Free Republic

...Never before...have so many people become so deceived in such a comparatively short time of less than a decade. How could this unprecedented end-time deception have happened with such lightning rapidity? The success of this...apostasy was due, at least in part, to mass defections in the ministry, but...also partly due to the power of modern means of communicating and disseminating information. At the time of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s death in January 1986, about 130,000 members of the Worldwide Church of God regularly observed God’s weekly and annual Sabbaths, as well as other important laws and commandments of God. During...

It is with a grateful heart that I’ve received yet another testimony. This one like so many others, came via an email, and is a great blessing to me and to others who contend for the Gospel in the arena with those who pursue Torah. Many thanks to Mark Smith for the following. Mark’s story is about coming out of the Worldwide Church of God, from which the Hebrew Roots Movement draws much of its doctrine.This testimony will also appear on the Testimonies Page here at JGIG.If you have a testimony you’d like to share about coming out of the...

The Ravenous Wolves of FreeRepublicHow do we deal with the insults and pain of those whom Christ called "ravenous wolves"? Many aren't aware of it but the phrase "A wolf in sheep’s clothing" has biblical origins. Mat 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. The word translated "false prophet" here is not referring to a Godly person who has a prophecy that fails. Instead it's referring to a person who pretends to be a Christian but in reality is not. They are compared to "ravenous wolves" among the flock....

The Mormon Church has officially renounced the belief that dark skin is a sign of disfavor, or curse. On the official website for The Mormon Church, www.lds.org, a statement has been posted titled "Race and the Priesthood," where blame for the belief that dark skinned people were inferior to whites is placed on the establishment of the church coming in 1830, a time of great racism in the United States. The Church points out how previous leaders, most notably President Brigham Young, restricted Blacks from priesthood in the Church, receiving the temple endowment, or allowing them to be married in...

Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) recently expressed his puzzlement over the conservative wing of the Republican Party. In between incoherent ramblings and fragmented sentences, the congressman explained that the tea party is a “cult” group that suffers from an apparent “illness”. “Politics is (sic) changing for me at this late age, to have to deal with a cult-type of group of people,” said the man who recently allocated millions of taxpayer dollars to a New York library named in his honor. (Maybe he’s speaking out of jealousy?) “When a handful of people [I assume he is referring to the tea party...

Mormon missionaries on bicycles decide to proselytize the WRONG man...

...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University... I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism. Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast... To a roomful of...

One thing liberals do extremely well is project their own inadequacies, emotions and so on, to others. John Podesta, couldn’t wait to announce, in his own way, the fact that he was once again wielding executive power over Americans by comparing House Republicans to the Jim Jones cult. First, the ideology behind what Jim Jones had setup in Guyana is much more in line with what the imbecile Podesta obviously believes. If there is a political cult in this country, it is mainly comprised of the followers of the Democrat party; its elected officials in Congress, the fainters, the weepers,...

Obama spent part of her Christmas Eve chatting on the phone with children as part of the U.S. military's Santa Claus tracking program. Obama talked for about a half-hour Tuesday morning with nine children, ages 3-9, in communities across North America, from Kansas City to Canada's Ontario province, the White House said. It was the fourth year the first lady has participated in the North American Aerospace Defense Command's NORAD Tracks Santa program.

Today, Politico confirmed that governing-by-executive-fiat is exactly what Podesta has in mind. The only shocking part of the story is Podesta's justification for shredding the Constitution: In effect, I was told, it represents the clearest sign to date of the administration’s interest in shifting the paradigm of Obama’s presidency through the forceful, unapologetic and occasionally provocative application of White House power. Podesta, whose official mandate includes enforcement of numerous executive orders on emissions and the environment, suggested as much when he spoke with me earlier this fall about Obama’s team. “They need to focus on executive action given that they...

New Obama White House advisor John Podesta told Politico that Republicans are akin to the mass suicide cult in Jonestown, and that President Obama therefore needed more power. “They need to focus on executive action given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress,” Podesta said. Jonestown was a community formed in Guyana by cult leader Jim Jones. 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two poisoning themselves. Rory Cooper, communications director for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, ripped Podesta’s comments, pointing out that innocent...

...The five justices’ 84-point judgment was strewn with references to 19th-century parliamentary debates and semantic disputes, but their verdict on Wednesday afternoon was clear. The couple would now be free to marry in a Scientology chapel in London, surrounded by their families and the church’s volunteers...[SNIP] There are significant practical benefits, according to Linda Woodhead, a professor of religion at Lancaster University. “There are a lot of political and economic advantages in being categorised as a religion,” she says. “Equality legislation gives protection on the grounds of religion. And if you want to set up a free school, your application...

So I am sitting a local sports pub/bar, you know the ones with all sorts of games and sports shows on big screens everywhere.... all of a sudden, I look up and see Barack Hussein Obama speaking LIVE from D.C. "What is going on?!" I asked my companion.... Sure enough, it is an extended statement from the worst occupant of the Oval Office in 100+ years, and it goes on and on and on....then the Sports Center talking heads continue to ramble about the death of Nelson Mandela. On a sports network. About sports news.

These Dems have to balance their loyalty to the president—and his desire to halt the Islamic Republic's nuclear program—with their discomfort over a deal. It's been a tough year for Israel's most loyal supporters in the U.S. It began with a messy confirmation process for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a nominee whom pro-Israeli groups viewed with concern. Over the summer, President Obama leaned on those groups, most notably the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to lobby for his proposal authorizing military intervention in Syria, only to abandon the push at the last minute. And, most recently, pro-Israel organizations have been...

It’s been 35 years since 918 people, including 257 children, died on Nov. 18, 1978, at the Peoples Temple massacre in Jonestown. The mass murder inside the South American jungle commune in Guyana was engineered by Jim Jones, a murderous cult leader, and was the only time in American history a member of Congress, Leo Ryan, D-Calif., was killed in the line of official duty. Most of the victims were forced to commit suicide by drinking a fatal cocktail of poisoned punch spiked with a Valium tranquilizer. In the days that followed the slaughter of the innocents, Jonestown became a...

Someone I care about has been behaving oddly since returning from a "walk to emmaus" retreat. Won't communicate. I thought this was just a nice Methodist spiritual time and I'd appreciate advice.

... Obama told two of Cuba’s leading dissidents in South Florida Friday that he admires their sacrifices, a rare White House recognition of the peaceful opposition on the communist-ruled island. “The most important thing here was the recognition by the president of the United States, the most powerful democracy in the world,” dissident Guillermo Farinas said minutes after the meeting. Farinas, spokesman for the Cuban Patriotic Union of Cuba, and Ladies in White leader Berta Soler met with Obama during a fund-raiser at the Pinecrest home of Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF).

Barack Obama, doing what he does best, is back campaigning and fundraising hard for the next five weeks. Obama’s plans include eight fundraisers for Democrats in the House and Senate. The events include: 1. New York: Fundraising for House Democrats and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). 2. Boston: a House Democratic fundraiser on Oct. 30. 3. November 6, Dallas: No: another fundraiser 4. November 8, Miami: an event for Senate Democrats. 5. November 14, Philadelphia: another event for Senate Democrats 6. Seattle: fundraising for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) 7. San Francisco: more fundraising for House Democrats. 8. Los...

Michelle Pfeiffer was in her 20s when she became involved in a cult that encouraged its followers to live without food or water.Tabloids are full of stories of Hollywood actresses on crazy fad diets, but Michelle Pfeiffer once belonged to a cult that believed human beings could learn to live on nothing but air. In a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the 55-year-old actress said she was 20 when she moved to Los Angeles and met a couple who acted like "personal trainers." “They worked with weights and put people on diets. Their thing was vegetarianism,” she said. “They...

Around the world the fame of Christ spreads. Men and women lift their hands to praise the name of Jesus, worshiping him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Full of the Holy Spirit, they lift him up as their savior, redeemer, and advocate. His gospel is preached, his word is believed, and his death and resurrection are celebrated in the Lord's Supper. Millions are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, trusting in the person and work of Christ for forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the transformation of their heart. Hundreds of...