When I first started this website, I enthusiastically endorsed Jesus camps, thinking that they were an excellent way to turn children into spiritual warriors – as it WAS initially a charismatic spiritual warfare site – from an early age. Well … WOW WAS I WRONG! Jesus camps use the evil combination of spiritually seductive charismatic slain in the spirit frenzy and dominion theology politics. Instead of teaching children to pray for their enemies, to show kindness to the poor and elderly people, to interpret the Bible and discern doctrines, to worship and praise the Lord in a dignified manner becoming His glory, and to exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit, these folks are feeding these children false Christian doctrines and fascist notions of merging church, state, culture, etc. that will makes any of them that internalize this spiritual evil easy pickings for the anti – Christ and moreover very willing workers in the plot to create the climate where the man of sin will take power. The more things like this come out, as well as things with the Jesus Seminar, Mike Huckabee, Jeremiah Wright … Bible believing Christians have to start speaking out. There is something seriously wrong with both the religious right and the religious left, and we have to start boldly opposing it with the Word of God.
ARUSHA, Tanzania – A Rwandan priest has been jailed for life after a U.N. tribunal extended his sentence for ordering militiamen to burn and bulldoze a church with 1,500 people inside. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s ruling came after Roman
Catholic priest Athanase Seromba appealed his 2006 conviction, a statement posted on the body’s Web site late Wednesday said. He was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The tribunal is trying the alleged masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists over a 100-day period. The tribunal said it convicted Seromba for “his role in the destruction of the church in Nyange Parish, and the consequent death of approximately 1,500 Tutsi refugees sheltering inside.”
Seromba was convicted of leading a militia that attacked the people and poured fuel through the roof of the church, while police threw grenades inside. After failing to kill everybody inside the church, Seromba ordered it to be demolished, the tribunal found.
Thousands of Rwandans have turned away from Catholicism, angered and saddened by the complicity of church officials in the genocide.Priests, nuns and followers were implicated in the killings and some churches were sites of notorious massacres.
The Rwanda war crimes tribunal has delivered 32 judgments, including five acquittals, since the U.N. Security Council established it in November 1994. There are 27 trials under way.
The Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed on Wednesday to establish a permanent official dialogue to improve often difficult relations and heal wounds still open from a controversial papal speech in 2006.A joint statement said the first meeting of “The Catholic-Muslim Forum” will take place on November 4-6 in Rome with 24 religious leaders and scholars from each side.
Pope Benedict will address the group, the statement said.
The announcement came after a two-day meeting at the Vatican with five representatives of Muslims who had signed an unprecedented appeal to the Pope to begin a dialogue.
“We emerged with a permanent structure that will ensure that the Catholic-Muslim engagement and dialogue continues into the future,” said Professor Aref Ali Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan.
He told a news conference the forum would be able “to work out issues and an exchange of opinions about important matters”.
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey’s Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.
“For some Muslims the wounds of the (Pope’s) German lecture are not completely healed and there are some Muslims who are boycotting the Vatican … and still feel offended by that quite deeply,” Nayed said in answer to a question.
PAPAL SPEECH STILL HURTS
“Just because we are part of this initiative does not mean that we are not hurt by this, however we must not only dwell on the negative but also dwell on the positive. There have been some recent positive moves by the Vatican,” he said.
After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born Pope and other Christian leaders last year, saying “the very survival of the world itself” may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.
“Muslims and Christians make up about 55 per cent of the world and there will be no peace in the world unless there is peace between these two communities,” Ibrahim Kalin of the Seta Foundation in Turkey told the news conference.
The signatories of the Muslim appeal for dialogue, called the “Common Word”, has grown to nearly 240 since.
“This whole initiative is about healing, it is about healing the wounds of a very pained and in many ways destroyed world. We have cruelty all over the place, we have wars, we have famines we have massacres, we have terrorist acts, we have torture, we have people who are kidnapped,” Nayed said.
Although Pope Benedict repeatedly expressed regret for the reaction to his speech in Regensburg, he stopped short of a clear apology sought by Muslims.
The Muslim delegation said the forum would meet every two years and alternate between Rome and a Muslim country but would establish structures for regular contacts and links to deal with one member called “an emergency situation”.
Communion. The other night on my TV program, I dealt with the whole issue
of communion. Communion is that wonderful act of remembering the sacrifice
Jesus made as He literally gave His life for the sins of all mankind. I was
actually shocked in looking through my Devotional archives to realize in
nearly 9 years, this was one issue I had never centered a Devotional around.
I have talked about communion many times over the years, but never did a
complete Devotional just on communion. Shame on me! Especially with all
the confusion and poor teaching about this wonderful time when a follower of
Jesus Christ fulfills the command the Lord gave to His followers to remember
Him by partaking of the bread and wine, re-enacting that moment He shared
with His disciples in the Upper Room during the Last Supper.
When we’re dealing with anything, our final authority in all matters is the
Bible. The primary scripture that deals with communion is found in Paul’s
first letter to the Church of Corinth, in the 11th chapter. This passage
refers back to the words of Jesus on the night of the Last Supper with His
disciples. On that night, our Lord broke the bread and said, “This is my
body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” After dinner
was over, Jesus took the cup and told His disciples, ” This cup is the new
covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
You see, Jesus knew what was about to happen. Jesus knew that in just a few
hours He would be going to the cross to shed His precious blood and give His
life as the one-time, perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
What Jesus did that night was give all of those who would follow Him a way
of remembering His finished work on the cross. You know we’re coming upon
the Easter season. It’s that time of year Believers worldwide will reflect
on the great sacrifice Christ made for us. We remember the Last Supper. We
remember that time in the Garden of Gethsemane where he would be betrayed
by Judas. We remember his trial before Pontius Pilate. We remember how our
Lord was beaten, scourged, mocked, spat upon, and eventually nailed to the
cross where He hung and died. The fact is, we need to remember Christ’s
sacrifice for us more than just at Easter. That is the wonderful thing
about communion. It allows us to take time and reflect, to remember the
price Jesus paid for our salvation.
One of the controversies regarding communion is how often a Believer should
participate in this act of remembrance. Jesus simply said to do it in
remembrance of me, and even used the word “often.” The Bible doesn’t give
us a specific time period, once a day, once a week, or once a month. It
really becomes an issue each Believer needs to pray about and let the Holy
Spirit guide you. Most churches have communion once a month. I know of
some churches who observe communion every week. The Roman Catholic church
celebrates communion at every mass. Again, there is no Biblical mandate how
often to take communion. My personal belief is that every Believer should
take communion at least once a month to never go too many days without
remembering the price Christ paid for our salvation.
Another controversial issue surrounding communion is who is supposed to take
communion. In most churches, everyone present is invited to take communion.
That is WRONG! The Bible is very clear regarding who should and should not
take communion. Communion is an act of remembrance for those who placed
their faith in Jesus Christ. Communion is not something a nonbeliever
should participate in. A nonbeliever has no relationship with Christ, so
the observance of communion is a meaningless exercise to that person. The
bread and wine that represent the body and blood of Christ have no special
significance to a person who has not given their heart and life to the Lord.
I’ve had the honor of preaching many times over the years when communion was
being served. I make it clear that communion is a time for those who have
placed their faith in Jesus Christ to examine themselves, repent of their
sins and ask God to forgive them of their sins before they partake of the
bread and wine. One of the reasons I love communion is that it is the
perfect opportunity to allow people who aren’t Believers in Christ to accept
the Lord as their Savior by faith. There’s no better time to give people an
invitation to know Jesus than at the time of communion. After making the
decision to accept the Lord, they can then partake of the bread and wine and
understand the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for them when He shed His
blood and gave His life for their sins, so that they might be able to
receive God’s gift of everlasting life.
Let me share this with you. You don’t have to be in church to take
communion. I’ve taken communion dozen of times in my office. I get a cup
with some grape juice to represent Christ’s blood. I’ll take some bread to
represent His body. I sit down with my Bible and read some of those great
passages in the Gospels about Christ’s crucifixion, and I take communion.
Listen, you don’t need a pastor or priest to give you Communion. Communion
is an act of remembrance for Believers in Jesus Christ. You don’t need a
pastor or priest to stick a wafer or piece of bread in your mouth. You don’t
need a pastor or priest to give you a cup of wine or grape juice. You can
take communion at home, in your office, anywhere. It’s an act of
remembrance each follower of Christ was asked by our Lord to do to remember
Him!
It is a time for those followers of Jesus Christ to remember the price He
paid for our salvation, why we are able to be the recipients of God’s gift
of everlasting life. Yes, it’s a great experience when you are with a body
of Believers in a church and you walk up and the pastor gives you the bread
and the cup. Yes, it’s wonderful to be able to share that experience in a
corporate setting with other Believers. But you can take communion
anywhere, and you don’t need a pastor or priest since this is a time for
personal reflection. It’s a time of remembrance. That is why you shouldn’t
go more than 30 days without taking communion since it a reminder of what
our faith is all about. Jesus Christ went to the cross, gave His body as a
one-time sacrifice and shed His blood for the remission of sins. That is
something every Believer should never forget and taking communion often is
important.
Now, let me share one last issue that pretty much is only an issue in the
Roman Catholic Church. It’s the man made tradition of transubstitution where
that church erroneously believes that at the time of communion, the wafer is
transformed into the literal Body of Christ and the cup of wine is
transformed literally into His blood. So when a Catholic goes to the altar
to take communion from the Priest, they believe they are literally partaking
of the body and blood of Christ. Again, it is a man made tradition without
any Biblical support. The bread or wafer, the wine or juice, are simply
SYMBOLS of the body and blood of Christ, not the literal body and blood of
Christ!
*Note: To all my Roman Catholic friends. I am VERY aware of the attempts
to use certain passages of the Bible to support this man made tradition of
the RC Church. So please, don’t send me links and cut&paste postings on why
this belief is supported by Scripture, since it is not.
I love you and care about you so much. Communion is an act of remembrance
every Believer should do on a regular basis. It is an act only Believers are
to participate in. Not children. Not the unsaved person you brought to
church. Believers! Communion is an act of remembrance. How can a
nonbeliever remember something he or she doesn’t believe in? Unfortunately
most pastors absolutely miss this great opportunity to invite people to come
to know Jesus before offering communion. There is no better opportunity in
the world to invite someone to know Christ than at the time you are
extending an invitation to communion. It gives you the perfect opportunity
to explain WHY a person needs Jesus.
I pray today that you will not ever let more than 30 days pass without
taking communion. I believe it is a very important part of our faith and
spiritual journey. It is the foundation of what our faith is all about. I
don’t care if you have been saved 10 minutes or 80 years, all followers of
Christ need to reflect and remember what our Lord did for us. Even more
important, Christ TOLD US to do this “oft” in remembrance of Him. For the
Christian, communion is a very holy, somber, special time of reflection both
on our life and the sacrifice our Lord made for us. May you be strengthened
and challenged each time you partake of the bread and wine, remembering that
Jesus gave His very life for us, so how can we do anything less for Him?
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller bkeller@liveprayer.com
First Huckabee, then McCain, who was on record in 1999 as stating that he did not want to overturn Roe v. Wade. McCain also has a long record of opposing many of the things on Hagee’s political and religious agendas. This just proves that the guy who denies the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, claims that Jesus Christ was killed by Rome for His political beliefs,prophesied that the United States would attack Iran in 2007 (and is still demanding that we attack Iran!) and preaches dual covenant theology is simply in it for the power and money.
The leader of Russia’s powerful Orthodox Church played down hopes of an imminent reconciliation with Rome in an interview on Monday, saying Catholic missionary activity in Russia prevented the churches from restoring ties.Speculation has flourished about a possible historic meeting between Russia’s Patriarch Alexiy II and Pope Benedict XVI after both sides indicated they were open in principle to healing a centuries-old rift between Western and Russian Christianity.
Russia is by far the biggest Orthodox Christian church and has undergone a big religious revival since the demise of the atheist Soviet Union. President Vladimir Putin, once a KGB spy, is now open about his Orthodox faith.
“Stopping us from restoring relations are some unsolved issues between our churches,” Alexiy told the Polish daily Dziennik in an interview published on Monday. “We have many questions about the missionary and charitable activities of Catholic monks and clergy in Russia and CIS (former Soviet) countries.”
The Russian Orthodox Church, by far the dominant religion in Russia, has sharply criticised the Vatican for creating new dioceses on its turf and has accused Catholic priests of attempting to poach Orthodox believers as converts to Rome. Alexiy said some Catholic clerics “started to see the ex-Soviet Union as a spiritual desert to be dealt with”.
The Catholic Church says it is only doing what is necessary to attend to the needs of Russia’s estimated one million Catholics, mostly of East European or German origin, who were neglected during decades of religious persecution in the Soviet Union. “We have always said that a Russian visit of (former) Pope John Paul was possible only when all the problems between our churches were resolved. Unfortunately, it has not happened until now,” Alexiy said.
“In Russia and Ukraine, Catholics always treated the Orthodox believers more as enemies than as brothers in faith … the activities of Catholics in Russia have created many challenges for the dialogue of our churches.” “These matters need to be resolved”.
In particular, Alexiy criticised Catholic shelters which he said brought up orphans from Orthodox families in the Catholic tradition, saying this “is hurting us exceptionally”. (Please realizethat Roman Catholics wish to do the same to American Protestant children using school vouchers and charter schools in the education system with your tax dollars. It is almost as if the public education system has been turned undesirable in some areas on purpose, and please recall that both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush support charter schools, and more than a few Democrats even support vouchers.)
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said last October at a farewell news conference after 16 years heading the Catholic Church in Russia that the Orthodox “could have been better to us”, adding he never sought to convert Orthodox Christians.
Christianity split into two branches in the Great Schism of 1054, when the Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman church in a row over papal authority and the insertion of a disputed clause into the Creed, the central statement of Christian faith.
Ultimately, both these bodies will recognize their mutual enemy, evangelical Christianity, and join forces. The Russian Orthodox church, with the help of the Putin state, has worked mightily to repress Southern Baptist and Pentecostal evangelistic efforts in the nation. For all of Putin’s professions of faith, he is primarily a nationalist, and knows that a major reason for the failure of the Soviet regime was its persecution of religious people. Putin now knows – obviously from studying history – that the state can become much more powerful and nationalistic by co – opting a spiritually empty version of state religion. Let us see … you had Constantinism, the Holy Roman Empire, feudalism, Nazi Germany (not to mention religio – fascist Italy and Japan), the various Islamic states, and oh yes how could I forget “Christian values” America (whether those values be liberal or conservative, they still seem to wind up with our bombing indigent brown – skinned people in places where there tend to be large oil reserves like the Kennedy – LBJ adventure in Viet Nam and the Iraq/Afghanistan nightmare that Bush, Clinton, and then Bush have truthfully had us in since the early 1990s, and that was after our arming Saddam to fight Iran in the 1980s). But the upshot here is that if the Russian Orthodox Church reopens official ties with the Roman Catholic Church, it will be because tsar Vladimir Putin decides that it is in the best interests of mother Russia and on mother Russia’s terms.
So why would Rome be amenable to tsar Putin’s terms? Simple: demographics. The Roman Catholic Church has been virtually bankrupted of numbers and influence in Europe, and is facing a huge challenge from Islam (and also from evangelical Protestant Christianity, though to a much lesser extent). By contrast, the third world portion of the church is exploding in numbers. Not only is this severely hurting Rome in terms of financing and administration, as they are used to transferring wealth from the west to the third world but also largely governing the third world churches from the west, but creates huge challenges for the church doctrinally. The Roman Catholic Church already had to beat back a huge liberation theology challenge coming from Latin America and Africa in the 1980s (the current pope being the one tasked with crushing it with an iron fist), and while liberation theology is now no longer a great threat (ironically because of the collapse of Soviet communism, but also because now that it has largely been accepted within liberal and moderate Christianity and hence no longer has its radical subversive appeal) there are other ways the third world segment of Roman Catholicism is going to assert itself, including demanding official recognition for their local syncretized flavors of Catholicism (first off it isn’t as if the Roman Catholic Church didn’t spend centuries doing this in Europe, and also John Paul got the ball rolling by beatifying plenty of third world shamans, mystics, witch doctors, etc. as “saints.” As a matter of fact, some Roman Catholic observers claim that unless things change, Ratzinger may well be the last European pope for awhile.
And that is why change is precisely what Ratzinger has in mind. Ratzinger said on the day that he was chosen as pope that his primary concern would be rebuilding the European church, and that he chose his papal name precisely for that reason. Doing business with tsar Putin would rapidly increase the number of white Europeans in the Roman Catholic Church, and just as important enrich the Vatican with enough oil wealth to transfer it to the third world churches and keep the third world Vatican loyalists in firm power. The even better part is that as the Russian Orthodox Church is the largest and most influential of the eastern orthodox churches, once they realign with Rome, the other orthodox churches in Greece, Turkey, etc. will have little choice but to fall in line.
So what is in it for tsar Putin? Simple: the Vatican wields considerable political and cultural influence in the nations of a lot of his enemies. Case in point: the United States and its five Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court. Remember the huge backlash when George W. Bush attempted to place an evangelical Christian on the court … Harriet Miers was sacked and replaced with the majority vote Samuel Alito. And YOU, evangelical Christian Republicans, thought that it was about Roe. v. Wade, didn’t you? Or didn’t you figure that the Vatican would be willing to abide abortion for a generation or three if it meant positioning themselves politically for the long haul?
Tsar Putin knows that thanks to the Christian right, influence with the Vatican means influence over America. And the Vatican is more than willing to let Tsar Putin have what he wants, because, well, the Vatican knows that 100 years from now Putin will be off the scene and they will still be around. So long as they will have Russia then they are willing to mollify Putin now.
For Catholic schools in the nation’s capital, it’s feast and famine these days.
Donors have helped the Archdiocese of Washington pump $60 million into its schools in the past decade. In 2004, Congress approved a $14 million voucher that paid tuition last year for more than 1,900 students.
But as in other big cities, shifting demographics have drained D.C. of families who want to send their kids to Catholic schools, even when it’s free. And Congress, which is controlled by Democrats, probably won’t renew the voucher program.
Meanwhile, the city is at the heart of the USA’s quiet love affair with privately run, publicly financed charter schools: One in five D.C. students attend a charter.
Faced with a $55 million long-term deficit and the looming closure of nearly half its schools, the archdiocese awaits approval of an unusual proposal: converting a handful of schools to secular “values based” charter schools that reflect Catholic morality but don’t overtly teach church doctrine.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Washington | Congress | Catholic | Archdiocese | DC
The bid represents the largest of its kind so far — and though it stands a good chance of approval by the D.C. Public Charter School Board in April, it’s opposed by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), which says the schools will lose their greatest strength: their religious character.
“This isn’t a path for everyone,” says archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs. “But we look around at other dioceses and they close their doors. We couldn’t do that.”
An independent, non-profit board would run the seven proposed elementary schools, with no teaching of Catholic doctrine, no in-school prayer and no religious artifacts on the walls. In fact, none of the proposed charters would be considered “Catholic” schools. Essentially the archdiocese would act as a landlord.
In that sense, it’s similar to arrangements in places such as Buffalo, and Gary, Ind., where church schools have been transformed into non-religious charters.
“We’re sad that they can’t be Catholic schools,” NCEA president Karen Ristau says of the D.C. proposal. “There will be no religious doctrine or celebration of faith or prayer in the school day.”
Though charters enjoy freedom from most regulations on personnel, curriculum, budget and teaching methods, Ristau says religious instruction is still out. “As far as I know, there’s no wiggle room.”
In the past few years, charter schools in Florida, Minnesota and New York that have approached the line between values-based learning and religious instruction have run afoul of critics who say they’re ignoring the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on government sponsorship of religion.
Ristau calls proposals such as D.C.’s “a temporary solution to a serious problem” facing churches across the nation. Recent data from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate finds that though the percentage of Americans who are Catholic has remained steady since 1995, the number of Catholic elementary schools dropped about 10%; secondary schools have dropped 2.3%.
“At a time when we’re all trying to figure out how to create good public schools in the inner city, it’s a shame that good public schools in the inner city are going away,” says Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington education think tank.
Gibbs says the archdiocese is keeping its options open. If neighborhoods change, she says, “We still have the buildings. … In 10 years, we may want to open a Catholic school again.”
From Reformation Nation by way of Slice of Laodicea: Where do you fit in? By the way: yet another concern that calls Mormonism a Christian denomination.
Mormon Garments – Shopzilla.com – Bargain Prices. Smart Deals. Save on Mormon Garments!
My note: This devotional was written by pastor and televangelist Bill Keller of Live Prayer. I had decided to stop posting Bill Keller’s devotionals that dealt with Mormonism for a time for reasons that I will not get into. But after seeing Glenn Beck exploit the death of Hinckley as an opportunity to promote his religion on CNN last night, I am making a one time exception to my policy. Please note: Keller is right when he says that there is no difference between Mormonism and Islam. So why is the religious right so much more tolerant of one than the other? You know that if Mitt Romney were Muslim, he’d have the same “he is part of a global Muslim conspiracy to take over our government” theories as are circulating about Barack HUSSEIN Obama. I will tell you the reason: race. Mormonism was founded by whites and in America is an overwhelmingly white religion, so they are not only tolerated by the religious right, but are fully embraced by them. Meanwhile, Islam is an Arab religion. That is why the same religious right hypocrites that went nuts over Keith Ellison merely being elected to Congress are actually praying for Mitt Romney to save them from Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain (not that I support any of them either by the way). The way these conservatives, especially Roman Catholics, are claiming that Mitt Romney is the victim of oh so much bigotry after decades of using racism and segregation against BLACKS to build their own party would be hilarious if it wasn’t so evil. (By the way, check out this Roman Catholic pro – segregation site that claims that God never intended for Christianity to spread outside the white race … surprise surprise they like Romney.) It was as if they were saying “Hey evangelicals, Romney is one of us where it really counts, so vote your race, it is more important than your religion!” That is why the same folks on the right who continuously demand that blacks bear the discrimination that we face while picking and grinning about it start braying like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the NAACP whenever Romney’s religion is discussed in any terms other than “oh we can trust Romney to save America because he is a devoted Mormon who believes in Jesus with a beautiful wife and five sons.” Well, again, anyone who doubts that Romney would use the White House to promote his faith not only in America but also overseas (the people that they falsely claim are the cursed seed of Ham and for that reason held them in second class status until 1978 – a fact which conservatives love I bet – apparently are a major mission field for them!) should view Glenn Beck’s performance below.
An evil tool of satan masquerading as a Godly grandfather is buring in hell
for all eternity! Gordon B. Hinckley, the leader of the satanic Mormon cult
is dead at 97. Hinckley saw this cult grow from 9 million members to over
13 million members worldwide during his 12-year reign as its leader. While
Hinckley is already being memorialized as a “great man of God,” the fact is
his life has been an instrument in the hands of satan to help lead the souls
of men to hell by following the false theology of the Mormon cult.
Many people, even Christians will rail against me for being so unkind, but
this only illustrates the problem we have. Even Believers don’t take the
eternal souls of men serious enough. As I state often, this is a battle for
souls. Satan is not playing games and is serious about taking as many souls
into the lake of fire with him as he can. I am saddened at how many
Christians either don’t understand, or don’t want to think about the FACT
that those who die without Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, will pass from
this life into eternal punishment!
I know some people are outraged that I would be “so mean” to call Mormonism
a satanic cult. I receive emails all the time talking about the great works
they do. First, I have no doubt that most Mormons are fine people, good
people, and do great works. But being a good person and doing good works
does NOT get you into Heaven. Only faith in Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the
Bible, will get you into Heaven. The Mormon cult spends tens of millions of
dollars each year in public relations to portray themselves as “just another
Christian church.”
DO NOT LET THEIR ADS FOOL YOU. They are no more a Christian church than your
local mosque is!
The lie of Mormonism that I expose is not a new problem. Paul, himself, had
to deal with the issue of “cults”-those who perverted the Gospel-almost from
the very beginning. He spoke of it often in his writings, as in today’s
anchor verses in his letter to the church at Galatia. This is nothing new.
Here are just a few of the theological issues that makes the satanic Mormon
cult totally inconsistent with Biblical Christianity and why a Mormon is no
more a Christian than a Muslim is. The god of the Mormon cult is NOT the God
of the Bible. Their “god” is named Elohim and was once a man like you and I
who came from another planet. Mormon theology teaches that men can
eventually become a god and have their own planet. When a Mormon talks about
“god,” he is talking about this fictitious god of Mormonism and NOT the God
of the Bible!
This holds true for Jesus. The jesus of Mormon theology is not God incarnate
as the Bible teaches. The Mormon jesus was not supernaturally conceived by
the Holy Ghost, but the natural offspring of their “god” Elohim who had sex
with Mary, meaning he is a created being no different than you and I.
Mormons also teach that their jesus had several wives and children, again,
in compete contradiction to what the Bible teaches. The jesus of the Mormon
cult is also the spirit brother of Lucifer and will return not to the Mt. Of
Olives as the Bible teaches, but to Independence, Missouri to set up his
earthly Kingdom.
When a Mormon talks about “jesus,” he is NOT talking about the true Jesus of
the Bible! What Jesus you put your faith in is so critical, since this is
why anyone who puts their faith in the imaginary jesus of Joseph Smith and
the satanic Mormon cult will die in their sins and their souls burn forever
in the flames of hell!
What about the Bible and true Christian churches? Mormons love to use the
Bible and quote from the Bible to support their deception that they are
Christians. The trademark of all cults and false religions, even those who
use the Bible, is that it is NOT their final authority. In the Mormon cult,
their authority does not come from the Bible which they view as incomplete
and not reliable, but the writings of Smith, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl
of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants. These are the writings that
form the false theology of this cult.
Mormons believe that non-Mormons are “abominations.” While they don’t have
the guts the Muslims do to publicly call a non-Muslim an infidel who should
be put to death, a Mormon views a Biblical Christian as part of a “false
religion” and void of all authority.
Like in all cults, the average member hasn’t got a clue what their cult
really believes. You only get to know everything after you have proven
yourself to be a loyal and worthy member of the cult. That is true in the
Mormon cult as well. Most Mormons go to their “church,” sing many of the
same hymns they sing at the Baptist church down the road, give their tithe,
read a few passages out of the Bible, hear a message about being a “good
person,” and go home.
It is only when you get to become a “temple Mormon” that you really learn
all of the deep, dark, beliefs of Mormonism. The Mormon temple rituals are
actually little more than the temple rituals Smith copied from another cult,
Freemasonry! Smith who was involved in the Masonic cult, simply copied and
incorporated their chants, handshakes, and ceremonies when he started the
Mormon cult. These are the same chants, handshakes, and ceremonies Romney
participated in when he took his oath to the Mormon cult above anything
else, INCLUDING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND CONSTITUTION!
The average person has no idea that the ultimate goal of the Mormon cult is
to establish a theocracy here in the United States. Joseph Smith, the cult’s
founder actually ran for the Presidency. So did Mitt Romney’s father. This
cult has the very real goal of establishing the “Kingdom of God,” which
means advancing the physical and earthly organization of the multi-billion
dollar Mormon cult.
There is a special room in the Mormon Temple located in Washington, DC that
has been prepared and in place for over 30 years, which will be the seat of
power for the Mormon-led government which will supplant our current
government. This was the vision Smith laid out less than 200 years ago, and
Mitt Romney and those in the hierarchy and leadership of the Mormon cult see
this as the time for that vision to become fulfilled!
I love you and care about you so much. Gordon B. Hinckley was NOT a great
“man of God,” but simply a tool of satan who used his life to lead millions
to the false teachings of the Mormon cult, meaning those poor souls died in
their sins and are in hell for all eternity along with all who reject the
Jesus of the Bible. He did not become a “god” upon his death as Mormons
believe. He didn’t get his own planet full of women waiting to have sex with
him. The moment he died, Hinckley stood before God and because he rejected
Jesus and died in his sins, was immediately cast into hell for all eternity!
I have done my best in a limited amount of time to give you a brief overview
of the false and satanic beliefs of the Mormon cult. I have just barely
scratched the surface, but just in what I have shared with you today, NOBODY
in their right mind could ever believe that a Mormon is a Christian. When
you study Mormon theology and understand the wild beliefs of Smith and this
cult, you need faith greater than I will ever hope to have to believe what
they do. There is no logic to it and there is absolutely nothing they
believe that has any basis in realty or can be proven.
Listen, God gave us free will, and men who live in rebellion to God since
the very beginning have dreamed up the wildest and most ridiculous religions,
and sadly people who were spiritually void chose to believe their lies and
will be lost for all eternity because of it. The danger of Mormonism is that
they are deceptive (just look at their name, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints) and will lie without conscience just like the father of
lies, satan (John 8:44), to get people to join their cult.
I pray today for those 13 million souls alive today who are following the
lies of this cult, to turn from those lies before they take their last
breath and are lost for all eternity. There is only one Truth, and that is
found in the book God wrote, the Bible. There is only one way to be saved,
and that is through a personal relationship by faith with the Jesus of the
Bible. May those lost in the lies of the Mormon cult denounce those lies
and turn to God’s Word alone and faith in Jesus and be saved so they don’t
end up burning in hell like Gordon B. Hinckley!!!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller bkeller@liveprayer.com
***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY? The fact is you will die one day. At that moment, you will either spend eternity with the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness forever separated from God your creator. To know for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to: http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.cfm
***I am excited to let you know that the Liveprayer Daily Devotional is now
available via AUDIO each day. Simply go to http://www.liveprayer.com/Audio.cfm
Also, you can now listen to the Daily Devotional by phone by calling 1-727-342-5673
(C) Copyright 2008, Bill Keller Ministries. All rights reserved.
In this post you will see videos from three prominent men of the Christian faith and one Catholic. Each one is interviewed by Larry King and each one is given an incredible opportunity to share the true Gospel of Jesus Christ with millions of viewers; an opportunity of the like that the Apostle Paul never had.
I present the following short video clips for your examination. Please view each and every one of them before coming to a conclusion. When you’re done, I’d like to hear from you.
Of these four men, (preferences and preconceived notions aside), which one best defends the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and which one’s teachings would you want to sit under as the shepherd of your church?
Judaism brought much to the world of first century
Christianity. I want to explain one bold claim that I
regularly make in my own efforts to cause Christians to
reconsider the facts. I have been quoted many times for
a declaration that sounds odd, yet helps call attention
to a realistic issue. I have said: The first fifteen
popes were Jewish! I state this for effect to establish
the fact that those who assume the Church was not
inhabited by Jews are sadly mistaken. Of course this
requires some explanation.
Eusebius, one of the most famous ancient historians of
the early Church, details that the Jerusalem Church
(the first Church) was led by Jewish bishops until the
Roman invasion under Hadrian (approximately one hundred
years after the death of Jesus). Permit me to quote his
record and provide the names of the first fifteen
Jewish leaders of the original Church in Jerusalem. It
seems that their identity and their Jewishness have
been forgotten by most Gentile Christians.
There were fifteen successions of bishops in that
church, all which, they say, were Hebrews from the
first, and received the knowledge of Christ pure and
unadulterated; so that, in the estimation of those who
were able to judge they were well approved, and worthy
of the episcopal office. For at that time the whole
church under them, consisted of faithful Hebrews who
continued from the time of the apostles, until the
siege took place . . . The first, then, was James
called the brother of our Lord; after whom, the second
was Simeon, the third Justus, the fourth Zaccheus, the
fifth Tobias, the sixth Benjamin, the seventh John, the
eighth Matthew, the ninth Philip, the tenth Seneca, the
eleventh Justus, the twelfth Levi, the thirteenth
Ephres, the fourteenth Joseph, and finally, the
fifteenth Judas. These are all the bishops of Jerusalem
that filled up the time from the apostles until the
abovementioned time, all of the circumcision.
Each name of each Jewish bishop going all the way back
to James, the brother of Jesus is listed in an unbroken
line of Jewish bishops that lasted until the early
decades of the second century. In the earliest era of
the Church, the leaders of the Church were called
bishops. The term Pope was not used as it is
currently understood until much later (perhaps as late
as the ninth century). However, Jewish Popes,
such as Clement, the third alleged to succeed Saint
Peter, were even included within the lineage that the
Church of Rome used to trace their line of Popes
allegedly unbroken all the way back to the Jewish
fisherman. In a very real sense, the Jewish believers
used to run the show and fill the pews. How did we get
left out of modern Christianity? The Jewish leadership
of the Early Church is undeniable and should be
remembered.
Jewish bishops in Jerusalem were obviously the norm
when the primary population of the Church consisted of
Jewish people. What some might find interesting is that
now after nearly 1,900 years, Jerusalem once again has
a Jewish bishop. During Pope John Pauls visit to
Israel in the spring of 2000, he appointed Benedictine
Abbot Jean-Baptiste Gourion to the position of bishop
at a Catholic church near Jerusalem. He was born in
1934 to a Jewish family in Algeria. This book does
contain some critical comments about Pope John Paul II.
However, I believe he deserves recognition for his
foresight in appointing a Jewish bishop to the region
at this critical time in history. I can only hope that
the next pope also grows in sensitivity to the Jewish
people and the problems facing modern Israel.
Some Christian scholars continue to misinterpret the
circumstances whereby Jewish leadership of the Early
Church dissipated. William MacDonald presumes that the
internationals hastily took over from the
children of faithful Abraham. He is not exactly
correct. Father Abraham had many sons; some of
them ran the Church. He ignores that in the middle
of the first century the New Testament was not yet
written. Paul was still in the middle of his
evangelistic efforts. It should not be presumed, as is
often accepted, that the Temple and the Church were
polarized around the Lord Jesus Christ
immediately following Pentecost. Unquestionably, this
polarization occurred, however, it was nearly a century
after that first Pentecost of the Church age featured
in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
The dictates of Rome during that century show how the
prevailing worldview differentiated Jews from
Christians–they did not! The Jews of the era were not
separate and distinct from the Christians of that time.
When the Jews of Rome were expelled by Claudius, the
Christians and Jews were all viewed the same–as Jews.
The behavior of Rome against the Jews affected the
Christians exactly as it did the rest of the Jews in
the empire. In the eyes of Rome, Christianity was
indistinguishable from the synagogue.
One need not look beyond the New Testament account in
the Acts of the Apostles to understand the situation.
When Paul came to Corinth in Acts 18:2, he visited with
two Jewish Christians, Aquila and Priscilla. They had
recently left Rome. Their exit was due to an edict by
Claudius demanding that all the Jews of Rome be
expelled. F. F. Bruce makes clear that they were not
converts of the Apostle Paul. Rather, they had become
Christians while living in Rome. In fact, the edict by
Claudius to expel the Jews was likely the result of the
propagation of Christianity among the ranks of the
Jewish community in Rome. This conclusion is justified
by the natural inference from the statement of
Suetonius that because the Jews of Rome were
indulging in constant riots at the instigation of
Chrestus (impulsore Chresto) he expelled them from the
city.
The early Jewish Christians were certainly included as
one category of Jews among many sects of Judaism.
Christianity was indistinguishable from Judaism in
the time of Claudius. However, this condition did
not remain stagnant. It was perfectly
distinguishable by the time Suetonius wrote (c. A.D.
120), and it was well known that it had been founded by
Christ (Christus, not unnaturally confused with the
common slave-name Chrestus, which was pronounced in
practically the same way).
