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Full Title: Predestination: Should We Even Talk About It? Is the doctrine of predestination an obstacle to the usefulness of preaching? I’d like to begin a series on—get ready—predestination. Yes, I said that word. I know this is not the most popular topic to bring up among polite company; in fact, it’s downright divisive, isn’t it? In the fifth century, Augustine recounted in his letters that some said, “The doctrine of predestination is an obstacle to the usefulness of preaching.” And who wants an obstacle? In the sixteenth century, John Calvin had to go out of his way to state...

Maher began the monologue by declaring that America is “stupid” because 60 percent of the country reportedly believes the tale of Noah’s ark is literally true. He went on to slam the film Noah as “floating giraffe cr**,” but said it “must be doing something right” since it’s been condemned by both Muslims and Christians. And the fact that it might lose a lot of studio money, he joked, “may put it in hot water with the Jews too.”

Would a loving Jesus really teach about hell? Yes, and so does every New Testament author. Let’s consider what they teach.Hell in MatthewIn the Sermon on the Mount, often known for its emphasis on love and the kingdom, Jesus teaches the reality and nature of hell (5:20–30; 7:13–27). In Matthew 5:20–30, Jesus contrasts hell with the kingdom of heaven and warns that hell is a real danger to unrepentant sinners. The fire of hell, the justice of hell, and the extreme suffering in hell are particularly stressed. The unrepentant are warned to use extreme measures to avoid being cast into it by God.As...

Many skeptics assert that Paul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) hijacked the early Christian religion, changing the theology from what Jesus originally taught. Usually offered as proof for this claim are the doctrines found in Paul's great theological work, his letter to the Romans. Without a doubt, the book of Romans contains the most complete exposition of orthodox Christian doctrines. Are these doctrines contrary to what Jesus taught? Do they conflict with the teachings of the Old Testament from which they were purportedly derived? If Paul really "invented" Christianity, then one would expect that his teachings would be different from...

Michael Hathaway, author of 10 books on psychic development, past lives, regression, hypnosis and spirituality, and a board certified Past Life Regression Therapist is one of the most respected hypnotists in the country. He published a book entitled, “It’s Time to Simplify Your Soul’s Code”, an easy how-to guide for discovering our unique special purpose and to enrich our life experience by delving into the aspects of higher self and soul contracts. In this book, Mr. Hathaway emphasizes the source energy of the loving universe as a means to connect to our divine purpose as incarnated souls. He brilliantly describes...

The President of the Episcopal Church's lay and clergy House of Deputies, the Rev. Gay Jennings has blasted laws in parts of Africa that she says, "are brutally repressive to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

For whom did Jesus die? For the sins of the entire humanity or only for the elect? This was the topic of a live debate between Messianic Jewish apologist Dr. Michael L. Brown and Alpha and Omega Ministries Director Dr. James White on RevelationTV.com Friday evening. The issue boils down to what the intention of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was in Christ going to the cross, said White, who heads the Phoenix, Ariz.-based evangelical Reformed Christian apologetics organization, as the debate began Friday at 9 p.m. EST. "Jesus' death on the cross was a covenantal death,"...

One of the most misleading headlines imaginable recently appeared over an opinion column published in USA Today. Tom Krattenmaker, a member of the paper’s Board of Contributors, set out to argue that there is no essential conflict between evolution and religious belief because the two are dealing with completely separate modes of knowing. Evolution, he argued, is simply “settled science” that requires no belief. Religion, on the other hand, is a faith system that is based in a totally different way of knowing—a form of knowing that requires belief and faith. The background to the column is the recent data...

Why I believe the Rapture of the Church will take place between December 25, 2013, and January 4, 2014 The Lord has been giving me pieces to a puzzle for the last 13 years, leading me to the date for the firstfruits Rapture of the Church. The puzzle ends between December 25, 2013, and January 4, 2014. I very strongly believe that the Rapture will take place on January 3/4, 2014. However, it is possible that the puzzle can end as early as December 25, 2013.

Karlo Broussard does a very good job of explaining the sacraments without the distortions or misrepresentations of Protestants who never even walked the earth until more than 14 centuries after Christ established the sacraments.

Did God provide for the salvation of sinners that he chose to be saved, or did God provide a way of salvation and then it is up to sinners to choose it? Wrong question that has been asked... The question that SHOULD be asked: Did God know which choice we would make (as to salvation) when He created this universe and bring into existence that choice to be saved, or did He bring into existence His choice for whom He would save when He brought this universe into existence? Is the ultimate, final answer to this either/or, neither/nor, or both/and?...

Father Edward T. Oakes, S.J., professor of dogmatic theology at Mundelein Seminary and University of St. Mary of the Lake, has gone to God, dying on December 6, 2013. Readers of First Things know Fr. Oakes well. Over the course of two decades he has been intimately linked with the journal, publishing essay after essay on subjects that extended from Shakespeare to original sin, from the latest movie, to the nature of evolution. Oakes wrote well on many themes, but he will surely be remembered as one of the earliest and most insightful interpreters of the extraordinary thinker, Hans Urs...

Father Edward Oakes, S.J., distinguished theologian, gifted writer and teacher, generous ecumenist, and our friend, has died, of pancreatic cancer, at 8:00 this morning. The announcement from the Academy of Catholic Theology, of which Father Oakes was president, reports: Father Oakes entered the Society of Jesus in 1966, and was ordained a priest in 1979. He received his doctorate in theology from Union Theological Seminary in 1987. He taught at New York University, Regis University, and Mundelein Seminary, where he was deeply loved and valued by his colleagues, students, and indeed everyone on the staff as well.

A couple decades ago I was talking with a Christian friend about the vicissitudes of life, and about the maddening corruption and treachery we saw all around us. “This world is hopeless,” my friend said conclusively, in spiritual summary of what we’d discussed. I recognized his attitude as a core feature of orthodox Christian doctrine, which assesses a fallen world, full of sin, and resignedly accepts that fallen man is simply incapable of improving conditions. Incapable, that is, beyond temporary intervals of marginal revival and renewal, however worthwhile and glorious. Hoping for some kind of man-made, permanent solution to evil,...

Thursday, November 14, 2013 The Fallible Prophets of New Calvinism by Michael John Beasley From the website: This book examines Dr. Wayne Grudem's controversial teaching on fallible prophecy in view of various lexical, exegetical, and historical points of analysis. It also addresses the teaching's popularity and continuing advancement through many charismatics within the "New Calvinism" movement. The doctrine of fallible prophecy is neither benign nor harmless, rather it constitutes a troubling strange fire for the body of Christ and continues to spread through the advocacy of popular continuationists like Wayne Grudem, D.A. Carson, John Piper, and Mark Driscoll: 1. Chapter...

A Roman Catholic scholar and former philosophy and religion professor has released a new book that defends Mormonism as "one of the youngest branches on the Christian tree," and claims that Christians can learn from the Mormon religion. Stephen H. Webb, former 25 year professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College and author of the book, Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints, told The Christian Post that, among other things, "Mormon theology teaches us to think of matter in new and creative ways." "Traditional theology teaches that matter is lifeless, without the soul it's...

ISON is in an Outburst Now. The Hidden Code This is the quote from the 12 minute 35 second video that BPEarthWatch posted on YouTube.com:"God talks to our DNA." This quote comes from the 3 minute 14 second to the 3 minute 18 seconds part of that video.BPEarthWatch has a lot of information in this video and information that, I believe, should be discussed. He took 200 or 300 pages of information and tried to boil it down to this video and he's talking about ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) Waves and the Earth's Resonance Frequency of 7.8 Hz or...

The thief who became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ hung helplessly naked from his cross, yet was granted the opportunity to be a historical eyewitness, in a most anguishing experiential way, of God's great salvation event as he watched the suffering of "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)." The thief on the cross is the ultimate example of the law free gospel that offers salvation by faith through grace without works (Romans 3:21-4:8; Ephesians 2:8-9).

Theology in colors: Icon of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross In the Middle Ages there was no audio and video recordings, photographs, Internet. Historians worked on the basis of tradition and written documents, the lives of the saints were written according to the "literary decorum." Visual imprinting of historical events occurred sometimes many years later, and sometimes centuries, and was conducted in accordance with the canon. Studying the works of art, you can learn a lot about the events themselves, and on the attitudes of people in different eras. Illuminated gospel [Urbin. gr. 2] page 21. AD 1122. Apostolic...

CALVINISM’S FALSE DOCTRINE Posted on September 14, 2007 by Cathy “Calvinism” is very popular and many Christians, though they would not identify themselves as Calvinists, may have embraced some of Calvin’s doctrine without realizing it. The doctrine is named after a man named John Calvin, a reformer, who lived in the 1500′s. Calvinism propagates error. Knowledge of error helps us to be discerning when listening to or reading Christian material. If a teacher is a Calvinist, all that they teach will be taught through the lens of Calvinism. The result of this Calvinistic “bent” will be teachings that are dangerously...