Thursday, July 4, 2019

3 July 2019




Presbyterians Week Headlines




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Republished with the permission of Naturalnews.com

Saturday, June 22, 2019 by: Mike Adams


(Natural News) Twenty years ago, I remember telling a physician friend of mine that China was harvesting organs from political prisoners. The doctor — a wine-drinking liberal academic — scoffed at the idea and claimed that if something like that were going on, he would have heard about it by now. (This is how doctors think. If they don’t discover information first, they discount anyone else bringing it to them.)

Now, twenty years later, an independent tribunal has unanimously concluded that organ harvesting in communist China takes place on “a significant scale.”

“Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale,” said chair of the tribunal, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, as reported by The Epoch Times. “The panel further concluded that adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong have been one of the main sources of organ supply. Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline consisting of meditation exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, has been brutally persecuted by the Chinese regime for the past two decades.”


Gutmann’s research and writing, in conjunction with authors David Kilgour and David Matas, exposed a million-dollar Chinese industry centered around the killing of political prisoners – mostly Falun Gong members, but some Christians, Uighur Muslims, and others considered enemies of the state – and extracting of livers, kidneys, hearts, and other vital organs to sell to buyers in need.

I’ve been reporting this for years on Natural News and other sites, but of course we are banned by the communist-linked tech giants like Facebook and Twitter for daring to tell the truth about the organ harvesting factories in China.

Now, organ harvesting is being carried out in Canada, too.

Following in the footsteps of the communist Chinese, Canada is now pursuing organ harvesting from euthanized patients. As reported by LifeSiteNews:

[T]he Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has issued guidelines for how the harvesting of organs from people who elect to be killed by medical practitioners should work. Despite some hand-wringing about ethics, the June 3 document allows doctors to canvas their vulnerable, suicidal patients for their organs.

Even worse, it is well known that doctors and hospitals, driven by extreme greed and cruelty, often kill patients through the process of harvesting their organs. In other words, the patients aren’t really dead until the organ harvesting begins. As explained via LifeSiteNews:

Alex Schadenberg of Canada’s Euthansia Prevention Coalition believes that accepting organs from euthanasia victims will indeed lead to death by organ donation.

“The acceptance of organ donation after euthanasia leads to the pressure to do euthanasia by organ donation,” he told LifeSiteNews.

“The concept that organ donation and euthanasia can be separated is false. The person will be prepared for the organ donation and the euthanasia simultaneously to make the procedure most effective.”

It is in the financial interests of the doctors, organ transplant surgeons and medical facilities, in other words, to not really wait until the patient is dead before harvesting their organs. The more “fresh” the organs are, the more successful the chances of transplant surgery involving a recipient. Yes, the euthanasia in Canada is by consent, which makes it different from China’s forced political prisoner executions and organ harvesting operations, but organ harvesting is a slippery slope, and Canada is now on that slope with apparently nothing stopping doctors from being caught up in conflicts of interest that benefit the medical establishment, not individual patients.

Doctors don’t wait for patients to die before harvesting their organs
As published in a Medicine.news article that I authored, a new science study proves that doctors do not wait for patients to die before harvesting their organs:

…you’re still alive, conscious and aware for several minutes after your heart stops beating. Just because the heart stops doesn’t instantly disconnect the activity of the brain.

“This means you are essentially ‘trapped’ inside your dead body with your brain still working,” reports Fox News. If you’re an organ donor, that’s the moment in which doctors slice into your body without using anesthesia (since they assume you’re dead) and start rapidly harvesting your organs. You feel every bit of it, but you’re trapped inside your body and can’t move or even scream.

…organ transplants are a huge profit center for many hospitals, and while hospitals and doctors reap enormous profits on these procedures, they pay no money whatsoever to the family of the deceased person whose organs made the entire thing possible in the first place.

Just because a person’s heart stops beating doesn’t mean they’re dead. They can still feel pain and experience the process of organs being ripped from their living body. But the medical establishment says nothing. In fact, to this day, the World Health Organization still has not condemned China for operating its organ harvesting factories.

Imagine that. The WHO pushes vaccines, claiming it cares about “saving lives,” but won’t condemn the forced executions and organ harvesting from political prisoners in China.

The push for euthanasia laws is actually an organ supply initiative to fulfill the profits of the transplant industry while mass murdering targeted political opponents

Euthanasia laws are currently being considered in many U.S. states. They’re being pushed by liberals and progressives who are already on the record calling for the mass killing of Christians, conservatives and Trump supporters.

In exactly the same way the communist Chinese government targets political dissidents — Falun Gong members — for arrests, executions and organ harvesting, left-wing authoritarians in America will sooner or later call for the mass execution and organ harvesting of Christians and political dissidents who do not kowtow to the LGBT agenda of child mass murder and taxpayer-funded mutilations (like what has just been made a matter of law in Vermont).

As has been made abundantly obvious by the mass censorship and de-platforming of conservatives, liberals do not see conservatives or Christians as human beings. Thus, killing them and harvesting their organs is not in any way contradictory to the “values” of Leftists who place literally no value on any human life other than their own. Remember: These are people who murder their own babies after they’re born. Do you really think they won’t murder their political enemies?

We’ve already seen this happen in communist China, and it all started with the collapse of Western values, reports Breitbart News:

The “collapse of Western values,” a “massive case of denial” in the free world, and “religious bigotry” towards the Falun Gong spiritual movement have allowed China to potentially expand its industrial-scale harvesting of live organs to Uighur Muslims imprisoned in concentration camps, Ethan Gutmann, author of several seminal reports on the topic, told Breitbart News.

In the update to their research in 2016, Gutmann, Kilgour, and Matas revealed that China was conducting between 50,000 and 90,000 more transplant surgeries than the official government estimates of organ donors, even including death row inmates, could account for. Filling the gap between documented organ donations and actual transplants completed were the bodies of prisoners of conscience, the report concluded. Both Falun Gong survivors and doctors who have testified to engaging in live organ harvesting have corroborated the report.

Does any informed person honestly believe that Leftists in America — filled with rage, hatred and the desire for total destruction of their political enemies — won’t resort to mass murder and mass organ harvesting if no one stops them?

America’s Leftists are rapidly shifting toward the twisted, dangerous political philosophies of communism and authoritarianism. All voices of conservatives, Christians and civil liberties are being crushed. Conservatives are even being de-platformed from banks, jobs and universities just because they believe in principles and ethics. Even the ACLU has become a legal front for Satanism, arguing that Satanists have the right to erect statues in front of government buildings across America.

The abortion (infanticide) industry is rapidly accelerating in Leftist-held states, and the rhetoric of Leftists increasingly demands the mass killing of conservatives. It’s not difficult to see where this is headed if something dramatic doesn’t change soon.
America, 2025 (a dystopian nightmare scenario): A Democrat is sworn into office at the White House. She immediately signs a law criminalizing Christianity and calling for the imprisonment of any adult who doesn’t turn their child over to left-wing indoctrination centers that groom children to be pedophiles and transgenders. All children are required to undergo chemical castration and genital mutilation procedures before being molested and repeatedly raped by top Democrat fundraisers who have the “right” connections. Adults who resist are arrested, charged with sedition and forcibly organs harvested while they are still alive, with organs being sold on the black market in order to further enrich the Democrats in power. Bibles are outlawed and considered contraband. All speech is regulated by the GooglePlex. “Thoughtcrimes” become a reality, and Amazon Alexa devices become mandatory in all U.S. households so that the deep state swamp can actively record all your private conversations. All Americans are required to wear LGBT rainbow pride pins in public, or face arrest. All corporations deny jobs to anyone who doesn’t worship child mutilations and transgenderism. Banks cut off accounts for all conservatives, and credit card companies cancel the accounts of anyone tied to any Christian church. Women’s sports collapses in a biological male freak-fest, and Disney launches movies for six-year-olds that promote same-sex orgies for children. Netflix broadcasts “Hail Satan” messages between every episode, and a new national law criminalizes the private possession of all guns while offering a nationwide “gun buyback free vaccine” program that offers the citizens free vaccinations for every pistol or rifle they turn over to the government.

Or maybe we can stop all this insanity before it goes that far. Maybe we can reclaim our humanity, protect the innocent and stop the mass brainwashing, mutilations and mass murder of children in America.

About the author: Mike Adams (aka the “Health Ranger“) is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com called “Food Forensics“), an environmental scientist, a patent holder for a cesium radioactive isotope elimination invention, a multiple award winner for outstanding journalism, a science news publisher and influential commentator on topics ranging from science and medicine to culture and politics. Follow his videos, podcasts, websites and science projects at the links below.

Mike Adams serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation. He has also achieved numerous laboratory breakthroughs in the programming of automated liquid handling robots for sample preparation and external standards prep.

The U.S. patent office has awarded Mike Adams patent NO. US 9526751 B2 for the invention of “Cesium Eliminator,” a lifesaving invention that removes up to 95% of radioactive cesium from the human digestive tract. Adams has pledged to donate full patent licensing rights to any state or national government that needs to manufacture the product to save human lives in the aftermath of a nuclear accident, disaster, act of war or act of terrorism. He has also stockpiled 10,000 kg of raw material to manufacture Cesium Eliminator in a Texas warehouse, and plans to donate the finished product to help save lives in Texas when the next nuclear event occurs. No independent scientist in the world has done more research on the removal of radioactive elements from the human digestive tract.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and American Indians. He is of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his “Health Ranger” passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.
Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world’s first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.
Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed “strange fibers” found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health “gurus,” dangerous “detox” products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over fifteen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.






WASHINGTON, June 28, 2019 /Christian Newswire/ -- Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairman of Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission along with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), today held a bipartisan hearing on the perilous state of religious freedom for Christians in China, Nigeria, Iran and other places around the world.

Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, head of the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, led the witness panels, followed by the Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Nadine Maenza. David Curry and Tom Farr, the presidents of Open Doors USA and the Religious Freedom Institute, respectively, rounded out the hearing.

“Like many of you, the news that Christians in Sri Lanka were killed in a series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday saddened and sickened me,” said Smith. “As shocking as such news was, I cannot say it was surprising.” Citing John Allen, the author of the Global War on Christians, Smith said Allen observed “the shocking thing about the carnage is that it is not shocking – and instead forms part of an ugly, predictable global pattern.”

The April 2019 Sri Lanka attacks reminded Smith of Christmas Eve 2000, when a series of coordinated explosions killed Indonesian Christians in Jakarta and elsewhere. “Easter and Christmas–the two holiest days of the Christian calendar, days when I am sure many of the people in this room have been to Church with their families,” Smith said. Click here to read Chairman Smith’s remarks.

Brownback’s first testimony before the Commission follows the June 21 release of the State Department’s report on the state of international religious freedom globally. It also comes in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks on April 22 in Sri Lanka which killed more than 250 and wounded more than 500 innocent worshipers, including many children.

From North Korea, viewed by Open Doors USA as the worst country in the world in terms of Christian persecution, to Syria, where Christian minorities were viciously targeted by ISIS, the hearing offered a global overview of the issue, with attention to several countries of particular concern. It examined sources of anti-Christian bias and U.S. policy responses.

Citing a recent study by Pew, Brownback said, “Christians face the most wide-spread harassment of any religious group, targeted in 144 countries globally.” The Ambassador and former Kansas governor singled out Iran and Nicaragua for their particular abuse of people of faith, and also took aim at China’s especially brutal treatment of its own citizens. “In addition to its systematic and well-documented repression of Muslims in Xinjiang, Buddhists in Tibet, and Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country, the government has recently accelerated efforts to repress Christians.” Click here to read Brownback’s statement.

Vice Chair Maenza told the congressional panel that USCIRF monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President. She focused her remarks particularly on Pakistan, as well as Eritrea and Burma.

“Pakistan is a country where both the government and nonstate actors have long committed egregious abuses against Christians,” she said. “Over the past year, state security forces have disappeared dozens of young Christian men in Karachi. While many have been released, there is widespread fear in the community that the government will escalate these arbitrary arrests. Forced conversion of young Christian and Hindu women into Islam, often through bonded labor, remains a systemic problem. Many are kidnapped, forcibly married, and raped.” Click here to read Maenza’s testimony.

For over 25 years the Christian advocacy group Open Doors USA has released its World Watch List (WWL) documenting violations against Christians. It found, conservatively, that last year 4,146 Christians were killed for their faith, meaning that 11 Christians were killed, on average, every day. Additionally 2,625 Christians were detained without trial, arrested sentenced and imprisoned. Over 1,266 churches were attacked.

“Sadly, the number of violent incidents against Christian’s documented last year represents a dramatic rise over recent years,” testified Dr. David Curry, President, Open Doors USA. His organization believes the increase can be attributed to the spread of Islamic jihadist ideology in such places as Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq where theologies of hatred toward Christians are widely propagated. The rise of extreme nationalism in Asia is another factor, with India listed as 10th on the WWL because nationalistic Hindu leaders promote the idea that Muslims and Christians cannot be truly Indian. “It’s resulted in a shocking rise of attacks in Christian churches, with nearly 300 churches attacked thus far in 2019 and hundreds of cases of pastors held without trial—just for being Christian pastors,” Curry said. 

Additionally, Curry said communist countries such as North Korea are hostile toward their citizens who practice their religion, stating that North Korea “is the most oppressive place on earth to practice religious faith.” Click here to read Curry’s statement.

Like Brownback, hearing witness Thomas Farr, President of Religious Freedom Institute and past head of the State Department’s International Religious Freedom office, condemned Chinese President Xi’s brutality.

“Three Chinese religious communities are suffering increased, systematic, and fierce persecution by the Xi regime,” Farr said. “They are Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Christians, both Protestant and Catholic. The Muslims of Xinjiang province are being subjected to a massive anti-Uighur and anti-Muslim campaign that is staggering in its sweep and totalitarian sophistication.” Click here to read Farr’s statement.

In addition to the above testimony, the Commission received two written submissions, one from former USCIRF Commissioner Elizabeth Prodromou on religious freedom violations in Turkey and Turkish-occupied Cyprus, and another from the Government of Hungary on its humanitarian efforts to help rebuild Christian communities in Iraq that had been targeted for destruction by ISIS.

For the most updated version of this release, click here.

SOURCE Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)

CONTACT: Jeff Sagnip, 202-225-3765

Related Links



+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com



WASHINGTON, June 28, 2019 /Christian Newswire/ -- France‘s highest civil court today ruled that Vincent Lambert must die by starvation and dehydration. Vincent was nearly made dead last month, but at the eleventh hour, an appellate court ordered that his food and water be restored. Today’s order appears to be final, as Vincent’s parents have exhausted all of their legal remedies to keep their son alive.

As this goes to press, Vincent is being heavily sedated. Why? Because they know that death by starvation and dehydration is excruciating. Advocates for euthanizing Vincent say they want him to die with “dignity.“ But there is nothing dignified about withholding food and water from a disabled person.

“In any other context, killing by starvation and dehydration is considered a crime against humanity," said Life Legal Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “Yet in France—as in the United States—we routinely impose this type of torturous death on individuals who are disabled. This has to stop. Disability should not be a death sentence."

Life Legal regularly intervenes in cases where people are denied life-sustaining care, including the provision of food and water.

About Life Legal Defense Foundation

Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation, visit 
www.lldf.org.  

SOURCE Life Legal Defense Foundation

CONTACT: Alexandra Snyder, 202-717-7371

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+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com


Wednesday, June 5, 2019

5 June 2019




Presbyterians Week Headlines



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[Editor’s Note: Presbyterians Week issues have been few of late due to the editor’s preoccupation with among other things work responsibilities, family responsibilities, and health issues. Your prayers for God’s direction are coveted.]


It is now almost twenty years since the Division which took place in the Free Church of Scotland on the 20th of January, 2000. It is a time for assessment, to look back but also to look ahead. My own ministry is drawing to a close after forty-three years in the active pastoral ministry. This summer I will have been 50 years a  member of the Free Church. What huge changes have taken place in society but especially in the church since my boyhood in Stornoway Free Church!

First, I would like to look at some of the positives with regard to our own denomination. There are such. Then I would like to look at the negatives with regard to our own church, other churches, and society in general. Thirdly, I would like to consider what are the particular problems we face. Fourthly, I wish to present what, in my humble opinion, is the answer. Finally, I wish to present some of the encouragements that the Lord gives us in his Word.

The Positives

1. In the year 2000 it was confidently predicted by our opponents that we would not survive ten years. They said we were such awkward, hardline and unreasonable men that we would soon fall out among ourselves. Actually, on the whole, we have got on very well. We have been able to disagree at times and yet to respect one another. Important matters of controversy have arisen from time to time but we have been able to work our way through these. At the present time there is remarkable harmony amongst us. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps.133:1).

2. In January 2000 it was mostly the older, more mature folk who sided with us. We did not have many young families and children. Today we are older and a bit smaller but we are still there, 20 years later. Some have left us for other churches, a few have fallen by the wayside, many have departed to glory, but others have joined us.

3. We were left with little property yet we now have churches and manses for most of our congregations. Our property now will be worth millions of pounds. Our ministers have had their salaries paid to them every month. None has lost out by associating with us.

4. Training for the ministry is very important for the survival of any church. With our limited resources we wondered what was possible. Our first ministerial candidate was trained in the Reformed Presbyterian College in Belfast. However we now have our own Seminary and over the years have trained some 20 men for the ministry, most serving in our own church, but some serving elsewhere. Two able men have finished this session and there is one other man in training. We have only three vacant charges which could possibly be regarded as suitable to sustain a full-time ministry.

5. The Free Church mission work in Peru, India and South Africa remained with the majority Church. Doors of service in overseas work seemed closed. However the Lord brought to us new opportunities. A good work was begun in Zambia, a college was built and continues to train men for the ministry. Educational and charitable work there has been supported by us. A reformed and presbyterian mission was begun in Sri Lanka. Two congregations have been established with an indigenous pastor. Three small congregations in Spain and one in Southern France are supported by us and have their own Spanish pastor. Considerable opportunities have arisen in China and through Hudson Taylor Ministries many of our ministers have been involved in training house-church leaders. Other doors have opened to us in Kenya and Brazil. We continue to support Jewish missions in the form of Christian Witness to Israel.

6. We have a Home Mission Worker who has served diligently all over Scotland. Millions of tracts, leaflets and evangelistic magazines have been distributed. Thousands of folk up and down the country have been spoken to about their souls and challenged regarding their need to make their peace with God.

7. We have some twenty-five congregations in Scotland. A congregation in Northern Ireland and five congregations in North America have joined us. We have forty-three ministers, twenty of whom serve as pastors in Scottish congregations, one in Northern Ireland and six abroad. The rest are retired men many of whom preach most Sabbaths.

8. We have a monthly magazine, the Free Church Witness and a youth magazine, the Explorer, and print some 1000 copies of each. Useful and edifying books have been written by several of our ministers.

9. Hundreds of thousands of the sermons preached by our ministers are downloaded from the internet all over the world.

10. Our Church has sought faithfully to bear witness to the truth and the law of God in an increasingly secular and immoral society.

So there is much for which to be thankful. In the dark days of 1999 we wondered was our ministry finished. Our brethren in essence expelled us from the church. On 20 January 2000, twenty-two ministers, those who had chosen to answer the libel in person, were suspended from the exercise of ministry. We were forced to disassociate from the majority in order to continue our God-given ministries. But the Lord has blessed and prospered us. There have been difficult times and dark days but the Lord has brought us through them all. When we have been desperate we have cried to the Lord and he has saved us. We have the Great Commission: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt.28:18-20). We have sought by grace to fulfil it and we have his continuing promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”.

Negatives

We have to be honest and face the realities. All is not as it should be. There are real problems in our own church, in other churches and in our society. Let us consider some of these.

1. We have not grown. Some folk have joined us but more have left us. We are smaller. Now it is a fact that all the churches of our land have declined apart from the few that have grown by attracting members away from neighbouring churches. Some churches are popular because of a specially gifted minister or a huge programme of social activities. But the question remains, Why is God not blessing us numerically?

2. We have seen few conversions. Our adherent base has diminished greatly. This is true of all the churches. It used to be common practice for people to go to church whether they were Christians or not. Today the unconverted have little fear of God and spend the Sabbath watching television, on social media, on the internet, in sport and pleasure, or working.

3. Relatively speaking we do more outreach than we have ever done, yet little blessing seems to rest on the work.

4. Society is becoming increasingly secular. Attempts have been made to remove all traces of our Christian heritage from us as a nation.

5. LGBT enthusiasts have taken over the media. They have been aggressively “evangelistic”, intimidating all opposition and persecuting some of the Lord's people. Some Christians have lost their jobs because they believe in marriage as taught in the Bible and that sex is only for marriage. We hear lots about homophobia but nothing about christianophobia.

6. Islam is becoming more and more influential. Amongst the many kind, upright, loving, Muslim people now in our land there is a substantial minority who have no wish to integrate, who have very different values from our traditional ones, and some who support terrorism. Any criticism of that minority, or even discussion of these issues, is dismissed as Islamophobia.

7. The Church of Scotland, by far the largest Protestant church in our land, has been totally taken over by liberalism. There are still many born-again Christians and some faithful evangelical ministers to be found amongst them. However, there are also practising homosexuals among its ministers. Biblical standards of morality are generally despised. The gospel of God's redeeming grace is either denied or ignored in many sermons. This confusion about what a Christian really is, makes the work of evangelism even more difficult than in the past.

8. The largest evangelical church in Scotland is the one from which we separated. Having lost its conservative wing, it is changing rapidly. It has become much more pragmatic. It will do almost anything to get people across its threshold. In 2010 it changed its form of worship, though all its ministers and elders had vowed at their ordination to “assert, maintain and defend the purity of worship presently practised in this church”. Where will it end up?

9. Charismatic churches grow rapidly and then seem to disintegrate even more rapidly.

10. Even the Roman Catholic Church which has the largest attendances on a Sunday is struggling to hold onto its people. Sexual scandals have done massive damage to it. Sadly all churches and ministers are blackened.

So today the church in Scotland is in the weakest position it has been since the Reformation. The majority of the people in Scotland are practical atheists. While they might not deny the existence of God they live as if there is no God. There is no fear of God in our land. I, myself, think back to my childhood 60 years ago when large churches were full to the front. Often at communion times and special services, extra seats had to be placed in the aisles. As a student I preached sometimes to over 1000. Today, I seldom preach to fifty. We have the wonderful glad tidings of great joy but no one wants to hear. There are more evangelical ministers than ever, especially in the Highlands and Islands, but fewer and fewer hear the gospel. Also the power is gone from the preaching. Unlike in the past, it is rare to see someone today convicted and weeping under the gospel. Sermons are listened to with sleepy indifference. Surely God has forsaken us and our land?

What is the Problem?

Why has God forsaken us? What is the problem? What is God saying to us? “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa.59:1). The trouble is in the church, not in the world. It is the sins of God's people that has caused him to withdraw his felt presence. What are these sins?

1. Self-righteousness

Self-righteousness grieves God. It is to be found among ourselves. Sometimes you hear even old Christians asking, “Why is God not blessing us? We made a stand for truth and righteousness. If what we did was right, surely we should be growing and successful”. How foolish! We think we deserve blessing! Everything we do and ever have done is tainted with sin. “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed” (Lam.3:22). “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Ps.130:3). “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa.64:6). We deserve nothing but God's wrath and judgment. The very best church and the very best Christian is like a filthy rag to God. Our only hope is the righteousness of Christ and “the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Heb.12:24). We have done nothing to merit God's favour and there is nothing that we can do. We, in the Free Church (Continuing), must come to the Lord as poor, unworthy, beggars pleading for his mercy.

2. Pride

Pride is a huge problem in the churches and in our own church too. It is closely linked to self-righteousness. There are few things more obnoxious to God. Some years ago I heard one of our ministers say that we have the best preachers in our church. We think of ourselves as superior to others because of our orthodox theology, our reformed worship and faithful church discipline. We think we are the most consistent Christians. These things are good but we must beware of pride. Is there perhaps a readiness to look down on other churches. Sometimes we share information about other churches, pointing out their faults, and we do it smugly. We look down on them from our high and holy position. We made a faithful stand for the truth and holiness and church discipline. Our worship in form is superior to many other churches, but we forget that God sees the heart. We may be right in form but our hearts can be far from God. Pride is often very subtle. We can be critical of the pride, arrogance and boasting of others and be rotten with pride ourselves, though covering it from man.

3. First Love

The church of Ephesus was criticised for having lost its first love. It was a sound church, orthodox, busy, faithful in discipline but Christ threatens to remove his candlestick out of its place. It would no longer be a church of Christ. This letter must really have shocked the Ephesians. On the surface all looked well. They were a well-attended sound church but something was seriously wrong. Is it not true that we too have lost our first love?

4. Lukewarmness

If anything the church in Laodicea received even more serious criticism than the church in Ephesus. The Laodiceans thought, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev.3:17). They were lukewarm. They had become complacent. They were satisfied with their achievements and thought all was well. Are we not like that? We are neither hot nor cold. Where is the passion for God? A dull, sleepy, worldly spirit has taken us over. We are taken up with our jobs, our families, our homes and making money. We are satiated with worldly enjoyments and have become, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2Tim.3:4).

What is the Answer?

There is a great danger that we simply accept the situation and feel there is nothing we can do. As those who believe in divine sovereignty we can become fatalistic. We cannot convert one soul. We cannot sanctify ourselves. All we can do is wait and maybe God in His mercy will come and bless us. Is it not all of grace? But whether we read the prophets of the Old Testament or the epistles of the New Testament the message is the same. God never says do nothing. He lays the responsibility totally on us. He always says repent and return and I will bless you.

1. Humble Yourselves

God through Moses made the promise that when he brought his judgment on Israel, if they would return to the Lord that he would turn again their captivity and have mercy upon them and do them good (Deut.30:1-5). Through Hosea Israel are exhorted, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us” (Hosea 6:1-2). Peter writes: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (1Pet.5:5-6). We have been brought very low. We want to be exalted. So here is the answer.

2. Prayer

Hosea encourages God's people to come again in prayer: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips” (Hos.14:1-2). God loves to hear his people's prayers. There is a wonderful promise: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon” (Hos.14:4-5). Jesus taught his disciples to pray a prayer which will certainly be answered, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mat.6:10). Paul wrote “Pray without ceasing” (1Thess.5:17). Christ advised the church in Laodicea to ask for, “gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev.3:18).

3. Faith

When the situation seemed desperate for Israel God said go ahead in faith. There were mountains on either side. The Egyptian army was charging down on them from behind and the sea was in front of them, but God spoke to Moses: “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”. By faith they crossed the Red Sea and the Egyptians trying to do the same without faith were drowned. God said through Isaiah: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is.45:22). This is the look of faith. Jesus said to his disciples, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt.17:20). Mighty miracles are achieved in response to faith. The shield of faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one (Eph.6:16). We are told of those, “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions” (Heb.11:33). By faith the impossible becomes possible.

Encouragements

1. God Reigns

The Psalmist states. “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice”. Here is a great reason for joy and the only reason. God is in control and is working out all things for the good of his church and his own glory. His kingdom shall come, his name shall be hallowed, and his will shall be done on earth as in heaven. “Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him” (Is.62:11). Jesus has been exalted to the highest throne and God “hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church” (Eph.1:22). He rules the nations for the benefit of his church.

2. We should have an optimistic eschatology

The little stone of Daniel 2, which represents the kingdom of God, smashes all the earthly empires and becomes a mountain which fills the whole earth. Jesus' parables describe a great future for the church. The little mustard seed becomes a tree “so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Mat.13:32). The leaven spreads through the whole lump of dough till all is leavened (Mat.13:33). We think of the Jews cast off because of unbelief, but Paul argues, “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Rom.11:15). As touching election the Jews are beloved for the fathers' sakes. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom.11:29). Through the mercy of the Gentiles they will obtain mercy. They will bring great blessing to the church presumably by becoming mighty missionaries. This will become a life from the dead experience to God's people.

3. Fascinating Promises

The Book of Revelation was written at the end of the first century to encourage a church suffering intense persecution. In Revelation 20 an angel is pictured laying hold of Satan, and binding him for a thousand years. We are told that he “cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Rev.20:3). This is fascinating. He is not just bound and on a long chain and so able to do some limited harm. He is shut up and sealed. That means he cannot get out. For a long period of time he cannot do what he has so successfully done in the past, deceiving the nations. Some see this as what Christ did at Calvary. But the problem is that Satan continued after Calvary deceiving the nations. What is the great Antichrist of Rome but a massive deception of the devil? How can John say the devil is locked up when Peter writes that “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1Pet.5:8). In Peter's day Satan was definitely not locked up. Paul too, sees the devil as a continuing problem: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph.6:11). A further difficulty with this interpretation is that John states that Satan shall be loosed out of his prison at the end of the thousand years (Rev.20:7). If the binding was Christ's finished work of crushing Satan's head, then a day will come when this work shall be undone. God forbid! Away with such a thought! John is shown that a day is coming when our great enemy the devil will be greatly restricted in his work and Christ reign over the nations will become clearer for all to see. This period would tie in with the Old Testament prophecies of future prosperity for Messiah's kingdom, e.g. his “dominion being from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” and “the whole earth being filled with his glory” (Ps.72:8, 19). “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name” (Ps.86:9). Or in the words of Isaiah: “Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted” (Is.60:11-12). This will be the last great revival involving the conversion of the Jews to Christ, “the life from the dead” of which we spoke earlier. It will be followed by a short period when Satan will be loosed again and create havoc. We are encouraged to look forward to a great period of gospel prosperity.

Conclusion

We are called upon to humble ourselves, to confess our sins, to repent, to fast and to pray, to return unto the Lord our God and he will return unto us. God does not say “Seek ye me in vain” (Is.45:19). He loves us and delights in the prayers of his children. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas.5:16). “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Lk.11:13). Let the hope we have inspire us to labour expectantly for the Lord.





By Chuck Wilson

Unless there is great duress, a college board goes in the direction the president desires and sets. With the concurrence of the board’s chairman and input from chief administrators, the president oversees and approves the framing of agendas for board meetings.

The Erskine board meeting in Due West last Thursday and Friday (February 21 and 22 [2019]) was not an exception to the rule. The outcome saw the fulfillment of President Rob Gustafson’s agenda: the betrayal of those who worked to make him president. That is, the betrayal of those he convinced his vision for Erskine was a Christ-centered college, an Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church controlled college, Christian liberal arts college, and a college which emphasized academics over athletics.

So, what happened at the board meeting? Two things happened: (1) the board voted to petition General Synod to restore the president of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association to the board with “voice” but without “vote”; and (2) the board petitioned General Synod to remove the Moderator of General Synod from the board as a “voting” member and to redefine the Moderator’s role as one with “voice.” Therefore, making the Moderator of General Synod and the president of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association equals. These two actions equal betrayal by Gustafson.

Remember the quasi-Alumni Association is an arm of the Erskine Administration which is allowed to function as though it were an independent entity with a mandate to determine the direction of the college of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Remember the Moderator of the General Synod is the chief officer of General Synod, elected by the majority of the delegates at the annual meeting of General Synod. The Moderator of General Synod is the chief officer of the denomination which owns Erskine College, Inc., and the president of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association is the head of a quasi-organization which has no title to anything which is Erskine. In other words, the Moderator of the General Synod and the president of the Alumni Association are not equals when it comes to matters regarding the Erskine board.

Furthermore, (and I will speak to this again) are the members of General Synod prepared to sanction a board member who is not only a non-Christian but outspokenly opposed to evangelical Christianity? Remember the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association is not a Christian organization. It is a loose association of some Erskine grads (and, yes, many Erskine grads refuse to participate in it, saying, “It doesn’t represent us!”). It is not necessary for their president to be a Christian. Also, (and this is easily established by the comments on their Facebook site) many of the members of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association reject the traditional values of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on marriage, sexuality, and abortion. Does this not concern the board? Does this not concern the leadership and faculty of the seminary that a situation may soon arise where a board member does not only reject the basic tenants of our Christian faith but despises them? The 2018 Synod preempts these issues. Dr. Gustafson cheered the action of the 2018 Synod. Why is he now bringing back what he sanctioned and cheered last year? Why is he revisiting a settled issue? Have we forgotten the events that led to the “Snow Synod”?

One can only ask: President Gustafson, what are you thinking? Why are you pandering to the godless? Why are you going to Christ’s enemies for help? Why are you seeking aid and comfort from those who mock evangelical
Christian beliefs?

Athletes-Я-Erskine

“Toys-Я-Us” may be bankrupt, but “Athletes-Я-Erskine” is doing well in Due West — so far! Indeed, a student who is not an athlete is not easily found.

What is the prediction for this fall? Presently, a Head Football Coach has been hired and two assistant coaches; and, at least, two more assistant coaches are expected to be hired — and this while the college has no foreign language department (or the expectation of one), and this while there is an inadequate number of faculty members to deal with future enrollment needs, and this while present faculty members (both college and seminary) are awaiting relief from the draconian pay cuts of the Kooistra Days.
Amazingly, funds are found and allocated for coaches, coaches, coaches!

Nevertheless, the administration is jubilant with the expectation of 100-plus football athletes this fall, which should bring enrollment to the max of 700. Indeed, whatever is left of the historic “Due West Women’s College” is now a paragraph in the history of Erskine. The female dorms are being prepared to house male athletes. I understand housing off campus is being sought for female students. Look for a male-to-female ratio of above three to-one. Effectively, Erskine is a male athletic camp where one can also obtain a college degree — maybe. But, degree or no degree, the average student will leave the environs of Due West with a massive load of student loans.

To provide entertainment for the male-dominated student body, the administration has provided a women’s beach volleyball program. I suppose the beach on Lake Academic, west of the baseball field and just past where the bass boats are moored, will be used for matches (and, if you are not in the know, bass fishing is now a sport at Erskine). It is rumored about a coach has been hired, and she has asked for a barrier of barbwire and Concertina wire be setup around the beach in order to protect her players from the female-starved male athletes. I do not believe the rumors about the building of a wall with gun towers. Now, of course, I am writing tongue-in-cheek; nevertheless, a women’s beach volleyball program is now a sanctioned sport at Erskine. I suppose a coach will be hired. The Lord be praised! This is just precious!

Ruble, Norman, and Kooistra spoke of turning Erskine into an athletic camp; Gustafson has achieved it. But at what personal cost to his soul? Just after Gustafson was elected president, former board member Ms. Dody Morris hosted a dinner in Atlanta for Gustafson to meet friends-of-Erskine, and I attended the dinner. At this meeting, he was asked what needed changing at Erskine. He said a divarication between academics and athletics had occurred whereby athletic programs triumphed and academic program were withering; moreover, he said a reversal of the condition was essential for the survival of Erskine as a legitimate academic institution. Sadly, at this point, Dr. Gustafson appears to resemble a carpetbagger.

As a matter of fact, when Gustafson worked for former President Kooistra, this was one of the issues over which they clashed. As a matter of fact, in my presence (and two others) at lunch in Anderson, SC, Gustafson unequivocally stated if Erskine were to become an athletic camp there was no reason for Erskine to exist. Well, Dr. Gustafson, Erskine has become an athletic camp. Is there any reason for Erskine to continue? Do we now operate Erskine to the glory of God in order to compound athletic programs for less than stellar student athletes because each one brings revenue of about $20,000 per year in order to facilitate the paying of the salaries of some rather unremarkable coaches? Regrettably, Dr. Gustafson makes it difficult to trust his word.

Balderdash

At Synod this year, look for the proliferation of balderdash in the Erskine report.

There are two things which will be shoveled on Synod’s delegates like fertilizer on a field in spring. The first is the idea of a Worldview Institute. This is a sort of think-tank for academically-minded students to think Christianly about apologetics, politics, morality, culture, and other subjects. But where are the academically-minded Christian students to be found for such an academically challenging program? At this time, it is very difficult to recruit non-athletes to a campus which is saturated with athletes. The balderdash about the Worldview Institute is about smoke screening Synod’s delegates. It is political candy. Gustafson is well aware Associate Reformed Presbyterian ministers are academically inclined, and a conversation about a Worldview Institute just may divert attentions enough to minimize hard questioning. In the words of the Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

The second piece of balderdash is a program which makes it possible for an Erskine student to get both a BA from the college and a MDiv from the seminary in five years. This is a terrible idea if one is actually attempting to prepare ministers for ministry. However, ministry is not what this is about; the program is about grant money. Well, in the words of John Calvin: “Good luck!” I hear the congregations which make up the Erskine Seminary catchment are flooding the seminary office with requests for twenty-two-year-old ministerial candidates.

Pandering

The motion asking General Synod to restore the president of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association is not only an act of pandering to the loud voices of godless alums, it also is an act of throwing-friends-under-the-bus. Last year when the motion to remove the president of the Alumni Association as a voting member of the board was brought to the floor of General Synod, the motion was not done without the concurrence of and the buoying up by the president. Yes, Gustafson knew what was taking place and said it needed to be done. Permission was asked and permission was given to those who brought the motion to the floor. Remember the motion was passed overwhelmingly, and followed by a standing ovation by the delegates. Why is Gustafson now retracing his steps?

Gustafson and the board are pandering to the members of the quasi-Alumni Association who (by way of their Facebook site) have made it abundantly clear they are opposed to the evangelical faith of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dr. Gustafson and the board are now pandering to a godless mob in the hope they will give something to Erskine. So, may I be so bold to ask, what has been promised? However, if past performance is an indicator of future actions, they will not give much. One is a fool to trust the promises of these people!

As far as regular members of the board are concerned, they are vetted by General Synod’s nominating committee as to their willingness to serve on the Erskine board and their compatibility with the doctrinal standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. I know this to be true because I have gone through the process. Now, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church is asked to accept a board member who has not been vetted by our committee on nominations. Interestingly, the members of the quasi-Erskine Alumni Association do not ask whether their president is a Christian, let alone whether he/she agrees with the standards by which other board members give assent. Essentially, this establishes two levels of board members. In the past, Gustafson has stated it is ludicrous not to expect board members to affirm the standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. If that is the case, why is he getting back in bed with the devil?
In these matters, personally, I feel a great sense of betrayal. As readers of ARPTalk are aware, I refrained from writing about matters regarding Erskine for a year. Because of what Dr. Gustafson told me, I felt compelled to give him space to do what he said to me he was going to do. He even said to me that I should not withhold my public comments and analysis if I saw he was leading Erskine in a direction which is contra to what we discussed. Yes, he invited my analysis and dissent. Well, I now feel compelled to write. I feel deep sadness. I feel I have been manipulated by one who called me “Brother!” I feel a great sense of betrayal, as do others who esteemed him highly.



+ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 918 South Pleasantburg Drive Suite 127, Greenville, South Carolina 29607, 864-232-8297, Fax: 864-271-3729

+ Erskine College and Theological Seminary, 2 Washington Street, Due West, South Carolina 29639, 864-379-2131, Fax: 864-379-2167, jguyette@erskine.edu




Wednesday, October 31, 2018

31 October 2018



“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]






Presbyterians Week Headlines




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Today, 31 October 2018, is Reformation Day and is the 501st anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting the ninety-five theses on the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral in Wittenburg, Germany. Luther posted the theses to notify his students of the details of an upcoming lecture hall discussion, and inadvertently began the Protestant Reformation. The ninety-five theses addressed the abuses by the Roman Catholic Church in their unbiblical practices regarding indulgences.



+ Lutheran World Federation, 150, route de Ferney, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, 22-791-61-11, Fax: 22-791-66-30, info@lutheranworld.org

+ The Vatican, Città del Vaticano, Rome, Italy, 39-6-69-88-35-11, Fax: 39-6-69-88-54-47, Contact Page



Today, 31 October 2018, is additionally the 10th anniversary of the relaunch of the Christian Observer (CO) as an Internet publication. The printed version of the CO ceased publication in mid-2007 due to the high costs of printing and mailing, and because of the declining health of then-publisher the Rev. Dr. Edwin Elliott. The editor and Dr. Elliott along with CO Associate Editors the Rev. Chuck Huckaby and Mr. Eric Pastorek worked throughout 2008 designing and building the CO website and launched the new Internet resource on Reformation Day 2008.

The Christian Observer began publication in September 1813 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the Religious Remembrancer, which later changed its name to the Christian Observer after absorbing several other Presbyterian and Reformed publications. The CO ceased publication in the early 1970’s, and in 1988 was revived by the Rev. Dr. Edwin Elliott. Dr. Elliott passed away in October 2009.


ATLANTA, Oct. 30, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is submitted by Evangelist Alveda King:

With Halloween just a few hours away, it's probably no coincidence that this demonic atmosphere is neatly tucked in between midterm elections and Thanksgiving. Be on the alert, nothing is as harmless as it seems. The treat is a trick.

In just a few hours, some will cling to tradition with the Halloween custom of hanging macabre decorations, partying with sinister attractions, and going from house to house begging for treats while ignoring the danger of candy laced with poison or razor blades hidden inside. Some may even plan to soften the deception by seeking safe harbor in private settings, including in church socials; God forbid. No matter how you dress it up, Halloween is demonic and occultist.

Although television tries to seduce us while making the occult attractive by inventing such characters as Samantha and Genie, there is nothing cute or harmless about witchcraft. As Michael Snyder explains in Charisma News, on Halloween "all over America, those who are deep into the dark arts will contact the dead, cast spells and conduct blood sacrifices."

With so much evil going on in the world today, who needs Halloween? Just think of all the craziness going on without all of the play acting.

Not long ago, three high school seniors were arrested for planning a mass school shooting and bombing in a Texas high school. Meanwhile recently, two girls in a Florida middle school were apprehended in the midst of planning a macabre occultist murder/suicide pact. Are you scared yet? Boo hoo; there's more.

All around us, families are reeling from terror and grief after a deadly shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue killing eleven and wounding another six. Please pray for their loss.

Then there's the crazed bomber who sent pipe bombs to several political leaders wreaking havoc all over America. Thankfully none of the pipe bombs exploded and nobody was hurt.

Other political leaders and public figures are being targeted for harassment. Even I was recently cursed out by another patron at a nail salon venue. These types of horrors are becoming routine; occurring in public venues due to a so called "resistance movement" with challenges to political and even spiritual ideology.

Friends, we are living in a scary world and in scary times. It could be easy for many to lose hope were it not by the promise that comes from Jesus Christ. We are challenged to fear not; even in scary times.

"I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 KJV

Meanwhile, rather than celebrating a season with ghouls and monsters, why not focus on all of the good going on in the world around us?

Let's exert energy and excitement while praying for the future of our country and our world.

Why not get ready to vote for life in the upcoming mid- term election?

Meanwhile, don't celebrate evil. Overcome evil with good.

"Fear thou not." -- Isaiah 41:10 KJV

[Editor’s Note: Alveda King is the niece of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and is a stalwart in the pro-life movement.]


+ Christian News Wire, 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20006, 202-546-0054, newsdesk@christiannewswire.com