Free Republic

Obama, who like the pharaoh of Egypt that arose after Joseph's death, knew not Joseph, nor the God of his fathers, was wicked and a despot and enslaved the Israelites... Exodus 1:8-9 "There arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph." signifies he came to the throne; denoting his appearance in history, as in Deuteronomy 34:10. A "new king"; the other ancient versions, rex novus) is a king who follows different principles of government from his predecessors. Cf., "new gods," in distinction from the God that their fathers had worshipped, Judges 5:8; Deuteronomy 32:17. That this king belonged...

Affirmative action salvation~ when you have not found nor even believe the true power of what Jesus did for the world; to have real salvation and total freedom over sin. So you water down the message and lower the standard of salvation. That way you help make other poor souls who have also not found full freedom, to feel better about continuing in their sin state. The teachers who propagate this are blind and shame on all of them. How dare they water down the power of our Lord’s victory in order to assuage themselves and the masses! And of...

Yet a Republican ideology pitting the “makers” against the “takers” offers nothing. No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change. This approach involves a relentless reductionism. Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class. A few libertarians have wanted this fight ever since they read “Atlas Shrugged” as pimply adolescents. Given Romney’s background, record and faith, I don’t believe that he holds this view. I do believe that Republicans often parrot it, because they...

I never thought it would be me. Yet there I was, sitting across the bed from my husband while he told me that he no longer had a testimony that the gospel was true. ...my husband just didn’t believe in the gospel anymore. He didn’t even know if God really existed. SNIP This wasn’t supposed to happen to me—not my husband, not my marriage. In my naiveté, when I had read or heard of accounts where a spouse turned away from the Church, I thought, “Thank goodness that would never happen to our temple marriage...." ...Despite the abundance of spiritual...

I was surprised to see Amey Schnabel's article "22 votes for a pastor -- for progress" (July 10), in which she shared what felt like personal information about the workings of her hometown church. She wanted the world to know that 22 people voted yes to calling a partnered gay man to serve as their pastor. [ . . . ] In my 17 years serving ELCA parishes as a lay minister, I both saw the tears and heard the angry words of those who believe, like Schnabel, that they "read deeper into the meaning of what was written in...

IN 1998, John Shelby Spong, then the reliably controversial Episcopal bishop of Newark, published a book entitled “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” Spong was a uniquely radical figure — during his career, he dismissed almost every element of traditional Christian faith as so much superstition — but most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church have shared his premise. Thus their church has spent the last several decades changing and then changing some more, from a sedate pillar of the WASP establishment into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States. Go to Columnist Page »...

There is a power and technique that the church has missed. The quiet stillness where real salvation is gifted to us effortlessly is real prayer. Please find it so we can all fight for our nation and right much more effectively!

News Chopper 2 captured video of former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield’s belongings being removed from his Fayette County mansion. Holyfield’s 109-room mansion was sold in a foreclosure auction in March. The home sits on 235 acres located near Fairburn.

It was St. Peter Damian, a Doctor of the Church, who explained that the vice of sodomy "surpasses the enormity of all others," because, "Without fail, it brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust: It leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind . . . It opens up Hell and closes the gates of Paradise . . . It is this vice that...

The presidential race of Mitt Romney and the success of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon have generated new interest in Mormonism. Stephen Mansfield's book The Mormonizing of America provides a careful study of this growing religion. The Book Stop blog is posting excerpts from the first two chapters of this book. The Mormons and the MediaNowhere in American society does this create an occasion of people talking past each other as when it comes to the media pursuing a prominent Mormon. Reporters naturally want to find something controversial about this visible person, so they ask about holy underwear....

The presidential race of Mitt Romney and the success of the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon have generated new interest in Mormonism. Stephen Mansfield's book The Mormonizing of America provides a careful study of this growing religion. The Book Stop blog is posting excerpts from the first two chapters of this book. What Matters to a MormonFor a Latter-day Saint, the heart of Mormonism is the restoration of priesthood authority. It is impossible to overstate this. At the core of everything Saintly is the unshakable belief that something lost for centuries was restored through Joseph Smith. It is now...

1. A cattleman at a school I just taught, during lunchtime conversation, shared a "mini lesson" that he teaches to children whenever he gets the chance. I think it is very wise, and worth sharing. It is simply this: EVERYONE HAS A STORY. And, SATAN IS REAL. 2. Building on that, I suspect many people out there are thinking this, but are too afraid to say it because they think that people will look down upon them as rednecks or stupid or unintelligent. Let me go out front as a person who doesn't give a crap what others think of...

You Have Left Your First Love Dean C. Haskins But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Rev. 2:4 You have probably heard this verse numerous times in your life, and, like me, were given an explanation of its meaning that was something like this—that the passage is speaking of “losing one's original zeal and fervor for the things of the Lord.” Now, don't misunderstand me; I know that can happen in one's life. However, is that really what John was saying about the vision he had on the island of Patmos? Before delving into...

The Ability to Believe Today's Scripture “...God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3, NKJV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria One of the greatest abilities God has given each one of us is our ability to believe. If you believe God’s Word, you can be successful. If you believe God’s Word, you can overcome mistakes of the past. If you believe God’s Word, you can fulfill your God-given destiny. There is incredible power in what you believe. What you believe is greater than your circumstances, greater than your trials, greater than your medical report,...

Reprinted by permission from Mormonism and Early Christianity, vol. 4 in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987),168—208. ...By its very definition church history requires unquestioning acceptance of the basic proposition that the church did survive. ...the normal reaction to the question—did the church remain on earth?—has not been serious inquiry in a richly documented field, but shocked recoil from the edge of an abyss into which few can look without a shudder. Yet today that question is being asked again... ...The purpose of this paper is to list briefly the principal arguments supporting the...

The Church...of Latter-day Saints affirms...there was a falling away...The long night of apostasy lasted well over a millennium. During this period, man-made creeds and practices were substituted for the plan of salvation that Jesus...taught. SNIP C. A universal apostasy occurred... “For over seventeen hundred years on the eastern hemisphere, and for more than fourteen centuries on the western, there appears to have been silence between the heavens and the earth. Of direct revelation from God to man during this long interval, we have no authentic record...The passing of the apostles was followed by...a universal apostasy...“...an absolute apostasy of the Church...”...

In my previous column, “How the Apostates Take Over, Part 1,” I explained how apostates used the cause of equality to gain a destructive foothold within the church.Some of my readers have missed the point of this 2-part column all together, thinking it is about women’s ordination. People will see what they want to see. The deeper point is that those who deny the core of the Gospel used an innocent issue, such the role of women in the church, to flood the church with non bible-believing men, women, and homosexuals.This is how it happened:Initially, whole denominations acquiesced and allowed...

The evangelical church is under constant threat to compromise its reliance on biblical truth. The human desire to be accepted, to not be seen as "outside the mainstream," can be overwhelming. But that desire is our weakness, our downfall. It does not always immediately destroy the dam we build to protect the waters of truth, but instead it leads to tiny fissures that grow until destruction is inevitable. Twenty years ago, I experienced the painful demise of the Episcopal Church, which once was a bastion of biblical truth. It was not a pretty picture. It was a picture painted in...

Notre Dame professor Gary Gutting, who teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, has declared in the New York Times that the faithful "decide the nature and extent of episcopal authority" and what is moral or immoral. He writes, "...haven’t the members of the Catholic Church recognized their bishops as having full and sole authority to determine the teachings of the Church? By no means. There was, perhaps, a time when the vast majority of Catholics accepted the bishops as having an absolute right to define theological and ethical doctrines. Those days, if they ever existed, are long gone....

While some may argue that Rick Warren’s efforts are in line with what they understand to be the mission of the Church, the slippery slope is seen in syncretistic expression and practices of the Insider Movement, which may truly be called “Chrislam.” While Warren and numerous other well-meaning Christian(?) missionaries who endorse and practice the C5 or Insider methodology believe that they are serving Jesus, their methods always lead to dishonesty, blurring the lines of truth, compromise and eventually outright heresy.