Pastor Randy Wolford of West Virginia dies after being bitten by a rattlesnake that he was handling during a Pentecostal service.
“Vicie Haywood, mother of Pastor Randy ‘Mack’ Wolford, strokes her son’s feet as the pastor lies on the couch at his mother-in-law’s home near Bluefield, W.Va. Wolford was bitten by a rattlesnake during a Sunday worship service. He was pronounced dead early the next morning at the Bluefield Regional Medical Center.”
Source: The Washington Post
Meet Charles L. Worley. He pastors Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina and he apparently has no idea what the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ is.
Mr. Worley, have you forgotten the pit of depravity from which God saved you, or is your lack of mercy a sign that you have yet to receive God’s grace yourself?
There is a striking irony about Mr. Worley’s suggestion during his “sermon” that homosexuals be imprisoned behind fences till they die out (an irony similar to the obnoxious street preacher we featured a few days ago). The irony is that one day in the near future it is very likely that Christians will be imprisoned in America for their faith, and it will be men like these that will have proven to be instrumental in–and the justification for–the passing of legislation needed to criminalize Christianity.
How far is Romans 13:1-3 meant to be taken?
There’s no denying that the government’s reach and control grows larger every day, individual rights continue to erode, and the framework for the persecution of the church is being laid. So, does Romans 13 mean Christians are to unquestionably collude and cooperate with their coming persecutors?
Here is a brief news clip to spur the conversation (debate). I look forward to reading the discussion.
Romans 13:1-3
“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;”
Seriously.
From KATU news in Oregon:
BEAVERTON, Ore. – A church pastor is suing a mother and daughter for $500,000 because they gave the church bad reviews online.
The family being sued left the church a few years ago and Julie Anne Smith says she and her family were shunned and couldn’t understand why. So she went online and wrote Google and DEX reviews of the church and then started a blog.
“I thought, I’m just going to post a review,” Smith said. “We do it with restaurants and hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this church?”
Never did she think Beaverton Grace Bible Church and Pastor Charles O’Neal would slap her with the lawsuit.
“I’m a stay-at-home mom. I teach my kids at home, and this is just not the amount of money that normal moms have.”
When the family left the church, Smith says friends were told to end all contact with her.
“If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way,” she said. “All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There’s no sin in that.”
Dissatisfied, she went online to write reviews. Other church members counteracted them with church praise. So Smith started a blog called “Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors.”
But the pastor claims in the lawsuit he filed that her words, “creepy,” “cult,” “control tactics,” and “spiritual abuse,” are defamation.
“What somebody does in the church is one thing, but when you get out into society we have the right to free speech, and it may not be what people want to hear, but we absolutely have that right,” Smith said.
The lawsuit didn’t just target Smith. Her daughter and three other commenters are also being sued.
“He can say what he wants in the church and say, don’t talk about this or don’t talk about that, or don’t talk to this person, but when you’re out in the civil world, you don’t do that anymore,” Smith said. “And he’s not my pastor anymore. He does not have that right to keep people from talking.”
The Smiths filed a special free speech motion to dismiss the lawsuit. It goes before a judge later this month.
KATU News called the church, went there, went to the pastor’s home and spoke to his wife. KATU News also called the pastor’s attorney. All of them declined to give their side of the story.
Here’s the video from KATU news and here’s the blog of one of the people being sued.
Richard J. Mouw wrote an astounding article for CNN in which he used the subject of presidential candidate Mitt Romney in an attempt to legitimize Mormonism.
Mouw, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary who claims to “know cults” and has “studied them and taught about them for a long time,” for some reason seems utterly incapable of spotting one right in front of him.
God gave us a means by which to identify a false prophet, false teacher, or cult. Through the pen of Paul He told us in Galatians 1:6-9 to watch out for anyone (even an angel from Heaven) that preaches “another gospel.” If anyone (which includes religious organizations) preaches “another gospel,” they are anathema! Mr. Mouw, however, is actively directing us away from Scripture and toward human reasoning by advancing his own means of how to identify those that are accursed. From Mouw’s article:
“[A cult’s] adherents are taught to think that they are the only ones who benefit from divine approval. They don’t like to engage in serious, respectful give-and-take dialogue with people with whom they disagree. Nor do they promote the kind of scholarship that works alongside others in pursuing the truth. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance, haven’t established a university. They don’t sponsor a law school or offer graduate-level courses in world religions. The same goes for Christian Science. If you want to call those groups cults I will not argue with you. But Brigham Young University is a world-class educational institution, with professors who’ve earned doctorates from some of the best universities in the world. Several of the top leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have PhDs from Ivy League schools.”
You read that right (I actually had to read it twice). The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Science are cults because they have not established a university, sponsored a law school, or offered graduate-level courses in world religions, but Mormonism is not a cult because they founded Brigham Young University and several of their top leaders have earned degrees from Ivy League schools.
Is the Watchtower organization taking notes?
So, according to Mr. Mouw, is there anything else that differentiates a cult from biblical Christianity besides whether or not they’ve established colleges? How about the person and work of Christ?
Nope.
“Cults do not engage in . . . self-examining conversations. If they do, they do not remain cults.”
Really?
Well, what about the presence of a works righteousness theology being the hallmark of a cult? Surely that is something Mr. Mouw would recognize as error, right?
“These [Mormon] folks talk admiringly of the evangelical Billy Graham and the Catholic Mother Teresa, and they enjoy reading the evangelical C.S. Lewis and Father Henri Nouwen, a Catholic. That is not the kind of thing you run into in anti-Christian cults.”
So, an apostate organization only needs to pay lip service to Graham, Lewis, Teresa, and Nouwen to no longer bear the status of a cult?
Mormons have been very successful at disguising their true beliefs by adopting Christian terminology with radically different definitions (it has obviously worked to pull the wool over Mouw’s eyes), but now they’re taking the deception a step further. By appealing to two prominent Protestant icons (both with arguably suspect theology) and two Romanist icons, they have now been able to convince Mouw that they are no longer a cult and that their false gospel is somehow no longer a threat to a man’s soul. (Whatever happened to discernment?)
Toward the end of this video Joel Osteen says that he’s heard that Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney “believes in Jesus as his savior just like I do.”
This is inevitable result of having absolutely no doctrinal foundation other than “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
When you place so little value on understanding doctrine (the very thing that defines who Jesus is) and instead spend so much time trying to live your best life now and becoming a better you, the line between truth and error become so blurred that black and white becomes gray, and countless souls perish because of it.
There are many voices of concern emerging regarding Kirk Cameron’s new movie, Monumental. Here is a sampling:
Concerns About Kirk Cameron’s Movie “Monumental”
So exactly how did the Nazis get so many people to cooperate with them in marching toward their deaths without resistance?
This book tells you.
This was an eye-opening read and my only criticism is that its extremely short in length. I felt the author could have gone on and provided more examples and more insight, but even for its short length (you can read it in less than an hour), I was still hit by the truths presented in it.
Watching current events unfold, this book may not only be about history, but it may very well be a warning for what’s about to come to America; and the author does not hold back from suggesting that grave possibility.
An unbelievable story out of Portland, Oregon where a couple is suing a local health center for three million dollars for the “wrongful birth” of their daughter. You read that right, “wrongful birth.”
“The Levys filed suit against Legacy Health, claiming that Deborah Levy would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter had the chromosomal abnormality.”
Read the disturbing article here.
Franky, I don’t know why the parents have resorted to handling this litigiously. After all, they can prevent all the inconveniences they’ll have to endure by simply performing a post-birth abortion (the inevitable next step in our “civilized” society’s ever-spiraling descent into complete and utter barbaric savagery and depravity).
I am curious at exactly how the parents’ moral compass functions. Does the same moral compass that would have allowed them to extinguish their precious daughter before birth (had they known she was not as “healthy, strong and bright” as their sons), now all of a sudden prevent them from extinguishing the same defective child after birth? How do they make that distinction? Where do they draw that line? How long will there even be a line?
And we dare look down our long noses of sophistication from our ivory towers of progressive enlightenment and condemn the Nazis for doing the same thing. We are but a nation of hypocrites.
Dear Rosie:
After watching the exchange between you and the street preacher in the brief video clip below, I felt compelled to respond.
I am not privy to the conversation between you and the men before the video began rolling so I do not know what was said, but honestly, what took place beforehand is irrelevant and does not justify what was said to you by the one with the microphone. How you were treated was appalling, despicable, and reprehensible.
It is obvious that the man insulting you and calling you names was speaking from a position of prideful arrogance and as one who does not fully understand the pit from which God saved him from (although his behavior would lead me to seriously question if he truly has been saved from anything).
On behalf of Christians, I want to publicly apologize for how you were treated. This man does not speak for, nor did his actions represent genuine, biblical Christianity. Instead, he displayed a sinfully self-righteous attitude reminiscent of that of the Pharisees.
I see very little difference between his behavior and that of the clan from the Westboro “Baptist Church.” Both come from a position of I’m superior to you because you’re a sinner, instead of coming from a position of I am a sinner saved by God’s undeserved grace and was facing God’s justly deserved wrath until He saved me for His glory.
God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). The man insulting you showed absolutely no humbleness nor concern for your soul, but instead displayed an abundantly self-righteous attitude revealing that the impetus behind his behavior was nothing but sheer pride. His harsh and demeaning words to you exposed not only his utter lack of understanding of God’s grace and God’s mercy, but it also revealed what was in his heart (Luke 6:45) as well as his astounding ignorance of the very gospel of Jesus Christ that he claims to represent.
I seriously have to question the salvation of any professing Christian who revels and delights in the prospect of someone facing Hell–ridiculing and insulting them–instead of grieving for that perishing soul. For not even God takes pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefers for the sinner to turn from their ways (Ezekiel 18:23).
PFA is reporting that Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary is planning to hold a protest outside the White House to call for Sharia law to be established in America.
In Choudary’s own words:
“The event is a rally, a call for the Sharia, a call for the Muslims to rise up and establish the Islamic state in America.”
While we’re all wrapped up in so many distractions, the noose around our necks has just tightened again.
Whether it’s the government raiding an Amish farm for selling raw milk, or the government inspecting lunches brought from the home of public school children to determine if the food is nutritional enough (and again), the government is slowly but consistently encroaching on how we live our lives.
But what about those who don’t drink raw milk or send their kids to government schools? Well, if you think the government’s desire to completely control its subjects (for our best interest of course) is limited to monitoring milk distribution and ensuring your children are eating nutritional lunches, then you are grossly ignorant of not only history, but what’s happening right now.
In Canada, the government is attempting to step inside the homes of its citizens who wish to educate their own children:
“Under Alberta’s new Education Act, homeschoolers and faith-based schools will not be permitted to teach that homosexual acts are sinful as part of their academic program, says the spokesperson for Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.”
Read the sobering news article here.
One of the many reasons people choose to homeschool their children is to avoid the indoctrination of the Godless, socialist, behavioral engineering centers run by the government, but now the government has decided to take their forced indoctrination to the homeschoolers!
Little by little, step by step, the ominous dark clouds are forming. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of history recognizes where we’re headed. Are you prepared for the coming storm?
HT: Saved by Grace
Two years ago I published a post about a CCM entertainer’s comments that he gave to a Roman Catholic organization in which the entertainer, David Crowder, admitted:
“Much of the Catholic traditions and writings have been influential in my formation of faith and to be quite contradictory of what was stated earlier, I’ve found much inspiration there.”
Of course, my pointing this out went over like a lead balloon with many professing Christians. Daring to bring to light (or even make mention of) the biblically antithetical theology, leanings, and/or admitted influences of any of their beloved entertainers will always incur the wrath of the American evangelical. (That same post also spoke of David Crowder’s ties to contemplatives too, but for some reason that has never been much of a point of contention with Crowder’s defenders.)
I received numerous responses of defense for Crowder from tons of professing Christians telling me how stupid I was for pointing out Crowder’s obvious Roman Catholic leanings. In the estimation of his defenders, I was just jumping to conclusions, making mountains out of mole hills, and seeing things that were simply not there.
But was I?
(I still wonder how Crowder defenders would have reacted if he had said “Much of the Mormon traditions and writings have been influential in my formation of faith . . .“.)
Apparently I have to venture outside the whitewashed, happy, clappy realm of Americanized Christianity to find someone else who can add 2 plus 2 and come up with 4.
Marc, a Roman Catholic who blogs at Bad Catholic, is one of those out there who also read Crowder’s interview and saw the same handwriting on the wall. On his latest post praising David Crowder, Marc writes what’s so obvious as the noon-day sun to him (and me) but seems to escape the comprehension of so many professing Christians:
“So, remember that time I invited David Crowder to become Catholic? Yeah, that might have been redundant. . . . I’m happy as can be, and praying for Mr. Crowder, hoping he comes into full communion soon, though it seems his heart is already there.”
Although Marc and I will disagree on many (many) things regarding theology, we can at least both agree on what we’re seeing coming from the “evangelical” entertainer, David Crowder.
Marc also wrote an open letter (an open invitation) to David Crowder to invite hm to finally “enter into full communion with the Holy Catholic Church.”
Because of Crowder’s most recent album, Marc has said that he finds himself “in one of the most incredible moments of my music-loving, Christ-worshipping, Roman Catholic existence” and that “To the Christian, this is awesome. To the Catholic, well, this is freaking fantastic.”
Here is an excerpt from Marc’s article regarding Crowder’s latest album, an album that has at least one Roman Catholic all abuzz:
“So when your album started with a man walking into a Church, and the voice of a priest saying ‘Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them…’ (in Latin!) I fairly well freaked out. That prayer is not merely a memory of the dead, it is a prayer for the dead, that they might be granted to enter into Heaven.”
Here is Marc’s invitation to “evangelical” entertainer, David Crowder:
“Though I’m sure you’ve been invited before — and if not, I take this opportunity to apologize for it — I’d like to invite you to enter into full communion with the Holy Catholic Church. You’ve been in my prayers and the prayers of my friends for some time now. We heard when you said that many ‘of the Catholic traditions and writings have been influential in [your] formation of faith,’ and about your love for St. Francis when you granted LifeTeen an interview, and we got pretty pumped.”
So, I guess I wasn’t alone with what I concluded in that interview David Crowder gave to LifeTeen; even Marc and some of his Roman Catholic friends understood it and have not only been praying for Crowder, but were “pretty pumped” by what Crowder said. It’s the cultural Christians who have their fingers in their ears and their eyes slammed shut refusing to examine whether or not the CCM emperor is wearing clothes.
I also find it ironic that the very first comment Marc received on his open invitation to David Crowder came from a Roman Catholic who claims to have actually worked with David Crowder and his band, and knows them on a personal level. This commenter scolded Marc, informing him that he’s not giving David Crowder enough credit for his Romainst leanings:
“I’m a Catholic who’s worked with the Crowder band up until their recent retirement. I was standing there when they walked off stage for the last time in Atlanta two weeks ago, and I know all the guys on a personal level. . . . [Y]ou have absolutely no idea what Dave does or does not know about the Catholic faith. Without that knowledge, I’m finding it hard to understand why you chose to write a manifesto about our faith as if you were telling him things he doesn’t already know. It sounds to me you’ve made an awful lot of assumptions here. Dave has a very healthy knowledge of the Catholic faith. He knows much more than you and others are giving him credit for. When the idea of this album came up, Dave sought out Catholic musician Matt Maher and asked for his input and in depth perspective regarding the Catholic funeral liturgy.”
I’ll conclude with a short video posted on Marc’s blog of David Crowder talking about his latest album, “Give Us Rest or (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]),” a video in which the first commenter on Marc’s post wrote:
“Did David Crowder, the renowned Protestant musician, just use the words ‘Liturgy’ ‘Latin’ ‘Mass’ and ‘Eucharist’ in that video??! I’m failing to see how this could lead anywhere other than into the welcoming arms of Holy Mother Church.”
My Amillennial friends may not be interested in this, but for the rest of you I thought you’d like to see how much closer we’ve come to Revelation 13.
In his article, Cashless Society: India Implements First Biometric ID Program for all of its 1.2 Billion Residents, Alex Jones writes:
“Over the past few months, I have written several articles dealing with the coming cashless society and the developing technological control grid. I also have written about the surge of government attempts to gain access to and force the use of biometric data for the purposes of identification, tracking, tracing, and surveillance. Unfortunately, the reactions I receive from the general public are almost always the same. While some recognize the danger, most simply deny that governments have the capability or even the desire to create a system in which the population is constantly monitored by virtue of their most private and even biological information. Others, either gripped by apathy or ignorance, cannot believe that the gadgets given to them from the massive tech corporations are designed for anything other than their entertainment and enjoyment.”
Continue reading Jones’ article here.
“And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”
– Revelation 13:16-18
On December 31, 2011, at approximately 10:00 pm (EST), DefCon received its two-millionth hit.
In the four years and four months that this blog has been active, we’ve published 3,768 posts (counting this one) and accumulated 22,220 comments.
I wanted to thank our writers as well as our many loyal readers, some of whom have been with us for years and some of which are newcomers. I am truly grateful for all that the writers and commenters have contributed to this work, and I am thankful that God has allowed us to do this for so long.
Thank you all, and Happy New year.
– Pilgrim
A sobering examination into what the technology age has wrought on our families in this article from the New York Times.
Excerpt:
Sometimes they hold hands while looking at their screens. But failing that, the couple has developed a form of physical shorthand, an “ ‘I’m still here’ signal” in which “one of us will tap the other one a couple of times with an index finger.”
Regardless of whether or not you like football, you will still like the clarity and keen observations presented in this USA Today article.
Columnist Larry Taunton does a great job revealing that even in sports, the media’s bias propaganda machine against Christians is alive and well.
Here’s an excerpt:
“When it comes right down to it, we don’t want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Tebow, however, doesn’t make us feel better about ourselves. People like him make us feel a little convicted about the things we say and do. So we find a reason to dislike them.”
(CBS/AP) Houston televangelist Joel Osteen is a preacher, lecturer and author. Soon, he’ll add reality TV star to his accomplishments.
The leader of a Texas megachurch, whose Sunday services are broadcast to audiences around the world, has signed an agreement to work with producer Mark Burnett to develop a reality show about his mission trips with members of his Lakewood Church.
Osteen, 48, announced the agreement Tuesday. He said the program would also feature Victoria, his wife of more than two decades.
Osteen also travels a cross the country presenting programs in large arenas. He is the author of several best-selling books, the latest of which is “Every Day a Friday.”
The British-born Burnett is executive producer of the CBS hit show “Survivor” and creator of such reality series as “Celebrity Apprentice,” “The Voice” and “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
Lakewood Church’s website says its broadcasts reach more than 200 million households. Its headquarters is the former Compaq Center, which the NBA’s Houston Rockets once called home. It took more than 15 months and $75 million to convert the arena into a church.
Source: CBS
From the British Broadcasting Network
An Australian hospital has launched an inquiry after staff treating a woman carrying twin boys accidentally terminated the wrong foetus.
Doctors had told the woman that one of her babies had a congenital heart defect that would require numerous operations, if he survived.
The woman chose to abort the 32-week foetus but staff injected the wrong twin.
The hospital in Melbourne described it as a “terrible tragedy”.
“The Royal Women’s Hospital can confirm a distressing clinical accident occurred on Tuesday,” it said in a statement.
“We are conducting a full investigation and continue to offer the family and affected staff every support.”
The woman went on to have an emergency caesarean to end the life of the sick foetus.
Doll replicas of a 26 and 32 week old baby born premature.
HT: Picture from God’s Little Ones.
Waking up on Thanksgiving morning here in America, we had a lot to be thankful for in our home. Preparing to spend some time with my wife’s folks, we finished some last minute items before leaving out the door. One of the last minute items was a quick check of the news. It produced a shock for which I was not prepared.
The above quote from the BBC News says everything about the state of this world that we need to know. It is totally depraved and wants nothing to do with the truth, which means it wants nothing to do with God for God IS truth.
As I read the article, my mind shifted from shock to anger at the callousness of individuals, of doctors, and of the healthcare industry in general. This is NOT to say that there are no believers who maintain the highest levels of integrity for there are many. There are also many who maintain that integrity because they are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things have passed away (namely, the thinking that murder of an unborn baby is acceptable) and all things have become new (namely, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that a baby is a baby from the moment of conception).
The amazing part is that the world does not, cannot, and deliberately chooses not to acknowledge the incongruity of the news article above. First, at 32 weeks, many babies have been born and gone on to live normal lives. Second, we need to understand that just because a doctor chooses to rip a baby out of its life support system does not mean it is not viable and therefore should be categorized as just fetal tissue. Third, the parents are told the baby would require many operations – if he survived. There was no guarantee the baby would survive, but there was no certainty the baby would die either! There are many who have had heart defects and also gone on to live regular lives.
So, the solution – abort MURDER the little baby who is just weeks away from birth. The woman is in the 5th week of her third trimester! A God-given heritage and gift growing inside the comfort and safety of a God-given womb then finds itself being injected with a medical solution in order to end its life!
“Oops,” says the hospital to the parents, “We aborted MURDERED your healthy baby. This is a terrible tragedy. It is acceptable by law to abort MURDER the unhealthy baby, but to abort MURDER the healthy baby is just a shocking, distressing, and tragic at best!”
The hospital promises that they are going to launch a full inquiry into how the WRONG baby could be aborted MURDERED! The mother went on to have an emergency C-section in order for the CORRECT baby to be aborted MURDERED! How utterly heart-breaking!
Psalm 94:1-3, “O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?“
Christ Alone Wyoming 