Christianity – Divine Council

Believers

Nepalian Christianity: Church Evictions, Providence, & Online Exorcisms

By Theo Theo June 14, 2019

Jai Mashi from Nepal!

In my last two updates, we discussed a US lady being possibly deported from Nepal. That news has gone global and been reported in a recent edition of Decision Magazine. So, readers of this blog may be getting more up to date information from this “scholar on the ground” than mainstream sources. Bear in mind, however, that gleaning the truth from Asia’s version of “fake news” is no easy task. As I wrote in my last update, the lady has not yet been deported. Christians have rallied, and with prayer and support from around the world, the authorities chose not to pursue the case.

The same police official in charge of investigations in Eastern Nepal and the closing of a Christian school was the in charge of this case in Western Nepal. He had been transferred and is using his post to attack Christians. You can find all of this in my previous posts. God is good!

Spring Teaching Term Complete

I have completed my present teaching term and my students are now pursuing the secular requirements for their degrees. Upon completion of those exams, they will graduate in August. My students are concerned about how they will share what they’ve learned with their local village churches. Please keep this in mind in your prayers for them.

During the break, I’ll be continuing my Ph.D. Studies, which need lots of attention. I’ve also been taking courses to train myself up in many new tools to meet the growing need to get content out both here and abroad. These are truly is exciting times!

God’s Providence: An Ever-present Reality!

God’s providence continues to make itself known as an ever-present reality. For example, I’ll have a conversation with someone only to find out that another has been secretly working on a project to address the same need! Also, the Lord keeps putting people in my path at just the right time to assist in learning the things I need to move forward.

Fledgling Nepalian Christianity

Christianity is still a fledgling faith in Nepal. Christian academics must be vigilant to properly serve the church in the wake of many cults from Korea and the US. Many believers here have a limited understanding of Christianity and are challenged by new ways of thinking, especially within Christian scholarship. It is essential to help guide them towards the best ways of thinking and those ways are not always well-received. Those of a simplistic mindset resist the vastness of the content in which they’re engaged.

The pastors in the villages are often merely those who can read Nepali and translate it into the local language. They have little to no formal training and my teaching on Christianity is inevitably more profound than what they were previously led to believe. This makes it especially urgent to make content available to fight heresy within and outside of the church. Also, the youth of my students is a cultural barrier to the acceptance by their elders. Previously held doctrines are held in high regard despite obvious inferiority to modern scholarship. Elders tend to think my doctrinal clarifications require them to deny some aspect of Christ. It’s hard for them to let go of wrongful or imprecise thinking to embrace the greater riches within our faith.

Churches Being Evicted or Destroyed

Land is extremely expensive in Nepal, most churches cannot afford it and it’s especially difficult for Christians to find a place to rent for worship. In the wake of the Easter 2019 attacks in Sri Lanka, a nearby church was evicted when pressured to do so by locals and police (who were afraid that what took place in Sri Lanka could happen in their neighborhood.) The church is now meeting in separate small groups spread among rental houses also subject to eviction should landlords find out they’re being used for worship. Many pagans here find Christian worship offensive and will use any means available oppress minority religions.

Another land-owning church is under consideration to be forcibly razed. With the new constitution, and subsequent laws and amendments concerning preserving Nepalese culture, any property that was formerly, at any time, temple grounds can be “redeemed” (especially if any competing religious institution has been erected.) Therefore, a local church, one of the oldest in Nepal, had purchased land nearby a temple but that land had also initially belonged to a temple and had exchanged many hands subsequently. The church bought the property from private owners decades ago. Now people are deeming it worthy of “redemption.” The church in question will be forced to leave, receive no compensation and lose their entire investment.

This anti-Christian attack, ironic considering the mandate of the preservation law, is a blow to Christian morale. How does one preserve history by destroying one of the hallmarks of Nepalian Christianity? The message is clear: State forces in Nepal are as willing to destroy the historical roots of Christianity as their counterparts in the Middle East.

Nepal is doing the very thing they say they are opposed to: destroying Christian landmarks while claiming to have a policy of preservation. It is how the current party in power in India began when the same issue over a Hindu temple was raised concerning a Muslim mosque.

State News

In the past week, we’ve had a series of bomb blasts in the capital; a sad reminder of the decade long civil war that plagued Nepal after its recent overthrow of the monarch. Maoists continue to be a problem: their leader is honored by the current administration for “maintaining peace” despite the thousands they’ve killed in the process.

Indian elections have concluded and, despite media predictions, the Hindu party in power has prevailed. Nepal wants to follow the same trend. The majority are Hindu; however, the communists won the majority and have formed the new government.

An Online Exorcism?

Lastly, a recent attempt to rape a 7-year-old girl (while asleep in our church) was thwarted and the girl was unharmed. The father is Hindu and has been known to be demon possessed. He had turned to Christ to be set free but returned to his Hindu roots shortly after that. After this incident with his daughter, he was repossessed. After many prayer meetings, we were able to coordinate several believers, both here and in the US, and engage in a “real time” exorcism. Amy “Beth” of Hesed Place, a former guest on the NakedBible podcast, and the indigenous pastor here who translated Supernatural into Nepali worked together to help the victim in finding meaningful peace and deliverance. We also consulted with Doug Overmyer from Seers See Ministry for guidance as the event lasted over several days. Doug is part of Mike’s Peeranormal Podcast and also was featured on the Bible Over Brews Podcast on episodes 36 & 38.

The father has joined our church to be alongside his family and be discipled in the faith. They’ve moved closer to the church to get away from the place where the rape attempt occurred. I also conferred with Fern & Audrey of Discovering MErcy for some further advice and will coordinate with our own local pastor to see he gets further assistance in his journey. We hope to get Mike’s next book translated, as well, to assist us until I can devote time to producing much-needed content upon completion of my doctoral degree in Biblical Studies. We are also planning a conference here in conjunction with the release of the translation to get the book out to the people. Thanks to everyone who supported us behind the scenes.

Thanks to all who continue to support us in the work we do here. It is exciting to take the light of Jesus into the dark kingdoms of this world as a beacon of hope! As we get the time, we hope to be keeping you abreast of the new avenues of content production with which we presently have in the works. God continues to confirm our present trajectory.

Believers

Christian Arrests in Nepal, Hindu Nationalism, and How Young Believers in the East are Affected by those Older in the Faith in the West

By Theo Theo May 28, 2019

Those arrested recently in Western Nepal have finally been released by the authorities. Earlier it was reported that the US woman was deported and had pledged to return. I’m not sure if she’d be allowed. As I mentioned earlier the attacks of Sri Lanka (a new article with more understanding) and how it has affected many in the region by empowering some to rise against Christians and causing others to be wary. Here’s a good article to catch you up on all the recent ramifications. It additionally tells of the release of all involved in those arrests after a week. It seems to report that she was not deported after all. It is hard to get proper details at times, even in the media. I try my best to document what I report, but my sources are not failproof. Nepali press is reporting that the consulate/embassy actually intervened. I find that quite doubtful. Apparently, though, she is still in Nepal regardless. It would seem as this article reports that locals demonstrated and paved the way for a better outcome. It would also seem the earlier reports were not entirely accurate.

Muslims in Nepal

Someone asked me about Muslims in Nepal, so I’ve posted the above video on Hindu Nationalism. Here’s a more recent article on Muslims in Nepal. Hopefully, this article and a few of the earlier ones can help anyone interested to see what it is like to be in the minority here. You can see how Muslims are affected and how it compares with the treatment of Christians. Religious freedom in Nepal is tricky at best.

Bird Flu

Also, here is an update on the bird flu situation. People have now died. We are still avoiding chicken. If everything tastes like chicken, I suppose one just should eat everything else until the flu flies because the chickens can’t fly all too high. Go figure!

Cat 4 Storm

Additionally, this morning, a category 4 storm hit India named Cyclone Fani and has sent more rain our way. Nearly 100 million appear to be affected in India. Many of those had to be evacuated. They have been doing well at these pre-storm maneuvers recently as I recall. We sure didn’t need any more rain and certainly are in no danger as compared to those in India.

They have not been hit by such a storm for almost two decades. In the wakes of severe persecution and the death of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, a similar storm belted the same area back then. Here are two updated article revisiting those events two decades ago, and this one. While visiting the region myself during the 2008 persecutions, I was told by an Indian pastor that a member of parliament while in session begged for Jesus’ forgiveness for the persecution seeing the storm as some form of Biblical judgment. I could not find anything to document that claim.

How Young Believers in the East are Affected by those Older in the Faith in the West

As you can begin to see, what affects neighbors in the region here has a significant impact on Nepal. What happens to Christians in the world affects Christians here to a much stronger degree than per se those in the West. Even what happens to Western Christians significantly impact those in the East here. Conversely, what other groups do to Christians also affect what others end up doing to believers here. It is quite a relationship and sets a strong measure of responsibility on those “older in the family of the faith” to act wisely as those “younger” are watching and deeply affected.

Christians here look with “honor” upon others in the family all across the globe. They also connect to any “shame” and share it more than Westerners can imagine. I can only point to David deSilva’s book on this topic to advise one on how to better understand such connections that are still very much alive here that go all the way back to antiquity. It is crucial to understand the world here and also the worldview and culture of the Bible as a whole.

There is a certain amount of this idea of momentum, whether up or down that affects people in general over here. It is to a much larger extent here than I realized when I lived in the West. It seems to me to be much more inherent here. People here are well communal.

It carries even beyond Asia. I cannot discern if I’ve changed personally by living here. Or, perhaps my studies of authors like DeSilva has made me aware that it’s the same in the West. Maybe people here are just that much closer to the Biblical worldview and the West is more removed. It was reported in India that 19 students committed suicide over their exam results. I cannot fathom if the shootings in the West are somehow similar in some sense that people keep doing this because they feel connected to those who did such violence in the past. Many see suicide as their only option to tell the world here that it needs to change. Apparently, they feel that they have no other way in which to express the need for that change to come. Let’s hope their deaths matter in bringing some sort of change.

This incident here shows the communal nature of Asians in their thinking. This is only a recent example. Each felt the need to end their own life because the pressure they would face ended any chance of a proper life. Stereotypes had already made them out to be failures before the truth could be known. They also now have made them as a statistic.

As I stated in a previous update, it is akin to what one sees in a game where things seem to work for or against a particular team, and it carries or drags on the rest of the members. Sort of an ebb and flow type atmosphere that seemingly is ingrained in thinking in those religious over here that drives them positively or negatively into their actions. They are in “communion or fellowship” with all those of like faith across the planet. In the West, we tend to stereotype. Here in the East, they join in any group whom they feel indebted because of the kind of patronage DeSilva describes in that same volume. They also very much stereotype others based upon any group that others share in.

Apologetics

The Big Story of the Bible, Part 10

By Guest Post May 15, 2019

by Dr. Ronn Johnson

I have been away from this blog for some time, though it has been constantly on my mind. Since my last post, I have written and presented a course at our church on the big story of the Bible. It was rewarding, yet undoubtedly the toughest challenge I had ever faced as a Bible teacher. As I told the class several times, sometimes out of desperation, it’s one thing to teach a passage of the Bible, or even a survey of books within the Bible—most of us have tried that—but something entirely different to approach the text with the sole intent of tracking its largest narrative. Sometimes I felt like I knew where I was going, while at other times I felt very unsure of myself, even within an hour of walking into the class. Now that it’s over I look forward to stepping back and reviewing what I said, thinking through where my work needs improvement.

I would like to return to this blog for such a purpose, in fact: to review what I said in the class and hear myself talk. I invite your response if you have the time. In previous blogs my thinking has been largely negative, pointing out perceived problems with evangelicalism’s traditional understanding of the big story of the Bible. It will feel good to turn the ship around at this point and head in a positive direction. As you could guess, my understanding of the story will be categorically different from the Sin Paid For model that I have been talking about—where the punishment required for sin by God was voluntarily paid by a behaviorally perfect individual, with this payment then being applied to those who accept this gracious provision of Christ on their behalf. I realize that many people like this story because it offers God a way to relieve the tension between his justice and love through Jesus while remaining true to his own demands of grace and impartiality. But as I’ve recommended, this does not seem to be the tension played out in the biblical story. And once we change the tension or crisis of a story we are in effect writing a different story altogether.

In my class, I developed the biblical story by working through the chronological flow of the text. This is easier said than done, I came to realize, and I’ll talk more of this below. But in general, I tried to not give away what happened until it actually happened. I did this for those in the class who were unfamiliar with the Bible, as well as to experiment how this would work within my own presentation. For purposes of this blog, I will lay out the whole story right up front, from beginning to end, then return back to go through the details in upcoming posts. I presume that readers of this website are familiar enough with the Bible to not be annoyed at being given the end of the story too soon.

I have used the analogy of a brick wall before so I will continue the analogy here. What follows are the one hundred bricks which make up, in my opinion, the big story wall of the Bible. Ending up with this round number is not accidental, as you could guess, but mostly because I didn’t like the idea of ending on an odd number, like 89 or 105. I constantly reworked my pile to keep it at the century mark, which is unimportant in the long run. The number can certainly change. Here are my bricks listed in the order in which they appear (or occur) in the story, starting with Genesis 1:1:

God creates the universe
God creates elohim above humans
God creates humans below elohim
Humans fail a loyalty test
Humanity dies and awakens
Creation is sentenced to frustration
Adam’s family shows divided loyalties
Elohim interfere in human affairs
God destroys the earth
Elohim receive territorial rule

Elohim abuse their authority
God judges ruling elohim
Abraham switches spiritual loyalties
Abraham is promised blessing
Elohim come to earth as messengers
God designates loyalty as right
God designates disloyalty as wrong
Abraham’s family shows divided loyalties
God’s family is named Israel
Jacob bears twelve tribes

Joseph saves the family in Egypt
Pharaoh enslaves the family
God reveals his name
Passover redeems Israel
Israel accepts Torah
Israel worships Baal
God clarifies his jealousy
Loyalty is demanded
Disloyalty is predicted
Sacred space is institutionalized

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Atheism

What Christians Face in a Neo-Marxist World

By Guest Post April 30, 2019

By Alfred Kentigern Siewers

Two weeks ago, an elderly abbot of a Russian Orthodox Monastery in the U.S. Pacific Northwest was punched in the head while pumping gas.

The assailant, unknown to him, reportedly zeroed in on the cross he was wearing and then said, “How’s Trump?”

“I don’t know,” replied the gentle but traditional monk, not known for being political.

Then came the debilitating sucker punch.

With political extremism on the rise in the U.S., and leftist-anarchist groups denouncing the First Amendment as a legacy of white supremacy, expect anti-religious violence to continue to be normalized as public discourse keeps dehumanizing traditional Christians.

Normalization of leftist violence is seen in how CBS touts online a TV show that, as TAC senior editor Rod Dreher notes, “affirms and justifies the violent physical assault of a living American who was peacefully stating his opinion… to promote its own programming by rallying potential viewers to the episode.”

Dreher also cites how Villanova University Professor Billie Murray’s work theorizes a political tolerance for violence on the Left by “’challenging the violence/nonviolence binary’ and arguing that we ‘should imagine activism as combative’—this, as a counterpoint to ‘traditional nonviolent activism.’”

Middlebury College recently cancelled a speech by former Polish Solidarity activist and philosopher Ryszard Legutko because they reportedly could not guarantee his safety. Ironically, Legutko studies how liberal democracies are becoming “soft totalitarian” regimes. He too, has espoused conservative Catholic views of marriage and sex. This in part has led, we can only guess, to the Facebook rants against him ahead of his planned appearance, and a statement by protesting students who called him a homophobe, misogynist, racist, sexist, “and practically everything an ideological sinner can be today,” according to Legutko’s own detailing of the events.

Meanwhile, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen suggested that Vice President Mike Pence should resign because his wife is teaching at a conservative Christian school that opposes secular sexual anthropology, and this puts him beyond the pale of acceptable social morals. In recent years, Christian restaurant chains, bakers, and high-tech executives have fallen prey to campaigns to chase them from the economy, a kind of professional execution in a capitalist society.

On a small scale, as a Russian Orthodox Christian like the aforementioned Abbot, I’ve experienced a kind of attempted social erasure in our small college town. For example, I was headed into a small restaurant when a progressive colleague inside called out that the establishment should be cleared because I was coming to “kill all gays and heretics.” That was a reference to my religious identity and not a reflection of my personal respect for LGBTQIA-identifying colleagues.

The larger social and professional ostracism that my family and I have experienced in a small university community was amplified by anti-Russian sentiments in the anti-Trump “resistance,” related to hatred of resurgent traditional Christianity in Russia. Ironically, this occurs in a region that once saw activity by the Ku Klux Klan, which targeted Orthodox Christians among other minorities.

Such dehumanization has deep roots. In the classical revolutionary philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, religion is an ideology by which “the ruling class has sought to maintain and legitimate the status quo and so sought to keep other classes in subjection to itself,” notes the intellectual historian James Thrower. But Leninism, he notes, made “the active struggle against religious ideology” crucial to “a successful struggle against political and economic oppression.”

Since World War II, “cultural Marxism” in the West sought to reverse-engineer Marxist revolution through cultural change, following the lead of the Italian theoretician Antonio Gramsci, who argued in his influential prison notebooks that “proletarian hegemony” needed to imitate religion by repeating cultural messages incessantly and establishing its own intellectual elite in influential institutions. This “war of position” to establish conditions for revolution is better known from post-1960s intellectuals as the “long march through the institutions,” analogous to Mao’s guerilla-style “long march.”

Such ideological efforts have spawned not only attempted social ostracism but a culture ripe for anti-Christian violence by the mentally unhinged. At Umpquaa Community College in Oregon in 2015, 10 people were killed in a tragedy where the shooter reportedly asked people if they were Christian and shot them if they were.

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Apologetics

6 Things You Can Tell Your Kids to Explain Pain and Suffering in Our World

By Guest Post April 30, 2019

by J. Warner Wallace

Devastating storms, killer earthquakes, record-setting fires and horrific acts of evil dominate recent news headlines. Why would an all-loving, all-powerful God allow these things to happen? Is God just unable to stop this kind of evil? If so, why call Him all-powerful? Is God unwilling to stop this kind of evil? Then why call Him all-loving? Some non-believers offer the existence of evil as proof that God doesn’t exist. What should we tell our kids when they observe (or even experience) evil?

Our conversations will certainly look (and sound) differently depending on the age and maturity of our kids, but in all the years that I have been discussing the “problem of evil” with students (either at conferences or as a youth pastor), several key issues continue to dominate my discussions. When explaining why an all-loving, all-powerful God would allow natural disasters (or human evil), consider incorporating the following truths:

Remind Your Kids That Eternity Can Helps Us Cope with Evil
All of us hope to live a long life without free from pain or hardship. What if we knew, in advance, we were going to live forever and experience a pain-free existence for all eternity? Would we view pain and suffering in our temporal life differently (even if it lasted for many years) if we knew we would eventually experience bliss forever? Remind your kids that God offers us life beyond the limits of our short, material existence; we are eternal creatures. All experiences of evil must be considered in light of eternity.

Remind Your Kids That God Loves Us Enough to Allow Us Free-Agency
A loving God would create a world in which love is possible, right? Love requires each of us to act freely, because true love cannot be coerced. God didn’t create us as robots; instead, He gave us free will so our expressions of love would be genuine. But, this also means we have the freedom to ignore God’s commandments and behave badly. Remind your kids that much of the evil we experience in the world is the result of humans who freely choose to disobey. God may allow some evil because free agency is required for love to exist in our world.

Remind Your Kids That Some Suffering Can Actually Develop Our Character
As a parent, you’re probably more concerned with your kids’ character than their comfort, and character is far more likely to be developed through adversity than advantage. Hard times can bring out the best in all of us, providing us with opportunities to help those in need, rise to the occasion, and come to the rescue. Remind your kids that God may allow us to suffer discomfort because He knows it will develop our character, especially since we are eternal creatures. God cares more about our eternal character than current comfort.

Remind Your Kids That God Can Use Some Evil to Call Us to Himself
Many of us ignore God until something happens to get our attention. Tragedy has a way of redirecting our thoughts and pointing us to a life beyond our current struggle. If God has designed us to be with Him in eternity, He might use hardship to refocus those of us who haven’t been paying attention. Remind your kids that some forms of evil may simply be part of God’s loving effort to point us in the right direction.

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Christianity

8 Faith-based Films Worth Your Time

By Guest Post April 27, 2019

by Jesse Carey

“Christian” movies don’t exactly have the greatest reputation among film watchers. Christian cinema’s apocalyptic thrillers, morally concerned family films and social-issue stumping dramas have often been criticized for being a little too preachy for non-church goers, lacking the subtlety of their Hollywood counterparts.

Of course, there’s nothing that makes a movie (or any other piece of pop culture) “Christian,” but films with overtly Christian messages have in some ways, become a sub-genre of their own.

Here’s our look at eight movies with Christian messages that will restore your faith in redemptive films.

Believe Me

Believe Me follows the exploits of a group of college guys who attempt to pay off their student loans by crafting a fake, charity:water-type nonprofit and keeping the donations for themselves. Along the way, they discover they’ve got a gift for crafting the sort of highly emotional, faux-substantive Christian “worship” experiences that grease the pockets of the faithful, but they also start to come to terms with their own hypocrisy. Watching the dudes learn to perfect their Christianese is a stinging riot, but Believe Me has a lot more on its mind than just laughs.

Amazing Grace

The 2006 film about William Wilberforce’s campaign to abolish the slave trade in Britain works on several levels: It’s a gripping historical drama; it’s a compelling story about social activism and it’s a moving testimony to the power of faith and reliance on a higher calling.

Blue Like Jazz

The film adaptation of Donald Miller’s best-selling memoir may not have captured the same breakaway success as the book, but the movie remains a pretty charming indie. Unlike many traditional “Christian” movies (or films that are targeted to Christian audiences), Blue Like Jazz isn’t afraid to embrace the complexity of faith, coming of age and thinking about God. Like the book, the movie enjoys asking questions and exploring doubts, but ultimately, finding truth.

Into Great Silence

In 1984, filmmaker Philip Gröning asked Carthusian monks in a remote French monastery if he could make a documentary about their lives. Sixteen years later, the monks agreed. The resulting documentary is a wordless, but gripping, look at the lives of the reclusive monks who have devoted themselves to God and the Bible. What’s captured on camera is like a time-capsule from a group of men dedicated to prayer, and it soon becomes clear why their order’s motto is “The Cross is steady while the world is turning.”

The Mission

Based on actual events, the 1986 drama starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons is an emotional story of redemption, forgiveness, persecution and devotion. Set at a Jesuit mission in the South American jungles during the 1700s, the movie is about fighting injustice and how grace can be used to overcome the most powerful forces of might. It’s a hard-hitting movie featuring one of the most iconic scores in history. Don’t miss it.

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Christianity

Churches Have Become The #1 Target For Hate Attacks

By Guest Post April 22, 2019

by Michael Snyder

The bombings in Sri Lanka have once again put a spotlight on the rising tide of violence against Christians all over the world. According to Open Doors USA, an average of 105 churches and/or Christian buildings are burned or attacked every month. That is more than three per day, and almost all of those attacks get ignored by the mainstream media in the western world. In addition, an average of 345 Christians are killed for faith-related reasons every single month. Of course these numbers will soon be out of date, because violence against Christians continues to escalate all over the globe, and the horrifying attacks that we just witnessed in Sri Lanka are a perfect example. The following comes from CBS News…

A series of eight bombings in Sri Lanka targeting Christian churches and hotels in three cities killed at least 207 people and wounded up to 450 others on Easter Sunday. Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardene described the coordinated blasts as a terrorist attack by religious extremists.

More specifically, the attackers were Muslim extremists.

Why does the mainstream media have to be so politically-correct all the time?

Of course this comes right on the heels of the fire that almost destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral. Authorities are still attempting to determine the cause of that fire, but we do know that many other churches have been hit by vandals and arsonists in France since the beginning of February…

Vandals and arsonists have targeted French churches in a wave of attacks that has lasted nearly two months.

More than 10 churches have been hit since the beginning of February, with some set on fire while others were severely desecrated or damaged.

In an apparent attempt to copy what happened at Notre Dame, a deranged philosophy professor was caught bringing gas cans and lighter fluid to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York…

The man who allegedly brought gas cans and lighter fluid into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City has taught philosophy at different colleges in New York and New Jersey, school officials said.

Marc Lamparello, 37, was arrested on Wednesday night and was charged with attempted arson and reckless endangerment. He was taken into custody after a security guard at the cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan spotted him.

Fortunately a great tragedy was averted in that case, but most churches around the world are very “soft targets” with absolutely no security whatsoever.

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Christianity

Free Christian Movies to Watch for Easter Week

By Terence Gillespie April 17, 2019

Yesterday was Darren Wilson’s “Finger of God” and today is his “Furious Love”. WP Films is making their films watchable for free during Easter week!

I’m half-way through Furious Love and can now recommend it. Here’s the trailer:

I don’t know what movies will be shown, tomorrow, so tune in to find out!

Abortion

3 Portals for Demonic Entry That Are Destroying the US

By Guest Post April 11, 2019

by Bert Farias

Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).

Those who are familiar with my writings know I don’t usually mince words. The devil is always behind sugar-coated truth and a slimy tongue. Be sure of that.

Abortion, homosexuality, and Islam are the greatest dangers facing America in the 21st century. Each of them has opened up portals of entry into our culture and way of life. These are ideologies that have infiltrated the minds of multitudes—shaped and fueled by the unprincipled mad media.

Abortion

Abortion is not an opinion about what women have a right to do or not do with their bodies. That’s the devil’s facade to hide what it really is. Willful abortion is murder at any point of a woman’s pregnancy. It’s a demon just like the Old Testament god of Molech to whom people sacrificed babies. It’s the same altar where many Americans now worship.

Think about it. Why are there abortion rights that have killed 60 million babies in America alone? Blunt answer: mainly because of fornication and adultery.

There are some cases of rape and so forth, but that’s a very small minority. Yet it’s one of the main talking points of what people debate on. It’s hogwash. Sexual immorality is the biggest reason we have abortions. People want sex without the commitment and covenant of marriage and responsibility for the consequences. In fact, what they say by their actions is “A baby will ruin my happiness, so kill it!” How much more demonic can it be?

But do you know what is fueling the increase of promiscuous sex and now pedophilia, as well as all sorts of perversion? One word. Pornography. If you shut down the billion-dollar industry of pornography, you will radically decrease sexual immorality and perversion on every level. Abortions will also decrease exponentially.

Pornography is another portal of entry for demonic access. These evils are all linked together. It’s Satan’s master plan and the worldwide web.

Homosexuality

How about homosexuality? I wrote an article over four years ago on homosexuality being a demon, and demons flew from every direction to attack my words. People were calling our ministry phone, writing nasty comments, sharing the article with right-wing watch groups and mocking it. They were fuming in venomous rage. That alone proves it was a demon because it’s the very point that nearly everyone attacked.

People accused me of having no compassion, but guess what? I also received calls and messages from homosexuals who knew I was telling the truth and wanted help. My compassion was directed toward those.

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Apologetics

Does God Just Want Me to Be Happy?

By Guest Post March 20, 2019

by Shane Pruitt

My wife, Kasi, and I became fully involved in counseling a couple whose marriage was breaking down; we spent hours praying for them. We tried everything we knew to help save their marriage. I talked and cried with the husband, and Kasi talked and cried with the wife, who wanted to leave. Kasi would plead, “Think of your family. Think of your baby. And, most importantly, think of your relationship with your heavenly Father.” I’ll never forget the night Kasi came home after spending a couple of hours with the wife. My beautiful, normally glowing bride looked completely dejected and exhausted; she said, “Shane, it’s over. She is leaving him.” I was confused and heartbroken for our friends. I had believed there was hope. I replied, “Kasi, what do you mean it’s over? Are you certain? How do you know?” I’ll never forget Kasi’s reply: “I know because of what she said” . . . she said, “I know that God just wants me to be happy!” And there it was. The statement that is always the card people play when they want to justify their actions. The statement that is always the excuse people give for ignoring what the Scriptures have to say about their particular breach of ethics: “God just wants me to be happy.”

Here are some questions that we all must settle for ourselves – Is our happiness really the determining factor for everything? Is happiness really the greatest good in the world? Statements like “Happy wife, happy life” and “The ultimate goal of life is the pursuit of happiness” have been staples in our society for as long as I can remember. But is that what God’s main priority for our lives is—to just be happy?

God Is Not a Genie

It’s a common belief that God exists to be our “personal genie,” waiting to give us our every wish, desire or validation for our feelings. It’s amazing how we will wear ourselves to exhaustion or destroy the world around us by trying to pursue an elusive state of happiness. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-happy. I’m a big fan of healthy happiness. What I’m talking about is the world’s definition of happiness, or even more relevant to each of us, our own view of happiness. The world’s idea of happiness is directly tied to circumstances. If our circumstances are favorable, then we’re happy. If not, then we’re not.

But here’s the deal. Our circumstances change all the time. Many of us allow these vacillating circumstances to dictate our happiness. It’s an extremely dangerous scenario when outward forces control our inward feelings. If we’re pursuing that kind of happiness, we’ll end up in a ditch of resentment and regret. It’s this elusive lie, like greener pastures or plastic frogs, that lure us away from God’s best, eventually hooking us into a fight for our very lives. And we find ourselves stuck or hooked just steps before becoming miserable and depressed (not happy).

What if God desires more for us than happiness? Is it possible that in the pursuit of happiness, we’re completely missing God Himself? After all, He is the only One who can truly make us happy. Does God have something more in store for you and me than just happiness? Okay, here’s the answer to those questions. Three little letters: J-O-Y. God desires that you and I experience joy, that settled state of contentment, confidence, and hope that comes only from trusting Him. Sadly though, we often miss it because we’re too busy chasing happiness. Here are three definitive biblical truths that explain why joy is greater than happiness.

Joy Is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Joy is the second fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy . . .” (verse 22). In the Bible, fruit is a symbol of character. The list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5 is a list of characteristics that should naturally flow out of Christians’ lives when they have God inside them. One of the most distinct markers that the Spirit of God dwells in you is the presence of joy in your life. If you have the Spirit, you will have joy! This is one of the fundamental differences between biblical joy and worldly happiness. We attempt to find happiness from favorable circumstances, but we receive joy only as a gift from the favorable God. Happiness comes and goes as circumstances and feelings change. Joy, however, is here to stay.

Joy is Not Based on Circumstances, It’s Based on Jesus

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