Free Republic

It's really so very simple.  Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. Do you accept that message? I often over complicate the message to my own shame, but it is just that simple.  It amazes me how there are entire denominations (thinking RCC) that constantly refer to "the Gospel", yet when pressed they cannot even define what "the Gospel" is anymore... or if they do define it, it is some sort of faith + works complicated mess, far beyond what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4: "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached...

This Season of Unreason will end with the elections of November 2016, but its consequences – validation of the idea that belief without evidence is a virtue, that religion, and especially Christianity, deserves a place in our politics, our Constitutionally enshrined secularism notwithstanding – will live on and damage the progressive cause. But it does not have to be this way. There will almost certainly be no (declared) atheist or even agnostic among the candidates. This is scandalous, given the electorate’s gradual, relentless ditching of religion. A survey just out shows that 7.5 million Americans have abandoned their faith since...

Have you ever really believed in Jesus Christ? I was talking to my five-year old son. He replied quickly, "Of course, dad." "But have you ever really been saved? How do you really know you are saved?" He replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,." He ripped off the words as fast as his little mouth could phrase them. It was a verse he had memorized, and he had heard it explained so many times. Perhaps you would have answered just as he did. "Of course I am saved. Of course I believe in Jesus...

The following is an edited transcript of the audio. Are Christians under the 10 commandments? No. The Bible says we're not under the law. I love Romans 7:4-6. By way of analogy, it says that you are married to the law. And you better stay married because if you leave this husband and go marry another you are going to be called an adulterer. But if your husband dies, then you can go and remarry. And then Paul draws the analogy out—a little complex the way he does it—saying that you died to the law. You aren't married anymore, you...

This weekend brings Easter Sunday and the beginning of Passover, and Christians and Jews will be filing into houses of worship this weekend to celebrate - most certainly more than usual for what are considered important holy days for people of both religious persuasions. The difference in the number of people in those churches and temples this weekend has a political significance. Often we talk about how different religious groups vote at election time, but the data show that the bigger divide in the electorate is around religious attendance - how often people go to a house of worship. In...

The Race—The Christian Life. (HEB 12:1-3, 1CO 9:24-27). Three years before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus the Roman, an unknown author wrote a letter of warning and encouragement to the Hebrew believers in that city. In a time of impending national crisis, this author reminded these believers that their only safety was in individual orientation to and pursuit of the plan of God. In Hebrews 12, he compares the Christian life to a race and Christians to athletes who, if they want to experience the ecstasy of victory, will have to endure the agony of training for and running...

"…We are bequeathing to our children moral chaos. And if our children and grandchildren hate the “Baby Boomer” generation, after we’re gone, they have every right to. We are without question the stupidest generation in American history. And there were two big reasons for that. There are many big reasons, two of the biggest are television and college. College makes you morally stupid. Some people survive that, some people will grow up by 50 or 60. But that is, the purpose of college is to make you a moral idiot."

Questions about the religious background of Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings pilot who investigators said deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps this week, killing all on board, have sparked outrage and debate about whether such information is relevant to the investigation. When a reporter asked French Prosecutor Brice Robin of Marseille, during a news conference Thursday, whether he knew Lubitz’s religion, Robin said he did not know and added, “I don’t think that’s where the answer to this lies.” The question suggested that Lubitz’s religious background was relevant to the investigation behind the pilot’s alleged deliberate downing of Germanwings...

I grew up on the Jersey shore. (No, it wasn’t like the TV show.) Every summer morning I’d see several men combing the beach with metal detectors looking for jewelry and change lost the day before. One lost diamond earring or ring could pay for the metal detector several times over. But as useful and successful as metal detectors are, they can’t be used to find everything. Metal detectors won’t help you find wood, plastic, rubber, or other nonmetallic objects. Now, suppose metal-detector man, after just combing the beach, says to you, “I know there’s no plastic or rubber on...

How is it possible to live in the midst of millions and still feel alone? Think of the walls between our homes, the single occupant cars inching along on our slow-moving parking lots known as LA freeways, and our dependence on digital Facebook “friends” and smart phone texting instead of actually getting together and talking. With hundreds of channels to choose from, the easiest way to host a “party” without having to feed anyone is to leave on your television. A different group of “friends” is just one station change away. The American dream has never been meant to...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Senator Ted Cruz has made his presidential wishes official, with Cruz’s speech streaming live on ABC News and other news outlets as of this writing, with Senator Ted reaching deep into the belief system that he says changed his life and included his parents’ belief in Christ. During the speech, Cruz related how his father and mother were drinking way too much alcohol when he was a young boy, and at one point, his dad decided he would leave the family — deserting his young son and wife. However, being invited to a Bible study changed Cruz’s father’s life,...

By Faith Alone: The Conversion of Martin Luther by Susan Verstraete     It was the moment he had been waiting for. His father was in the audience watching, as were his fellow monks. It was time for Martin to offer his first mass, and he was overwhelmed with the solemnity of the event. He led the congregation, saying, “We offer unto Thee, the living, the true, the eternal God.” Suddenly Martin froze. He couldn’t go on. He later wrote:“At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, ‘With what tongue shall I address such...

Just got back from "Do You Believe?". It is excellent. There were so few people in the theatre though, and that was sad but I'm hoping that word will spread and people will pack the theatres to see it. It is so worth it! I was struck by some pretty good names, in the scheme of things, that appeared in the movie. Maybe not A list stars but not no names either. Gives me a little hope that Hollyweird is not completely hopeless. Mira Sorvino, Cybill Shepard, Ted McGinley, Brian Bosworth.... Also, the trailers had some good previews of other...

[1]A crowd of naysayers that ranged from her cousin in the state of Washington, to Buddhist leaders in Boise, Colo., to a rabbi in Nevada has called on Idaho Sen. Sheryl “Sherry” Nuxoll (R) to apologize for calling Hinduism a “false faith with false gods.”While the self-described mother, housewife and co-manager of a farm/ranch in Cottonwood, Idaho, has admitted she could have turned a better phrase, she has refused to say the words many people want to hear: “I’m sorry.”Senators Not Happy with Decision to Open with Hindu Prayer Nuxoll and two other Republicans refused to attend the opening...

Christianity is a dying relic of an ancient past. The Internet is killing it. Science is killing it. Western sophistication is killing it. Right? [correct] Wrong. [incorrect] In many ways, Christianity is on the rise as never before—worldwide, and in America [disagree]. Here are the ways we can tell: 1. Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide. The research shows Christian numbers rising, not falling worldwide. "Christianity should enjoy a worldwide boom in the coming decades, but the vast majority of believers will be neither white nor European, nor Euro-American," writes Philip Jenkins of Baylor University, author of "The...

What a wonderfully faithful girl. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t destroy evil when it threatens innocents, we should, but we should always remember to pray for our enemies for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Let’s hope and pray they get some relief from the.....

The New Testament is clear about the nature of saving faith. “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Romans 3:28). “A man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus . . . since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing...

The claim that justification comes sola fide was central to the debates of the Reformation. When the matter of sola fide is raised, however, attention tends to focus on the first of these words: alone. We remember that the reformers taught that justification is by faith alone while Roman Catholics countered that justification is by faith and good works. Thus, it may seem, both sides affirmed the importance of faith, but disagreed simply on whether anything had to be added to faith in order to secure justification. This is true in a sense-both sides did speak of the necessity of...

Faith God's Truth in Our Souls  Perhaps you remember how back when we were discussing the Cardinal Virtues, the first on the list was Prudence, because it was the virtue of knowledge, and knowledge must always come before all other activities. You have to know what to do before you can do it. The same is true on the supernatural level: you have to have a supernatural perspective before you can live a supernatural life. That supernatural perspective is faith.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Faith as Belief  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The notion of faith is hard to get a handle on initially, so to start out...

"in purgatory the souls of those 'who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions,' are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt." - Second Vatican Council, "Sacred Liturgy", "Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences", no. 3 "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God" - 1 Peter 3:18 The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christians may have to suffer in Purgatory before going to...