If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. (Ecclesiastes 11:3)

An expected happening or a natural result of a situation can be described by saying, “As a tree falls, so shall it lay.” Another similar saying would be, “The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.”

When a tree falls, its end is final. It’s not going to prop itself back up.

The same analogy applies in our lives. The Bible often compares trees to people. We can devise many things to manipulate the direction of our lives, and to say to ourselves, “there is still time,” but once we die, the chance for repentance is gone (Revelation 22:11).

1 Kings 22:21-22a reads, “And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”

Signs that a nation is dieing

1. When evil has poisoned the moral veins of its leaders. This may be physical or spiritual.
2. When the righteous and the wicked are joined at the head.
3. When only one prophet speaks the truth of God.
4. When a nation forgets the direct involvement of God in human affairs.
5. When morality is rejected and the saying “Do what is right in your own eyes” is commonly followed in our lives.
6. When a nation becomes a nation of lawlessness.
7. When a nation loses its economic discipline.
8. When a nation taxes its people without cause.
9. When the government becomes too big and too overpowering.
10. When the education of a nation is declining.
11. When a nation weakens its cultural foundations. See Psalm 11:3.
12. When the religious beliefs of a nation are decaying.

http://www.christianpost.com/

---

Half of pastors would leave the ministry tomorrow if they could. Seventy percent are fighting depression and 90 percent can’t cope with the challenge of ministry.

Those are the statistics Pastor Jonathan Falwell laid out to thousands of ministers who were in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday for the “Refuel” conference.

The well-known pastor stated bluntly, “Something is wrong in ministry.”

Citing surveys from such groups as Barna, LifeWay and Acts 29, Falwell lamented that 1,500 pastors walk away from ministry every month because of moral failure, burnout, conflict, discouragement or depression. He was also shocked to find that 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates will leave the ministry within their first five years.

Part of the problem, he indicated, is trying to make it to the big numbers and most influential lists or aiming for the most Twitter followers.

“I believe that we have self-imposed measurements of success that are skewed, that are wrong,” said Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church – which is notably one of the largest churches in the country.

“The measurements of success are all messed up,” he said.

While there is nothing wrong with the “Top 25″ or “Top 100″ largest churches or most influential lists, trying to make it to those lists has forced many pastors to focus on the masses rather than “the one.”

“Stop focusing on the ‘big ministry’ and the ‘big outreach,” he urged, noting that ministers place too much pressure on themselves. “Start focusing on one person, one hurting person, who’s lost, … who’s desperate to hear the Gospel.”

Falwell has been leading Thomas Road Baptist Church since 2007, after his father, Jerry Falwell, passed. He admits that his congregation is large and he can easily hand over duties of ministering to individuals, such as those in the hospital, to other pastors in the church.

But he reminded pastors on Tuesday, “We have a responsibility to minister to the one.”

And when pastors are faithful in focusing on one person at a time, Falwell believes God will then fill their churches with lots of “ones.”

So he encouraged them, “Don’t make it about the lists, the fame, … the respect. Make it about the one.”

Source

Declining Donations force3 churches to adjust strategies

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 23, 2010

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com

Even as First Baptist Church of Dallas launches a $115 million capital campaign, the most ambitious ever for a large Protestant church, congregations across the country struggle to pay everyday bills.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. churches experienced declines in church giving and offerings in 2009, the second consecutive year of significant funding drops, according to the 2010 State of the Plate surveys conducted by the Maximum Generosity ministry and Christianity Today International.

After the October 2008 stock market plunge, 29 percent of churches reported declines in giving. In 2009, 38 percent of churches responding to the survey had experienced declines.

“What normally happens is a downturn hits churches about six months after it hits everyone else, and it takes about six months after the recovery starts for churches to see that,” said Simeon May, chief executive officer for the Richardson-based National Association of Church Business Administration.

“We aren’t seeing much improvement yet.”

It’s little wonder, then, that some churches have delayed or postponed capital campaigns and focused instead on “operational giving,” said Joel Mikell, president of RSI Church Stewardship Group of Dallas, which guides 200 to 250 churches through capital campaigns each year.

“Make no mistake, the economy has influenced a number of churches in a way that makes them say, ‘Let’s wait a year … let’s wait 18 months,’ ” he said.

First Baptist Church of McKinney, for example, ultimately decided to postpone a major capital campaign because of members’ concerns about the economy, employment issues and debt.

Church leaders are increasingly cautious about income, what’s being spent and how – a reflection of the economy in their towns.

But some churches, following well-defined visions that can change lives, have decided to go ahead with major projects, “because vision always trumps the economy,” Mikell said.

“That’s why in this economy with giving being cut back in many ways, here’s this church announcing a $100 million-plus campaign,” he said.

“First Baptist’s decision to reach downtown Dallas and the community makes this a transformational situation.”

Others, though, after experiencing years of double-digit growth, are now learning to deal with a much different fiscal environment.

On Dec. 30, 2009, members of Southern California’s Saddleback Church, one of the largest in the country, received a shocking e-mail from Pastor Rick Warren.

With roughly 10 percent of the 22,000-member congregation out of work, costs of caring for the church’s Orange County community had risen dramatically. But income was stagnant.

Saddleback was able to stay on budget through prudent financial planning, Warren wrote, until “the bottom dropped out” at post-Christmas services.

“On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive,” wrote Warren, “leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow.”

Members responded with $2.4 million in last-minute donations. But Saddleback’s case points to the precarious circumstances for many churches, which, like some in their congregations, live paycheck to paycheck.

A report released earlier this year by the Barna Group, a research group focusing on faith and culture, found that budgets for Protestant churches were down about 7 percent on average from the year before. One in 11 churches lost 20 percent or more in annual income, with 2 percent reporting drops of 35 percent.

The declines come as Americans pull back in large numbers from gifts to nonprofit groups, Barna found. In interviews taken in January and February, nearly half of adults said they’d reduced contributions. The numbers weren’t quite so dire for churches, but 29 percent said they had cut donations.

“While many church donors have been able to maintain their typical level of donations, those who have cut back have dropped their giving substantially,” the Barna report noted. “Nearly one-quarter of church donors had cut contributions by 20 percent or more.”

And the number reducing donations more than doubled in 14 months.

But this isn’t a new problem, according to Scott Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, who said donations to megachurches were “basically flat between 2005 and 2008.”

“So it wasn’t a rosy picture even then,” he said. “When we look at those same things in 2010, I think we’ll see that it’s been a decade of trouble for the church, a whole lot of trouble.”

It is in that climate that First Baptist of Dallas plans to raise a total of $115 million to transform its downtown campus for 21st century ministry. But church officials are confident First Baptist can meet its goals.

“We have about $35 million right now,” senior pastor Robert Jeffress said, “so we have $80 million to go. Most of our members are not wealthy, but the people have really given sacrificially.”

Consultants like RSI – which isn’t part of First Baptist’s program – say an average capital campaign is two to three times the church’s annual income. First Baptist, with an annual income of about $15 million, is taking a large leap.

But Mikell of RSI said he has been involved with campaigns far more ambitious than the average, including one for $6 million at a church with an annual budget of about $1 million, and what began as a $105 million campaign at Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale, which has about $25 million in annual income..

“First Baptist’s is an extraordinary commitment any way you measure it,” Mikell said, “and there will be skeptics and cynics. But having been there at Calvary, I look at these and say God just showed up and did something extraordinary.”

The Calvary Chapel campaign was ultimately reduced to $85 million, mostly because a number of large commitments were tied to investments in Florida real estate, where values plunged in the recession.

But that doesn’t mean the same will happen to First Baptist, he said.

“What makes people give these kinds of dollars in a down economy? It’s important to remember that church campaigns are spiritual before they’re financial,” Mikell said. “They’re built on stewardship. ‘Everything I have is from God.’

“Secondly, they’re highly relational, because our resources follow our relationships. We have a relationship with our church.

“That’s why capital campaigns in the church typically have such extraordinary results.”

By Riley Reade

Debunking the Stereotypical Glutton

• Gluttony is a sin (Pr 23:20-21, Pr 28:7)
• Gluttony is defined as eating so much as to waste or to eat in such a greed that none is left for others, hogging it all for oneself[1]
• Gluttony cannot be judged by ones personal appearance
• Weight is not a measure of gluttony
• Gluttony is not to be confused with slothfulness
• True – obesity can be a side effect of a glutton, but not every obese person is a glutton
• True – The thinnest man in the world could be the world’s worst glutton just as much as an obese person could
• Some people can eat a lot and gain little, and some people eat a little and gain a lot
• Gluttony is an act, not a condition
• A Glutton is a condition, but not a physical image.

The World’s “Image” Problem

To be healthy is the new fad. I agree, to be healthy is indeed something that is to be strived for. But in our world we are told that health has an image, and they are dead wrong.  We are told health looks like thin, tan, green, and fashionable. Only open up any magazine or watch any TV show; the world has a “one size fits all” image problem. Just a few hundred years ago beautiful was considered to be plump and fair-skinned. Now we have shifted to tan and thin. Who is right? What about people that are naturally fair-skinned and only burn. What about people that are born with a thicker figure? Are we to judge what God has made to be “good” or “ugly”? People, and even Christians, spend hours worrying about how they look and they try to mold themselves into an image that really does not exist. Our technology has made the fake image even more so and everyone is buying it. People do not like to accept the fact that everyone is different and it is a beautiful thing. It is sad to see people kill themselves to be something they are not and should never strive to be. Being obese is unhealthy, but just as much so is an extremely thin model. Since when is it ok to look like a holocaust survivor? That is a terrible thing, and so is this deception. If we cannot judge and discern even small things such as this that our society brainwashes into us, how can we have the mind of Christ?

---

[1] Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gluttony

-The Berean Call Newsletter

Question: I have a friend who commented, “I’m so puzzled why the U.S. is giving Israel all the weapons they ask for. They’re forcibly taking over Palestine, [that has] nothing…no weapons, nothing. Israel is just bombing the heck out of them…leaving nothing and taking over everything. More people need to learn about this….Israel’s cause is not a good one, a Christian one, or a justified one in any sense of the word.” How should I answer this?

Response:Your friend’s errors concerning Israel need to be corrected. The U.S. has never given “them all the weapons they ask for.” Neither is it true that the “Palestinians” have no weapons. One of the reasons for Operation Cast Lead, the last Israeli incursion into Gaza, was that the Arabs were constantly firing missiles, rockets, and mortars into Israeli cities. Have we forgotten Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s, where, after pinning the PLO in Beirut, the PLO was evacuated to Cyprus? In 1982, I was amazed to watch trucks loaded with all sorts of munitions being loaded for transport during this evacuation.

Have we forgotten that in 1948 the UN partitioned the promised land, and the Arabs were given Gaza, the West Bank, and substantial portions of the land? They refused to accept it, and shortly thereafter, five Muslim armies invaded. Had they accepted the land, the so called Palestinians would have had their state then. The term “Palestinian” was only adopted because the Arabs perceived its political value. Not too long before the Six-Day War, the Jews were called “Palestinians.” During WWII, the British had a Palestinian Brigade, all Jews. The Palestinian Post(now The Jerusalem Post) was a Jewish newspaper. The Palestinian Symphony was an all-Jewish orchestra.

There is certainly enough documentation to demonstrate that Arabs wanted nothing to do with the name “Palestinian” or “Palestine” until they saw the advantage of the same. As Walid Shoebat has asked, “Why is it that on June 4th, 1967, I was a Jordanian and overnight I became a Palestinian?” Consider the following quote: “There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it” (Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937).

If Israel is “bombing the heck out of them…leaving nothing and taking over everything,” why did they relocate settlers out of Gaza and turn it over to Hamas? It cannot be overemphasized that the Palestinian Charter has always called for the literal destruction of Israel. We often forget that Islamic prophecy demands the literal extermination of every Jew. Imams are often fond of quoting from the hadith: “Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him’” (Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177). The “hour” means “the last day.” So, for the last day to come, the last Jew must be killed. This is Muslim theology.

Some feel that the Jews no longer occupy a special position with the Lord. Jeremiah 31 spoke of the time to come when the Lord would make a new covenant with them. In that day, the nation of Israel would no longer need the old covenant that He had made with their fathers (i.e., the law). More wonderful yet, each one would know the Lord from the least of them unto the greatest (vv. 31-34). This same passage states that the Lord has given specific signs (the sun, moon, and stars), promising that He will never totally cast away the nation of Israel. If there is no sunrise, phases of the moon, or the stars cease shining, we’ll absolutely know that the Lord has cast away Israel. We must not let our preconceptions dictate the pronouncement of Scripture.

by Pat Holiday

Mark dedicates more of his account to Jesus’ miracles than any of the other Gospel writers. For Mark, these miracles were a demonstration of Jesus’ power. His power over disease, death, to provide food, His authority to forgive sin, the forces of evil, power over evil spirits not in His immediate proximity, power to heal the blind, and even over nature.

Many flocked to Him to be healed and fed. Some wondered who Jesus was. However, others followed Him. Jesus is a miracle worker.

• Water changed to wine, (Jn. 2:9).
• Nobleman’s son, (Jn. 4:46).
• Drought of fishes, (Lk. 5:6).
• Demoniac in the synagogue, (Mk, 1:26; Lk. 4:35).
• Peter’s mother-in-law healed, (Matt. 8:14; Mk. 1:31, Lu. 4:38).
• Cleansing the leper, (Mt. 8:3; Mk. 1:41; Lk. 5:13).
• Paralytic, (Matt. 9:2; Mk. 2:3; Lk. 5:18).
• Impotent man healed, (Jn. 5:5).
• Withered hand, (Mt. 12:10; Mk 3:1; Lk. 6:6).
• Centurions’ servant, (Mt. 8:5; Lk. 7:2).
• Raising the widow’s son, (Lk. 7:11).
• Demoniac, (Mt. 12:22; Lk. 7:11).
• Tempests stilled, (Mt. 8:26; Mk. 4:39; Lk. 8:24).
• Raising of Jarius’ daughter, (Mt. 9:18; Mk. 5: 42; Lk. 8:41).
• Issue of Blood, (Matt. 9:20; Mk. 5:25; Lk. 8:43).
• Blind men, (Mt. 9:27).
• Demoniac, (Mt. 9:32).
• Feeding five thousand, 9Mt. 14:15; Mk 9:41; Lk. 9:12; Jn. 6:5).
• Walking on the sea, (Mt. 14:25; Mk. 6:26; Lk. 9:37).
• The daughter of Syro-Phoenician, (Mt. 15:22; Mk. 7:25).
• Feeding the four thousand, (Mt. 15:32; Mk. 8:8).
• Deaf and dumb healed, (Mk 7:33).
• Blind man, (Mk. 8:23).
• A lunatic child, (Mt. 17:14; Mk. 9:26; Lk. 9:37).
• Tribute money, (Mt. 17:24).
• Ten lepers, (Lk. 17:12).
• Blind man, (Jn. 9:1).
• Lazarus raised, (Jn. 11).
• Heals the woman with the spirit of infirmity,( Lk. 13:11).
• Man with dropsy, (L. 14:2).
• Blind men. (Mt. 20:30; Mk. 10:46).
• Cursing the fig-tree, (Mt. 21:19).
• Malchus healed, (Lk. 22:51).
• Second drought of fishes, (Jn. 21:6).
• His resurrection, (Lk. 24:6; Jn. 10:18).
• Appearing to his disciples. (Mt. 14:14; 15:29-31).
• Ascension to heaven. (Mk .16:19).

Peter miracle worker

• Lame man cured, (Act. 3:7).
• Ananias and Sapphira, (Act 5:5; 5:10).
• Aeneas, (Acts :34); Dorcas, (Acts 9:40).

Paul is a miracle worker

• Elymas blinded, (Acts 13:11).
• Lame man cured, (Acts 14:10).
• Damsel with the spirit of divination, (Acts 16:18; 19:11).
• Eutychus restored to life, (Acts 20:10).
• Viper’s bite, (Acts 28:5).
• Father of Publius healed, (Acts 28:8.
• Other special miracles by Paul, (Acts. 14:3; 19.11.

Miracles performed by the disciples and apostles.

• By the seventy, (Lk. 10-17).
• By Stephen, (Acts 6:8).
• By Philip, (Acts 8:6-13).
• Design of, that men might know the power of the Lord.

In his statement about looking at a woman lustfully (Mat 5:28) he acknowledges that men are attracted to woman visually, see Adams comments on seeing Eve for the first time:

(Gen 2:22-23) Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. {23} The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman, ‘ for she was taken out of man.”

Pornography is not a modern phenomenon, it has existed for millennium, but modern technology has made it more realistic through print, film or video. Pornography is closely allied to idolatry because one is worshipping the image of a woman and attempting to become one flesh with the image. It encourages mental promiscuity, it is never satisfied, it never finds fulfillment other than an orgasm, it is searching for perfection, the original Eve. It exalts and idolizes one’s image of woman, but at its heart is the amelioration of the inner loneliness of Adam, but it fails because it involves an image of a woman. There is no commitment involved. The joys and difficulties involved with a real woman are not encountered, she is an image of man’s creation. She is passive unlike a real woman, who responds to ones caresses.

Source

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/12/2010 22:14 -0500

And all the pundits thought that the IMF would be on the hook for just €10 billion… The IMF has just announced that it is expanding its New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB) multilateral facility from its existing $50 billion by a whopping $500 billion (SDR333.5 billion), to $550 billion. The current lending participant group of 26 entities will be increased by 13 new members all of whom will contribute token amount of capital to the NAB. The one country most on the hook in the new and revised NAB – the United States of America, will provide over $105 billion in total commitments, or 20% of the total facility. The US is currently on the hook for just $10 billion, meaning its participation in global bail outs just increased by $95 billion. And the bulk of these bailouts will certainly be located across the Atlantic. What is most troublesome is the massive expansion of the NAR. If the IMF believes that over half a trillion in short-term funding is needed imminently, is all hell about to break loose.

Never one to present a realistic picture Dominique (or is that Mrs, Pisani?) Strauss-Khan said: “The expansion and enlargement of the NAB borrowing arrangements provides a very strong multilateral foundation for the Fund’s efforts in crisis prevention and resolution, as an essential back-stop to the Fund’s quota resources. This will help ensure that the Fund has access to adequate resources to help members that are vulnerable to financial crises.”

If memory serves us right, the Fund’s current resources give it acces to about a third of a trillion, so as of today the IMF has recourse funding to just under a trillion. Something big must be coming.

Some more details on the NAB from the just released PR:

The NAB is a standing set of credit arrangements under which participants commit resources to IMF lending when these are needed to supplement quota resources. The expanded NAB will become operational when it receives formal acceptances from the required proportion of current and potential participants, which will require legislative backing in some cases.¹
“The expansion of the NAB will make an important contribution to global financial stability, but it is not a substitute for a general increase in the Fund’s quota resources. The Fund is, and shall remain, a quota-based institution. It is important now that member countries rapidly take the necessary steps to make the increased resources available,” Mr. Strauss-Kahn underscored.
Background
The NAB is a credit arrangement between the IMF and a group of members and institutions to provide supplementary resources to the IMF when these are needed to forestall or cope with an impairment of the international monetary system. The NAB is supplementary to quota resources, which are made up of the quota subscriptions each country pays upon joining the Fund, broadly based on its relative size in the world economy. IMF members’ quotas currently total SDR 217.4 billion (about US$330 billion). Like quota allocations, the NAB is reviewed on a regular basis.
The recent unprecedented shock confronting the global economy has led to a sharp increase in the demand for IMF financing. To ensure that the IMF continues to have sufficient resources to meet demand, leaders of the G-20 agreed in April 2009 that immediate financing from members of US$250 billion would subsequently be folded into an expanded and more flexible NAB, increased by up to $500 billion. This call was endorsed by the IMFC. The G-20 leaders reaffirmed their commitment on September 25, 2009 to a tripling of the resources available to the IMF, from a pre-crisis level of about US$250 billion. At its meeting in October 2009, the IMFC welcomed the expected agreement to expand and enhance the NAB. Pending the entering into force of the expanded NAB, member countries have pledged more than $300 billion in immediate bilateral financing should the Fund require additional resources for lending.

We have a few questions:

1) Just where will central banks suddenly find access to over three hundred billion in SDRs (which is what this facility is based on)? Also, we are curious just how this SDR expansion will impact dollar levels. As the dollar is the primary component in the SDR basket (17%), banks will have to sell more dollars than other currencies on a pro rata basis to increase their SDR holdings. What will happen to the DXY when $85 billion new dollars flood the market via assorted CBs but mostly the FRBNY?

2) Who came up with the expansion factor? Why is Japan’s allocation increasing by 18.7x, that of the US by 10.4x, while that of the Bundesbank only by 7.2x? We thought the IMF is more of a eurocentric bailout facility? Why does it fall upon the US taxpayers to disproprtionately bailout Greece?

3) What is the joke with having Greece join the group of new participants? The IMF sure has a sick sense of humor.

4) Curious how this comes the day before Greece is supposed to auction off some ultra-short term debt. If this facility is enacted, watch for socereign credit curves to hit 60 degrees, with near-term risk disappearing, once again courtesy of Joe Sixpack. We hope you pay your taxes by the April 15 deadline.

5) Funny money will galore. At this point nobody will allow anyone or anything to fail.

Here is the full table of old and existing contributors. Congrats US – you are once again leading the charge in the world bailout.

By Pat Holiday

“And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet show I unto you a more excellent way,” (I Cor.12:28-31).

The apostle Paul says in (Eph. 4:11), that “Jesus gave.” This passage also says, “God set.” It doesn’t say that Peter Wagner gives the Body of Christ Apostles or prophets… Jesus gave and God sets them into the Body of Christ. Notice this Corinthians’ passage calls the Body of Christ “the Church.”

The Church is the Body of Christ. The Gift of Miracles is a supernatural gift that God gives for the Body of Christ is the Church. The Holy Ghost sets ministry gifts in the Church – not man. There is a vast difference between God’s setting some in the Church and a man setting some in the Church. A study of Church history reveals how down through the centuries various groups have endeavored to get back to what they call New Testament practices.

They’ve set up Institutions which often were something man manufactured – something in the flesh, something carnal. These men “called” and “set” people who had no divine calling into certain offices.

• This is unscriptural.
• God does the setting.
• God does the calling.
• You simply do not enter the ministry, any phase of it, just because “you” feel it is a holy calling and “you” want to do it.
• You never enter the ministry because “someone else” tells you that you are suited for it.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the boy of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we hence forth be no more children, tossed to AND FRO, AND CARRIED ABOUT WITH EVERY WIND OF DOCTRINE, BY THE SLEIGHT OF MEN, AND CUNNING CRAFTINESS, WHEREBY THEY LIE IN WAIT TO DECEIVE,” (Eph. 4:11-14).

If God calls you, then he will properly prepare you through study of the Word and your committed walk with Jesus.

Acts 9:13-16, –“ Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: 14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. 15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” KJV

The PROOF and the POWER of the RESURRECTION

by Eric Barger

This article is taken from Eric Barger’s live seminar teaching and video presentation
“The PROOF and the POWER of the RESURRECTION.”

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins…If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
I Corinthians 15:12, 17, 19

Today, the life and deeds of Jesus Christ are perhaps under more skeptical scrutiny than at any time since His earthly life some 2000 years ago. Along with the virgin birth, the nature of the miraculous in His ministry and of course His very deity have long been the target of many skeptical claims and theories. However, no facet of Jesus’ life is as contested as is His bodily resurrection from the dead.

The resurrection is certainly one of the most debated and perhaps the most critical of the major doctrines that comprise the bedrock of Christianity itself. Though each of the so-called “central” or “essential” doctrines relating to Jesus’ godhood are equally important, the physical resurrection from the tomb stands as the very lynchpin of the Christian faith. That is, all other claims about Jesus find overwhelming validation and completion in His triumph over the grave. It proved His deity as the Son of God whom the Scriptures foretold and it gave those who would place their trust in Him the greatest hope of all – the assurance of eternal life (I Corinthians 15: 12-19, 51-57). My hope is that in this reading your faith will increase and that you will gain more awareness of the utter necessity for Christians to be ready “to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you…” (I Peter 3:15).

24 / 7 / 365

I hope it is evident that the resurrection of the Lord is a pivotal event, the scope of which goes far beyond the yearly commemoration of Passion Week. In fact, it is no overstatement to conclude that the resurrection of Jesus is an event on which the very existence of the Church depends. I often comment that if the events ofJesus’ earthly life accomplished the fulfillment of the other 323 Messianic prophecies concerning the Jewish Messiah – yet had He remained lifeless in the grave – then, regardless of the sum of His great works, example and teaching, He was NOT the Savior. Thus, without a physical resurrection from death, He couldNOT have been the Messiah and we are then still hopelessly lost in our sins and destined for eternal separation from God.

In our day, when doctrine is undermined, ignored and replaced by feelings, flesh and sloppy exegesis, I find myself often embroiled in discussions with those who want to claim the title of “Christian” yet do not hold to the essential teaching that actually allows one to use the term. Bluntly put, one cannot be an authentic “Christian” and at the same time deny essential doctrines such as the virgin birth, sinless life, deity and resurrection of Jesus. While they may be sincere, devout and very religious, those who deny these and other essentials (see The Apostles Creed) are also sincerely deceived, horribly mistaken and lost.

RESURRECTION FACT? – THREE SOURCES

There are three sources to consider when examining the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.

1 - Eyewitness Accounts

2 - Scriptural Evidence

3 - Statistical Evidence

So with that, let’s examine the evidence for the resurrection.

1 - Eyewitness Accounts

After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
The Apostle Paul, 55 AD (I Corinthians 15:6)

Skeptics enjoy pointing out that the only known eyewitnesses that lend credence to Christ’s resurrection are those mentioned in the New Testament. While this is true, when one understands the reliability of the Bible as a history book it actually adds to our contention that Jesus came out of the tomb alive. We only have miniscule recorded data from ancient times as opposed to the veritable overflow of information being created today…not everyone blogged on the Internet or surfed through hundreds of cable channels back then!

The above statement by Paul holds tremendous weight. Five Hundred Eyewitnesses? Think of that. Paul is chiding the Corinthians, rebuking them for entertaining any thought that Jesus could still be in the tomb. If five hundred people witnessed any event today we can rest assured that it would be recorded as a bonafide historical event! The fact that this account is found in the Bible should be of no controversy to us either.

The Bible is the best kept record in the history of mankind. No other book (actually 66 different unique letters and accounts) has been so well guarded. The Old Testament stands as the longest kept record in the history of mankind. It is a common argument of the skeptics that the text is inaccurate because of language translations and the passing of time itself. This idea is dismissed for several reasons but becomes nearly laughable when one examines the fact that we have manuscripts dating back thousands of years that were copied meticulously by scribes who knew that if they changed anything (i.e. “one jot or tittle”) from one copy to another it would cost them their very lives. The New Testament was carefully recorded and maintained with the same standards as was the Old Testament.

So, when the New Testament speaks of or records information concerning the direct encounters people had with the risen, glorified Christ, can it not be trusted for pure historical content? Of course – providing one’s skepticism doesn’t outweigh one’s quest for truth.

2 - Scriptural Evidence

Obviously, we have plenty of biblical evidence for the resurrection. Here are just a few instances:

- The resurrected Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18).

- He appeared to other women (Matthew 28:8-10).

- The longest such event took place as Jesus walked up to seven miles with Cleopas and his unnamed companion (perhaps his wife?) on the road to Emmaus. As they walked, Jesus unfolded a “prophetic apologetic” concerning Himself (Luke 24:13-32).

- Jesus appeared to eleven disciples as well as others (Luke 24:33-49).

- He appeared to ten of the apostles and others (John 20:19-23).

- The famous “He is Lord and God” encounter with Thomas and the other apostles (John 20:26-30).

- He appeared to the apostles several more times (John 21:1-14, Matthew 28:16-20, Luke 24:50-52 and Acts 1:4-9).

- Saul (soon to be Paul) encountered the risen Lord in Acts 9:3-9 as well.

3 - Statistical Evidence

There is no doubt that to reach the most intellectual around us a statistic or two may get their attention. As a good friend of mine says, “Bait the hook with what the fish are biting on.” So let’s examine a couple of interesting, make that mind-blowing, facts.

In the 1950’s a statistician named Peter Stoner wrote a book entitled Science Speaks. In the book he examined the mathematical odds for any person perfectly fulfilling just 8 of the 324 Messianic prophecies and yet not being the Messiah.

Prophecies such as: Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), Messiah is to be preceded by a Messenger (John the Baptist) (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1), Messiah is to enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), Messiah is to be silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7) and four other documented events prophesied in the Old Testament and completely fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.

Stoner states that the statistical probability of any man fulfilling just these eight prophecies as Jesus did and yet not have been the Messiah is 1 in 10 to the 17^thpower. Friend, that’s 100,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 !!!

Stoner illustrates this number by supposing that we take 10 to the 17th power the amount of silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover theentire state of Texas in stacks two feet deep. He then says, to take one silver dollar and mark it and stir the whole mass thoroughly.

Now blindfold a man and tell him he can travel the entire state – roughly 850 miles east to west and 900 miles north to south – but instruct the man that he must then pick up one silver dollar on the first try and show that it is the right one, which has been marked. What are his chances? 1 in 10 to the 17th power.

If one investigates just 48 of the O.T. prophecies fulfilled in Jesus’ life, the number is 1 in 10 to the 152^nd power, or roughly double the amount of electrons in the entire Universe! Truly, if a person is honest, statistical probability of fulfilled prophesy destroys skepticism!

SO WHY DOESN’T EVERYBODY BELIEVE?

To allow themselves to feel better about sin and to remain firmly planted as their own “god,” men have devised many theories concerning the resurrection. After all, if He didn’t rise from the dead, then all bets on Christianity are off and we’re free to live any old way that we so choose.

Concerning theories, my vicarious mentor, the late Dr. Walter Martin, said: “A theory is a magnificently developed idea ganged up on by a brutal bunch of facts.”How true. In my seminar presentation we examine each of these theories and several others to see if there is any possibility of truth lurking about in them. Limited space allows just a mention of them here.

The Wrong Tomb Theory – The women went to the wrong tomb and thus led Peter and the others there as well and nobody figured it out. Hummm, I can think of one group who would have corrected such as error – the Pharisees! As soon as Peter began raising havoc by proclaiming the Gospel they would have directed everyone to the “right” tomb – if Jesus had still been there!

The Swoon Theory - This theory espouses that Jesus never died on the cross but merely passed out and was mistakenly considered dead. Then, after three days He revived, muscled his way out of the grave clothes, rolled away a stone weighing approximately 2000 lbs, exited the tomb and overwhelmed a group of Roman soldiers single-handedly and appeared to His disciples unscathed who believed He had risen from the dead.

Dr. Hugh J. Sconfield’s book The Passover Plot taught this. German apostate Frederick Schlermocher did also. If you believe this could be true, may I suggest that, regardless of any theological disagreements you may have with Mel Gibson, you see the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and tell me if you believe that a man could survive without food, water and medical attention for three days and then come strolling out of the tomb ready to assume His duties as the Savior of the world! This theory also makes Jesus into a LIAR.

The Replacement Theory -Taught by Islam in the Koran and believed by many non-Muslims, the replacement theory suggests that someone took Jesus’ place at the foot of the Cross and died in His place allowing Him to slip away without anyone noticing!!?

The Stolen Body Theory – Depending on who is espousing this theory, the ideas are in direct conflict. First, one theory states that the Jews/Romans removed the body for “safe keeping.” If the Romans or Jews had the body, they could have brought it out and, as Dr. Martin taught, “paraded the rotting corpse down the streets of Jerusalem” and simply destroyed Christianity on the spot.

This theory goes up in smoke because of the Biblical record and because of logic as well.

This particular Stolen Body theory is in direct conflict with the one mentioned in Matthew 28. If the Jews or Romans had the body, why did they need to accuse the disciples of stealing it and in doing so give healthy bribes to the soldiers who were standing watch at the tomb? (Matt. 28:11-15 records this.) This leads us to the other “stolen body” theory.

If the disciples had the body and were merely attempting to fake Christ’s resurrection, then we’re faced with accusing the disciples of being completely lunatic.

Wouldn’t the idea of the disciples possessing the non-resurrected body of Jesus put a damper on every one of them preaching a bold faced lie that would eventually cost them their own lives and also the lives of dozens, if not hundreds of their family and friends?

Somebody would have cracked and eventually admitted that the resurrection was actually a hoax. Considering that all of the disciples except John died of martyrdom (and John’s exile to the island of Patmos wasn’t a vacation!), the supposition that they stole the body of Jesus is so far out that no further comment is needed. (Matthew didn’t comment on it either in Matthew 28.)

So if the body of Jesus wasn’t taken from the tomb by the Jews, the Romans or the disciples as the soldiers watched, our next theory needs examination…it is“The Sleeping Soldiers Theory.”

The Sleeping Soldier Theory – First, Roman guards were not likely to fall asleep with such an important duty. But if the soldiers were sleeping, how did they “know” it was the disciples who stole the body? It could have been someone else!

Second, it seems physically impossible for the disciples to sneak past the sleeping soldiers and then move a two-ton stone up an incline in absolute silence, unwrap the body, rewrap it in grave clothes they brought with them, and finish by carefully folding the head piece neatly next to the linen? PLEASE…give it a rest!!! Certainly the guards would have heard something.

Third, the tomb was secured with a Roman seal. Anyone who moved the stone would break the seal, an offense punishable by death. Do you think the disciples were ready for that after watching their leader’s horrible death? Not yet…not without RESURRECTION POWER!

RESURRECTION POWER !!!

You see, the world can have their theories as to why they think Christ didn’tresurrect and we Christians can have our evidences as to why we know that Hedid. But when it comes down to it, the real proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is in the fact that after 2000 years that same power that brought forth the King of Kings from the dead is still rescuing sinners from spiritual death; still healing sickness and disease and still setting captives free from the bondage of Satan’s grip!

What could have possibly motivated Peter to boldly preach “Christ and Him crucified” just 40 days after denying that he even knew Him? It was RESURRECTION POWER!

It is this same power that has driven Christians worldwide to proclaim “He is Risen” for 2000 years – even if in doing so it meant torture or death.

I encourage you to use the facts surrounding His resurrection as you dialog with the lost following the biblical command to “defend the faith” (Jude 3) and give men answers for the hope that lies within you” (I Peter 3:15). But I encourage you to celebrate, walk in and magnify the power of the resurrected Christ in every facet of your life. There is an unspeakable reward for those who will diligently seek Him on “resurrection day” and also the subsequent 364 days of the year.

Source

December 30, 2009 | 10:25 pm

Pastor Rick Warren, the Orange County evangelist who generated controversy for giving the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, has called on followers to donate nearly $1 million in the next two days to make up for a shortfall in donations.

Late Wednesday night, Warren posted a letter on his Saddleback Church website telling congregants that Christmas offerings were far less than anticipated.

“This is an urgent letter unlike any I’ve written in 30 years,” Warren wrote. “On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive — leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow.”

A spokesman for the Lake Forest church said Saddleback provides many charity services each year, based on what it anticipates in donations. Because of the struggling economy, Christmas time donations are down, while demand for services like food pantries is up.

“Basically, the church is having to do more with less,” said A. Larry Ross. According to the website, 10% of the “church family” is out of work.

Ross said it was still unclear what the potential consequences of the shortfall would be.

It was almost a year ago that Warren chose to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration. The choice generated protests from civil rights groups that were angered by Warren’s support of Proposition 8, the California measure that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

– Monte Morin

07:33 AM CST on Tuesday, December 8, 2009

By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News

A Dallas private equity firm co-founded by Robert A. Schuller, the former televangelist from the Hour of Power, has acquired two media companies in Atlanta that nearly quadruple its reach to 50 million U.S. households.

ComStar Media said Monday that it’s buying FamilyNet Television and FamilyNet Radio for an undisclosed amount.

“It’s a pretty big leap,” said ComStar co-founder and chief executive Chris Wyatt, who is Schuller’s son-in-law. “No one knows who we are in Dallas, and we run two major television networks.”

Wyatt hopes to change that.

He projects that ComStar’s $5 million in revenue will at least double next year.

Wyatt and Schuller, who is chairman of ComStar, started the company late last year to buy distressed faith-based media companies. Its first fund has a target of $10 million, but the next fund will shoot for $50 million, Wyatt said.

In May, ComStar made its first acquisition, AmericanLife Television Network, which reaches 13 million households, moving it from Washington, D.C. ComStar is moving FamilyNet to Dallas, transferring a handful of employees, Wyatt said.

Officials with Atlanta-based In Touch Ministries, owner of the two FamilyNet companies, did not return phone calls.

“What we’re doing is acquiring these networks that are losing money and turning them around,” said Wyatt, who founded social networking sites GodTube.com and Communities.com. “We’re going to combine them next year and rebrand and relaunch everything, and then rebrand our Web strategy. We’ll use the networks to drive traffic online and vice versa.”

Wyatt said he doesn’t know what the new name will be yet.

Last month, Schuller kicked off a pilot for an AmericanLife TV program called Everyday Life, which also will run on FamilyNet, Wyatt said. It was Schuller’s first TV appearance since leaving the megachurch founded by his father, Robert H. Schuller, in Orange County, Calif., in a family feud and stepping down from the Crystal Cathedral’s Hour of Power TV program last year.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the younger Schuller would start his own television and Internet ministry.

FamilyNet Television comes with a library of classic shows, such as Happy Days and My Three Sons, and original productions, such as Focus on the Family and The Dave Ramsey Show.

While ComStar’s deal is small compared with last week’s $30 billion deal for Comcast to acquire NBC Universal from General Electric, both purchases reflect an overall industry in transition.

“Technology has changed radically in the past five to 10 years,” said John Craft, a national expert in television media and professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University. “Habits have changed. We no longer use media the same way. Coupled with the recession, there are a lot of media companies in trouble.”

However, family programming has been growing, media experts say.

“The big leader in this space for a long time has been Pat Robertson’s CBN,” said Alan Albarran, a professor at the University of North Texas’ Department of Radio, Television and Film. “There’s always been a niche for religion as value-based programming even back to the early days of radio. History has pointed out that there have always been concerns about media whether it [has] been sex or violence. The conservative movement has helped drive that.”

Wyatt said the company plans more acquisitions and plans to hire people to add to its staff of 30 or so.

by Andrew McGowan

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?
The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

Learn more about the history of Christmas and the date of Jesus’ birth in the free e-book The First Christmas: The Story of Jesus’ Birth in History and Tradition.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point.
This stands in sharp contrast to the very early traditions surrounding Jesus’ last days. Each of the Four Gospels provides detailed information about the time of Jesus’ death. According to John, Jesus is crucified just as the Passover lambs are being sacrificed. This would have occurred on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, just before the Jewish holiday began at sundown (considered the beginning of the 15th day because in the Hebrew calendar, days begin at sundown). In Matthew, Mark and Luke, however, the Last Supper is held after sundown, on the beginning of the 15th. Jesus is crucified the next morning—still, the 15th.a
Easter, a much earlier development than Christmas, was simply the gradual Christian reinterpretation of Passover in terms of Jesus’ Passion. Its observance could even be implied in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 5:7–8: “Our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the festival…”); it was certainly a distinctively Christian feast by the mid-second century C.E., when the apocryphal text known as the Epistle to the Apostles has Jesus instruct his disciples to “make commemoration of [his] death, that is, the Passover.”
Jesus’ ministry, miracles, Passion and Resurrection were often of most interest to first- and early-second-century C.E. Christian writers. But over time, Jesus’ origins would become of increasing concern. We can begin to see this shift already in the New Testament. The earliest writings—Paul and Mark—make no mention of Jesus’ birth. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke provide well-known but quite different accounts of the event—although neither specifies a date. In the second century C.E., further details of Jesus’ birth and childhood are related in apocryphal writings such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Proto-Gospel of James.b These texts provide everything from the names of Jesus’ grandparents to the details of his education—but not the date of his birth.
Finally, in about 200 C.E., a Christian teacher in Egypt makes reference to the date Jesus was born. According to Clement of Alexandria, several different days had been proposed by various Christian groups. Surprising as it may seem, Clement doesn’t mention December 25 at all. Clement writes: “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20 in our calendar]…And treating of His Passion, with very great accuracy, some say that it took place in the 16th year of Tiberius, on the 25th of Phamenoth [March 21]; and others on the 25th of Pharmuthi [April 21] and others say that on the 19th of Pharmuthi [April 15] the Savior suffered. Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21].”2
Clearly there was great uncertainty, but also a considerable amount of interest, in dating Jesus’ birth in the late second century. By the fourth century, however, we find references to two dates that were widely recognized—and now also celebrated—as Jesus’ birthday: December 25 in the western Roman Empire and January 6 in the East (especially in Egypt and Asia Minor). The modern Armenian church continues to celebrate Christmas on January 6; for most Christians, however, December 25 would prevail, while January 6 eventually came to be known as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. The period between became the holiday season later known as the 12 days of Christmas.
The earliest mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth-century Roman almanac that lists the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed, December 25, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae: “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”3 In about 400 C.E., Augustine of Hippo mentions a local dissident Christian group, the Donatists, who apparently kept Christmas festivals on December 25, but refused to celebrate the Epiphany on January 6, regarding it as an innovation. Since the Donatist group only emerged during the persecution under Diocletian in 312 C.E. and then remained stubbornly attached to the practices of that moment in time, they seem to represent an older North African Christian tradition.
In the East, January 6 was at first not associated with the magi alone, but with the Christmas story as a whole.

Click to view a slide show of larger images and captions.
So, almost 300 years after Jesus was born, we finally find people observing his birth in midwinter. But how had they settled on the dates December 25 and January 6?
There are two theories today: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient).4
The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.
Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus’ birth: The church father Ambrose (c. 339–397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don’t think the date was chosen by the church. Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods.
It’s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts. A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday.5 In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bible scholars spurred on by the new study of comparative religions latched on to this idea.6 They claimed that because the early Christians didn’t know when Jesus was born, they simply assimilated the pagan solstice festival for their own purposes, claiming it as the time of the Messiah’s birth and celebrating it accordingly.
More recent studies have shown that many of the holiday’s modern trappings do reflect pagan customs borrowed much later, as Christianity expanded into northern and western Europe. The Christmas tree, for example, has been linked with late medieval druidic practices. This has only encouraged modern audiences to assume that the date, too, must be pagan.
There are problems with this popular theory, however, as many scholars recognize. Most significantly, the first mention of a date for Christmas (c. 200) and the earliest celebrations that we know about (c. 250–300) come in a period when Christians were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions of such an obvious character.
Granted, Christian belief and practice were not formed in isolation. Many early elements of Christian worship—including eucharistic meals, meals honoring martyrs and much early Christian funerary art—would have been quite comprehensible to pagan observers. Yet, in the first few centuries C.E., the persecuted Christian minority was greatly concerned with distancing itself from the larger, public pagan religious observances, such as sacrifices, games and holidays. This was still true as late as the violent persecutions of the Christians conducted by the Roman emperor Diocletian between 303 and 312 C.E.
This would change only after Constantine converted to Christianity. From the mid-fourth century on, we do find Christians deliberately adapting and Christianizing pagan festivals. A famous proponent of this practice was Pope Gregory the Great, who, in a letter written in 601 C.E. to a Christian missionary in Britain, recommended that local pagan temples not be destroyed but be converted into churches, and that pagan festivals be celebrated as feasts of Christian martyrs. At this late point, Christmas may well have acquired some pagan trappings. But we don’t have evidence of Christians adopting pagan festivals in the third century, at which point dates for Christmas were established. Thus, it seems unlikely that the date was simply selected to correspond with pagan solar festivals.
The December 25 feast seems to have existed before 312—before Constantine and his conversion, at least. As we have seen, the Donatist Christians in North Africa seem to have know it from before that time. Furthermore, in the mid- to late fourth century, church leaders in the eastern Empire concerned themselves not with introducing a celebration of Jesus’ birthday, but with the addition of the December date to their traditional celebration on January 6.7
There is another way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25: Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover. This view was first suggested to the modern world by French scholar Louis Duchesne in the early 20th century and fully developed by American Thomas Talley in more recent years.8 But they were certainly not the first to note a connection between the traditional date of Jesus’ death and his birth.
Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus diedc was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar.9 March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception.10 Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.d
This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled On Solstices and Equinoxes, which appears to come from fourth-century North Africa. The treatise states: “Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.”11 Based on this, the treatise dates Jesus’ birth to the winter solstice.
Augustine, too, was familiar with this association. In On the Trinity (c. 399–419) he writes: “For he [Jesus] is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before him nor since. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.”12
In the East, too, the dates of Jesus’ conception and death were linked. But instead of working from the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the easterners used the 14th of the first spring month (Artemisios) in their local Greek calendar—April 6 to us. April 6 is, of course, exactly nine months before January 6—the eastern date for Christmas. In the East too, we have evidence that April was associated with Jesus’ conception and crucifixion. Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis writes that on April 6, “The lamb was shut up in the spotless womb of the holy virgin, he who took away and takes away in perpetual sacrifice the sins of the world.”13 Even today, the Armenian Church celebrates the Annunciation in early April (on the 7th, not the 6th) and Christmas on January 6.e
Thus, we have Christians in two parts of the world calculating Jesus’ birth on the basis that his death and conception took place on the same day (March 25 or April 6) and coming up with two close but different results (December 25 and January 6).
Connecting Jesus’ conception and death in this way will certainly seem odd to modern readers, but it reflects ancient and medieval understandings of the whole of salvation being bound up together. One of the most poignant expressions of this belief is found in Christian art. In numerous paintings of the angel’s Annunciation to Mary—the moment of Jesus’ conception—the baby Jesus is shown gliding down from heaven on or with a small cross (see photo of detail from Master Bertram’s Annunciation scene); a visual reminder that the conception brings the promise of salvation through Jesus’ death.
The notion that creation and redemption should occur at the same time of year is also reflected in ancient Jewish tradition, recorded in the Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud preserves a dispute between two early-second-century C.E. rabbis who share this view, but disagree on the date: Rabbi Eliezer states: “In Nisan the world was created; in Nisan the Patriarchs were born; on Passover Isaac was born…and in Nisan they [our ancestors] will be redeemed in time to come.” (The other rabbi, Joshua, dates these same events to the following month, Tishri.)14 Thus, the dates of Christmas and Epiphany may well have resulted from Christian theological reflection on such chronologies: Jesus would have been conceived on the same date he died, and born nine months later.15
In the end we are left with a question: How did December 25 become Christmas? We cannot be entirely sure. Elements of the festival that developed from the fourth century until modern times may well derive from pagan traditions. Yet the actual date might really derive more from Judaism—from Jesus’ death at Passover, and from the rabbinic notion that great things might be expected, again and again, at the same time of the year—than from paganism. Then again, in this notion of cycles and the return of God’s redemption, we may perhaps also be touching upon something that the pagan Romans who celebrated Sol Invictus, and many other peoples since, would have understood and claimed for their own too.16

Notes
1. Origen, Homily on Leviticus 8.
2. Clement, Stromateis 1.21.145. In addition, Christians in Clement’s native Egypt seem to have known a commemoration of Jesus’ baptism—sometimes understood as the moment of his divine choice, and hence as an alternate “incarnation” story—on the same date (Stromateis 1.21.146). See further on this point Thomas J. Talley, Origins of the Liturgical Year, 2nd ed. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991), pp. 118–120, drawing on Roland H. Bainton, “Basilidian Chronology and New Testament Interpretation,” Journal of Biblical Literature 42 (1923), pp. 81–134; and now especially Gabriele Winkler, “The Appearance of the Light at the Baptism of Jesus and the Origins of the Feast of the Epiphany,” in Maxwell Johnson, ed., Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), pp. 291–347.
3. The Philocalian Calendar.
4. Scholars of liturgical history in the English-speaking world are particularly skeptical of the “solstice” connection; see Susan K. Roll, “The Origins of Christmas: The State of the Question,” in Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), pp. 273–290, especially pp. 289–290.
5. A gloss on a manuscript of Dionysius Bar Salibi, d. 1171; see Talley, Origins, pp. 101–102.
6. Prominent among these was Paul Ernst Jablonski; on the history of scholarship see especially Roll, “The Origins of Christmas,” pp. 277–283.
7. For example, Gregory of Nazianzen, Oratio 38; John Chrysostom, In Diem Natalem.
8. Louis Duchesne, Origines du culte Chrétien, 5th ed. (Paris: Thorin et Fontemoing, 1925), pp. 275–279; and Talley, Origins.
9. Tertullian, Adversus Iudaeos 8.
10. There are other relevant texts for this element of argument, including Hippolytus and the (pseudo-Cyprianic) De pascha computus; see Talley, Origins, pp. 86, 90–91.
11. De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis domini nostri iesu christi et iohannis baptistae.
12. Augustine, Sermon 202.
13. Epiphanius is quoted in Talley, Origins, p. 98.
14. b. Rosh Hashanah 10b–11a.
15. Talley, Origins, pp. 81–82.
16. On the two theories as false alternatives, see Roll, “Origins of Christmas.”
a. See Jonathan Klawans, “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?” BR 17:05.
b. See the following BR articles: David R. Cartlidge, “The Christian Apocrypha: Preserved in Art,” BR 13:03; Ronald F. Hock, “The Favored One,” BR 17:03; and Charles W. Hedrick, “The 34 Gospels,” BR 18:03.
c. For more on dating the year of Jesus’ birth, see Leonara Neville, “Fixing the Millennium,&rd; AO 03:01.
d. The ancients were familiar with the 9-month gestation period based on the observance of women’s menstrual cycles, pregnancies and miscarriages.
e. In the West (and eventually everywhere), the Easter celebration was later shifted from the actual day to the following Sunday. The insistence of the eastern Christians in keeping Easter on the actual 14th day caused a major debate within the church, with the easterners sometimes referred to as the Quartodecimans, or “Fourteenthers.”

Andrew McGowan
Warden and President of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Andrew McGowan’s work on early Christianity includes God in Early Christian Thought (Brill, 2009) and Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals (Oxford, 1999).

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were
not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone
during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning
plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit–Prophesy, Serving, Teaching,  Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit–Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness,  Faithfulness,
Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

By Julia Duin

Oral Roberts, one of the world’s pre-eminent Pentecostal leaders and one of America’s top evangelists and educators, died Tuesday of complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

The evangelist’s son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were by his side at his Newport Beach, Calif., home.

“The past few months, my father has talked about going home to be with the Lord on a daily basis,” his son said in a statement. “He has run his race and finished his course. Now he is in heaven, and we as Christians have the Bible promise that someday we will be reunited. My heart is sad, but my faith in God is soaring.”

Besides leading a worldwide evangelistic ministry, Mr. Roberts founded a university, medical school, hospital and law school, all of which were clustered together on 500 acres in Tulsa, Okla.

Oral Roberts University, founded in 1963, still exists, with about 3,140 students. It is the world’s largest university affiliated with the charismatic movement, which along with pentecostalism believes in supernatural “gifts” of the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues.

“It’d be hard to overestimate Oral’s place in history,” said pentecostal historian Vinson Synan of Regent University. “He made pentecostalism a household world, and he rivaled Billy Graham in terms of the crowds he drew.”

One of the most exciting results of truly being born again or saved into the family of Jesus Christ is self-esteem or self-worth. Sin causes a subtle form of insanity. To be separated from God — as is true with all sinners or unsaved persons — is to be virtually cut off from the inward virtues of human excellence. One of the primary reasons for suicide, drug or alcohol addiction, sexual sins, and the multiple lists of human bondages is the absence of self-worth. An inferior feeling about oneself is the normal result of living without surrender to God. Prop that up with anything you please; but, ultimately it will fail because of the spiritual nature of human life.

We were created with the gift of the human spirit. The human spirit is God-breathed and it alone gives life to the flesh. We are an eternal soul because of God’s gift of spirit placed in His creation of flesh. The spirit gives life, not just biologically, but spiritually. Biological life can survive for brief periods without the fullness of the spiritual, but eventually it turns on the individual’s head. This is why Karl Marx, the philosopher founder of atheistic communism, said, “Man is incurably religious.”

Separated from true faith in the one God Jehovah, man will always devise some form of religion and, with the help of Satan, it will be worse than no religion. Usually, it seems good for awhile but leads to a cultic bondage and many distortions. If you will look close at false religions, cults, and New Age philosophies, they always have human worth as a primary focus or purpose. In reality, religion, true or false, is the one and only force that gives meaning to our existence. Without faith of some form we are animals trying to survive the chasm of life.

True Faith Gives Ultimate Self-Worth

To understand that faith in God alone can give true self-esteem; we must understand the ravages of sin. When the idea of sin is removed from religion, the very need of religion is confused. We need faith because there is the fact of opposing forces that must be combated. Sin has left its victims with a form of insanity. The Lord Jesus told of a prodigal son who left the security and excellence of his father’s house to wander in the world of rebellion. He spent everything, became hungry, sold himself to serve another master and finally “came to himself.” Let’s read a few verses, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land ; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

The context of this story reveals a young man who had lost his way and the concept of who he was. He was a father’s son, but was living like an orphan. He was an heir to a fortune, but was living like a pauper. He was of royal birth, but was living as a common slave. He had known the privilege of authority and class, but was now dressed as a threadbare vagrant. But, he “came to himself!” He recovered his sanity. He remembered who he was and what he could be and he started home. He gave the pigs a permanent wave. “I won’t be back,” he was saying, “I’m going home to my father’s house.”

When we see sin and rebellion against the ways of God (Holy Bible) as the insanity it really is, we will quit trying to devise new forms of self-help. All such efforts are forms of religion (Humanistic and New Age religions) that look and seem benign when we ignore or forget the power of sin and Satan. It doesn’t matter what you call your program to help people or if you place the name Christian in front of your scheme, it is all the same until you see sin as the root of all human problems. If sin is the root, then the solution is as simple as the problem. Do something about sin and the problem begins to change or correct itself.

Jesus Christ Is the Solution

Every human problem is based on sin. From an inferior complex to the ultimate emotional disorder, insanity from sin is the germ. Even when the problem has physical overtones and seems rooted in organic disorder, the cause is still sin. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). I don’t always mean that the person is in sin (many times they are), but that the work of Satan and sin is the ultimate source. Knowing that every human dilemma comes from the ravages and germs of sin and its principles of destruction must lead us to the solution. It is Jesus Christ and His redemption plan.

Jesus Christ came to make man whole. Our Second Testament is filled with examples of His redemptive powers. One woman is bent over in a distorted physical form. Jesus declares that Satan has bound her with “a spirit of infirmity eighteen years.” His words of deliverance were simple, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” The Bible says, “She was made straight, and glorified God”

Whether it was blindness, deafness, or the distorting powers of leprosy, Jesus claimed and proved His claim that He came to make men whole. His miracles were adequate in every realm of the human dilemma. Ultimately, His miracles were and are given to raise mankind to their lofty calling of bringing glory to God. We are His choice creation. The Kingdom of God is not an army of sad paupers who have no reason to smile. They are sons and daughters who have shared His divine nature, who have received His healing grace into their entire person and are raised up to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).
The Challenge

Throw off the old idea that you are destined to be defeated by sin and human weaknesses. Surely you will deal with a sin nature as long as you are in the flesh but that is why God sent His Son. “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” (I John 3:5). We will triumph over every power of sin daily if we cling only and diligently to Him and live in the power of the Holy Spirit. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:10-11). Living victoriously in Christ will raise you up to a new level of worth. True self-esteem is not hype, but HIM. Jesus said, “Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows”

Joseph R. Chambers

Source

Every few years, it seems like a small wave of our faithful people leave the church. They often say things like:

- We just don’t get time with you anymore.
- The church has gotten too big.
- Things have changed.

I wish I could lovingly express:

- I hoped your involvement in the ministry was based on much more than your time with me.
- Aren’t you excited God is using our church to reach people? Would you rather we don’t reach people and stay small?
- Isn’t it great things have changed? Would you rather freeze in time?

Some faithful believers simply find it tough to be a part of a changing church. Many pastors fight to keep them in church. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it is a mistake.

While I try to express my genuine love, if the people are always going to be disappointed with the direction of the church, I’ve found it is better to let them move on.

I try to always speak well of them. I try not to take it personally. I try to always show them the love of Christ with each encounter. And I try to continue to move the church forward.

Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009

(By John MacArthur)

Apparently the shortest route to relevance in church ministry right now is for the pastor to talk about sex in garishly explicit terms during the Sunday morning service. If he can shock parishioners with crude words and sophomoric humor, so much the better. The defenders of this trend solemnly inform us that without such a strategy it is well-nigh impossible to connect with today’s “culture.” (In contemporary evangelicalism that term has become a convenient label for just about everything that is uncultured and uncouth.)

Sermons about sex have suddenly become a bigger fad in the evangelical world than the prayer of Jabez ever was. Everywhere, it seems, churches are featuring special series on the subject. Some of them advertise with suggestive billboards purposely designed to offend their communities’ conservative sensibilities.

Quite a few pastors have earned widespread media coverage by issuing “sex challenges” to church members. These are schemes that make daily sex obligatory for married couples over a specified time—usually between seven and forty days. (How people are made accountable for this is a question I’m afraid to raise.)

I would be the last to suggest that preachers should totally avoid the topic of sex. Scripture has quite a lot to say about the subject, starting with God’s first words to Adam and Eve (“Be fruitful and multiply”—Genesis 1:22). God’s law has numerous commands that govern sexual behavior, and the New Testament repeatedly reaffirms the Old Testament standard of sexual purity. Finally, in the closing chapters of Scripture we are told that sexually immoral people will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). So there’s simply no way to preach the whole counsel of God without mentioning sex.

But the language Scripture employs when dealing with the physical relationship between husband and wife is always careful—often plain, sometimes poetic, usually delicate, frequently muted by euphemisms, and never fully explicit. There is no hint of sophomoric lewdness in the Bible, even when the prophet’s clear purpose is to shock (such as when Ezekiel 23:20 likens Israel’s apostasy to an act of gross fornication motivated by the lust of bestiality). When an act of adultery is part of the narrative (such as David’s sin with Bathsheba), it is never described in way that would gratify a lascivious imagination or arouse lustful thoughts.

The message of Scripture regarding sex is simple and consistent throughout: total physical intimacy within marriage is pure and ought to be enjoyed (Hebrews 13:4); but remove the marriage covenant from the equation and all sexual activity (including that which occurs only in the imagination) is nothing but fornication, a serious sin that is especially defiling and shameful—so much so that merely talking about it inappropriately is a disgrace (Ephesians 5:12).

Above all, Scripture never stoops to the lurid level of contemporary sex education. The Bible has no counterpart to the Hindu Kama Sutra (an ancient Sanskrit sex manual supposedly transmitted by Hindu deities.) Nothing in Scripture gives any vivid how-to instructions regarding the physical relationship within marriage.

That includes the Song of Solomon.

In fact, Solomon’s love-poem epitomizes the exact opposite approach. It is, of course, a lengthy poem about courtship and marital love. It is filled with euphemisms and word pictures. Its whole point is gently, subtly, and elegantly to express the emotional and physical intimacy of marital love—in language suitable for any audience.

But it has become popular in certain circles to employ extremely graphic descriptions of physical intimacy as a way of expounding on the euphemisms in Solomon’s poem. As this trend develops, each new speaker seems to find something more shocking in the metaphors than any of his predecessors ever imagined.

Thus we are told that the Shulammite’s poetic language invoking the delights of an apple tree (Song 2:3) is a metaphor for oral sex. The comfort and delight of a simple embrace (2:6) is not what i t seems to be at all. Apparently it’s impossible to describe what that verse really means without mentioning certain unmentionable body parts.

We’re assured moreover that the shocking hidden meanings of these texts aren’t merely descriptive; they are prescriptive. The secret gnosis of Solomon’s Song portray obligatory acts wives must do if this is what satisfies their husbands, regardless of the wife’s own desire or conscience. I was recently given a recording of one of these messages, where the speaker said, “Ladies, let me assure you of this: if you think you’re being dirty, he’s pretty happy.”

Such pronouncements are usually made amid raucous laughter, but evidently we are expected to take them seriously. When the laughter died away, that speaker added, “Jesus Christ commands you to do this.”

That approach is not exegesis; it is exploitation. It is contrary to the literary style of the book itself. It is spiritually tantamount to an act of rape. It tears the beautiful poetic dress off Song of Solomon, strips that portion of Scripture of its dignity, and holds it up to be laughed at and leered at in a carnal way.

Mark Driscoll has boldly led the parade down this carnal path. He is by far the best-known and most prolific popular proponent of handling the Song of Solomon that way. He has said repeatedly that this is his favorite passage of Scripture, and he has come back to it again and again in r ecent years, culminating in a highly publicized series released on video via the Internet last year.

I keep encountering young pastors who are now following that same example, and I’m rather surprised that the trend has been so well received in the church with practically no significant critics raising any serious objections. So we’re going to analyze and critique this approach to Song of Solomon over the next couple of days, including a look at some specific examples where the line of propriety has clearly been breached.

By D. AILEEN DODD

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Friday, April 10, 2009

A repentant reverend will belt out the Easter sermon Sunday, preaching salvation, while reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus — and his own.

Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, the charismatic Pentecostal pastor whose whirlwind romance to national evangelist Juanita Bynum ended in violence and divorce, is on the road to redemption and restoration.

The judgmental whisperers that once populated prayer circles at the grand Global Destiny Worldwide in Duluth have long gone. Weeks now has a loyal following and a new modest church.

Weeks’ tribulations — his felony prosecution for assaulting Bynum, his eviction from his multi-million dollar church headquarters and his messy divorce — are accepted by his members as chapters in his survival story.

“None of us are perfect,” said Pamela Taylor, a member since 2006 who used to commute from Douglasville to attend services. “I have grown since I have been a part of this church. I trust the bishop. “

Weeks’ likens his plight to the Biblical figure Job, a prosperous man who was stripped of his wealth, property and good name when his faith was tested by God.

“Many thought Job went astray,” said Weeks. “They only recognized that he didn’t after God blessed him double for his trouble. I am being blessed that way… “

On Easter, Weeks is expecting a full house at 2710 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., a sanctuary converted from an old muffler repair shop. It’s 8,000 square feet, about 10 percent the size of his former church campus, but there is a marquee outside with Weeks’ name in big black letters. He calls the place “The Prophet’s House.”

In the months since Weeks and Bynum divorced, financial hardships have beset both.

Bynum, who could not be reached for comment, has recently filed for bankruptcy in a Colorado federal court claiming she’s more than $5.25 million in debt. Court documents show a laundry list of creditors including Jaguar Credit, the Internal Revenue Service, Chase Manhattan Mortgage, and Weeks’ Atlanta divorce attorney Randy Kessler. Bynum, through foreclosure, lost possession of her $4.5 million Waycross compound, a sprawling 23 – acre campus with a lakeview that housed her residence, her private sanctuary and sales distribution center.Weeks, nearing his second year on probation, also downsized as Global Destiny’s membership dropped from 3,400 to less than half that after the break-up.

He moved out of his $2.5 million Duluth country club estate, found a smaller home — and a new love. “I am actually in a serious relationship,” Weeks said.

His November church eviction was a turning point. “It freed me.”

Weeks owed $400,000 in rent and fees for his old church.

His tiny new church, which opened quietly after his eviction, has made a commitment to be debt-free. The pastor says he’s paid off $600,000 in bills including the past-due rent through money raised by church members, the virtual collection plate online and a liquidation sale.

Weeks still faces other lawsuits. A contempt petition was filed last month in Gwinnett by a former employee claiming Weeks failed to reimburse her for about $90,000. “All debts are expected to be paid by the end 2009,” Weeks said.

The pastor is trying to grow a megachurch online. Weeks said he reaches viewers in 80 countries offering prayer, video on demand, a bookstore, and an opportunity to speak with him live during worship services. Next week, Weeks will launch Season 3 of his “Webisodes” on religion and relationships.

Following Weeks’ lead, Bynum, a traveling pastor, actress and gospel star, also has expanded her Web ministry to include pay-per-view programming and a talk show she calls “Speak On it Today.”

“It’s the hottest show around — it’s live, it’s raw,” Bynum said in a Web promo.

Weeks says he has lost touch with his ex, but he keeps her ” in prayer constantly.”

Some former members who departed after the break-up have forgiven Weeks and are returning to the flock, he said. “People are apologizing for leaving and want to be restored,” Weeks said. “[They] want a preacher who has experienced pain.”

— AJC staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this story.

Source

As the gay marriage movement begins to gain momentum, Pastor Rick Warren, best known for his best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, is apologizing to the gay community for making comments supporting California’s Proposition 8.During a Monday on Larry King Live, the mega-church pastor claims he “never once even gave an endorsement” of the marriage amendment only to later state that he regretted supporting it. Proposition 8 protects the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, thereby eliminating same-sex couple’s right to marry.

Although Warren publicly spoke out in support of Proposition 8 just weeks before the election, he backpedaled during his interview on CNN. “During the whole Proposition 8 thing,” Warren insisted, “I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never – never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going.”

Warren’s Flip-Flopping Statements

Warren’s statements on Larry King Live fly in the face of his past talks to church members. Warren clearly endorsed Prop. 8 in a public speech. Here is an excerpt from his speech just weeks before the Prop. 8 vote:

“The election’s coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you’re praying about your vote. One of the propositions, of course, that I want to mention is Proposition 8, which is the proposition that had to be instituted because the courts threw out the will of the people. And a court of four guys actually voted to change a definition of marriage that has been going for 5,000 years.”

“Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 — and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.”

“This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, I flat-out asked both of them: what is your definition of marriage? And they both said the same thing — it is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years, and every religion for 5,000 years, has said the definition of marriage is between one man and a woman.”

“Now here’s an interesting thing. There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual or gay/lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage that has been supported by every single culture and every single religion for 5,000 years.”

“This is not even just a Christian issue — it’s a humanitarian and human issue that God created marriage for the purpose of family, love, and procreation.”

“So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I’m going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this. But everybody knows what I believe about it. They heard me at the Civil Forum when I asked both Obama and McCain on their views.”

The Gay Marriage Movement

Warren’s public statements are documented. Yet Warren told King “has never been and never will be” an “anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist” and expressed regret for supporting Prop. 8 and said he did not want to comment on the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last week to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled last week that the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman violates the Iowa Constitution. In the case of Varnum v. Brien, the Court unanimously agreed to permit same-sex marriage. It is now left to the people to vote on a constitutional amendment to overturn that ruling.

The gay marriage movement is gaining momentum and Warren’s public apology may only serve to generate additional support among the populous. Beyond the Iowa decision for gay marriage, the Vermont Legislature on Tuesday voted to override Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill that permits same-sex couples to marry in there.

Vermont was the first state to adopt same-sex civil unions in 2000. It now joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa as the fourth state to change the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman to include same-sex couples. Vermont is the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through the legislature. The other state approvals involved activist judges.

“It is a sad day in America when elected officials are clueless about the definition of marriage. If they cannot understand this basic human relationship between a man and a woman, then they are not competent to for public office,” says Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law.

“Marriage laws regulate a social institution upon which society has been built and the future of society rests. By redefining marriage, the Vermont legislature removed the cornerstone of society and the foundation of government. The consequences will rest on their shoulders and upon those passive objectors who know what to do but lack the courage to stand against this form of tyranny.”

Thou has anointed my cell phone with oil
My text runneth over
Surely I will not have to pay extra
on my text running over
For the lord is on the other line
Yeah tho I walk through the valley of dead zones
My calls will not be dropped
Because the lord is with me on the other line

By Rebecca Craig

For centuries, 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 have been utilized to uphold the practice of forbidding women to have leadership roles within the church. What few realize, however, is that scripture passages like these seem to fly in the face of other scriptural passages that uphold and edify women’s roles as leaders. So how are people to interpret these passages in light of the rest of scripture?

Paul and the Women of Corinth

If 1 Cor. 14 is to be upheld as a church-wide mandate, Paul has problems within the context of his own letter. In 1 Cor. 11:4, Paul sets out a standard of dress for women who pray and “prophesy.” Now many would argue that to “prophesy” is different than “preaching,” but in the Greek, the word “propheteuo” means “to proclaim God’s message,” “to preach,” and “to speak God’s message intelligibly” (as opposed to speaking in tongues).[1]

Given the need for a covering over their heads, it is apparent that men were present when these women were preaching. Thus, either Paul suddenly gets amnesia when he makes the statement later in chapter 14 that women should remain silent, or Paul is addressing an entirely different issue. The latter seems the most likely, since by chapter 14, the topic of conversation has shifted to the subject of spiritual gifts and, in particular, the inappropriate use of the gift of tongues. Given the ecstatic, frenzied nature of the pagan rituals that many of the Corinthians would have been partial to, maintaining order and putting the best face on the church as possible was of the utmost concern to Paul. If that meant women needed to refrain from the act of speaking in tongues, then so be it.

Problems with False Teachers in Ephesus

The 1 Timothy text finds itself in a similar situation. Timothy’s congregation was located in Ephesus, an equally pagan city that, as referenced earlier in Timothy, had been subject to many false teachers who were leading the congregation astray. Certain women in the church were falling prey to these false teachers, who were then, in turn, teaching the same false doctrines and drawing men away from the true teachings. This was creating a lot of disorder and dissension within the church, and Paul needed to establish some kind of rules to re-establish order in the church at Ephesus.

Other Scripture Passages that Uphold Women’s Leadership Roles in the Church

With these contexts in mind, one can now look at all the other places in the Bible where women were very clearly involved in leadership roles. In fact, Paul gives a litany of women who worked hard in the cause of the gospel in Romans 16, even going so far as to call one of these women, Junia, an apostle! In Philippians 4, Paul again lists several women who struggled beside him in the work of the gospel. Given the “gospel” is telling people about Christ, such work undoubtedly involved preaching and teaching. Interestingly, two of Paul’s prized students are a married couple, Priscilla and Aquila, but Priscilla is always mentioned first—an odd structure for Paul’s day. In Acts 18:25-26, both Priscilla and her husband Aquila take Apollos aside to instruct him on baptism. Priscilla is obviously involved in teaching a man here.

Acts 9:36 tells us of a female disciple, Tabitha (also called Dorcas). Given the definition and purpose of a disciple was to learn and eventually become like the Rabbi they were learning from, if women were not to become teachers or ministers, then they would not have been allowed to be disciples, either. Philip’s four daughters are also referenced as being prophets.

Jesus and Women

In the gospels as well Jesus treats women on a much more equal standing than was the custom of his day. The Samaritan woman was told to go tell the men of her town what she had seen and heard. Mary of Bethany sat at the feet of Jesus just as the male disciples did rather than doing traditional “women’s work” like her sister Martha, and Jesus’ response was that Mary was doing the better thing. And of course, one can’t forget that the very first evangelist to spread the good news of Jesus’ resurrection was, in fact, a woman—Mary Magdalene. If Jesus himself felt a woman was worthy of preaching such wondrous news, it seems shameful that so many churches have stifled this role.

Early Church Schism

In fact, women were very instrumental in the early church—that is until the schism between the Montanists[2] and the Orthodox church over two of Montanus’ female prophets, Maximilla and Prisca, who told of visions of Christ in the form of a woman. Because of this, by the fourth century, female prophetic activity ceased to be officially recognized, as female prophets were now regarded as especially suspicious, despite the history of female prophets throughout the Bible (Philip’s daughters, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, etc.).[3]

In the end, the question that must be asked is: which texts seem the most normative? The majority of the bible which upholds women as preachers and teachers, or these two texts that are pulled out of their context?

BY GARY J. KUNICH
gkunich@kenoshanews.com

The Rev. Dave Nelson just wanted to talk about sex. And porn. And homosexuality. But he won’t be doing it at Nash Elementary School.

The Great Lakes Church, a new church which has rented space at Nash for four weeks, lost its permit late last week after sending a colorful flier that proclaimed, “Thank God for Sex.”

The flip side listed Nash as the location for the service, and a series of topics scheduled over the next five weeks, including:

— Great Sex (Bedroom: From Battleground to Playground)

— Sexy and Single (Why God Doesn’t Care About Your Virginity)

— Sex Secrets (Porn, Homosexuality and Stuff Like That)

The Kenosha Unified School District called the flier obscene, disruptive and a violation of Policy 1330, which covers renting Unified space to private organizations.

Nelson said he was stunned at the outcome, and was just trying to attract non-church-going Christians to a new kind of service, while dealing with topical issues. The flier also advertised “loud music, a casual atmosphere, short services, and fun for kids.”

For now, the church, which has 300 members, has moved its 10 a.m. Sunday service to the Parkway Chateau at the Brat Stop, and hopes to have a more permanent location by Feb. 8.

In an e-mail sent to parents, Nash Principal Marty Pitts said, “Please understand clearly that neither our Nash School family nor the Kenosha Unified School District had any involvement in the creation or advertising of the event promoted in Great Lakes Church’s flier and Web site. It is important to both our Nash PTA and me that our Nash School family clearly understands this.”

School officials said they were inundated with complaints after the fliers hit mailboxes Wednesday and Thursday.

“For us, it’s not about violating their freedom of speech,” Pitts said. “It’s the way it was communicated to the public. We should have had an opportunity to see the flier to make sure we were comfortable with the way the school was represented.

“This was a violation in terms of the way it was communicated to the public, and it led the public, in some way, to think Nash was connected, and we are not connected in any way, shape or form, and had no knowledge of this.”

Nelson said the district misunderstood the flier, and he’s never had problems with similar advertisements in other communities over the last 12 years, including when he rented school space in Seattle.

“I am stunned by this,” he said. “Really, we’re just trying to reach out to people who don’t go to church. We recognize that if we advertised a study on the book of Leviticus, we wouldn’t interest anybody. We wanted to hit topics of interest to all of us, and obviously we hit a nerve. There is no bigger subject than sex.

“We were going to talk about this from the point of Scripture,” he added. “What is God’s point of view on this stuff? In over 13 years as a pastor, I’ve seen marriages destroyed because of porn. I’ve seen marriages destroyed because couples are afraid to talk about sex. I keep asking myself, ‘How many more centuries are we going to let Elizabethan England handle the way we talk about sexuality?’”

He said he was notified of the termination Thursday night and was told the flier was obscene and pornographic.

Superintendent Joe Mangi said that was just the opinion of one person at the Education Support Center, and the real issue was it was disruptive to the school and the community.

“The principal and the secretary were handling phone calls all afternoon. We were inundated with phone calls and complaints at the ESC. The flier was provocative and offensive to our district. Like any large school district, we deal with issues of teen pregnancy, and I’m not about to support something that sends mixed messages to our teenagers.”

Mangi has a meeting scheduled with Nelson Monday morning, but said he doesn’t anticipate changing his stance or allowing the church to rent from Unified in the future.

“We have had a very good relationship with the school district and that principal, and we want to keep that,” Nelson said. “If we could get back into the Kenosha school district again, that would be great, but I don’t foresee that happening in the immediate future.

“My main goal in meeting with them is to build a solid relationship. We didn’t come here to work against the school or against the community.”