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The United Reformed Church has voted overwhelmingly to allow same-sex couples to marry in its buildings. Members of the URC's ruling general assembly voted in favour at a meeting in Merseyside, although individual churches will not be forced to comply. The URC becomes the largest Christian organisation in Britain to offer same-sex weddings in its churches. The Church, which has about 60,000 members, is a Protestant Church with roots in Presbyterianism. The assembly, meeting in Southport, voted to allow individual congregations to register churches as venues for same-sex marriage services immediately if they wish. Church officials think the first weddings...

July 10 True Fellowship “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” 1 JOHN 1:7 True fellowship is grounded in Jesus first of all. Fellowship with others on THAT basis is neither forced, nor orchestrated; it is effortless, spontaneous, and full of Life. Fellowship naturally occurs because we have all seen and heard the same thing from the Lord – we are walking in the same Path towards Christ as All in all. We are in one accord not because we all look, think, and act just the same, but...

The interesting thing about secular history is it constantly repeats itself. Spiritual history is no different. The Christian Religion is following a parallel path to the Jewish Religion and will suffer the same fate.

The Church of England's governing body may face a conservative rebellion over its discussions on gay marriage. Despite pleas from senior bishops, a number of conservative Anglicans are considering boycotting the Church's private conversations over sexuality, designed to prevent a fracture over gay marriage. A deep fissure exists within the Church over whether or not to accomodate gay relationships in some way. A memo sent round to some members of the Church's governing synod listed "reasons not to participate" in conversations, which aim to reconcile opposing factions. The note, seen by Christian Today, offers a damning assessment of the secret...

The Lake Garda Statement Regarding the “Catholic” Apotheosis of Luther Final Session of the 24th Annual Roman Forum Summer Symposium Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius July 7th, 2016 Our civilization is so sick that even the best efforts to prop up its few tottering remnants manifest the pathetic illness that has step by step brought the entire structure crumbling down. The disease in question is a willful, prideful, irrational, and ignorant obsession with “freedom”. But this is a malady that gained its initial effective entry into Christendom in union with the concept of the natural world as the realm...

J.D. Greear, who was a strong contender for president at the recent Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, says it's unfair to blame declining baptism numbers in the SBC on a resurgence of 5-point Calvinism in Southern Baptist life. Greear graciously stepped aside in a razor close race with Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis and a more moderate Calvinist — a contest that many say rested on how 5-point Calvinism affects church growth In an interview with The Christian Post last Thursday, Greear, pastor of Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, said it doesn't matter how many...

Veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister argues that Pope Francis is preparing the way for Protestants and Catholics to share the Eucharist, in an essay for L'Espresso. Magister points to an article in La Civilta Cattolica, the influential Jesuit journal, that argues the Pope's advice to a Lutheran woman represented a change in papal teaching, similar to the change that Pope Francis introduced in Amoris Laetitia regarding the reception of the Eucharist by Catholics who are divorced and remarried. The Pope is not suggesting an outright change in Catholic doctrine, the Civilta Cattolica article contends, but is taking "small steps forward"...

Resurrection power is yours for I have already apportioned it in you the day you received My Spirit ! So go do and declare The Day of The Lord for truly where you are I AM. Galatians 2:19-21 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me....

Many readers of this blog will be blissfully unaware of a storm that erupted recently among conservative Protestants over the doctrine of the Trinity. For those interested in the details, Christianity Today offers a good account of the issues here. As the dust now settles, it is clear that a number of influential evangelical theologians have for decades been advocating a view of the Trinity that radically subordinates the Son to the Father in eternity and often rejects the idea of eternal generation. They have used this revised doctrine of God to argue for the subordination of women to men...

Kleinjung: Too much beer … Holy Father, I wanted to ask you a question. Today you spoke of the gifts of the shared Churches, of the gifts shared by the Churches together. Seeing that you will go in I believe four months to Lund for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the reformation, I think perhaps this is also the right moment for us not only to remember the wounds on both sides but also to recognize the gifts of the reformation. Perhaps also – this is a heretical question – perhaps to annul or withdraw the excommunication of...

For more than thirty years now I have been an observer and sometime participant in what I will here call the conservative Episcopalian mess. The departure of more orthodox Episcopalians from an apostatizing mainstream headed by weak and clownish English archbishops and astoundingly aggressive heretics in North America, contained no real surprises, for this is the predictable fruit of religious liberalism hatched upon an ignorant, passive, and venal laity, that we have seen in other major Protestant churches, and from which modern Roman Catholicism, especially under a Nice Pope, is unlikely to be much of a refuge. What I have...

You have come through the eye of the needle into Kingdom Come , Zion lays before you blessed daughters and sons, So now the "real awakening begins", Truly you ARE worthy free from all sins, Look you are dressed in righteousness for you wear my gown, I have bestowed on you and a clean turban as your crown, Your feet shine at the mention of My WORD, For Now they Know it IS the Path of Righteousness they have heard, Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! Is the sound, That you hear now echoing all around, Voices that sound like...

By Philip Cottraux Two tragic events occurred last weekend. I am not into pop culture and had never really seen “The Voice.” The first time I had ever heard of Christina Grimmie was learning of her death on the news. And yet something was heart-wrenching about it. The media has been claiming they can find no motivation for the attack, that her killer was an obsessed lunatic. While that may be true, I have also seen reports that have been largely ignored by the press claiming this beautiful young girl was shot for being a Christian.* Upon further research, I...

When all else fails, abortion activists often resort to the old “pro-lifers are forcing their religion on us” argument to push their agenda. That is what a group of Indiana University student editors used to attack a new state law that protects the dignity of unborn babies by requiring that aborted babies’ bodies be buried or cremated. The new law will help stop the kind of sale of aborted babies’ body parts that Planned Parenthood facilities in other states have been caught arranging. Although Roe v. Wade prohibits states from completely banning abortions, pro-life advocates in Indiana believe the aborted...

A deal to avert the break-up of the worldwide Anglican Communion risks collapse amid signals that African churches are reassessing ties with the Church of England over the issue of same-sex marriage. The new leader of a powerful bloc of traditionalist bishops and archbishops - seen as representing the majority of the world’s estimated 80 million Anglicans - said the Church of England had recently crossed a “line” with a series of decisions seen as endorsing a more liberal stance on homosexuality. The Most Rev Nicholas Okoh, the Archbishop of Nigeria, said many traditionalists now view the British branches of...

God said to Isaiah: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (Isa. 6:9–10, NIV). This type of judgment is articulated by Paul in Romans 1: “Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done” (v....

Faith vs. works.  Christians have debated this topic for two thousand years and still do.  At the heart of the debate you have two (seemingly) opposing sides: Team Faith says works are not required for salvation.  Salvation is received by grace through faith alone (John 6:28-29, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:5, Romans 11:6, Galatians 2:21).  They believe that making works a requirement for salvation ignores the very message of the Gospel that Jesus died for our sins and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), which the Apostle Paul calls "of first importance."  This is Christianity 101.  If Jesus died for your...

Gallup released a new poll this week that examines people’s positions on abortion based on their religious affiliation. The poll asked people about a series of moral issues, including abortion and doctor-assisted suicide, and then examined their answers based on their religious affiliation. Researchers found major differences among religious groups, with Protestants, Catholics and Mormons taking a pro-life stance and Jews and the non-religious taking a more liberal stance. Gallup reports: Jews and those with no religious preferences have virtually identical views on the morality of abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, gay-lesbian relations and cloning animals. Jews are somewhat less likely than...

This just in from NCR: "Pope Francis’ visit to Lund, Sweden, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation will comprise “two parts” beginning with a “common prayer” service in Lund's Lutheran cathedral and continuing with a public event at Malmö Arena that will be open to wider participation, Vatican and Lutheran leaders have announced. "In a joint statement issued today by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, they reiterated that the Oct. 31 event will be centered on the themes of “thanksgiving, repentance and commitment to common witness". It also said the...

Pope Francis’ visit to Lund, Sweden, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation will comprise “two parts” and will begin with a “common prayer” service in Lund's Lutheran cathedral and continue with a public event at Malmö Arena that will be open to wider participation, Vatican and Lutheran leaders have announced. In a joint statement issued today by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, they reiterated that the Oct. 31 event will be centered on the themes of “thanksgiving, repentance and commitment to common witness". It also said the overall aim of...