Posted on 09/29/2004 2:34:53 PM PDT by truthandlife
Any discussion of President Bush’s presumed evangelicalism is complicated. Evangelicalism is a style of worship, not a set of beliefs, and to a large extent evangelical Protestants are defined by their personal stories of faith and by whom they choose as their pastor. But core to many evangelicals’ identity is the “born-again” experience described in John 3:3, when a sinner undergoes an intense conversion during a personal interaction with the Holy Spirit, often Jesus Himself.
George Bush has not said directly that he was ever born again. He has often said he wwas pointed on the path to God after a discussion with evangelist Billy Graham in 1985.
“Over the course of that weekend, Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul, a seed that grew over the next year,” Bush wrote in his 1999 campaign autobiography, “A Charge to Keep.”
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
— Matthew 13:31-32
The “mustard seed” is an allusion to verses in the Gospels relating faith to a bush that grows slowly, taking over the field only over time. It is not the searing thunderbolt of awakening that is commonly accepted as characterizing the born-again conversion.
There is a second story about how Bush started on the road to salvation, one that is more in line with the common narrative. While Bush has never confirmed it, he has also never contradicted it, nor has he apparently sought to reconcile the two accounts.
Evangelist Arthur Blessitt, best known for carrying a 12-foot cross around the world, writes that in 1984, Bush asked to see him and told him: “Arthur, I did not feel comfortable attending the meeting, but I want talk to you about how to know Jesus Christ and how to follow Him.”
The two men and an aide prayed together and discussed salvation, Blessitt says in a long article on his Web site, which comes complete with photographs of Bush and Blessitt together and of personal, handwritten notes Bush wrote to him as late as 1998.
“It was an awesome and glorious moment!” Blessitt writes. “We were just three brothers rejoicing in Christ. I said ‘There is rejoicing in Heaven now! You are saved!’”
Bush does not mention the episode in his autobiography. The Republican National Committee, however, approved the screening of a film, “George W. Bush: Faith in the White House,” at off-the-floor events during its national convention this month in New York; the film recounts the story and implies that Bush’s meeting with Blessitt was the true beginning of his spiritual rebirth.
Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said this month at a conference of religion writers that the ambiguity surrounding Bush’s religious beliefs was, if not intentional, at least a fortuitous development for the president’s campaign.
“I don’t think Bush says, ‘I’m God’s man,’” Mouw said. “But he doesn’t correct it when others say that.”
Sorry to not put the link
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6115719/
So what? It's Between Bush and his God.
Maybe CBS can produce copies of memos signed by Jesus saying Bush failed to show up for church.
Going to MSM for information on being born again is like going to Planned Parenthood for adoption information.
Kerry- partial birth again, or not?
The Liberal loony Leftists, as their Soviet brethren, hate God. I don't believe Bush hates God...I believe he loves Him and he says he is following Christ now. Who am I to know better? I'm not taking someone else's word on it, that's for sure...
Maybe they should read some of these quotes:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/33/story_3345_1.html
Oh, this is sooooo lame! Yep, the MSM is all upset that GW may not be a TRUE born again Christian! HAH! Can't lightning strike just once? Just a teensy little one? Sigh. God may love all His children, but sometimes I just want to slap some of 'em.
btttt
Why would you post an obvious, scandalously vicious sentence like this?
From your website it wouldn't appear that you delve into devil worship, but outright crap like this shouldn't be tolerated here.
.
Ping
Next they will be saying the Bible supports homosexuality. Wait, they already said that. And the "how would Jesus vote" meetings that all say Jesus would vote democratic say it all.
How does one call the VK's???
OK, I want to know if Kerrys mom sat him on the toilet seat backwards !!!! If so thats the reason for all the Monday morning quarterbacking.
Whether a particular individual has the seed of salvation is impossible for anyone except God, Who alone looketh on the heart, to know. We must take a person's confession on face value.
As a leader, George W. Bush is a manifestation of the mercy of God, who gave us him instead of the man we deserved. May it please Him to do so yet once again.
Proverbs 21:1 [KJV] The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
1 posted on 09/29/2004 3:34:53 PM MDT by truthandlife
How Ignorant ! But not unexpected from MSM.
a bondslave to the Christ
chuck
"President George Bush Jrs' Daddy goes to this little camp often, and so does Junior!"
Avoidance of Black Helicopters in all their forms is the best defense against infection, surveillance, internment, enslavement, brain erasure, or death. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to stay out of their way, especially if they are targeting you for harassment, and thus it is important for paranoids to learn to protect themselves.
http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html
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