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Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so...

There’s a bizarre argument I’m hearing these days which basically goes like this. “Look at how many churches are embracing homosexual practice. This proves we’re getting closer to the truth.” To the contrary, all it proves is that more and more churches are apostatizing. The logic behind this argument is as wrongheaded as it is unbiblical. First, to argue that greater acceptance of homosexuality by churches is proof of spiritual growth is like arguing that greater acceptance of obesity by doctors is a proof of medical progress. The reverse is actually true. Second, the Bible often warns us against compromise...

In 1992, the Vatican under Pope John Paul II published the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which stated, among many other things, that “homosexual tendencies” are “objectively disordered.” One of the principal theologians who shaped the document was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would succeed John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI. He too would take a hard-line stance against homosexuality. Two decades later, Pope Francis has signaled what many believe to be a softening on the matter.In 2013, when asked about gay priests, he famously replied, “Who am I to judge?” He has continued to call for the Catholic Church to treat LGBT people with dignity and...

Thanks to reader T for sending me this link.  I have so little time to read many blogs like I used to.  But below I excerpt (too much) what I believe to be a very helpful and insightful post from Mundabor on how to remain faithful in an age of extreme rebellion and sabotage against the Faith, even by those given great influential offices and responsibilities in the Church.  Mundabor says to share this info, so I copy the most relevant parts, but please click on the link so he knows it is being widely read. And away we go (my...

Christian clergy helped a Muslim mosque open in a Pentecostal church. "It's open faith; we're brothers," Ali Mohammad, an organizer of the mosque, tells North Carolina's News & Observer. The Muslims are stripping the church of its Christian roots, including removing any crosses and handing them over to pastors in the area. When they opened on Saturday, Christian clergy, including Pastor Jim Melnyk of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, participated in the ceremony. Other pastors from Methodist and Baptist congregations were also present. "I see it as an important statement of community, that we take each other's faiths seriously," Melnyk says....

This address was delivered by His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, on 19 May 2017 at the fourth annual Rome Life Forum, which is organised by Voice of the Family. The family has been created immediately by God, so the Magisterium of the Church teaches us (cf. Pius XI., Encyclical Divini illius magistri, 12). Pope Leo XIII says in his magisterial encyclical on marriage and family: “Marriage has God for its Author, and was from the very beginning a kind of foreshadowing of the Incarnation of His Son; and therefore there abides in it something holy...

The Church of Scotland is preparing to take a significant step towards same-sex marriage. The Kirk's General Assembly - gathering in Edinburgh - will be asked to approve more work on how such weddings could take place in church. Equal marriage remains a divisive issue within the church. Since 2014, Scotland has allowed same-sex couples to marry but individual church traditions can each decide whether to participate. A report on the issue prepared for the General Assembly invited the church to take stock of its history of discrimination against gay people and to apologise "individually and corporately". Moderator Designate the...

Evangelical Apologist Hank Hanegraaff Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy Posted by: Rob Bowman On Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, Hank Hanegraaff formally joined the Orthodox Church. Since 1989 Hanegraaff has been the President of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and (since ca. 1992) the host of CRI’s Bible Answer Man radio program.[1] Hank, his wife Kathy, and two of their twelve children were inducted by a sacramental rite called chrismation into the Orthodox faith at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, near where CRI is based. In chrismation, a baptized individual is anointed with oil in order to...

People are ‘rejecting [traditional] doctrines as childish fantasies and walking away’Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery has questioned traditional Catholic Church teachings on God, Mary and the Trinity, which he said, “no longer make sense to the modern mind, and are being quietly rejected even by people who still attend church”. Some of these doctrines, he said, “are not scripture based” and come from “a time when there was a very different understanding of the world and of humanity”. Fr Flannery, a founder-member of the Association of Catholic Priests, said science has greatly influenced “the way we look at ourselves and...

You can imagine my shock as a Catholic when I read a passage from the father of the modern, pro-abortion population control movement where he denounces faithful Catholics as “terrorist[s].”  Here is what pro-abort population controller Dr. Paul Ehrlich in his 2014 book Hope on Earth: A Conversation:  “Thus you have ‘God-fearing’ people trying to maintain their rigid positions, especially trying to control the lives of women. I consider that their rigid opposition to something so basic, so critical to the future of life on Earth, as controlling reproduction to be just as unethical as any major affront to the...

Teaching about Islam taught me many things. I enjoyed being a priest helping the people for some years. However, deep inside I was not happy and I felt that there was something not right. Fortunately, and it is God’s will, some events and coincidences in my life led me to Islam. I used to think of Egypt as a country of Pyramids, camels, sand and palm trees. I actually took a charter flight to Hurghada. Shocked to find it similar to some European beaches, I took the first bus to Cairo where I spent the most wonderful week in my...

Parishioners at a California Episcopal church will no longer pray by name for the president of the United States over fears the name "Donald Trump" might trigger microaggressions among sanctified snowflakes. Mike Kinman, the rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, broke the news to the congregation in a blog posting that was filled with all sorts of liturgical lunacy.

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen (I John 5:19-21)Certain men, rejecting the truth, are introducing among us false stories and vain genealogies, which serve rather to controversies, as the apostle said,25 than to God’s work of building up...

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.( I John 4:1-3)Through a good many popular ministries on television, radio and...

For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. ( 3 John 3-4)Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That...

I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by me.(John 14:6)We have been studying the threefold sign of eternal life, as taught by the Apostle John in His First Epistle. We have stressed that Eternal Life is a gift of God, it cannot be merited, it can only received freely by faith. But how does one know whether or not he has received the gift of eternal Life? After all, in our day as well as in John’s there were many teachers, and prophets who were redefining the knowledge of God, and...

Italian Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei has stated that Pope Francis’ refusal to answer questions by the four Cardinals about whether Amoris Laetitia conforms to Catholic teaching is itself “already an answer,” the implications of which, he says, indicates that the Catholic Church has entered into a “religious civil war.” “This situation is so grave that a neutral position is no longer possible. Today we are in a war, a religious civil war,” de Mattei told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive interview in Rome last month. “It is important to comprehend that today there is a clear choice between fidelity to...

In 1966 the movie "A Man for All Seasons" was released in the U.S., the same year Japanese author Shūsaku Endō wrote the historical fiction novel "Silence". Last night, the Vatican hosted the world premiere of the movie version of "Silence," which will be released next month. Shown at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, administered by the Jesuits, approximately 400 priests and others attended. Rorate's invitation to the screening may have been lost in the mail, so we have not seen the movie. But based on the novel, the endings for the two 1966 works could not be more opposite. One...

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us…(I John 1:1-2)The Final of the three simple, theological propositions set forth by the apostle John, in his restorative ministry to those whose faith had been distorted due to the gnostics is this; …Jesus Christ has come (and remains)...

Newly designated Cardinal, Bishop Kevin Farrell, an American and head of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has given an interview to the French publication, La Croix published also at the National "Catholic" Reporter. Bishop Kevin J. Farrell - Official Photograph (Courtesy of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas).jpg "Honestly, I do not see how and why some bishops seem to think they have to interpret this document, "said in an interview to the National Catholic Reporter to be published on Thursday, November 17, the one to whom Pope Francis entrusted the pastoral family." "I believe that the document Amoris...