Obama The Apologist-In-Chief for Islam

Here is the evidence:

The Dismembering of America Part II

Here is an excellent clip by Brannon Howse that explains well who the Marxists among us are (yes, Martha, that includes B. Hussein Obama!), where they came from, and why they are evil. He begins with Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."

How about somebody writing a book called, "Rules for Americans?"

BTW, they are in our churches, too:

Obama The Chief Apologist for Islam

Here is what our B. Hussein Obama said yesterday, in a speech from which the words "Muslim" and "terrorist" were carefully scrubbed:

"No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts..."

Now, as with everything else B. Hussein says, it must be carefully parsed. Read this statement again carefully. There are two things that stand out:

1. B. Hussein thinks he stands above all the world's religions. He alone, the Great One, is qualified to determine what a "faith" is and what it does or does not justify. It is as though he sees himself as the Chuck Norris of world religions.

2. THIS STATEMENT IS BLATANTLY FALSE!

There IS a religion that justifies murderous and craven acts, just like it justified the ones at Ft. Hood. IT'S CALLED ISLAM!

B. Hussein is not only an out-of-control pathological liar -- he is now the Chief Apologist for the religion of Islam.

Do you get it yet, America? Obama is whitewashing Islam so that we won't look at the truth in front of our eyes, right there in plain sight.

A Very Good Question

Sometimes it helps to ask the right question, say, about the Ft. Hood shooter, as Paul Proctor does today in his column, "The Iron Curtain:"

If the government can’t protect soldiers occupying their own country’s largest military base from a single terrorist with a handgun, how can it protect you and me from enemies and threats both foreign and domestic?

The Dismembering of The United States of America

. . . is well advanced.

Don't believe it?

Then take a look at this:

We Need True Revival in America

"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

--Jedidiah Morse

HT: News With Views/Dave Daubenmire

Real Salvation Now

Christianity is more than a hope, however glorious. It is, even now, ‘Christ in you’! Full salvation belongs to the last day, but a real salvation belongs to the Christian here and now. If a believer cannot yet say that he is free from the presence of sin, he certainly should be able to say that he is free from the penalty of sin. And by God’s grace, it is his daily privilege to find Christ at work in him saving him from the downward pull of sin.”

—Richard Lucas, The Message of Colossians and Philemon

HT: Of First Importance

A Prayer for Courage

“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wider seas where storms show Your mastery; where losing sight of land we shall find stars. We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; we ask You to [lead us into] a future of strength, courage, hope and love.”

-- Sir Francis Drake, 16th – century English sailor

A Call for American Patriots

Samuel Adams spoke the truth in these words that squarely apply to our day and hour. Patriots, take heed:

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards, and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.

We are being cheated out of our liberties today by the fraudulent devices of politicians in Washington, D.C., in states (Illinois) and cities (Chicago).

What can we do? Here are three choices for your early consideration:

Constitution Party

Flip This House

Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH)

Patriots, have at it!

(HT: News With Views/Jonathon Emord)

The Truth About Marxism and Communism

Many have noted that Marxists are now running our government. But with respect, it is not enough to simply call them Marxists or Communists. People younger than those of us of a certain age have no concept of what that means.

They think that all that stuff about communism is just “Joe McCarthy” or is irrelevant, now that the Berlin Wall has fallen.

They are dead wrong. The Commies did not go away. They are still here. They now control a major American political party, academia, the mainstream media and most of the government.

Here is Marxism in a nutshell:

1. ITS GOAL IS TO DESTROY CAPITALISM. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS, MARXISTS WILL DO ANYTHING TO GAIN POWER.

2. “ANYTHING” MEANS IT IS LEGITIMATE, AND EVEN ENCOURAGED, FOR MARXISTS TO LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO ATTAIN THEIR REVOLUTIONARY GOALS. THEREFORE, YOU CANNOT BELIEVE ANYTHING A MARXIST TELLS YOU.

3. Marxists believe that once capitalism is abolished, a “workers’ paradise” will emerge and there will be heaven on earth – without God, of course.

But it is all a gigantic fraud. What actually results is complete state control, political terror and brutal oppression. We know this because we have actual history to prove it. Marxism has led directly to the deaths of well over 100 million human beings in the century we just left.

Marxism is a false and wicked religion. It is Godless, heartless, ruthless and evil. Socialism is merely a whistle stop along the way to full-blown Communism, a rhetorical device used by the commies to make themselves sound less dangerous than they really are.

Spread the word.

P.S. If you haven’t already, I urge you to drop everything else you are reading and read, “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers and “The Gulag Archipelago” by the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn. They will change your life forever.

Obama-dolatry

Remember the song many of us were taught in Sunday School? It went like this:

Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

So here is what Obama wants our children to sing:

Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight.

Here is the video:



Obama-dolatry.

Any questions?

Damnable (and Damning) False Religions Teach Works Righteousness

"The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes of this day, this age or any age are those who misrepresent the truth. Those who proclaim, or purvey false religion, a false Christ, a false Gospel and there are a myriad: certainly you can start with the cults, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons who have a false God, a false Christ, a false Gospel, a false everything.

You can talk about Roman Catholicism and sacramental religions that believe salvation is a matter of ceremony and ritual and works. You can talk about Judaism today which is a rejection of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is as pagan and damning a religion as Buddhism or the worship of a rock or a stick in some kind of Aboriginal culture."

John MacArthur

HT: Christian Worldview Magazine

Law and Gospel In a Nutshell

To run and work the law commands,
Yet gives me neither feet nor hands;
But better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings.

You see, the law has no power to give what it demands.

The gospel does.

That is why the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Romans 1:16

--HT: Between Two Worlds (poem attributed to John Berridge)

The Big Picture: Very, Very Good News

“The purpose of creation, redemption, and consummation are seen holistically as God’s purpose to glorify Christ by fulfilling the Adamic creation mandate, the universal Noahic promise, the patriarchal covenants, and the Israelite monarchy in Him, thus exalting Jesus as preeminent over the entire cosmos as the agent of creation, the true imago Dei, the Davidic subjugator of all rival powers, the firstborn of the eschatological resurrection from the dead, and the atonement through whom final cosmic peace is found at last (Col. 1:15-23).”

- Russell D. Moore, The Kingdom of Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 108.


“The resurrection and exaltation of Christ accomplish a new unity between heaven and earth, for Christ now has a heavenly body (1 Cor. 15:42ff), a body of glory (Phil. 3:21) and His humanity is now in heaven (Phil. 3:20f; Col. 3:1; Eph. 1:20ff; 6:9), and both serve as a pledge of the ultimate unity of the cosmos in Christ (Eph. 1:10).”

- Andrew T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet (Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press, 1981), 192.

HT: Of First Importance

Faith Is A Step Into the Light

"Faith is not a leap into the dark.

Faith is a step into the light."

-- Craig Troxel

"

Thievery and Morality and Law

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

-- French economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

HT: Walter Williams

A Prayer for God's Mercy

“The Lord reveal himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us.

And may he persuade us that, since he has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own eyes.

And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that we may not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ.

And, may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for all eternity. Amen.”

—Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 127-28


HT: Of First Importance

And Now For Something Completely Different -- The God Gene

Ted Kennedy: Sadly Lost

Ted Kennedy's letter to the Pope shortly before his recent death is very sobering. Every believing Christian should read it and think soberly on these things.

It is obvious that Ted Kennedy was not saved. There is no evidence of saving faith and no assurance whatsoever in this letter. In fact, the language he uses repeatedly shows that he was striving to earn his way into heaven:

"...I have tried to right my path."

"...I have done my best..."

"I have worked..."

"...my work as a United States senator..."

"...I am committed to doing everything I can to achieve..."

And the final clincher,

>"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic..."

How sad. How very, very sad.

Oh my friends, may all of you who are Roman Catholics or have come out of Roman Catholicism see and take note of the life and infinitely tragic death of Ted Kennedy! False religion always teaches salvation by works, but the true Gospel is that nothing you can do will ever earn your salvation! Stop your striving, and rest in Christ and His once-for-all finished work alone!

"By the works of the law no flesh will be be justified in His sight." Romans 3:20 NASB

Possessing Christ By Faith Dispels Terror

“Faith, if it is to be sure and steadfast, must lay hold upon nothing else but Christ alone, and in the conflict and terrors of conscience it has nothing else to lean on but this precious pearl Christ Jesus. So, he who apprehends Christ by faith, although he be terrified with the law and oppressed with the weight of his sins, yet he may be bold to glory that he is righteous. How? Even by that precious jewel Christ Jesus, whom he possesses by faith.”

—Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 99

HT: Of First Importance

The Gospel Is Everything to A Christian

When we speak of the centrality of the gospel we refer to the fact that every aspect of our salvation stems from the gospel. We mean that the gospel is truly the power of God for salvation in that it is through the gospel we are called, regenerated, converted, sanctified, and finally glorified. We mean that Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh, as he lived, died and rose again, gave meaning to all history and human existence. We mean that the gospel is the only means we have of beginning, continuing, and persevering in the Christian life . . . . When we approach sanctification as attainable by any means other than the gospel of Christ–the same gospel by which we are converted–we have departed from the teaching of the New Testament.

(Goldsworthy, The Gospel in Revelation, 171)

--HT: The Road to Emmaus

More Gospel, More Doing!

I promise you, some of the best people in your churches are getting tired. They don’t need another rah-rah pep talk. They don’t need to hear more statistics and more stories Sunday after Sunday about how bad everything is in the world. They need to hear about Christ’s death and resurrection. They need to hear how we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. They need to hear the old, old story once more. Because the secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.

Kevin DeYoung

--HT: Between Two Worlds

We Have No Right to God's Grace

“The point I am making is quite offensive to us today. It is that God hides himself from us that he cannot be had on our terms, and that he cannot be accessed from “below” through natural revelation. In the malls, and in much of life, we encounter nothing like this. We expect access. We expect to be able to get what we want, when we want it, and on our terms."

-- David Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant

HT: Of First Importance

Certainty Drips From Every Page of Paul's Letters

In the Western world, the idea that God could be angry with us is now implausible, and in this context assurance [faith] is little more than a sentimental belief in our own inherent goodness - exactly the kind of faith held by the reprobates. . . And the notion is now commonplace that because we can never have exhaustive knowledge, and all our knowledge takes place in a context, we can never have certain knowledge at all. Yet this simply fails to understand the nature of God's revelation of himself, and can ultimately not account for the certainty of faith that drips from every page of Paul's letters. . .

God has spoken to us in ways we can understand, given himself to us in the finite flesh of Christ and the finite words of human speech; while these revelations do not exhaust God in himself, they are yet true, reliable, and foundations for certainty.

-- Carl Trueman, Blogging the Institutes

There's No Reason to Test the Sand When You're Standing On the Rock

D.L. Moody had an interesting response to the question of whether a Christian should be "open-minded," a claim we constantly hear today:

"A great many people say, you must hear both sides; but if a man should write me a most slanderous letter about my wife, I don’t think I would have to read it; I would tear it up and throw it to the winds. Have I to take up a book that is a slander on my Lord and Master, who has redeemed me with His blood? Ten thousands times no! I will not touch it."

Christian journalist Nick Harrison also has a good answer:

"It’s one of Satan’s lies that we must be 'open-minded' about our spiritual beliefs. But no, a Christian whose faith is founded on solid rock has no reason to test out the sand around him . . .

HT: Apprising Ministries

The Choice is Ours

"Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants."

--William Penn

Without Saving Faith, All Moral Virtues Are But SPLENDID SINS

Without saving faith, all moral virtues are but splendid sins!

Unbelief nullifies everything!
It is the dead fly in the ointment!
It is the poison in the pot!

All the moral virtues,
all the benevolence of philanthropy,
all the kindness of unselfish sympathy,
all the talents of genius,
all the bravery of patriotism
--give no title to Divine acceptance, for
"without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11:6)

C.H. Spurgeon

Antipsalm 23

How many people do you know who are living this way, without hope and without God in the world?

I know one who used to live this way -- me.

But there are so many others.

Antipsalm 23
I'm on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right.
I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It's a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert — I'm thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I'd rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I'm alone ... facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I'm so much all about ME, sometimes it's sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, "Hell is other people."
I have to add, "Hell is also myself."
It's a living death,
and then I die.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Who Said it?

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches... were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the 'winning' side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another....

The answer is ... Pravda, in a recent editorial describing America's rapid descent into Marxisum.

"Pravda" is Russian for truth; in this case, Pravda certainly lived up to its name.

I'd Rather Have Jesus

The wonderful talented George Beverly Shea is one hundred years old.

He knows whom he has believed. Do we?



HT: Slice of Laodicea

Come to Him

--HT: Defcon

A Fervent Marxist and Muslim Sympathizer is Now President of the United States

Don't believe it? Check out what B. Hussein told "the Muslims world" only yesterday:

"I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims," Obama said. [Question: does anyone really believe that Obama is a Christian? If you do, you might want to read this post. Or this one. ]

"As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk," he continued. "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam ... I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

He also referred to himself by his full name—Barack Hussein Obama—and said he's "known Islam on three continents," experiences he said guide his convictions for a renewed relationship between Americans and Muslims.

And, he quoted from the Quran and issued a greeting of peace heard in Muslim communities in the United States,

The fact that B. Hussein is a fervent Marxist has been well documented on this site and many others.

The bottom line is, divine judgment as in Romans chapter one is now falling on this country. You know, the part where, because evil men did not see fit to acknowledge God, even though they undeniably and plainly knew Him, God was not silent. He responded. He gave them over to a debased mind.

Another Scary Video We All Need to Watch

And why, pray tell, are we not hearing anything about this from our political or religious leaders?

HT: Defcon

Richly Deserved Chains

So now, the Iowa attorney general says, "We must live by and follow what the courts decide" -- after the Iowa Supremist Court tried to overrule the divinely ordained order of marriage between one man and one woman. Not content with that mockery, this elected official is now threatening county workers with lawsuits if they do not abdicate their consciences and go along with this tyranny.

And no one seems to care what is happening to our freedom to make our own laws through our own elected officials

Really? We "must live by and follow what the courts decide?" If the Iowa Supremist Court decided you had to hold a loaded gun to your head and pull the trigger, would you "live by and follow what the courts decide?"

Do we even recognize the voice of tyrants any longer? Tyrants are ruling us now -- they are just wearing black robes and pretending to be high priests of a profane holy order that worships the human wisdom that is foolishness to God. (I Cor. 1:25)

If we go along with this tyranny like cows, then we richly deserve the chains which will surely bind us and our children before long.

The Moment De Toqueville Spoke of Has Arrived

The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

The Gospel of Satan vs. The True Gospel of God -- Can You Tell the Difference?

A terrific piece from A.W. Pink spells out for us what the false gospel of Satan looks and sounds like. This false gospel "aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ's absence from it will not be felt, and God will not be needed." It "appeals to the best that is within."

Ouch! Where have you heard this false gospel lately?

Where have you NOT heard it lately?

The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great “brotherhood.” It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to “the best that is within - It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all. It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again.

HT: Slaughter of the Sheep

The Idolatry of Obama-Worship in America

Ellis Washington has a must-read but very sobering column on the gross idolatry being practiced by millions worshipping the Great Obama. Read his column, "Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image"here.

There is no doubt that Obama is the false idol of many. This man believes he has been elected Chairman of the World, not just president of these United States. The staggering responsibility of being commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation on earth is too paltry to suit his giant-sized Marxist ego. It is nothing for such a narcissistic egomaniac to fire the head of the largest U.S. automaker. Somebody should tell him that “leader of the free world” is an honorary title, not a real one.

Marxists like Obama simply do not think the same way ordinary citizens like you and me think. They think about only one thing: “How can I gain more power today? How can I lie, cheat and steal? It doesn’t matter what I have to do – it just has to work. Crisis, calamity, connivance, chicanery – I can use them all.” There is no fear of God before their eyes, only the unbridled lust for power.

Amazingly, as Washington's article point out, Obama’s impudence daily grows more and more brazen, yet almost no one even speaks out, let alone stands up, to stop him. This open display of arrogance, lawlessness and greed, and the devastation it will surely wreak on this country, can only be the beginning of God’s judgment on America that is described in Romans chapter one.

May God have mercy on our country, and may we return to Him hastily and in genuine repentance.

Every Believer Should Study Theology

“No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian has a theology. The issue, then, is not, do we want to have a theology? That’s a given. The real issue is, do we have a sound theology? Do we embrace true or false doctrine?”

R.C. Sproul

What Lies Ahead: "Christianity Loves a Crumbling Empire"

This article by the Internet Monk is worth reading completely. I think it is mostly on-target. The evan-jelly-fish church in America is quite possibly in for a serious and rude awakening.

What is the answer? A return to solid, Biblical theology. In a word, think Biblically and act accordingly:

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

What will be left?

•Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

•Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

•A small band will work hard to rescue the movement from its demise through theological renewal. This is an attractive, innovative, and tireless community with outstanding media, publishing, and leadership development. Nonetheless, I believe the coming evangelical collapse will not result in a second reformation, though it may result in benefits for many churches and the beginnings of new churches.

•The emerging church will largely vanish from the evangelical landscape, becoming part of the small segment of progressive mainline Protestants that remain true to the liberal vision.

•Aggressively evangelistic fundamentalist churches will begin to disappear.

•Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.

•Evangelicalism needs a "rescue mission" from the world Christian community. It is time for missionaries to come to America from Asia and Africa. Will they come? Will they be able to bring to our culture a more vital form of Christianity?

•Expect a fragmented response to the culture war. Some Evangelicals will work to create their own countercultures, rather than try to change the culture at large. Some will continue to see conservatism and Christianity through one lens and will engage the culture war much as before – a status quo the media will be all too happy to perpetuate. A significant number, however, may give up political engagement for a discipleship of deeper impact.

Is all of this a bad thing?

Evangelicalism doesn't need a bailout. Much of it needs a funeral. But what about what remains?

Is it a good thing that denominations are going to become largely irrelevant? Only if the networks that replace them are able to marshal resources, training, and vision to the mission field and into the planting and equipping of churches.

Is it a good thing that many marginal believers will depart? Possibly, if churches begin and continue the work of renewing serious church membership. We must change the conversation from the maintenance of traditional churches to developing new and culturally appropriate ones.

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

Will the evangelicalizing of Catholic and Orthodox communions be a good development? One can hope for greater unity and appreciation, but the history of these developments seems to be much more about a renewed vigor to "evangelize" Protestantism in the name of unity.

Will the coming collapse get Evangelicals past the pragmatism and shallowness that has brought about the loss of substance and power? Probably not. The purveyors of the evangelical circus will be in fine form, selling their wares as the promised solution to every church's problems. I expect the landscape of megachurch vacuity to be around for a very long time.

Will it shake lose the prosperity Gospel from its parasitical place on the evangelical body of Christ? Evidence from similar periods is not encouraging. American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success.

The loss of their political clout may impel many Evangelicals to reconsider the wisdom of trying to create a "godly society." That doesn't mean they'll focus solely on saving souls, but the increasing concern will be how to keep secularism out of church, not stop it altogether. The integrity of the church as a countercultural movement with a message of "empire subversion" will increasingly replace a message of cultural and political entitlement.

Despite all of these challenges, it is impossible not to be hopeful. As one commenter has already said, "Christianity loves a crumbling empire."

We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

I'm not a prophet. My view of evangelicalism is not authoritative or infallible. I am certainly wrong in some of these predictions. But is there anyone who is observing evangelicalism in these times who does not sense that the future of our movement holds many dangers and much potential?

The Gospel and Anarchy

If the power of the gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of this land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.

— Daniel Webster

...And Now For Something Completely Different: A Man Who Thinks His Wife Is a Calvinist!

I do believe this man has met my wife:





--HT: Between Two Worlds

Signs of the Times: Three Pertinent Quotes

"People who want to have continual abortions push embryonic stem cell research, because they want to be able to cite a reason that killing babies is beneficial to human health."

-- William R. Prather, MD, explaining why President Obama has "guaranteed" he will sign an executive order allowing federal funding if embryonic stem cell research.

"The federal government is bankrupt. In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in a federal penitentiary."

-- economist John Williams, "Federal Obligations Exceed World GDP," World Net Daily 2/14/09

What is really needed is another Reformation. Nearly 500 years after Luther pounded in his 95 Theses at Wittenberg, things are grim. The doctrinal chaos and confusion, the inroads of eastern pagan spirituality, the grossly compromised circus churches, the shortage of biblical churches, the apostasizing of once solid seminaries—all of it points to carnal and wayward Christianity. Only a sovereign move of God can change the way things are. In the meantime, believers are findings spiritual food where they can in the middle of the local church famine, and are finding fellowship with other believers who are also well aware of the spiritual state of things.

-- Slice of Laodicea, "Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing," 2/16/09

The False Religion of Postmodernism is Literally Killing Us

Our new President, B. Hussein Obama is Exhibit A, as correctly pointed out by Chuck Colson:

The only way to explain it [the president's statement, "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being"] is to understand the intellectual environment, called postmodernism, in which President Obama and his peers have been raised. Generations of Americans have now been taught that truth is subjective. You have your truth, I have mine. And, even worse, I can’t “inflict” my version of truth on you. The law of non-contradiction has been suspended.

So politicians . . . can take two completely opposing positions at the same time: like believing that no God condones the taking of innocent life and at the same time, condoning—even promoting—the taking of an innocent life.

The problem isn’t simply President Obama and his views on life; the problem is a postmodern culture which believes that truth is merely a matter of opinion, and that therefore the sanctity of innocent human life is simply an expression of one viewpoint among many.

I have argued for the last 20 years that postmodernism would lead to the unraveling of our society. The fact that so few noticed the contradiction in what the President said and the policies he pursues tells me that we’re far along in the unraveling process.

Indeed, postmodernism is not just unraveling our society, it is killing us. Literally.

B. Hussein Obama's Twisted, False Religion

Today President B. Hussein Obama spoke before the National Prayer breakfast. Apparently, he thought "national" referred to some other nation. He was certainly not speaking to the United States of America that the U.S. Supreme Court in years past declared to be "a Christian nation."

No, our current president thinks he is presiding over the world and is not to be bothered by such paltry matters as a mere country. Thus, he held forth at length on what appears to be his highness' favorite theme: how we are all now "citizens of the world." His world, of course.

But more to the point is the twisted and false religion he displayed.

Example no. 1: "But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate."

My Bible says: "Hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good." (Romans 12:9) Are we to believe that every religion that teaches its followers to hate evil is not a real religion? Or is it just Christianity that's not a real religion to Mr. Obama?

Example no. 2: "There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being."

Hmmm. Since you, Mr. Beneficent, support the taking of millions of innocent human lives in abortion, does that mean your god is a false god? If so, why do you not repent of your false worship of him/her/it and turn to worship and serve the true and living God?

Example no. 3: "...far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another..."

Truth both unites and divides; it delineates the true and distinguishes the true from the false. At the same time, truth invites those who believe in the truth to unite in it.

My question for President B. Hussein is: when Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man can come to the Father except through me" was He being truthful, or was He being divisive?

Blood In the Streets: A Malediction

For those of you old enough to remember, "Blood In the Streets" was a song by The Doors.

For those of you in Rio Linda, "malediction" is Latin for a bad word -- the opposite of benediction, a good word.

Malediction

The judges sat outside the Law
And in their pride no evil saw
In setting teeth to Satan’s jaw
And feeding him our children.
When viewed in terms of cost and ease
An unborn child is a disease
A holocaust seen fit to please
Our own convenience.
A curse A curse the Law it cries.
A curse a curse on mankind’s pride.
A curse on him who would deny
God’s image in mankind.
Torn from out their mother’s womb
Denied the sky - denied a tomb
Conceived in lust to their own ruin
A sacrifice to pleasure.
The doctors with their blood red hands
Who love their money more than man,
With greed their god they lay their plans
The butchers of mankind.
A curse a curse the blood cries out
A curse a curse the heavens shout
A curse a curse on he who flouts
God’s image in mankind.
O rid us of this evil, Lord
And turn our hearts by cross or Sword.
Our nation cannot long afford
To live beneath your judgements.
A curse a curse upon their heads
O save them Lord or slay them dead
And fill our country with your Dread
And turn away Your anger.

Lyrics: Kemper Crabb
Music: Kemper Crabb & Frank Hart

HT: Slice of Laodicea

The Inaugural Prayer That Should Have Been Given, But Wasn't

Oh God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Judge, You have blessed America most extraordinarily. No other nation has ever enjoyed such resources, opportunities and freedoms.

Even so, we call to mind what Your only Son, God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, told us: "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required" (Luke 12:48). You have given us much — and what have we done with it?

No other nation in history, since your Son walked the earth, has had such access to Your inerrant Word, the Bible; nor such liberty to preach it and teach it. Against the backdrop of world history, our freedoms are simply staggering. Yet the moral corruption in Washington is rivaled by the spiritual corruption in our pulpits, and in our pews.

Preachers twist and compromise Your truth, selling out on their calling so that they can be loved by those who hate You. People who name Your name choose to ignore Your words, and love the world, love to be stylish. Oh God, grant repentance to us who claim to know You. Inflame preachers with love for you that cannot be bridled nor tamed, love that shows in fearless and uncompromising proclamation of your Word. Inflame believers with love for Christ that cannot be overlooked nor misunderstood, love that shows in lives that reflect the character and revealed wisdom of God.

And God, we confess with shame that, though we are the richest nation on earth, we are among the cruelest when it comes to our most helpless and needy. Thousands of unborn children are killed each day, oh Lord, slain on the altar of our selfishness and lusts. If they are inconvenient or imperfect, we kill them. Our hands are bloody. We are deeply guilty, yet do not even blush. I cannot ask that You forgive us, much less that You bless us with further prosperity to squander. I ask, instead, that You grant us to feel our shame, that You grant us repentance, so that You might forgive us.

Lord, we have sinned. I have sinned. President Obama has sinned. All who hear me have sinned. We know better. Knowing Your Word is not above our pay-grade. We can offer no excuse.

But thank You that You, the God who is holy and just, and loving and merciful, sent Your only Son to give Himself a ransom-price to secure freedom and forgiveness for all who would believe in Him with repentant faith. Thank You for Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, crucified for sinners, dead, buried, and risen to life on the third day. Thank You that He is at your right hand, ever living to grant forgiveness and life to all who call on His name in faith. Thank You for that glorious promise.

And so, our God, we pray that President Obama will know that transforming faith in Jesus. We pray that he will humble himself at the cross of Christ, and know You as Savior and Lord. We pray that Your word will transform his thinking, that Your word will be his law. The king's heart is in Your hands, oh God — and so, surely, is the president's. We pray You grant him this saving grace.

America has been called a shining city on a hill. If that was ever true, the light is guttering, dark and dim now. Oh God, grant repentance to this land, that our spiritual prosperity might outstrip our material prosperity, to the glory of the living, triune God of Scripture.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved.

Amen.

HT: Pyromaniacs

Paul Washer on the Coming Persecution of the Church in America

Pastor John Piper With Hope for Hard Times

HT: Desiring God Blog

What Is Sin?

The glory of God not honored,
the holiness of God not reverenced,
the greatness of God not admired,
the power of God not praised,
the truth of God not sought,
the wisdom of God not esteemed,
the beauty of God not treasured,
the goodness of God not savored,
the faithfulness of God not trusted,
the commandments of God not obeyed,
the justice of God not respected,
the wrath of God not feared,
the grace of God not cherished,
the presence of God not prized,
the person of God not loved.

-- John Piper, The Greatest Thing in The World (sermon on Romans 1-7)

Prayer For A New Year

Oh, sovereign Lord,

Thou who hast already seen and known every moment of this new year more fully and deeply than any of us ever will,

Grant unto my soul in its moments Thy eternal peace.
Grant unto my heart thy boundless joy.

Grant me thy matchless power --

in every searing pain
in every insidious temptation
in every clamoring doubt
in every momentary windfall
in every seizing fear,
in every groundless boasting.

Oh, sovereign Lord,
Grant unto my soul in its moments thy eternal peace.