Posted on 07/19/2004 10:54:02 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
I have argued in this column that the greatest sin is committing evil in God's name. As bad as the evil committed by secularists, such as communists and Nazis, has ever been, the most grievous evil is that which is committed in the name of God. For not only do religious evils harm their victims, they also do lasting damage to God-based morality, which those of us who believe in God and religion consider the only viable antidote to evil.
That is why Islamic terror is so evil. Not only because it targets the most innocent of people for death and torture, but because it does so in the name of Allah and Islam.
Incredibly, The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) joins the list of religious groups committing evil. In the name of Jesus, it has called for the economic strangulation of Israel. They have equated the Jewish state with South Africa during apartheid and called for a universal divestment from it.
The Presbyterians are the first Christian church to do this, and, ironically, the divestment campaign came the very week that the Roman Catholic Church signed a document equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
It takes a particularly virulent strain of moral idiocy and meanness to single out Israel, not Arafat's Palestinian Authority, or terror-supporting, death-fatwa-issuing Iran, or women-subjugating Saudi Arabia, for condemnation and economic ruin. One of the most decent societies, one of the most liberal democracies in the world, is fighting for its life against Islamic fascists who praise the Holocaust and publicly call for the annihilation of Israel -- and the Presbyterian Church calls for strangling Israel!
Apartheid state? This Goebbels-like Big Lie, concocted by the world's anti-Israel and anti-American Left and by those who want Israel destroyed, is now an official doctrine of the Presbyterian Church. Israel is a nation whose population is one-quarter non-Jewish Arab, with the same rights, including voting and its own political parties, as Jewish citizens; a nation whose second official language is Arabic, the language of those who wish to annihilate the Jewish country; a nation that occupies a tiny sliver of land known as the West Bank only because Jordan, overwhelmingly composed of Palestinians, invaded Israel in 1967 in order to destroy it and thereby lost its ownership of the West Bank.
As an American who fights to preserve Judeo-Christian values as America's primary value system and preserve Christianity as the specific American faith that embodies those values, I can only say this: the God that the 431 leaders of the Presbyterian Church worship is not my God, any more than the Allah of the Islamic fascists that Israel and America fight is my God.
The Bible that these Presbyterians read is not my Bible.
The religious values that these Presbyterians hold are not my religious values.
This is not a difference about immigration policy, affirmative action, taxation, bigger or smaller government, welfare policies, gun control, or a myriad of other moral issues over which decent, God-fearing people can disagree.
This is one of the morality-clarifying issues of our time. To single out Israel for economic strangulation while that good nation fights for its life is an act of such immorality that holding that view precludes one from the title "good" or "God-fearing," for if they are true to God, I am false to Him. If they are good, I who support Israel am bad. If their Bible teaches them to strangle Israel and support Yasser Arafat, I am guided by a different Bible.
They have drawn a line. It is now time for good people, Presbyterians specifically, Christians generally, to distance themselves vigorously and publicly from this morally sick church. And it is time, once again, for Jews to realize that the enemies of the Jews in our day are to be found on the Christian Left while their friends are far more often on the Christian Right.
Many serious Christians ask, "What Would Jesus Do?" If Jesus were here, he would probably be at Israeli hospitals comforting fellow Jews who were deliberately blinded, paralyzed and brain-damaged by Jew- and Christian-hating Palestinian terrorists. He would surely not be with the Jews' enemies, among whom are now the leaders of the Presbyterian Church, USA.
They aren't trying to appeal to people either. They are trying to undermine and repudiate Christianity and belief in God in general.
"They" refers to the evil people and their useful idiots who have successfully but only temporarily taken over the high visablity portion of church polity.
Many many Presbyterians of real faith are fighting back to retake that portion of the church and return it to it's confession. If God want's that to happen, it will. On his schedule.
ELCA?
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
I kinda thought that but couldn't find any reference to them in the story. Thanks
I agree with you. There are people of faith everywhere who are disgusted and alarmed at this sort of erosian of the values that made Christianity what it is.
My church the First Evangelical Presbyterian Church broke away from the main-stream Presbyterians because they were
becoming much to liberal on many issues. Our family is very happy with the First EPC. Good conservative bunch of people to worship with. Pro American, Pro-military, Pro-Family, Pro-Isreal, against gay marriage, etc. We are growing, with many of the new people moving to our church from the mainstream Presbyterian, Luthern, and even from some of the Evangelical non-denominations, which is where I started.
I will ping it.
I recently did some reading on the PCUSA because of something I am hopping to do in the fall.
During my google I read how this takeover was accomplished and how the more traditional and conservative members are shut out because of the continued take over of the leadership (voting positions ) and the removal of the conservative elements votes.
It is a very sad state of affairs. Your denomination has an honorable history it is not the denomination it is the current leaders
You may also want to look into other Presbyterian Churches
I think I'm going to cry now.
Are you describing a church or the local Republican committee?
With all due respect, you are not a Presbyterian. You are a Baptist who happens to hold membership in a Presbyterian church. The PCA does not officially countenance dispensationalism, credo-baptism, or "4.75+-point Calvinism".
E.g., The PCA does not acknowledge a special, revealed divine plan wrt modern Israel.
lol, I'll be sure to tell my pastor.
Sometime, if you have a moment or two, read the rest of my post.
I often do that BEFORE spurting. Okay, I always do that. Try it!
Dan
The PCUSA is Presbyterian in Name Only/Reformed in name only.
Just because they share the same name as a church that many GRPL adherents attend doesn't mean they are part of us.
The interesting thing about the Westminster Larger Catechism is that it includes a whole list of duties that go with the commandments, not just what is forbidden.
Obviously, the PCUSA has not been paying attention:
Question 135: What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?
Answer: The duties required in the sixth commandment are, all careful studies, and lawful endeavors, to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defense thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.
I am very pleased with my PCUSA college...the only Confessing College. Very conservative and Biblically grounded.
I was surprised to learn they kept to almost exclusive Psalmody up unti the early 20th century. From then...it just went downhill fast.
What did I miss?
That was about the same time they started bringing "Christmas" trees into their homes and churches, and celebrating annual holy days. Today they look at you like you are from another planet if you suggest such practices are biblically questionable.
What Presbyterians don't know about their history could fill volumes. Of course that's probably true of most Christans, at least those who belong to a group that has been around more than 10 minutes.
The Bible that these Presbyterians read is not my Bible.
The religious values that these Presbyterians hold are not my religious values.
Ps 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
(NKJV)
Ps 41:13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.
(NKJV)
i am a conservative,reformed,five point christian.
many of my buisness associates are orthodox jewish.
we pray together and study the bible together.i pray for their conversion daily and witness Christ to them constantly.if it is the Lord's will,they will accept Jesus as the messiah.
that being said the liberal denominations are a poison that pervades the church.
the only help for the presbytarian name is the OPC.
Re 14:19 So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses' bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs.
(NKJV)
Re 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
(NKJV)
Joh 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
(NKJV)
GODSPEED!
SOLI DEO GLORIA!
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