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All teens need to be taught by their parents, teachers, pastors and mentors that their sexual desires are not their identity, nor do they need to be controlled by them. Who we are is so much greater than our appetites, sexual or otherwise. And all of us can learn, by God’s grace, to master and subdue our desires.

To further help Christians know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it, from today the eBook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series will be free forever. Can I Be Sure I’m Saved? (Kindle) (iTunes)Can I Have Joy in My Life? (Kindle)Can I Know God’s Will? (Kindle) (iTunes)Can I Trust the Bible? (Kindle) (iTunes)Does God Control Everything? (Kindle)Does Prayer Change Things? (Kindle) (iTunes)How Should I Live in this World? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Can I Do with My Guilt? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Does It Mean to be Born Again? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is Baptism? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is Faith? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is the Trinity? (Kindle) (iTunes)Who Is Jesus? (Kindle)...

We sing the Psalms because the people of God have been doing so since as early as Moses (Ps. 90) and especially during the days of David, when the Psalter became the “hymnal” of Israel. When we sing them, we identify with our most ancient forefathers and offer transcendent praise, applicable in all times and in all places.

This is a request for information assistance. Last night, I received a disturbing email from a longtime friend and pastor from my hometown church, which is breaking from the corrupt, mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), like many others are doing. Apparently PC (USA) has asked the congregation for an exorbitant sum of money, and is threatening the church manse and other property in an effort to force the congregation back into the corrupted fold. I've been out of the Presbyterian loop for a while but want to help, and so I'm wondering if anyone has any specific information about what is...

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in the U.S., at it meeting on April 19, 2013, adopted a statement concerning Homosexuality and Same Sex marriage. They intentionally included positions from the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church with the hope that they would once again join in making a prophetic statement to those in civil authority that the fear and judgment of God may at least move enough legislators and judges not to approve of or support legalizing “same sex marriage.” Their desire is that the whole Christian, and especially the Reformed church, should protest this matter. Resolution Adopted...

ABERDEEN, Scotland, March 26, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A small breakaway church group has been banned from using a meeting room at a hotel in Aberdeen over their opposition to same-sex “marriage” and homosexual activity. The Gilcomston church were turned away from the Copthorne Hotel, where they were to hold their first communion service on March 10th , the Christian Institute reports. The hotel said they banned the group after they received complaints from clients and members of the public that their views on marriage were “offensive”. The group has been temporarily allowed to move back into their church building, owned...

The National Catholic Reporter has once again proved that its nickname, the National Catholic “Fishwrap,” is well deserved. On Wednesday, NCR printed a column in which columnist Bill Tammeus (who, oddly enough, isn’t Catholic, but a Presbyterian elder) referred to the unborn child as a “bundle of cells” and questioned why the Roman Catholic Church has exerted so much energy trying to stop abortion, as opposed to the death penalty. After all, says, Bill Tammeus, “in the matter of abortion, we have a bundle of cells that one day may be born.” On the other hand, in the case of...

Gay militant Jean Wyllys at Brazilian Presbyterian University Has Mackenzie Presbyterian University given in to politically correct trends? By Julio Severo In its debate entitled “Sexual Diversity and Religious Freedom: A Possible Marriage?” on February 28, 2013, Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil, in partnership with its chancellery, invited congressman Jean Wyllys, a gay supremacist, to address sexual diversity. In its presentation featuring Wyllys, the university said of him: “A militant for civil freedoms, he worked in the base ecclesial communities in the Catholic Church. Partner in LGBT, black and women movements. He is involved in activism to fight homophobia,...

The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. I began researching the Religious Right.. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side.. Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded..

The U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and its non-Muslim allies have sprung into action. They are demanding that President Obama make Israel end its offensive against Hamas which, in characteristic Islamist fashion, they are falsely depicting as a genocidal crusade. Obama blames Hamas, but the pressure from Islamists, the anti-Israel left and other countries like Britain and France, may be taking a toll. He signaled possible opposition to an Israeli ground operation, saying it’d be “preferable” to end the Hamas rocket threat without sending in troops. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood entity whose executive director was fundraising for...

Fellow Calvinists on the Great Reformed Ping List, I need some help. Go to this website, run by a lawyer who is also an Orthodox Presbyterian elder, and you'll see what is being advocated by prominent people in Calvinist circles today who are seriously arguing not only that the church ought to steer clear from political positions but also that Christians ought not to use their Bibles when they enter the civil realm.

America’s first mega-church, defined as a congregation of 2,000 attendees or more, held services in the capitol building inside the House of Representatives. It remained there until 1868 as the congregation raised money for building a new sanctuary they could call their own. According to the diary of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, church services were also held in the Treasury building and the Supreme Court Building. He describes the Reverend James Laurie, pastor of a Presbyterian Church, that had settled into the Treasury Building, preaching to an overflow audience in the Supreme Court Chamber,...

According to a recently released survey, support for same-sex marriage among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members and pastors has considerably increased since 2005. In research conducted by Presbyterian Research Services and published in October, the number of PC(USA) members and pastors supporting the denomination redefining marriage grew. In 2005, 23 percent of PC(USA) members supported same-sex marriage; in 2012, the number had increased to 34 percent. Among pastors, support for same-sex marriage in 2005 was at 35 percent; in 2012, it is at 49 percent. Jack Marcum, coordinator of Research Services at Presbyterian Mission Agency and author of the published findings,...

By now probably everybody who cares anything about politics or about right-to-life issues knows about the U.S. Senate candidate from Missouri who made really dumb statements about female biology in rape cases. What may not be widely known is that U.S. Rep. Todd Akin is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, and apparently was a ruling elder at Twin Oaks PCA in Ballwin, a St. Louis suburb, though he's no longer listed as being a member of that church's session (i.e., board of elders or consistory). Most of...

Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for msnbc.com, is reporting that the suspect in the horrifying shooting in Aurora, Colorado was a camp counselor in the summer of 2008 for underprivileged children in Glendale, California. NBC News has more information: Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles confirmed that [James] Holmes was a cabin counselor, responsible for 10 children at its Camp Max Straus for children ages 7 to 14 from Los Angeles. Holmes was then a 20-year-old student at the University of California, Riverside, and neighbors have said he was active in the Presbyterian church that the family attended....

The largest Presbyterian group in the US is considering divesting from three major global companies over the Israeli military’s use of their products in the Palestinian territories. The proposal before the Presbyterian Church (USA) has outraged many Jewish groups, who sent representatives to the church’s national assembly in Pittsburgh this week to lobby against the measure. Divestment supporters say the targeted companies — Caterpillar Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Motorola — are profiting from Palestinian suffering. The American Jewish Committee, a public policy group, has said the proposal demonizes Israel and threatens Christian-Jewish relations. Debate and vote were scheduled for late

When we come to study the influence of Calvinism as a political force in the history of the United States we come to one of the brightest pages of all Calvinistic history. Calvinism came to America in the Mayflower, and Bancroft, the greatest of American historians, pronounces the Pilgrim Fathers "Calvinists in their faith according to the straightest system."1 John Endicott, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; John Winthrop, the second governor of that Colony; Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut; John Davenport, the founder of the New Haven Colony; and Roger Williams, the founder of the Rhode...

American Presbyterians frequently circulate the claim that King George III of England referred to the American Revolution as a “Presbyterian War.” Several years ago I set out to find the original source from which the quote is taken since I was curious about the context in which the king made this statement — if indeed he even did. The first time I discussed this quest with my dissertation director (who happens to be an elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)), he suspected I may discover it is a fiction manufactured by proud Presbyterian myth-makers, for indeed many such writers have...

Abstract During the era of the American Revolution, King George III and his supporters perceived that the war was a "Presbyterian Rebellion." Why? The label "Presbyterian" was a much more ambiguous designation than it is at present. Employed broadly as a synonym for a Calvinist, a dissenter, or a republican, the term was used with considerable imprecision in the eighteenth century. Furthermore, it was used as a demagogic tool to inflame popular passions. The term Presbyterian carried with it the connotation of a fanatical, anti-monarchical rebel. Those who designated the war a Presbyterian Rebellion could be considered biased, partisan, and...

Same-sex marriage continues to be a major dividing point among members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as the issue moves closer to a vote this week by the denomination’s governing body. The 220th General Assembly is expected to address the subject of gay marriage and the church before its biennial conference wraps up on Saturday in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. Groups on opposing sides of the debate met separately on Tuesday as the church’s committee on Civil Union and Marriage Issues considered proposals both for and against gay marriage. A church survey released in February showed that...