Christian Heritage News

By Kim Burdick - Posted at the Journal of the American Revolution:  Haslet was kind of a fighting preacher . . . My guess is, before the revolution, Haslet was probably recognized by the political establishment in Delaware as being a little bit too radical . . . Many Scotch-Irish immigrants moved to America in hopes of gaining some independence from an English government that kept them from schools and leadership positions . . . I think there was a bit of resentment toward the English because of the way they were treated in Ireland. Born in Straw Dungiven, County Londonderry in Ulster, Ireland,[1] thirty-year-old John Haslet was the young, widowed minister of Ballykelly Presbyterian Church. Arriving in America in 1757, he became a captain in the Pennsylvania militia and participated in the November 26, 1758 action at Fort Duquesne. Twenty years later, he would be killed at the Battle of Princeton. Continue reading...

Illus. from: Mary Rowlandson. A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings and Removes of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Boston: Nathaniel Coverly, 1770.  Mary Rowlandson was captured in an attack on Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1676, during King Philip’s War. Source: Wikipedia By Simonetta Carr - Posted at The Place for Truth: Mary Rowlandson’s account of her experience as prisoner of war became an immediate best-seller. In fact, it was the first best-seller in America, and the first of what became a popular genre: accounts of captivity among Native American tribes. Her book – initially written for the benefit of her children – was first published with the title The soveraignty and goodness of God, together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed . It included a preface – probably written by Increase Mather – and a sermon by her husband at the end. It continued to be a popular book well into the 19th-century. Today, her account is often discounted as partial

By Michael Gryboski - Posted at The Christian Post: “It is not part of our beliefs, our practices, our teachings in any way. Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims. To all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue, we pray for them,” stated Keele. The pastor of the church that a 19-year-old who shot-up a California synagogue attended denounced the shooting as an “act of evil” and said that the shooting was a shock to his congregation. Zach Keele is a pastor at Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where John Earnest, the suspect in the shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego, attended. Keele told CNN on Sunday that while Earnest was an attendee, he did not attend Sunday School or youth group. He also explained that he and his church were shocked to learn of the attack. Continue reading... See also: Who's to Blame When the Shooter Is One of Our Own? (Christianity Today)

By Jacob Aitken - Posted at Cosmic Geography: Collapsing into Dialectic At this point I want to call attention to an argument Joseph Farrell made in God, History, and Dialectic. Drawing upon an insight from St Gregory Nazianzus, Farrell asks, “what is the relation of origin, if any, between the people and the mutually opposed organs of federal government? If there be none, then those relationships reduce to merely dialectical oppositions (Farrell 617ff). The Federalist Papers (no. 10) seek to balance the antagonizing forces by having these agons reduce to a chimerical term, “The People.” so Farrell concludes, “The essence of the Anti-Federalist critique of the 1789 constitution then, was that it tended, if one may so put it, to collapse, through the multiplication of governmental agencies and the relations of oppositions that distinguish them, either into perpetual anarchy on the one hand, or into an eventual amalgamation of all powers of government into a new and

Inez First Baptist Church Pastor Casey Carver stands in front of the old Inez Motel that he hopes to help turn into a drug rehabilitation center. By Mark Maynard/ Kentucky Today - Posted at Baptist Press: INEZ, Ky. (BP) -- The Inez Motel may have once been a place where drugs were exchanged and even used regularly. Owners of the rundown motel sold the property, which is located in the middle of downtown Inez, Ky., a couple of years ago. But nobody else seemed like they wanted anything to do with it. The new owner wasn't sure if anything good could ever come from it. Martin County is like many Kentucky counties in trying to deal with a drug issue that appears to be running rampant and destroying families daily. Casey Carver, who became the new pastor of Inez First Baptist Church in January of last year, met with some citizens that spring to identify the area's biggest problems. And the No. 1 answer seemed obvious. "These drugs are all over the county an

Police in Ghorahi during arrest of four Christians on Tuesday (April 23) in Nepal.  (Morning Star News) Posted at Morning Star News: Police harass minorities with false charges, deportation, victims say. NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Police in Nepal arrested four Christians from a hotel, including a woman from the United States, early Tuesday morning (April 23) on false charges of conversion by allurement, sources said. Police from Dang Deukhuri District Police Headquarters in Ghorahi charged into the Hotel Doko in Ghorahi at 7 a.m. and detained Pastor Dilli Ram Poudel, 49, general secretary of the Nepal Christian Society; Gaurav Shrivastava, 34, a citizen of India; Kunsang Tamang, a Nepali woman from Sankhuwasabha District; and Oleana Cinquanta, a 49-year-old U.S. citizen from Colorado. Ghorari is 421 kilometers (261 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu. Cinquanta was held for more than 10 hours without her medication before being deported to the United States, she sai

By Emily McFarlan Miller - Posted at Christian Headlines: CHICAGO (RNS) — The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a Christian financial watchdog group, has terminated the membership of Harvest Bible Chapel. The council pointed to “significant violations” of several of its financial standards in a written statement released Wednesday evening (April 17). “ECFA continues to champion integrity in God’s Kingdom,” ECFA President Dan Busby said in the statement. “We are committed to applying our standards rigorously and consistently.” The group had suspended the Chicago-area megachurch last month after church leaders admitted “a lack of financial control and oversight” under Harvest’s former pastor, James MacDonald. “In addition, we have identified there was a separate budget for the Senior Pastor’s office over which there was not sufficient controls and oversight,” according to the most recent update from the church’s Harvest 2020 team, formed in the wake of MacDonald’s f

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at Abounding Grace Radio: Choose Your Metaphors Carefully: The Church Is A Pasture Not A Business 35 years ago, when I began seminary, the “church growth” movement was hitting its stride. In a course taught by an adjunct professor with a Harvard MBA we were taught how be efficient just the way successful CEOs are. Later, in the church growth literature with which pastors and churches were then inundated (and, in some cases, still are), we were told that the old metaphors for ministry were old-fashioned and must be replaced. Instead of talking about sheep, pastures, and pastors (shepherds), we should begin thinking in more sophisticated, urban categories. Pastors were told to model themselves after Chief Executive Officers. I recall a pastor saying to me, “I’m not a pastor, I am a rancher.” That was a clever way to retain some of the agrarian flavor of the biblical language while turning the image on its head. We were supposed to infer that this “r

Posted at  abc.net.au : Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed they had "prior information" of an imminent attack on churches, up to 10 days before the Easter Sunday bombings which claimed the lives of almost 300 people, including foreign citizens. Key points: There were eight explosions — three at church services, three at hotels, one outside a zoo south of the capital Colombo, and another on the outskirts of the city Police issued an intelligence report warning of possible suicide bombings 10 days prior DFAT confirmed one Australian was injured in the attack and is being offered consular assistance The death toll from the attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka has risen significantly to 290, with around 500 people injured, police said on Monday. Read the complete report here. HT: Voice of the Persecuted

By Thaddeus Williams - Posted at Reformed Perspective: If I were the devil – which some of you may believe after reading on – if my sworn mission was to devour the Christian faith from the inside out, then here is what I would not do. I would not slither into a Sunday service, breathing blasphemy and dragon fire, bragging about my triumphs at Auschwitz, commanding the congregation, “Deny that God is God!” I would not be an idiot. If I was the devil… I would dress up to look like justice, compassion, or equity, or some other ideal Christians would be quick to “Amen!” I would sink my teeth and suck the true, biblical content from those words – not that many of the Enemy’s people know the true, biblical content of those words to begin with – and then inject it with the venom of new meaning, a meaning that is antithetical to the Enemy’s definition of such silly words. Then I could get nearly every faithful Tom, Dick, and Sally to deny the Godhood of God while they think the

GodefroyParis By Eric Davis - Posted at The Cripplegate: I’ll never forget the first time I saw Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was the late ‘80s and my first trip to France. My French grandfather, Georges Lycan , had just picked us up from Orly and was giving us a flyby tour of Paris on our way to his country home in the Loire Valley. It was a stunning site of both intimidating grandeur and breathtaking beauty. As the years went by, I started traveling around France on my own and enjoyed visiting Notre-Dame several more times. I eventually went to school in France at the Universite Catholique de l’Ouest and enjoyed the stunning sites around the country. But Notre-Dame remained at the top. I loved going back to Paris, getting off on the Saint-Michel Notre-Dame metro stop, walking east on Quai Saint-Michel, crossing Pont de Coeurs onto Ile de la Cite, and there they were; the towering, 226-ft tall towers. I learned to appreciate the cathedral more as I developed an eye for

Imprisoned Chinese pastor John Cao in an undated photo. (Photo: ChinaAid) Posted at China Aid: (Beijing—April 13, 2019) An American pastor serving a life sentence in China is begging his family to secure his release. David Lin, a Chinese American pastor, was placed under house arrest in China in 2006, when he tried to gain government permission to run a ministry within China. He was subsequently jailed, and authorities then served him a fraud charge in 2009, convicted him, and gave him a life sentence. For 12 years, Lin was allowed a Bible, and he even started a ministry within the prison. However, his Bible was sent to the United States in December 2018, and, a few months afterward, Lin phoned his family and requested assistance in getting out of the prison. Lin’s health is deteriorating. To sign a petition for his release, please visit FreePastorLin.com , from which the information in this report that regards Lin was gathered. Continue reading... HT: Christian Ne

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at Abounding Grace Radio : Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, it is a day on which Christians set aside time to pray, to gather for corporate worship, and to think and speak about God. So, in that regard, the remarks this past Sunday by Pete Buttigieg, the Mayor of South Bend, IN and an announced candidate to become President of the United States. “Mayor Pete,” as he is known, professes Christian faith and has publicly identified himself as a homosexual with a husband. This past Sunday Buttigieg gave a speech at the LGBTQ Victory Fund Champagne Brunch where he attacked the current Vice President of the United States (and the former governor of Indiana, with whom he reportedly had an amicable working relationship) and announced that he did not choose to be gay. Then he said something that has gotten some attention. He added: “If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade…And that’s the thing I wish the Mik

Posted at Reformation Scotland: Events, strategies, commitments, principles. Everything seems to be subject to change in human affairs, especially politics. An even more changeable future seems inevitable as uncertainty increases. It’s a world of tumultuous, relentless and constant change. Technological, social and moral change in particular, seem to be speeding up. Things we never expected to see are now considered normal. Some change is deeply troubling and other change is good. All this makes us less confident and optimistic in predicting the future. But there is no real reason to fear if we are connected to the unchanging reality of the eternal God. Hugh Binning points out that the most profound thing that we can say about God is also the simplest. “The Lord gives a definition of Himself”. It is short and we may not think it says much—”I AM” (Exodus 3:14). When people seek to exalt themselves they want to be described in grand and majestic ways to flatter themselves. But there

By Dr. Peter Jones - Posted at truthXchange : As Christians observing the huge behavioral changes in Western culture, we need to evaluate what our public witness will mean in the days ahead, whether for us individually, for the church community or for our children. It will not be business as usual. Someone recently observed: “If you think of American Christianity as a pendulum, we’re currently at the opposite extreme from the First Great Awakening.” [1] The “progressive” principle I mentioned in my last essay believes that history is always “progressing.” There is no such thing as the timeless choice between Oneism or Twoism. Progressives have no trust in a sovereign God, so they must try constantly to create their own ever-new versions of utopia. They become self-appointed redeemers who create compelling and urgent narratives of doom and then propose a cultural nirvana for the hope of the world. The utopian vision is usually some form of radical egalitarianism or sameness, best

By Linda Harvey - Posted at Mission America: The “Day of Silence” is Friday, April 12 If two middle school girls “date,” that’s normal – didn’t you know? Boys in girls’ restrooms, locker rooms and showers is also a “right” and anyone who objects is a racist. “But bathroom privacy has nothing to do with race,” you logically reply. And that’s when understanding dawns. The “LGBTQ” agenda that’s being sold to children via deviant, negligent, or cowardly schools is all about concocting mindless myths. It’s pure propaganda with no basis in fact or logic, so why do it? Because it’s the avenue for fostering sexual permissiveness as a societal change agent using children as guinea pigs. Cooperative public schools are the sites of this corruption. If we look at how the left behaves, there is no god in America today but sexual sin. And the “LGBTQ” movement is its prophet. And so here comes the annual “Day of Silence” in public schools as one of the useful weapons in this war

By Amanda Casanova - Posted at Christian Headlines: Liberty Counsel, a Christian nonprofit organization, is accusing Ohio State University’s 4-H program of promoting “LGBT ideology.” “OSU should be held accountable for undermining parental rights, replacing children’s innocence with the values of LGBT activists, and misdirecting resources intended for the 4-H program. OSU cannot require parents, children, employees, or volunteers to give up personal privacy and their First Amendment rights as a condition for participation in a state program. “If Ohio State continues, it risks gutting the Ohio 4-H program. Parents will seek out better opportunities for their children,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman. Continue reading... 

By Whitman H. Brisky - Posted at iB2 News: What happens to church property when most of its members depart, leaving only an unpopular pastor and a few of his close friends and family to determine its use? Unfortunately, in all too many cases, the congregation essentially shuts down as an active ministry, converts the property to cash, and then pays the remaining funds to (or for the benefit of) the pastor. Frequently the money is paid out as salary for doing very little since the congregation is now defunct. Even worse, in some situations we have seen, the pastor seems to deliberately drive the bulk of the congregation away so that he can sell the property for his own personal benefit without having to account for the money. We are even aware of an example where a single minister became pastor of three separate congregations and drove the members of all three away leaving him with the property. While this situation would normally not occur in denominations with relatively strong

By John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera - Posted at BreakPoint: The pitfalls and perils of marijuana legalization are well-documented. But whenever we discuss that research here on BreakPoint, we’re accused of not having the right research. What that means is that we’ve used studies that contradict the very vocal advocates of weed. Well, let’s see what happens when we cite The British journal The Lancet, which, along with the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, is considered the “gold standard” for peer-reviewed medical research. It doesn’t get more “real” than being published in The Lancet. A just-published study in The Lancet involving, among others, researchers at King’s College London , compared 900 people who had been treated for psychosis with 1,200 people who had not. Sample participants were drawn from across Europe and Brazil. Both groups were surveyed on a host of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs.

By Terry L. Johnson - Posted at Reformation 21: Our society celebrates the openness with which it accepts homosexuality and transgenderism. It contrasts our present enlightened times with past eras when what are now called "sexual minorities," LGBTQers, were once consigned to the closets, forced to keep their "sexual identity" hidden. Now those who identify according to their sexual and gender preferences are "out of the closets" and have been mainstreamed. They have a place at the table. They have been normalized. Thus, the narrative is that we have a more just, fair, and open society. Except the closets remain. There always are closets. Every society ancient and modern has closets. What changes are those who inhabit the closets. Gradually we are witnessing traditional, orthodox Christians being forced into the closets even as the sexual minorities move out. Let me explain. Why do people take to hiding in society's closets? They are shamed into

By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at Abounding Grace Radio: It is being argued in some evangelical quarters that same-sex attraction (SSA) or homosexual attraction is “natural” and that it SSA (sexual desire for someone of the same sex) is not per sesinful. One writer who defends this view quotes John Cheever who wrote that every attractive man was like a loaded pistol. He writes, “I think that will help me next time I see a beautiful man and find myself wanting to be united to him. I am, at one level, just responding to beauty as I am created to respond to it. There is little I can do to avoid this natural response. We are all wired to appreciate beauty. That’s just how we work.” This writer seeks to address this problem from the assumption that same-sex sexual behavior is sinful but SSA is not. As another writer puts it, SSA is a form of temptation but temptation is not sin. I respond by conceding that temptation is not sin. Our sinless Lord was “tempted in every way as we are, y

By Pastor Gabriel Hughes - Posted at The Midwestern Baptist: Unplanned is a movie based on the true story of Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director who famously became pro-life. The movie is produced by PureFlix, creators of such films like God's Not Dead, Mom's Night Out, The Case for Christ , and several rapture movies . Unplanned stars Ashley Bratcher as Abby Johnson, Brooks Ryan as Abby's husband, Doug, and Robia Scott as the wicked witch of the south. As far as the story goes, I rather liked the movie, but it was a hard watch. The violence of abortion is portrayed with chilling effect. With the formalities out of the way, let me be upfront about two things. First, the R-rating on Unplanned is deserved. I know the film's promoters made a big deal about the MPAA slapping an R-rating on their movie. Charisma News called the rating "devious." An award-winning producer of Schindler's List called it "biased." If the out