Emerging Church

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Slouching toward Soylent Green?

From One News Now from March 30, 2011:

According to a Florida-based pro-life organization, a biotech company is using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers.

Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, is calling for a boycott of major food companies partnering with Senomyx, a San Diego-based firm that produces artificial flavor enhancers using aborted fetal cell lines to test their products. She explains the process.

“They take their artificial flavor enhancers, which are made using little molecules, and they put them on that aborted fetal cell line [which] elicits a response…,” says Vinnedge. “So they know whether they’re getting the right reaction, whether it’s going to produce that proper sweet taste as opposed to maybe another flavor.”

The pro-life activist argues there is no need to use aborted fetal tissue in this process, saying the truth is that Senomyx can use other cell lines, such as from animals. That, she says, raises the question of why those alternative sources are not used instead.

“…In one of their responses to us, [Nestlé] said this is such a well-established cell line that was used widely in scientific research — and so what? It doesn’t matter that it is. It’s just readily available,” she remarks.

The tissue in question comes from a baby aborted in the 1970s. Scientists create a cell line, freeze it in liquid nitrogen, and then take it out for use in their experiments.

The primary firms doing business with Senomyx are Pepsico, Kraft, Campbell Soup, and Nestlé.

A follow-up from One News Now from April 05, 2011 shows Cambell Soup is severing ties with the Senomyx, but Pepsico is standing firm:

Outrage continues over major food companies and their relationship with a firm that uses aborted fetal cells to test food flavor enhancers.

Campbell Soup, Nestlé, Solae, Pepsico and Kraft have been listed as partners with the bio-tech firm Senomyx (see earlier story). Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, tells OneNewsNow one company was quick to respond.

“Campbell Soup actually met earlier and made the decision to sever all relations with Senomyx,” she reports. The firm has also been removed from the Senomyx website.

Solae has responded by saying it does not have an active relationship with Senomyx, but it is still listed as a partner on the latter’s website. Nestlé points out the fetal cell line being used worldwide is from a baby aborted in the 1970s, and it would be difficult to stop using them. The response from Vinnedge?

“Well, that’s ridiculous. Of course they can do it,” says the spokeswoman. “There’s no reason to use aborted fetal cell lines to test food additives.”

She adds that Pepsi was “very, very evasive” in its response. “Pepsi simply talked about how great it was going to make their beverages taste,” she states, “and that their goal was to reduce sugar and MSG in products.”

Vinnedge says the boycott continues against the remaining firms.

You can read the original alert to boycott these companies here, and you can read the e-mails to these companies (and their responses) here.

HT: RevivalAndReformation

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“Paul never quoted Jesus!” (1st Corinthians)

Number three in the series, going through Paul’s epistles and showing the stiff-necked and ignorant that yes, Paul did quote Jesus, even if he didn’t do so word-for-word.

1st Corinthians 1:10—Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

  • John 17:20-23—“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

1st Corinthians 1:20-21—Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

  • Luke 10:21—In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

Continue reading →

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Experiencing God Through Deceitful Mysticism

Many today in the evangelical church speak as if they are daily receiving personal revelations from God much like the prophets of old.  God speaking not through his word, but rather directly to them. Thus establishing the individual as the source of truth whereby all others are rendered defenseless to counter any false prophecies, wild speculations or personal deceptions.  For if God is speaking to them, who will dare speak a word against them?

Of course this is not limited to the evangelicals as it is found in many churches where it is all too common in Charismatic circles.  Here it seems every preacher out there has a word for someone.  And as the teacher preaches so follow the pupils.

And it goes beyond just personal revelations as some on this path will journey deeper where they will enter the realms of mysticism and seek even deeper contact with God.  A trend we see flooding the church today being welcomed in by many big names in Christiandom, especially those in the Emerging/Emergent Church movement.  The video below speaks to this which I hope many will watch and forward to those caught up in this movement.  – bro Michael

p.s. Click here to find a series of articles at Apprising Ministries that delve deeply into mysticism.

Introduction to video from Berean Beacon:
Professional deception and clever fraudulence are running rampant in mystical claims to experience God. Thus, the signature of Satan is seen in St. John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola, Madame Guyon, Carl Jung, Richard Foster, and in such as Mother Teresa, Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, Phyllis Tickle, and other deceivers of the Emerging Church movement who transmit this plague. In this illustrated DVD, Richard Bennett and James Sundquist expose the deceitful shams that prevail at the present time. They also explain the scriptural method of biblical meditation and genuinely experiencing God.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50geMDUvZnM&]

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Roman Catholic Mysticism and the Emerging Church Reexamined

A very important presentation by Richard Bennett from Bearean Beacon given to an audience in London about Roman Catholic mysticism and its promotion by the Emerging/Emergent Church.  From the YouTube posting we read:

Mysticism attempts to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind. Catholic mysticism, now officially married to the Emerging Church, needs to be reexamined. Old-time mystics such as Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross need to be examined again along with modern so-called evangelical mystics such as Richard Foster. All of this, and more, is accomplished in this professional presentation along with graphic inserts of persons and events. An analysis is also made of Phyllis Tickle who has surfaced as a formidable leader of this toxic movement. The fall from power of Tony Jones, a former leading light of the movement, is also documented.

Please watch to get educated on this critically important subject and share with others.

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Baal worship, then and now.

baal-worshippp-image

The following excellent piece was written by Matt Barber and was found on WorldNetDaily:

Modern-day liberals – or “progressives” as they more discreetly prefer – labor under an awkward misconception; namely, that there is anything remotely “progressive” about the fundamental canons of their blind, secular-humanist faith. In fact, today’s liberalism is largely a sanitized retread of an antiquated mythology – one that significantly predates the only truly progressive movement: biblical Christianity.

While visiting the Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Va., a few weeks back, I heard a troubling, albeit thought-provoking, sermon. Pastor John Mabray addressed the ancient Canaanite practice of Baal worship and, though he didn’t reveal it by name, connected the dots to its present-day progeny: liberalism. Baal, the half-bull, half-man god of fertility, was the focal point of pagan idolatry in Semitic Israel until God revealed His monotheistic nature to Judaism’s forebears.

In his sermon, Pastor Mabray illustrated that, although they’ve now assumed a more contemporary flair, the fundamentals of Baal worship remain alive and well today. The principal pillars of Baalism were child sacrifice, sexual immorality (both heterosexual and homosexual) and pantheism (reverence of creation over the Creator).

Ritualistic Baal worship, in sum, looked a little like this: Adults would gather around the altar of Baal. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity. Amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, congregants – men and women alike – would engage in bisexual orgies. The ritual of convenience was intended to produce economic prosperity by prompting Baal to bring rain for the fertility of “mother earth.”

The natural consequences of such behavior – pregnancy and childbirth – and the associated financial burdens of “unplanned parenthood” were easily offset. One could either choose to engage in homosexual conduct or – with child sacrifice available on demand – could simply take part in another fertility ceremony to “terminate” the unwanted child.

Continue reading →

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Sermon of the week: “Whatever Happened to Christian Unity?” by Phil Johnson.

Your sermon of the week is Whatever Happened to Christian Unity? by Phil Johnson. This is a fantastic message on what Jesus really prayed for when He prayed for the unity of Believers. Not only does Phil Johnson do a fantastic job of explaining what true Christian unity is, he also does an equally good job explaining what it isn’t!

This sermon should be required listening to all those who feel the urge to leave the “can’t we all get along” or “we’re all God’s children,” or “quit tearing each other apart” comments on DefCon. The Scriptures are very clear about what true unity is, and it’s not what most people (including professing Christians) are proposing today.

Phil Johnson also examines in this message the unbiblical push for unity between Evangelicals and Catholics. I highly recommend this sermon to the readers of DefCon, especially those who see very little difference between Christianity and Roman Catholicism.