‘I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.’ — Rev 1.18a
HE’S ALIVE Christian News and Views
June 2015 • Vol. 2, No. 6
‘And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.’ — Rev 2.8
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“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” — Psalm 11:13 by David Lane, American Renewal Project Did you realize that America's Founders established Christianity as the official religion of America in the 13 original state constitutions?* Then suddenly, following three and half centuries of meteoric rise and cultural distinction, a secular U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 pronounced that the Bible would no longer be the fixed point in which to structure and judge community. Early America grasped that liberty and freedom depend upon virtue, and virtue depends upon Christianity; this knowledge was considered elementary. Yet eight vainglorious Justices invented, from scratch, an alternative religious system establishing a phony secular morality.
Southern Baptists Open Their Ranks to Missionaries Who Speak in Tongues By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries and the ASSIST News Service LOUISVILLE, KY (ANS – May 25, 2015) In a surprise move, the Southern Baptist Convention says it will now admit candidates who speak in tongues, a practice associated with Pentecostal and charismatic churches, reversing a 10-year-old policy. The new rules also loosen restrictions on baptism, divorce, and parents of teenagers and came about on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, when the Southern Baptists’ International Mission Board’s (IMB) trustees, at the prompting of their new president David Platt, approved a new, simplified set of rules for the agency’s more than 4,800 missionaries. According to a story by Greg Horton and Yonat Shimron and carried by the Religious News Service (http://www. religionnews.com/), “Speaking in tongues is an ancient Christian practice recorded in the New Testament in which people pray in a language they do not know, understand or control. “The practice died out until Pentecostalism emerged around the turn of the 20th century. In Pentecostal churches it is considered one of many ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit, including healing and the ability to prophesy. “Allowing Southern Baptist missionaries to speak in tongues, or have what some SBC leaders call a ‘private prayer language,’ speaks to the growing
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The 8-1 decision to remove the Bible from public school impelled lone dissenter Justice Potter Stewart to admonish, "It led not to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism." Justice Stewart recognized that, through the control of education, secularism would impose its views, values, politics, and laws on the people of the United States. Consequently, the foundation of this once godly, Christian nation has not been maintained. The modern secularist view is strongly opposed to the Jewish and Christian worldview, failing to recognize that, as Os Guinness writes, "American freedom, like American greatness, was not derived from itself, and it cannot be sustained by itself." ** This seems to be as good a time as any to discuss the same-sex marriage case presently before the Supreme Court. This case is not about defining marriage, but about who gets to define marriage: God defines marriage, not secularist crusaders of the superior court. When Justice Samuel Alito asked the Solicitor General of the United States Donald Verrilli in court if, "a university
Man praising God. strength of Pentecostal churches in Africa, Asia and South America, where Southern Baptists are competing for converts and where energized new Christians are enthusiastically embracing the practice.” On hearing the news, Bill Leonard, professor of church history at Wake Forest Divinity School, said, “In so many parts of the world, these charismatic experiences are normative. Religious groups that oppose them get left behind evangelistically.” RNS stated that the change does not mean that Southern Baptists will commission missionaries who speak in tongues. But Wendy Norvelle, a spokeswoman for the IMB, said an affirmative answer regarding the practice would no longer lead to automatic disqualification. Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning journalist living in Southern California. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). (www.assistnews.net)
or a college opposed same-sex marriage" would they not be entitled to tax-exempt status? Mr. Verrilli replied, "...it's going to be an issue. I-I don't deny that. I don't deny that, Justice Alito. It is-it is going to be an issue." Let's be completely transparent and unclouded on God's position on homosexuality: • "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Leviticus 18:22 • "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Leviticus 20:13 • "Or do you not know that the
unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 In warfare, armies attempt to capture the pinnacle of mountains and commanding positions as to control transportation, highways,
rivers, railroads, etc., controlling supply routes and information. Christians in the last two to three generations have relinquished America's commanding points to secularists: public education, higher learning, main street media, social media, and Hollywood. A republic that no longer believes that the glory of a nation lies in its righteousness or that people perish where there is no godly wisdom, godly vision, or biblical understanding is a nation in danger. Egregious and scandalous is the Church's submission to secularists, and the resignation of America's Founder's mission, "We do hereby Dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth." *** The American Church has lost its commission in the public square, its purpose for being. Ultimately, unless we find the chart and compass used by Colonial America to establish Christianity as the official religion of America, America will no longer be. "The persecutions of the Puritans in England for non-conformity, and the religious agitations and conflicts in Germany by Luther, in Geneva by Calvin, and in Scotland by Knox, were the preparatory ordeals for qualifying Christian men for the work of establishing the civil institutions on the American continent. 'God sifted,' in these conflicts, 'a whole nation that He might send choice Continued on page 3