JEWS CONTINUE TO RETURN TO ISRAEL
Jewish immigration to Israel continues at a rapid pace. Fear of growing anti-semitism in Europe and other places, combined with economic incentives, is driving the immigration from a human perspective, but from a biblical perspective it is a fulfillment of prophecy. For the second consecutive year, the largest group has come from France. A total of 7,238 French citizens immigrated to Israel in 2015 under the Law of Return (“France is Israel's largest source of aliyah,” The Times of Israel, Dec. 22, 2015). This is 10% more than 2014, which was the highest number from France since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Some 19,000 French Jews have immigrated since 2012. Jews continue to return from Russia as well, numbering more than 11,000 in the last two years. Nearly 3,000 per year emigrate from the United States. “And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off! Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:11-12).
THIRTY PERCENT OF SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ACCEPTING OF HOMOSEXUALITY
According to a new Pew Research poll, 30 percent of Southern Baptists agree that “homosexuality should be accepted by society” (“Nearly Third of Southern Baptists,” Pulpitandpen.org, Dec. 18, 2015). I have long said that Southern Baptist churches are the major reason why “the South” is so morally corrupt. A large percentage of Southerners are Southern Baptist, a percentage large enough to set the moral tone for the region, and that percentage was much larger when I was growing up. What you have in the “Bible Belt,” for the most part, is a worldly lifestyle covered with a thin veneer of churchianity. The average Southerner can talk a good talk about knowing the Lord, but his walk doesn't match his talk. This is not a new thing. Much the same condition prevailed in my youth. When the rock & roll culture blasted on the scene with Elvis in the 50s and the Beatles in the 60s, Southern Baptist kids were right in the middle of it, loving every aspect of it, including the dating, the dancing, the “petting,” and the vain pursuit of worldly “cool”. Growing up in Southern Baptist churches, I can only recall a bare handful of sincere Christian young people who obeyed God and separated from the world. My younger sisters have the same memory, as we have discussed many times over the years. Those who walk in lock-step with the world will adapt the world's thinking. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
NEW HAMPSHIRE LAW WOULD GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF MARRIAGE LICENSING BUSINESS
The following is excerpted from “Get Government Out of Marriage: New Hampshire Bill Would Nullify Both Sides in Practice,” Tenth Amendment Center, Dec. 14, 2015: “A bill has been filed in the New Hampshire state House that would end mandatory government licensing of marriages in the state, effectively nullifying in practice both major sides of the contentious national debate over government-sanctioned marriage. HB1596 acknowledges the right of two individuals to marry and that because of this 'it is improper for the government to license a right.' The bill reads, 'The state of New Hampshire is compelled to return to the practice of certificate of notice of intent to marry and a certificate of marriage which existed until 1997 and which provides interested parties the opportunity to object to a proposed marriage.' Instead of having to get a state marriage license, couples would provide a certificate of notice of intent to marry and a certificate of marriage...The marriage certificate would record that the marriage ceremony took place and records the person who solemnized the marriage. The certificate would be completed by the bride, groom, the officiant, and the clerk of the town or city. The certificate would then be used to register the marriage”.
ROME SAYS JEWS ARE SAVED, SHOULD NOT BE TARGET OF EVANGELISM
An official report published by Rome says that Jews (and everyone else) are saved, and Jews should not be the target of evangelism. The document, “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable,” was published by The Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, one of Rome's many ecumenical ventures that began with the Second Vatican Council. The fifth chapter of the report “emphasizes that through Jesus Christ—and through his death and resurrection—all people have a part in salvation, all are saved. Although Jews cannot believe in Jesus Christ as the universal redeemer, they have a part in salvation, because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable”. The sixth chapter deals with evangelism, and urges Catholics to “refrain from attempts at conversion or mission toward Jews” (“Summary of 'The Gifts and Calling of God,'“ Vatican Information Service, Dec. 10, 2015). If Jews are saved by means of the covenants of God without faith in Jesus Christ, why did Christ Himself call upon them to repent and believe (Luke 13:1-5), and why did He warn them of eternal judgment when they rejected Him (Matthew 11:20-24)? The Roman Catholic Church is the heart and soul of Mystery Babylon, and she is uniting with all of her daughters today. Note that this latest document says that ALL men have a part in salvation. It is impossible to be more ecumenical than that. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
MOTHER TERESA SET FOR SAINTHOOD
With the declaration that a second miracle has occurred, Pope Francis had given clearance for Mother Teresa to be canonized next September, the 19th anniversary of her death. Sainthood requires the documentation of two miracles attributed to the deceased individual. The first, in 1998, was the cure of a stomach tumor in an Indian woman. Though the bishop declared this a miracle performed by the dead nun, the woman's husband said he believed that medicine had cured his wife. The second case, in 2008, was the “inexplicable” recovery of a Brazilian man who woke from a coma after his wife prayed to the dead nun. By her own admission, Mother Teresa found only darkness in her spiritual life and practice. This is documented in the shocking book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, the Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta (2007), which contains statements made by the nun to her confessors and superiors over a period of more than 65 years. In March 1953, she wrote to her confessor: “... THERE IS SUCH TERRIBLE DARKNESS WITHIN ME, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started 'the work.'“ In 1979 she wrote: “THE SILENCE AND THE EMPTINESS IS SO GREAT—that I look and do not see—Listen and do not hear”. Her private statements about the spiritual darkness she encountered in contemplative prayer continued in this vein until her death, and they are the loudest possible warning about the danger of the Catholic contemplative mysticism which is sweeping through evangelicalism. Contemplative practices, such as the Jesus Prayer, breath prayers, visualizing prayer, centering prayer, and lectio divina are exceedingly dangerous. They are vehicles to bring practitioners into contact with demons. Many who practice these things end up believing in a pagan concept of God such as pantheism (God is everything) and panentheism (God is in everything). Through these practices people typically become increasingly ecumenical and interfaith in thinking.
A TRUE SAINT
The Roman Catholic doctrine of sainthood proves its heretical nature. Nowhere do we find Christians in the New Testament churches praying to saints. The Bible instructs us to pray to God the Father through Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5). To pray to a mere man or woman is blasphemy. In the New Testament the term “saint” is applied to all born again Christians, not to a special class of deceased Christians. See Acts 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10; Rom. 8:27; 12:13; 15:25, 31; 16:2, 15; 1 Cor. 6:1, 2; 14:33; 16:1, 15; 2 Cor. 8:4; 9:1, 12; 13:13; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2, 4; Phile. 7; Heb. 6:10; 13:24. Even the carnal Christians at Corinth are called saints (2 Cor. 1:1). Born again Christians are not saints because they are sinless and special; they are saints because they have a sinless Savior and He has removed their sin before God (Rev. 1:5, 6; 1 Pet. 2:9, 10). In the sight of God, through Jesus Christ, the believer is “holy and unblameable and unreproveable” (Col. 1:22). This is why we can be called saints. Praise the Lord's holy name!
GOD OR INSANITY
Three months after publishing the final in a series of books blaspheming God and Christ and biblical truth and exalting man as god, the prominent philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) went insane and lived as a pathetic recluse for the last eleven years of his life, nursed by his sister. His final book was titled The Antichrist. The following comment on Nietzsche's life is excerpted from Kevin Swanson, Apostate: The Men who Destroyed the Christian West, 2013: “When the self-consistent humanist finally comes to the realization that there is no essential meaning in what he says, he is forced to abandon rationality completely, and opt for insanity. If according to his worldview, the brain is just another natural process in a purely material world then what are these immaterial ideas? If the brain is a collage of chemical reactions similar to the chemical processes that happen when grass grows in the yard, why should we take the ideas coming from the mind of these men seriously? Without an immaterial God as the absolute Source of wisdom and knowledge, there is no possibility for meaning or human rationality. The most self-consistent brilliant philosopher will either turn to God or turn insane”.
—DC
