Christian Heritage News

By R. Andrew Myers - Posted at Log College Press: The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Ps. 9:17). A concern of many 19th century Presbyterians regarding the American Constitution is that it omits any reverent acknowledgement of God Almighty. The failure to honor the God of nations in our national charter was noted in a previous post highlighting the remarks of George Duffield IV and George Junkin . Today’s post highlights a remark attributed to Vice-President Alexander Hamilton. The omission of God in the U.S. Constitution was noticed by Presbyterians even outside of the Covenanter Church (which from the beginning of America’s founding as a nation until the 1960’s held to the position of political dissent) very early in American history as we shall see. Appended to Thomas Smyth’s 1860 sermon The Sin and the Curse are comments regarding this defect of the U.S. Constitution. Continue...  

Screen shot from “Antarctica: A Year On Ice”. Aurora Australis - The End Time By Elizabeth Prata - Posted at The End Time: In Romans 1, the famous passage in which Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit describes the pagans’ reaction to experiencing the God of Creation, begins in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20) How does this play out, exactly? How are His invisible attributes seen and known? How is it that what can be known about God is made plain to people whose minds are darkened? I was watching a very excellent documentary called “Antarctica: A Year On I

By Clint Archer - Posted at The Cripplegate: Cancel culture is out for blood. A chimera is afoot: part hate, part bitterness, part vengeance. Those most likely to garnish attention from the fire-breather include politicians, celebrities, academicians, founding fathers, and whoever else kindles her ire by hesitating to join her cause. Masked in a novel façade this old menace appears to us like a freshly hatched threat. But the phenomenon has been gestating quietly for eons and has now come of age; a debutante with newfound, uncaged confidence. There is certainly renewed publicity for the term and the concept… Continue...

By Pastor Robert McCurley - Posted at YouTube:      Preached March 20, 2020   Link: https://youtu.be/7LaMQIR9mJ4

By Elle Reynolds - Posted at The Federalist: 'We cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship,' MacArthur and the church's elder board said in a statement. John MacArthur, evangelist and pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, defied state orders to limit worship gatherings in a statement released Friday. “In response to the recent state order requiring churches in California to limit or suspend all meetings indefinitely, we, the pastors and elders of Grace Community Church, respectfully inform our civic leaders that they have exceeded their legitimate jurisdiction,” the statement said. “Faithfulness to Christ prohibits us from observing the restrictions they want to impose on our corporate worship services.” On July 13, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new restrictions, requiring certain counties on a “monitoring list” to stop indoor worship services. Los Angeles County, where Grace Communit

By Michael Cecere - Posted at the Journal of the American Revolution: It had been a very hectic week in Williamsburg for Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses and the President of the Continental Congress. It had begun with a startling alarm in the pre-dawn hours of April 21, 1775 . The commotion just outside his house roused the corpulent Speaker from his bed. Like many in Williamsburg, he rushed to the scene of the alarm, the gunpowder magazine, which for Randolph was within view of the front door across of his home. When he arrived he discovered that a party of British Marines had absconded with a wagon load of gunpowder from the powder magazine. The crowd at the courthouse grew increasing agitated at what they viewed as the theft of their gunpowder and most looked to the Royal Governor, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore, for blame. Lord Dunmore was in fact responsible for the seizure of the powder and had arranged for its removal to a British warship anchored

Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History: “The Shorter Catechism fought through successfully the Revolutionary war.”—A.A. Hodge. Today’s post comes from the pen of the Rev. Dr. W.W. (Walter William) Moore [June 14, 1857-June 14, 1926], who, after a few brief pastorates, served first as professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, 1886-1915 and then as president of that same institution from 1904 until his death in 1926. The following article comes from THE NORTH CAROLINA PRESBYTERIAN, vol. 40, no. 2 (13 January 1898): 2. PRESBYTERIANISM AND CIVIL LIBERTY. by Rev. W.W. Moore, D.D. (Walter William Moore, 1857-1926) Civil liberty and religious liberty go hand in hand. As men settle the question of church power, so they are likely to settle the question of civil power. If they rest church power in the clergy they are likely to rest civil power in kings and nobles. Hence the remark of Lord Bacon that “Discipline by bishops is fittest for monar

By Anna Wood - Posted at Femina Sola Gratia Gynocentric interruptions Gynocentric interruptions of Scripture–have you ever heard of such a thing? Well, you have now because Aimee Byrd has made sure that you did. What once wasn’t even a thought is now, according to Aimee, an important part of Scripture. And we’ve bought into it. Bought into what, you might ask? Gynocentric interruptions… what is that? Oh, not to worry. It’s a teaching that clearly falls within the historic biblical faith. I mean, after all, don’t you remember Martin Luther talking about it? John Calvin? Or what about John Owen? A.W. Pink? No? Yeah, it’s because they never even heard of gynocentric interruptions of Scripture and neither had anybody else. Until recently, that is, when Aimee Byrd discovered there was such a thing as, wait for it, gynocentric… oh… yeah, you got it already. Right. So, these gy…uhm…the female voice interruptions in Scripture (don’t you feel a little bit dumber having read that?)…I have a secr

By Mark Maloy - Posted at Emerging Revolutionary War Era: One of the worst epidemics in American history occurred in the then capital of the United States, Philadelphia, in the late summer and fall of 1793. The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 killed almost 10% of the city’s population and forced the young government of the United States and President George Washington to seek shelter away from Philadelphia. The 18th century was full of epidemics including smallpox, typhus, influenza, measles, and yellow fever. Yellow fever (also referred to as ‘the bilious fever’) was a brutal disease to contract and suffer. Once a person got yellow fever they would come down with aches and a fever. The disease would then attack the liver causing jaundice which turned the person’s skin a yellow color (hence the name yellow fever). Shortly after that, they would begin to bleed from the mouth, nose, and eyes and vomit black blood. It would usually only take a few days for the person to die from the disea

By Denny Burk - Posted at Southern Equip : Evangelicals have been debating manhood and womanhood for decades, and the conflict shows no signs of subsiding. No little bit of ink is spilled every year by both sides, and many works have trouble getting through all the noise. Such is not the case with Aimee Byrd’s new book Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose (Zondervan, 2020). The provocative title riffs off the name of the seminal complementarian work Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood , edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem (Crossway, 1991). Byrd takes direct aim at what she believes to be the deficiencies of complementarianism as expounded by its chief proponents, especially the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womahood (CBMW). Byrd’s views at first blush appear to be a classic narrow complementarian perspective—a male-only eldership with husband as “head” of the home.1 In other words, her view sounds a little bit lik

By Michael Spangler - Posted at The Daily Genevan : Feminism is attacking the Reformed churches. In previous articles I named the leaders of the movement, especially Aimee Byrd, Rachel Miller, and Valerie Hobbs, then discussed their tactics online, in books, and in the church. Now I call all Christians, and especially Reformed ministers and elders: mark such women, and the men who follow them, see the error of their teaching, and resist it with all your might. God forbid that any of us would be that watchman who sees the sword come, and blows not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, and their blood be required at our hand (Ezek. 33:6).  Take Up Your Pen Each of us must fight according to his calling and ability. Some have influence only over their own soul, or in their own family. They ought to use it. But others have more sway, because as ministers, as elders, as professors, as publishers, as bloggers, people listen to what you say. If that is so, I appeal to you esp

By Michael Spangler - Posted at The Daily Genevan : Feminism is on the march against the Reformed churches. We met its leaders , then considered their tactics online . Then last time we looked at two key books , and saw how they set themselves against honesty, truth, nature, and Scripture. Now we consider how the feminists have already breached the city gates, and are wreaking havoc within the walls of the church itself. Our survey will begin broadly, then descend to life in the local church, and in the Christian home. Much of the broad influence of feminism upon the church has already been discussed. Carl Trueman, Todd Pruitt, and Aimee Byrd are known throughout the Reformed churches for their podcast Mortification of Spin , which together with their blogs is published by the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Rachel Miller’s book Beyond Authority and Submission was published by Presbyterian & Reformed, a well-known purveyor of Reformed theology. Aimee Byrd’s new book was

By Michael Spangler - Posted at The Daily Genevan: This series seeks to expose the threat of feminism against the Reformed churches, and to call on the godly to wage war against it. We first met the leaders of the movement, then we considered the ungodly tactics they employ online . Now we will consider the tactics they use in books, specifically in two books, which we now summon as star witnesses in our case against the feminists: Rachel Miller’s Beyond Authority and Submission and Aimee Byrd’s freshly published Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood . These books have already been ably reviewed at length by careful scholars (Miller’s here and here ; Byrd’s here and here ). In this article I underscore a few things those men have already said, with commentary of my own. These two books sin against four great basic principles. 1. Against Honesty The first sin is against the principle of honesty. This is committed, first, by misrepresenting history. Rachel Mille

By Michael Spangler - Posted at The Daily Genevan: In the last article we met three women leading the charge of feminism in the Reformed churches, and three men who publicly aid them in the fight. That we might better see the fruit these women and their supporters are bearing, it’s worth taking a closer look at their battle tactics, here considered as they appear online: on blogs, social media, and podcasts. In a word, the prominent tactic in their online discourse is victimhood . This is the all-too-familiar method, borrowed from Marxism and applied by every progressive, of painting all disagreement as the oppression of the weak by the powerful, in order to garner sympathy for the opinion of the oppressed. The Reformed women promoting feminism on the internet are experts at playing the complaining victim. Take Aimee Byrd: she complains that men do not hear women’s voices ( here ). Then when men do hear her, she complains when they critique her ( here ), and apparently, ev

By Michael Spangler - Posted at The Daily Genevan: The Reformed churches have found themselves at war. The battle lines are drawn, and the conflict is underway. This article is the beginning of a series, in which I make a plea to godly readers, to recognize the enemy, and to take up arms against it. The enemy is feminism. By feminism I mean the ideology that disputes the following facts: God made men stronger, and appointed them to public work, and to rule in family, church, and state. (1 Sam. 4:9; 1 Cor. 16:13; Gen. 3:19; Prov. 31:23; 1 Tim. 3:1; 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23; 1 Tim. 3:4; 1 Tim. 2:8, 12; 3:2; Titus 1:6; Ex. 18:21; Prov. 31:23; Num. 1:2–3) God made women weaker, and appointed them to domestic work, and to submit to the rule of men. (1 Peter 3:7; 1 Tim. 2:14; Prov. 31:27; 1 Tim. 2:15; 5:14; Titus 2:5; 1 Cor. 11:7–9; Eph. 5:22; 1 Cor. 14:35; Ps. 68:12; Isa. 3:12) A good one-word summary of these facts of nature, and of Scripture, is patriarchy , “father-rule.”

By Tom Strode - Posted at Baptist Press : WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed in two 7-2 rulings Wednesday (July 8) that churches and religious organizations are free to make employment and health insurance decisions based on their convictions. In one ruling, the justices reiterated their support for a "ministerial exception" that enables churches and other religious bodies to hire and fire based on their beliefs. They had ruled unanimously in 2012 in favor of such an exception. In consolidated cases, two Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles chose not to renew contracts for two fifth-grade teachers based on what they said was poor performance. In its other opinion, the high court upheld federal rules that protect the rights of employers with religious or moral objections to the Obama-era, abortion/contraception mandate. The opinion came after a seven-year legal battle by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order that serves the pove

A FLAG-RAISING CEREMONY IN THE QUANNAN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. PHOTO: BITTER WINTER Posted at Voice of  the Persecuted Church : Some state-run churches were allowed to reopen in China after a 5-month lockdown. But only after proving their loyalty to the Communist Party. (Bitterwinter) The Lishiting Catholic Church in the Shunhe district of Kaifeng, a prefecture-level city in the central province of Henan, reopened on June 14, after staying closed for five months. “We solemnly raise the national flag here today after the epidemic, witnessing the fruits of all people working together under the leadership of Xi Jinping who directs the government and the Party,” a priest told a gathering of about 20 people, supervised by government officials. The Gangxi Christian Church in the district was also reopened at 8 o’clock that same morning. “The church finally reopened after five months, 147 days, or 21 Sundays, but instead of singing hymns to praise God, the government required us to

By Denny Burk “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:5 Racial hatred really exists, and it really is evil. Marxist revolutionaries really exist too, and they really do mean to overturn the social order. It is happening before our very eyes. There seem to be so few who can or will see both challenges as the seeds of revolution spill out into the streets of major cities across the country. The difficult thing for Christians in our current moment is that we are told that we have to pick a side. But we can’t choose either side when biblical Christianity obliges us to oppose both racism and Marxist ideologies that contradict scripture. Continue...

By Karen Faulkner - Posted at Worthy News: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has published a handbook on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to “affirm God’s love for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities,” the Christian Post reports. The publication is part of an ELCA effort to welcome and include members of the LGBTQIA+ community to all aspects of church life. Written by Lutheran Ministry ReconcilingWorks, the handbook asserts: “Many LGBTQIA+ people have learned by experience that they are not truly welcome in church, even in churches that state: ‘All are welcome here!’ The handbook offers advice to congregants on how to approach people from the LGBTQIA+ community and explains gender identity as “a person’s innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a man, woman or another gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth. Gender identity is different from the term ‘gender’, which is

A Transcription - Posted at the National Archives ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America , When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these e

By David W. Hall - Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History: In a 1775 letter, Adams spoke of “human nature with all its infirmities and depravities,” and then continued to affirm that it was capable of great things. Instead of the exclusion of the church from the state, he called for the pulpits to “resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty.” Equal in importance to James Madison in arguing for independence and ratification of the constitution was John Adams, who was also equally influenced by the heritage of Calvinism. In his diary entry for February 22, 1756, Adams wrote: “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law-book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! . . . In this commonwealth, no man would impair his health” with vice, but would live together in frugality, industry, “piety, love, and reverence towards Almighty God. . . . What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this be!”

Battle of Moore's Creek Re-enactment - Piedmont Trails Posted at Piedmont Trails: The normal teachings of this period discusses the forefathers and their actions that proclaimed separation from England, but in truth, it was widely known to many settlers and pioneers of North Carolina that religious beliefs would not allow a king to overpower their livelihood and progress. Families would worship one king and that was Jesus Christ. This was the ultimate division between the colony of North Carolina and England. This allowed Christians to stand up and fight the first battle of the Revolution in Alamance, NC in 1771. ... If we visited the homes of our ancestor’s in the wake of the American Revolutionary War, we would hear the words, liberty and independence quite often. The settlers living in North Carolina were all seeking one important common denominator, and that was prosperity. In order to achieve this, one must be free of obstacles that would hamper his progress. The t

Image Source: Find a Grave.com By David T. Myers - Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History : Here and there in these posts, you have read about Presbyterian clergy who were instrumental in preparing and molding the popular minds of Americans for the great struggle of the American Revolution. From both pulpit and battle field worship service, these Presbyterian chaplains challenged the troops to fight for their freedom and win the day. The British were certainly aware of the tremendous influences of these clergy toward that end and viewed it with alarm that it was thrown into the side of the rebellion. Among the many pastors of all denominations who joined the ranks were Presbyterians such as the Reverend Hezekiah James Balch, who is our character study today. Born in 1741 in Deer Creek, Hartford County, Maryland to Col. James Balch and Anne Goodwin, there is little known about his early years. The whole family moved south to Mecklenburg, North Carolina when he was young. A