FAO now thinks that world cereal production will be 1.8% lower than its June forecast.
The wheat production forecast has been revised for the second time in a month. It is expected to be 5% lower than in 2009.
But despite these falls, world cereal and wheat production levels would still be the third highest on record, the UN agency said.
Rice production is also expected to be lower. Much of the revision was due to floods in Pakistan and lower expectations in China, Egypt, India, Laos and the Philippines.
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Brethren, pray that God will hasten the day of the Lord Jesus’ return.
Rev. Joe Diaz
Hamas Declares war on Israel as Jewish settlers shot dead in West Bank On eve of peace talks
(Peace be unto you in the Name of Jesus the Messiah)
Hamas Declares war on Israel as Jewish settlers shot dead in West Bank On eve of peace talks
From World News Net Daily
Four Jewish settlers were shot dead in their car by suspected Hamas militants on Tuesday, on the eve of the first peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians after a break of nearly two years.
By Mark Weiss in Jerusalem and Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 7:39PM BST 31 Aug 2010
West Bank shooting; Pregnant woman among four killed in shooting on West Bank Israeli security forces described the attack as a well-planned ambush
The shooting was the deadliest attack by militants in the West Bank for more than a year and was seen as an attempt to derail negotiations in Washington, where President Barack Obama was preparing to host a dinner for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, before the two leaders meet face-to-face on Wednesday.
Ehud Barak, Israels’ defence minister, promised that Israel would “exact a price” from those who had carried out the shootings. “This is an apparent attempt by lowly terrorists to sabotage the attempt to achieve a diplomatic process.” The victims were all from the same family and included a pregnant woman Aged 25, another woman aged 40, and two men, also aged 25 and 40, all from the settlement of Beit Haggai. Israeli security forces described the attack as a well-planned ambush and said the gunmen made sure the driver and three passengers were dead before fleeing the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but both Israeli and Palestinian security forces blamed Hamas, the hardline Palestinian faction which runs Gaza and opposes peaceful talks with Israel. Farzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, described the attack as “a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy’s crimes”.
Comments by both sides ahead of the talks had raised tentative hopes that after 17 years of stalled progress a compromise could be found to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Mr Netanyahu, who heads a fragile Right-wing coalition that is unlikely to accept a deal, said: “I am not naive. I see all the difficulties and hurdles and despite this, I believe that a final peace agreement is a reachable objective.” Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Mr Abbas: said: “We are ready for serious, real negotiations that lead to the end of the occupation.”
Israeli media reported earlier that Mr Abbas had held a secret meeting with Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, on Sunday in Jordan, suggesting the two sides were attempting to find areas of compromise ahead of the talks in Washington.
The region’s most important politicians each met Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, as the Obama administration continued the ground work for its high-stakes attempt at securing peace within a year. Mr Obama has already failed to meet a deadline set when he came to office in January 2009. His efforts have been bedevilled by arguments about Jewish settlements in the West Bank, one of the two territories along with Gaza that would make up the Palestinian state.
Under US pressure, the Israelis issued a ten-month moratorium on new housing which expires on Sep 26, but continued existing building work. The Palestinians have threatened to pull out of future talks unless Israel extends the moratorium, which Mr Netanyahu has so far refused to do. In Washington, Mr Abbas, who controls only the West Bank, is considered to have good intentions but doubts remain that he is strong enough to sell to the Palestinian people any compromises that a final deal will require.
There is a consensus among former senior negotiators from both sides that the “two-state solution” cannot survive another failure, after 17 years’ of efforts since the historic handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in Oslo. Aaron David Miller, who was a leading member of Bill Clinton’s negotiating staff, said: “If you don’t see a two-state solution under an American president who cares so deeply about the issue, you are probably not going to see one at all.”
Amjad Atallah, a former a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiators, said: “There is nothing that comes after direct talks, no options left.”
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Netanyahu ‘will not bow to territorial concessions’ during peace talks
Netanyahu ‘will not bow to territorial concessions’ during peace talks
Benjamin Netanyahu has reassured his right-wing Likud bloc in Israel’s ruling coalition he will not bow to territorial concessions in direct peace talks with the Palestinians due to take place in Washington.
Published: 12:26AM BST 31 Aug 2010
Netanyahu ‘will not bow to territorial concessions’ during peace talks
“You don’t need to worry. Nobody needs to teach me what it is to love Eretz Israel,” he told Likud members, using a biblical term for the Land of Israel.
Eretz Israel stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, including the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Israeli government has ordered a 10-month partial moratorium on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank that expires on September 26, with most Likud members opposed to an extension.
“I’m aware of the difficulties but I believe a peace accord can be obtained,” said Netanyahu on the eve of his departure for Washington where direct Israeli-Palestinian talks are to resume Thursday after a 20-month break.
“The government of Israel wants to progress on the path to peace … We want a real peace, for generations to come, and only the Likud Government can bring about this peace,” said the premier who heads a centre-right coalition.
On Sunday, he said in the run-up to the US-brokered talks that Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland is chief among essential components for a peace deal.
An agreement would have to be based “first of all on recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, an end to the conflict and an end to further demands on Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Atheist doctors ‘more likely to hasten your death’
Atheist doctors ‘more likely to hasten your death’Study finds medics’ faith affects care of terminally ill, as hospital clinicians admit ‘ethically controversial’ decisions
* Sarah Boseley, health editor
* The Guardian, Thursday 26 August 2010
Doctor examining a patient Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely as those with deeply religious beliefs to take decisions that might shorten a terminally-ill patient’s life, according to research.
Terminally-ill patients would be well advised to find out the religious beliefs of their doctor, according to research showing the effect of faith on a doctor’s willingness to make decisions that could hasten death.
Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who are deeply religious — and doctors with strong religious convictions are less likely even to discuss such decisions with the patient, according to Professor Clive Seale, from the Centre for Health and Sciences at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
“If I were a patient facing end of life care, I would want to know what my doctor’s views were on religious matters — whether they are non-religious or religious and whether the doctor felt that would influence them in the kinds of decisions they were looking at,” said Seale.
A patient who wanted their life prolonged at all costs in the event of a terminal illness, or did not want it prolonged, should make sure they had a doctor who was in sympathy with this.
Doctors are influenced by their beliefs, just as other people are, said Seale.
“It is easy for clinicians to present themselves as neutral appliers of science, but values do come into it,” he said. That is accepted in abortion care, but the issue has not yet been widely discussed in the care of the dying. “I had a GP who was powerfully committed to not legalising euthanasia,” said Seale. He has now changed his GP.
Seale’s study, published online today in the Journal of Medical Ethics, was based on a survey of doctors in specialisms likely to care for people at the end of life, such as neurology, elderly and palliative care but also general practice. More than 8,500 doctors were contacted and almost 4,000 responded.
The doctors were asked about the care of their last patient who died, if relevant — including whether they had provided continuous deep sedation until death and whether they had discussed decisions judged likely to shorten life with the patient.
They were also asked their religious beliefs, ethnicity, and their views on assisted dying/euthanasia. More than 3,000 described the death of a patient.
Specialists in the care of the elderly were somewhat more likely to be Hindu or Muslim, while palliative care doctors were somewhat more likely than other doctors to be Christian, white, and agree that they were “religious.”
The chances of a doctor making an ethically controversial decision expected or partly intended to end life was largely unrelated to the doctor’s ethnicity, but was strongly related to his or her specialization. Specialized doctors in hospitals were almost 10 times as likely to report this than palliative care specialists.
But regardless of their speciality, doctors who described themselves as “extremely” or “very non-religious” were almost twice as likely to report having taken these kinds of decisions as those with a religious belief.
The most religious doctors were significantly less likely than other doctors to have discussed options at the end of life with their patient.