Free Republic

Let me begin this conclusion by ending at the beginning: My wife Cindy and I entered into full communion with the Catholic Church because we came to see that this Church is the Church established by Jesus Christ. We came to this realization in large measure by spending time in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, reading other positive presentations of Catholic teaching, and speaking with flesh and blood Catholics in all walks of life and vocations. The many misconceptions we had about what Catholics believed were cleared away as we dug deeply into the teaching resources of the Catholic...

“It may be safe to say that the greatest event for Christendom in the last 1500 years was the Protestant Reformation.”[1] Professor John Murray spoke these words in his class lectures on justification in the mid-1960s. At that time, forty years ago, it would have been hard to imagine anyone in a Reformed or evangelical church finding much that was exceptional about Murray’s words. But today, in a world that would amaze him, the central doctrines of the Reformation are under attack, not only in liberal and ecumenical circles, but in the heart of evangelical and Reformed churches. Contemporary criticisms...

Believers in Unbelieving Churches What Should Be Done by Christian People Who are in a Modernist Church? What is the duty of Christian congregations or Christian individuals who find themselves in a church that is dominated by unbelief? Shall they remain in such a church, or shall they withdraw from it and become members of a consistently Christian Church? That is certainly the question of the hour for the orthodox part of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Various attempts are being made to answer the question. Various considerations are being urged on one side or the other. If we...

On New Year’s Eve, 1936, in a Roman Catholic hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota, J. Gresham Machen was one day away from death at the age of 55. It was Christmas break at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, where he taught New Testament. His colleagues said he looked “deadly tired.” But instead of resting, he took the train from Philadelphia to the 20-below-zero winds of North Dakota to preach in a few Presbyterian churches at the request of Pastor Samuel Allen. ... He had pneumonia and could scarcely breath. Pastor Allen came to pray for him that last day of 1936,...

The town where J. Gresham Machen, the founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, last preached before his death has shown up again in the news, this time in a horrible way. While Machen's direct denominational influence was fairly narrow, as the key leader of the secession from the Northern Presbyterians and founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, Machen has a lasting role in American Calvinism that is far larger than the Orthodox Presbyterian Church which he founded. In his own lifetime, however, Machen's role was even more important and went well beyond Reformed circles. As a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary,...

Question: Does the OPC use the crucifix in the church? If not, are they opposed to it? Answer: Thank you for your question. The answer is, so far as I know, the crucifix is not used in OPC churches, and here is why: 1.The Second Commandment (Ex. 20:4-6 and Deut. 5:8-10) forbids any picture or image of God, and that would include the Son of God, even as man. At any rate we do not know what Jesus looked like as there is no physical description of him. 2.The crucifix will always end up being an object of worship—regarded as...

Despite claims to the contrary, the Christian world is not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who just have the Bible. It is actually divided between those who have creeds and confessions and write them down in a public form, open to public scrutiny and correction, and those who have them and do not write them down. The reason is simple: every church (and indeed every Christian) believes the Bible means something, and what it thinks the Bible means is its creed and confession, whether it chooses to write its beliefs down or not. Of course,...

2 or 3 times a week, I go past this church on the way home from work: No big deal, never paid it much attention. A couple of days ago, I noticed a slight change on the frontage of their property: This sort of surprised me a bit. I didn't, based upon the back and forth here, think that the OPC did "charismatic" things. This understanding was confirmed by looking at the OPC website (here). Saying, We believe that the "charismata" (those first introduced at Pentecost and further dealt with in 1 Corinthians 12-14) have ceased with the end of...

The mood Sunday morning at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church Sunday was upbeat – the pews were packed and many nodded as the pastor preached his message of forgiveness...Next month, the Presbyterian Church begins allowing those who are openly gay to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons. The new rules, which were approved in May and take effect July 10, have provoked a wide range of responses from local church leaders.They are holding town hall meetings with concerned members, sending letters explaining the rules and posting their opinions of the new ordination standards on their church websites. "It is the...

The poor girls came to the centre to study, but were abused by the person in charge of their teaching and protection. Over 25 minor girls, who had been visiting the Bethel Student Centre since they could not afford the high cost of education, were sexually exploited by 45-year-old pastor K. Shantharaju. The fear of reprimand by the church made them keep quiet and suffer the ignominy in silence. The pastor's shameful behaviour came to light recently after his wife Priyalatha made the shocking discovery. She has filed a police complaint against him and accused him of being a paedophile....

Henderson police are looking for a Las Vegas pastor wanted in connection with the sexual assault of underage girls. Otis Holland, 54, is wanted on 11 counts of sexual assault of a victim under age 16, a count of child abuse and a count of conspiracy to commit a crime, police said. Police issued the warrant last week, but said Holland may have fled to California. In December, Holland was arrested on three counts of sexual assault of a victim under age 16. During the investigation, police said they discovered allegations that Holland may have had inappropriate conduct with other...

A former Humboldt County pastor has pleaded guilty to charges that he sexual abused two girls, including one who was placed in his care. The Times-Standard of Eureka reports that 50-year-old Dino Cardelli entered his plea Monday to sex abuse and molestation charges as well as 25 counts of violating a court order to not contact the victims.

Unprecedented turmoil in recent months in local and regional Presbyterian circles — including five lay leaders in a Grand Forks congregation quitting the church after being charged with violating church rules as well as a top administrator being dismissed suddenly — was the main business at a meeting here Monday. About 50 clergy and ordained lay elders of the Presbytery of the Northern Plains gathered for the one-day “stated meeting,” one of about three held each year. Besides the leavings, the conflict also included a gag order put in place by a higher church panel that had been lifted, it...

......While Presbyterians have voted on many issues over the years, never have they been so brazen as to vote Scriptural standards out of vogue. Never have Presbyterians been so presumptuous as to "vote" that biblical standards do not apply to their denomination...... At issue is that this denomination has hit the mute button on 2,000 years of Christian belief and morality. Standards that have been honored for centuries have now been deleted, leaving Presbyterians with the following moral mandate: "whatever." Whatever a local church, or a presbytery, or some other bureaucratic subset chooses to do is now permitted. The group...

A former pastor in Chester held a demonstration outside the Presbytery of Philadelphia office Monday afternoon, alleging the Presbytery discriminated against him on racial bounds. Standing beside an empty coffin and a sign reading “Bury Discrimination,” the Rev. Richard Dalton met with reporters and spoke briefly to two curious drivers who passed along the quiet, Germantown road. A former interim pastor at Thomas M. Thomas Presbyterian Church from 2007 to 2009, Dalton has filed a retribution claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging the Presbytery of Philadelphia blocked his hire at a North Philadelphia church because he previously...

Rev. Eric Elnes, pastor of Countryside Community Church, said the proclamation was created because, “we were just fed up with the popular notion that the Christian point of view is anti-gay.” Elnes, who leads an Omaha church of 1,500 members at 87th Street and Pacific Street, said more than 100 ordained Christian ministers have signed the proclamation, including leaders from Lutheran, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Methodist and Presbyterian churches. The ministers will join together on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge to publicly unveil the proclamation and show full acceptance of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and...

Jimmy Creech spent his career as an ordained United Methodist pastor until the church took his credentials away as punishment for conducting same sex commitment ceremonies in Omaha and Chapel Hill. He was not convicted at a trial in Nebraska in 1998, but he lost his church assignment and the stage was set for a second trial in 1999 after he officiated a ceremony at United Church of Chapel Hill. Since then he has been a leader of LGBT justice issues, retired to Raleigh and travels the country speaking. He also has written an account of the upheaval, "Adam's Gift:...

Same-sex marriage continues to be held up on the hitch of the rights of churches and institutions who want the freedom to refrain from performing such ceremonies. We talked with a local minister and got his take on the issue of protecting churches from facing descrimination lawsuits. Reverand J. Barrett Lee, of the First Presbyterian Church in Boonville says he'd be willing to perform same sex marriages.

The problem I had was that what I had been told about Catholicism was simply not true; it was distorted teaching from Protestants who did not bother to discover the truth. .... Over the last several years, I have known deep down that the Catholic Church must be more than I thought it was. I fought myself and denied all the signs I was seeing. I was afraid; even though I knew deep down there can only be one truth, I would always find something to dismiss Catholicism At this time I had been a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian...

The former Director of Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary, the Rev Dr Arlo D Duba, a conservative evangelical, has changed his mind on the matter of gay Christians. “I am a life-long conservative Presbyterian,” he said. “I never got very excited