Free Republic

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “News Central” that former President Donald Trump has “no appreciation” for any religious belief. Anchor John Berman said, “Donald Trump weighed in on Jews who vote for Democrats. He said, they hate their religion and should be ashamed of themselves. Donald Trump, who is not Jewish, telling Jewish people how to be Jewish, what’s your reaction to that?” Schiff said, “Well, only to someone who has no appreciation for really any religion, any religious group, or any religious belief could make a statement like that. He’s the last person in the world...

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – The Jews that founded the modern State of Israel were overwhelmingly secular. Most Jews who founded the country, in fact, were socialists, atheists and agnostics. They had abandoned faith in the God of the Hebrew Scriptures in Western Europe, or had lived in the communist bloc countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and were prevented from believing in the God of Israel and having access to the Bible. Most religious Jews in Europe believed it was forbidden for sinful men and women to rebuild the State of Israel. They believed only the Messiah could do...

Belief in God among U.S. adults sank to an all-time low this year, according to recent data from a Gallup survey. According to the survey, most U.S. adults — 81 percent — believe in God. But while that figure seems high, it is actually the lowest percentage ever reported in this survey. Up until 2011, over 90 percent said they believed in God, but the number has continued to drop, now down eight points from the 89 percent who expressed belief in God in 2016. The previous low was set in 2014, when 86 percent said they believed in God.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to achieve his goal of “restoring imperial Russia,” having an “almost messianic belief in himself,” The Guardian reported. Clinton spoke Thursday at the Hay Festival, an annual multiday literature and arts event held in the United Kingdom, saying she observed Putin’s attitude toward himself and Russia while she was leading the State Department and he was serving as prime minister of Russia, according to The Guardian.

Of an estimated 176 million American adults who identify as Christian, just 6% or 15 million of them actually hold a biblical worldview, a new study from Arizona Christian University shows.The finding was published by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University in its recently released American Worldview Inventory, an annual survey that evaluates the worldview of the U.S. adult population. Conducted in February, the survey included a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults.The study shows, in general, that while a majority of America’s self-identified Christians, including many who identify as evangelical, believe that God is all-powerful, all-knowing and...

A man was on a bridge, intending to jump and end his life. Another man saw him and cried out, "Don't do it! God loves you. Do you believe in God?" The conversation then went on like this: First man: "Yes." Second man: "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" First man: "A Christian." Second man: "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" First man: "Protestant." Second man: "Me, too! What franchise?" First man: "Baptist." Second man: “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" First man: "Northern Baptist." Second man: “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" First man: "Northern...

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker posted on Facebook, “Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier.” I can see why a secularist would think this if such belief would focus him on the future to the neglect of the present. However, for Christians, the opposite is actually the case. Jesus clearly believed in an afterlife (cf. Luke 23:46), but he clearly valued actual lives and encouraged action that “would make them longer, safer, and happier.” He launched his public ministry by “teaching in their synagogues...

In Hebrews 11:1 in the Bible, faith is described as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Now, according to a new study by Georgetown University neuroscientists, the strength of one's faith in God is likely linked to the brain.In their study, Implicit pattern learning predicts individual differences in belief in God in the United States and Afghanistan, published this month in the journal Nature Communications, the neuroscientists found that an individual’s ability to unconsciously predict complex patterns, through an ability known as implicit pattern learning, had a strong correlation with the strength of their...

To Be a Democrat Today, You Have To Believe … ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’— Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll As I watch the nightly news from urban liberal war zones like Portland or force my eyeballs to stay open through the Democrats’ virtual convention, I keep thinking, “We’re through the looking glass, people!” And that’s not...

Mark 16:14: "Afterward He (Jesus Christ) appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after he was risen." In spite of all the Old Testament prophecies, Jesus's repeated promises that He would rise again, and every single teaching and counsel and love and guidance and miracle that the disciples witnessed as Christ healed, delivered and saved thousands of people--His disciples abandoned Him in the garden when He was arrested and fled into hiding. It really, really makes you feel to...

For the first time in history, atheists constitute the largest religious group in America. According to the General Social Survey, the number of Americans who have no religion has increased 266% over the past three decades and now account for 23.1% of the population, just barely edging out Catholics and Evangelicals as the nation’s dominant faith. Mainline Protestant churches have suffered the greatest collapse, declining 62.5% since 1982 and now comprising just 10.8% of the U.S. population. As religiosity has declined, social ills have abounded. Nearly one in five American adults suffers from anxiety disorders, which now constitute the most...

“I want to believe God cares about me; I really do,” she told me, wiping tears from under her darkened, bloodshot eyes. Under the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital corridor, Marci barely resembled the vibrant girl I remembered, that kid I’d watched grow up in our youth group at church. When she was a teenager, Marci was outgoing, fun-loving, and full of life, even as she was growing more and more serious about her faith, coming early to youth group and staying late. No one loved to worship and talk about God more than Marci.Then, in her early 20s,...

The Critical Danger of Unbelief Msgr. Charles Pope • August 29, 2016 • Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law (1659) by RembrandtI had an interesting discussion with Matt Hadro on EWTN’s “Morning Glory” radio show about the rising number of “nones” in our country. When asked for their religious affiliation, “nones” do not identify themselves as atheists or agnostics, but rather check the “none” box. They tend to be dismissive of “organized” religion and generally believe that it is acceptable to construct a purely personal religious view and understanding of God.Indeed, we live in times when many people...

Have you ever really believed in Jesus Christ? I was talking to my five-year old son. He replied quickly, "Of course, dad." "But have you ever really been saved? How do you really know you are saved?" He replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,." He ripped off the words as fast as his little mouth could phrase them. It was a verse he had memorized, and he had heard it explained so many times. Perhaps you would have answered just as he did. "Of course I am saved. Of course I believe in Jesus...

span.WPParaTextBox { border-width: 0.0133333in; border-style: solid; border-color: black; padding: 5px; margin: 0px; display: block } <p>div.WPParaTextBoxWrapper { padding: 0px; float: none } <p>p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1px } <p>body { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal }             Am I A True Believer?   In this brief study we want to consider the important, soul-searching question: Am I a true believer? To help you answer this question, consider the following questions. Think about each one in an honest, personal way. Take time to look up the Bible verses that are given along with each question. Ask...

Mathew 18 1 AT that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. 6...

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) This classic verse on the filling of the Holy Spirit can be rendered as follows: “And don’t begin to be drunk with wine, which involves profligacy, but be continually being filled with the Spirit.” That is, one cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit (which implies complete control by the Holy Spirit) if he has come to even the slightest degree under the control of wine (or anything else, for that matter). Being fully controlled and guided by the Spirit is not just...

If you believe in ghosts, panic when you break a mirror and would rather walk on to the road than under a ladder, you are not alone. In fact, Britons are more likely to have faith in the supernatural than in God, a survey has found. It showed more than half give credence to the supernatural and superstition – compared with just 49 per cent who believe in God. Similarly, more people believe they have extraordinary powers such as a sixth sense than regularly go to church.

Several years ago I heard someone make the statement that "To help someone accept Christ, just show them that they already use faith in their everyday life, and explain to them that all they have to do is use the same faith to believe in Jesus." Well, I didn't know why at first, but that statement just didn't seem to ring true, especially in light of what the Bible actually says about faith. So, I began to search it out more carefully, and that's how I came to realize that there are actually two kinds of faith, and that they...

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...