Free Republic

Stay tuned for a special announcement about FBC's Future Plans at the end of John's Update. Not a single day passes by without the discerning Christian seeing the aftermath of a society that is coming "Unhitched and Unhinged" as they travel down a path that leads to their certain destruction. From the Irish cheering the ability to kill children in the womb up to 20 weeks of age, to the emergence of the Turkish President setting the stage for a move against Israel, to the false teachings and open hostility toward our Jewish friends exhibited by the "Christ at the...

JACKSON COUNTY, WV (WOWK) - The West Virginia State Police are looking for Douglas Edward Harper, 40 for soliciting a minor by use of a electronic device. Douglas is a Pastor at the Living Water Church. Harper allegedly sent texts of a sexual nature to a 15-year-old male.

First of all, it was done at the wrong time. Dr. Patterson was close to retirement age. They should have waited and allowed him to retire honourably and properly. Second, it was done to the wrong person. He did nothing worthy of being fired. No biblical grounds were given, let alone, seriously considered. There are numerous Christian leaders who have committed sins worthy of discipline. Patterson is not one of them; he hasn't committed any such sins. On the contrary, he has done many things worthy of exaltation. In fact, he is one of the top conservative Christian leaders of...

"Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves" (James 1:22). God wants you to know whether your faith is genuine or not. Our studies this month center on James 1:19-2:26, which deals with the issue of true faith—a most important consideration indeed. Knowing your faith is genuine is a wonderful assurance, but thinking you're saved when you're not is the most frightening deception imaginable. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus speaks of those who call Him Lord and even do miracles in His name, but aren't redeemed. Second Timothy 3:5 speaks of those who have a form...

“O Lord, who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart” (Psalm 15:1-2). To love Christ and to be characterized by ever-increasing fidelity to biblical truth is the heart of true integrity. Christian integrity has been defined as the absence of compromise and the presence of biblical convictions. In the words of the psalmist, it is to work righteousness and to speak truth from the heart (Ps. 15:2). Many people in Scripture demonstrate exemplary integrity. For example, Jesus spoke of Nathanael as...

"The names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-gatherer; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:2-4). In God’s hands you can be a precious and effective instrument. The story is told of a great concert violinist who wanted to prove a point, so he rented a music hall and announced that he would play a concert on a $20,000...

“And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). Jesus Christ, as the sinless sufferer, is the only model we need as we endure life’s trials. Prior to his death in 1555, the English Reformer and martyr Hugh Latimer expressed his convictions this way: “Die once we must; how and where, we know not. . . . Here is not our home; let us therefore accordingly consider things, having always before our eyes that heavenly Jerusalem, and the way thereto in...

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)When man fell from grace and Righteousness God promised him salvation …but it would come through a woman. Genesis 3 is the account of that fall and of the promise which was offered in the midst of it. The Judge of the Universe summonsed three perpetrators to come out of hiding and to stand before Him, in inquisition for sin and guilt. First, the Most High asked the man to give...

Amir puts the Gaza attacks in perspective and warns us not to succumb to the media hysteria. This is not the real war. Then a discussion of Iran and its removal from Syria, and Turkey's growing aggression in the region. Finally, a very interesting discourse on Europe and how the scene is perfectly set for the rise of the Antichrist as Europe seeks a leader to solve its troubles. Do not become depressed or troubled. This is the calm before the storm, and God is still in charge.

The board of trustees of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, announced Wednesday that effective immediately they have cut all ties with the school's former president, Paige Patterson, after new details emerged about his handling of a sexual abuse allegation while he was president at another institution.The announcement comes a week after Patterson resigned from his position as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary after public uproar over comments he made in 2000 about how the Bible sees women and why spousal abuse isn't grounds for divorce.While the seminary did not reveal specific details about the new information shared...

The twelve apostles included "Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:4). God can use even an apostate like Judas to teach us some important lessons. Judas is history's greatest human tragedy. He had opportunities and privileges known only to the other disciples, but he turned from them to pursue a course of destruction. Yet even from his foolishness we can learn some important lessons. Judas, for example, is the world's greatest example of lost opportunity. He ministered for three years with Jesus Himself but was content merely to associate with Him, never submitting to Him in saving faith....

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). It is far easier to endure trials when we value the future over the present. A few years ago the popular Back to the Future movies dealt rather whimsically with the possibility of time travel, which always involved entering the future. The recurring theme was that with all the complications of tampering with the future, it was better to live in the present. Viewers could infer that, ultimately, it is not worth it to dwell a lot on the future....

In this 2007 file photo, Bert Baker, an amateur artist, had recently finished a 7-foot-tall sculpture of Christ at Red Bank Baptist Church. Credit: Gerry Melendez/The State Newspaper, Columbia, SCCharleston, S.C., May 30, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus is being evicted from a South Carolina church, and he must be out by the end of the month. Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington, about 120 miles northeast of Charleston, has voted to remove a statue of Christ and its accompanying reliefs after 11 years, because they are believed to be too “Catholic in nature”. The white, hand-carved statue...

For those of you familiar with fundamentalist movements, particularly the IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist), you’ll know these movements tend to be rife with sexual abuse and cover-ups. Because the IFB maintains ideologies of separatism and elitism, they tend to deal with their issues “in house.” The trend is: keep it in the church, don’t tell anyone (authorities included), blame the victim, and re-locate the offender to another church in another town (and don’t forget his severance package). Well, in a shocking turn of events, one IFB mega-pastor took a public stand against these actions, and those of us who have...

The twelve apostles included "Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:4). Hypocrisy is a spiritual cancer that can devastate lives and destroy ministries. On a recent trip to New Zealand I learned that sheepherders there use specially trained castrated male sheep to lead other sheep from holding areas into the slaughtering room. Those male sheep are appropriately called "Judas sheep." That illustrates the commonness with which we associate Judas with deception and death. Pretending to be a friend of Jesus, Judas betrayed him with a kiss and became for all time and eternity the epitome of hypocrisy. Several...

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Believers are far more blessed when they concentrate on the spiritual rather than physical aspects of life. Concerning endurance, Paul is again our role model. One reason he was able to endure pain and trials was that he knew the physical was far less important and lasting than the spiritual. He realized that our physical bodies are naturally aging and therefore not permanent. He was probably aware of this more than most people because his rigorous ministry with its travel...

Rat poison and racism have a lot in common Genesis 1:26-28 Barak Hussein Obama, the usurper in the office of President of the USA, has caused a rather large increase in racial tension and racism. More and more I am seeing and hearing how people are blaming an entire segment of the human race for the things brought on by one half white half African muslim. A google search of the ‘n’ word brings up an astounding number of returns. (From Goggle: Results 1 - 10 of about 4,450,000 for nigger. In 0.20 seconds) I want you to understand clearly...

The night before Shane Claiborne came to town to preach at a Christian revival, he received a letter from the chief of police at Liberty University warning that if he set foot on the property, he would be arrested for trespassing and face up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine....to the leaders of Liberty, he was a menace to their campus. He and his national network of liberal evangelicals, called the Red Letter Christians, were holding a revival meeting to protest in Liberty’s backyard. Their target: Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty’s president and a man who has played...

“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). In addition to Scripture, God has given us more than adequate spiritual resources to meet suffering and death. Wall Street, the name synonymous with the American stock market and financial investing, is a place where confidence can rise and fall with great force and unpredictability, right along with the rising or sinking level of stock prices. Prices always seem to even out, but who can be certain about how they will behave in the future? The apostle Paul’s spiritual confidence was not based on the changeableness...

The twelve apostles included "Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:4). God works all things together for His purposes. At one time the little town of Kerioth was a relatively obscure Judean town, but all that changed when it produced the most hated man who ever lived: Judas Iscariot. The first mention of Judas is here in Matthew's list of disciples. We have no record of his call, but we know Jesus did call him along with the others, and even gave him authority to minister in miraculous ways (Matt. 10:1). His first name, Judas, is despised today,...