Free Republic

As followers of Jesus, how should we react to the news that Jesse Duplantis claims that God told him to buy a $54 million jet for his ministry? Should we condemn him for taking the prosperity message to its logical extreme? Should we say, "Well, He had a message from God, That's between him and God?" Or should we say, "How do I help the man of God travel in style? Where do I give?" According to Duplantis, he wasn't asking his followers for money. Rather, he wanted to inform them so they could believe God with him for the...

What the opening of the marble slab of the Edicule revealed On October 20th, 2016, one of the most exciting events in centuries took place: the opening of the marble slab guarding the place tradition claims was the tomb of Jesus, inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.Underneath that slab there was a second slab, also of gray marble, containing a slit along its side and bearing a Lorraine Cross. Most likely, this is from the time of the Crusades, from the beginning of the 12th century.Once the second slab was removed, the surprises began, according to testimonies gathered from different sources....

Harold Camping, the California preacher who used his evangelical radio ministry and thousands of billboards to broadcast the end of the world and then gave up public prophecy when his date-specific doomsdays did not come to pass, has died at age 92. Family Radio Network marketing manager Nina Romero said Harold Camping, a retired civil engineer who built a worldwide following for the nonprofit, Oakland-based ministry he founded in 1958, died at his home on Sunday. She said he had been hospitalized after falling. Camping's most widely spread prediction was that the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. His...

According to Joel Osteen – Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, these first century apostles are wrong and outdated and he has come out boldly to infer indirectly that Apostles Paul, Peter, and John whom wrote much of the New Testament were wrong and need to be corrected and rebuked.When asked directly if people whom are openly practicing homosexuals are accepted into the Kingdom, Joel Osteen responded with “Absolutely, anybody is.”We all need to listen carefully to the words that this “man of God” speaks as he goes on interviews so we too can find the errors in the...

When 138 Muslim clerics signed a document entitled, “A Common Word between Us and You,” it was portrayed as an attempt to unite Muslims and Christians. The document, however, asserted that the Islamic God known as “Allah” and the Christian God known as “Yawheh” are one in the same, that Christians and Muslims worship the same God...

Featured Term (selected at random):WINGED LION An emblem of St. Mark, who wrote especially of the royal dignity of Christ, beginning his Gospel with the account of St. John the Baptist, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." St. Mark is also the writer of excellence about the Resurrection of Christ, traditionally symbolized by the lion. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Though the United States has a tradition of separating church and state, the 2012 presidential campaign may test the limits of that tolerance. Not only do some Republicans continue to question Barack Obama’s Christianity, but GOP front-runner Mitt Romney is a Mormon and other contenders, such as Sarah Palin, are Christian fundamentalists, as the Rev. Howard Bess explains. Many religious Americans have an ambivalent view toward the separation of church and state, wanting political figures to be religious but to leave their religion out of political encounters. The reality has been that for most of U.S. history, American politics at...

For at least the last half decade, there’s been speculation as to who could replace the Rev. Billy Graham as the next greatly esteemed and world-renowned leading Christian evangelist. When his 2005 New York crusade was billed as most likely his last, we began wondering if anyone could rise to the task. Or should any individual do so? Since emerging on Christianity’s landscape in the mid-1940s, Graham has never let up in his simple belief that people need Jesus. His way of presenting the gospel message of hope through accepting Christ as Savior has touched millions of hearts. Graham has...

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) -- President Barack Obama made a pilgrimage Sunday to Billy Graham's mountainside home, concluding his North Carolina vacation with his first meeting with the ailing evangelist who has counseled commanders in chief since Dwight Eisenhower. The 48-year-old president made the short drive to Montreat from Asheville, where he spent the weekend, to see the 91-year-old Graham and son Franklin, also an evangelist.

In the Forest of Eden By Norma Zager “This solitary Tree! a living thing; 
 Produced too slowly ever to decay;
 Of form and aspect too magnificent
 To be destroyed.
..” William Wordsworth How can we differentiate between a dislike of a government, some of its citizens and the country itself? The Jewish people in America are at war with one another. So many have a distaste for Israel citing reasons like accusations of bad behavior, Israel’s lack of empathy for the Palestinian cause and the fact Israelis fly here by the planeload looking for handouts as if all American Jews...

Oral Roberts died this week and the obituaries have been abuzz with analyses of his life and legacy. The USA Today headline summed up his contributions this way: "Oral Roberts brought health-and-wealth Gospel mainstream." The Los Angeles Times gave a similar snapshot of the man: "Oral Roberts dies at 91; televangelist was pioneering preacher of the 'prosperity gospel'" But Christianity Today's lead blogger, Ted Olsen, disagreed. He responded with a post titled "Why the Oral Roberts Obituaries Are Wrong." The long subtitle at the head of Olsen's post explained: "The 'faith-healer' (who hated the term) may have done much to...

<p>TULSA, OK -- Dr. Oral Roberts died Tuesday in Newport Beach, California due to complications from pneumonia.</p> <p>According to a news release from the family, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. The founder of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University was 91.</p>

Who couldn't like Jimmy Stewart? He gave one memorable screen performance after another. High on the list of most people's favorite Christmas movies is his classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." In that role, Stewart got to do what many of us secretly wish we could do - see what the world would have been like had we never been born. Stewart's character, George Bailey, learns that a lot of surviving servicemen would be dead because his brother - the war hero he envied - wouldn't have been there to save them. He would have died in a childhood accident because...

A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on Friday of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex, according to the court in the Western District in Arkansas. Authorities in September charged Alamo, the 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas. Jurors reached the verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Between March 1994 and October 2005, Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex, according to the indictment. The criminal complaint...

Evangelist Alamo found guilty of kid-sex crimes He calls himself 'prophet that went to jail for the Gospel' Evangelist Tony Alamo, left, is escorted from federal court in Texarkana, Ark., on Thursday. A jury convicted him Friday of taking five girls across state lines for sex. TEXARKANA, Ark. - Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who became an outfitter of the stars and fought the federal government over claims he underpaid followers for church work, was convicted Friday of taking five girls across state lines for sex. Alamo stood silently as the verdict was read, a contrast to his occasional...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Evangelist Billy Graham was recovering Thursday from a surgery to update a shunt that controls excess fluid in his brain, a family spokesman said. The 89-year-old Southern Baptist minister was expected to spend some of the day walking the halls of Asheville's Mission Hospital and to return to his usual diet later Thursday, said Graham spokesman Larry Ross. "He rested well overnight and is in high spirits," Ross said. White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said President Bush placed a call to Graham on Thursday morning. "He wished Rev. Graham a speedy recovery and said that he'd...

Popular Pentecostal evangelist Juanita Bynum told police Thursday that she intends to file charges against her estranged husband who allegedly attacked her in a parking lot early Wednesday. A spokesman with the Atlanta Police Department said Thursday that officers were making plans to meet with Bynum to investigate the case. The preacher, whose fiery and frank sermons about women's empowerment have won her a national following, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Authorities said the evangelist, who has a home in the metro Atlanta area, had been whisked away by family as they decide what to do next to...

ABOUT THE MAN: Preacher ... evangelist ... revivalist ... author ... editor ... counsellor to thousands ... friends to millions -- that was Dr. John R. Rice, whose accomplishments were nothing short of miraculous. Known as "America's Dean of Evangelists," Dr Rice made a mighty impact upon the nation's religious life for some sixty years, in great citywide campaigns and in Sword of the Lord Conferences.Dr. Rice was born in Cooke county, in Texas, December 1l, 1895. He lived and died a man of intense convictions. But, Dr. Rice was also marked with a sincere spirit of compassion. Those who...

For six decades—since Eisenhower, really—Graham has been what Bush called “the nation’s pastor,” a seemingly ubiquitous figure at the highest levels. From pressing Ike to enter the 1952 presidential campaign to golfing with Kennedy to helping save George W. from a life of drift and drink, Graham has managed, with only a few missteps, to be more unifying than divisive as a Christian evangelist in the public square, which is no small feat in a country founded on religious freedom and wary of sectarian religious allusions. He belongs to a particular tradition of what Benjamin Franklin called “public religion” in...

Evangelist Billy Graham seems to have closed out his 60-year career as the country's most famous evangelist after calling thousands to Christian faith in wounded New Orleans with the acknowledgment that "this is probably the last evangelistic sermon I'll ever preach." Frail and tentative, the 87-year-old Graham shuffled behind a walker toward the pulpit set at one end of the New Orleans Arena as a crowd his organization estimated at 16,300 stood in a sustained roar of applause on Sunday (March 12). His son and heir, Franklin Graham, gently assisted him into place. Thousands of flash bulbs exploded. An overflow...