Link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/new-anglican-church-poses-dilemma/

In my mind this poses no dilemma except with those who have turned their back on the Gospel that Christ embodied and was shared by the apostles and disciples that through faith believed in Him. We are of one body under Christ Jesus and whether their are two associates that call themselves Anglican or just one, we are all the simply members of the body, each with our own functions and vocations. The dilemma, however, that this poses to the heretical Episcopal Church is that it takes money from their offering plates and places it in the plates of those who are more faithful to the Word of God and the mission of Lord Jesus.

There is no precedent in the communion for a country to have more than one recognized province, and Episcopalians who back the move have maintained that the U.S. and Canadian churches no longer preach and believe historic Anglicanism.

The formalities cap a six-year progression out of the 2-million-member Episcopal Church by Episcopalians over the U.S. church’s increasing doctrinal liberalism, which has prompted many to leave to other denominations, though others have hung on in the hope a conservative alternative would arise.

ACNA spokesman Peter Frank said the gathering will be inspirational instead of legislative. “This is really about mobilizing people to do mission at the local parish level,” he said.

Speakers will include such non-Episcopalians as Rick Warren, the pastor of California’s Saddleback evangelical megachurch, and Metropolitan Jonah, head of the Orthodox Church in America. Also attending will be the Rev. Todd Hunter, a church planter for the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA), one of the 28 groups represented at ACNA.

Episcopal Church spokeswoman Neva Rae Fox said the denomination was “aware” of the gathering and officials were concerned that one of its active bishops, Peter Beckwith of the Springfield, Ill., diocese, may be participating.

A message left at Bishop Beckwith’s office was not returned Tuesday.

More than 70 of the Episcopal Church’s 110 dioceses are in serious financial straits, and its membership is dropping precipitously, with an average Sunday attendance of 727,822.

If the Episcopal Church could only quiet itself and listen to the still small voice that is calling it to repentance, perhaps some of the membership would return to the Church that they once loved. Physically the members of the new providence walked away but spiritually it was TEC who turned its back on the faithful after attempting to woo them into apostasy and heresy. Once the new Anglican Church is fully established it will be too late and the falling of the Episcopal Church will be mostly a silent affair as the truly faithful will have departed for the green grass of true faith and the crashing of the faithless will be just another sound added to the cluster of secular noise that is already deafening.

Sometimes I just do not know how to say things in a way that does not come across as offensive to some. Since this is one of those times I guess I should just come right out and say it. There is a decidedly anti-intellectual mind set in much of the Christian Church and I believe that it is responsible for a lot of the angst that the Church is experiencing today. It is almost like being personally familiar with the Bible and the writings of Church theologians are bad things. I am not sure why this is, but it seems to have a greater effect on how the world views Christians than one might expect. I was surprised to find out just how many people that I know who are good Christians but have not bothered to pick up and read a Bible in years. I was shocked to find out how many Christians have not read the Bible at all. They may have picked it up and turned to a passage that they heard in Church or they may have earnestly started to read the Bible and gave up after the first few chapters in Genesis. Some will even tell you that the Old Testament does not matter; it is what Jesus said in the New Testament that counts. Even then many of these people have not bothered to read the New Testament either.

The only deviation of this is that it seems like everyone has read the book of Revelations and generally more than once. Why is that? It is kind of like reading the last chapter of a fiction novel to find out what happens and then never bothering to read the rest of the story and discover what leads up to the conclusion. Every likes all the damnation and hell fire and the sinners really getting it in the end but no one is much interested in why Christ told us to pray for our enemies and forgive them when they trespass against us. I guess this is akin to slowing down to look at the crash on the side of the road. Reading Revelations gives us the Biblical version of gapping at an accident and thinking ‘That sure looks bad. Boy I’m glad that didn’t happen to me.’

Anyways, why do Christians shy away from reading the Bible and other good sources of information that may help them understand what God is saying to them? Most every Church member has heard of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Augustine and John Wesley but very few people have actually read any of their works to see what they had to say about Christianity and faith. That is really sad considering the fact that those are the very people who established the theology, liturgy and beliefs that are the basis of most every Christian Church in the world. In fact if it was not for the bravery and moral conviction of Martin Luther it would have taken the Bible a lot longer to get in to the hands of average people and there may have been no reformed theology to become the basis of the Protestant Reformation. There are theologians who gave their lives in order for the common man to be able to obtain, read and interpret them Bible for themselves.

Think of these martyrs and then consider what their legacy has become. Instead of people reading the book that these brave men and women died to put in our hands, some people opt to have their total exposure to the Bible via what their Priest, Minister, Pastor or Reverend reads to them every Sunday and possibly (for those really dedicated learners) on Wednesday night Bible study. The Bible was wrestled from the hands of a very dogmatic Roman Catholic Church and translated from its Latin and Greek forms in to the common vernacular of just about every country on Earth and now almost five hundred years later the average Joe Christian rarely bothers to read it. To say that the run of the mill congregant is ignorant of the beliefs that he or she professes to follow is being somewhat optimistic. In reality it is probably the vast majority of those sitting on a pew on Sunday mornings.

I am sure that every Christian household has at least one Bible in it. I am also sure that most non Christian households contain at least one Bible. Now with all these Bibles lying around one would think that Christians would do a lot of Bible reading but this does not seem to be the case. In fact some of the most astute Bible readers seem to be the atheists and agnostics who read the Bible in order to debate Christians on their beliefs. It is heartbreaking to watch someone who professes a strong faith lose an argument with an atheist mainly because the atheist had a better knowledge of Scripture than the believer.

This is why so many Christians can not defend their beliefs when confronted by even the simplest argument of an agnostic or atheist. Eventually things break down to heated words and name calling and this behavior does not cast Christianity in a good light to any bystanders who might be observing. All this does is play in to the hands of the antagonistic unbeliever. His arguments are predicated on getting the Christian to lose his temper and appear ignorant to anyone watching. This is easy to do if a Christian does not possess a rudimentary understanding of his beliefs and a basic knowledge of Christian history.

It seems that we have lost the meaning of what Paul was telling us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” How can someone test and approve what God’s will is if they do not even know if the book of Romans is in the New or Old Testament? Paul is basically telling believers to wise up and learn what God’s will is so that they will not be fooled by false teachings or lead astray by false prophets. If believers don’t know what Christ’s teachings are then how can they defend the faith when it comes under attack? How can they know when they are being lied to or being lead down the wide path to destruction?

Unfortunately all this leads to the misconception of many unbelievers that Christians are just ignorant rubes, being lead by their noses through a fairy tale story that they can not and will not understand. One can attempt to make the argument that it does not matter what others think because believers know the truth. I do not think that is a very good or useful point of view. How can a Christian effectively witness to an unbeliever if the unbeliever feels that he or she is hearing from someone who is uneducated in their own faith? The unbeliever is immediately prejudiced against God and His saving grace and is not receptive to the Gospel message. Might I suggest that when we put on the armor of God that we also educate ourselves in its usage?

The Lord wants us to read His word and to study it. He needs us question it and put it to the test because when we discover that His word is true it glorifies Him and prepares us to be good and useful servants to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we witness we will know of what we speak and that too will glorify our Creator as well as assisting in turning the view of Christian ignorance in to a myth. In all we do we should seek glorify our Father in Heaven. We should know and understand His word and be ready to share it with anyone who crosses our path and seems to be in need of hearing the good news. If we plant a seed and water it with an accurate understanding of the faith then should God cause that seed to sprout it will be well nourished with a righteous understanding of God’s good and perfect will.

The anti-intellectual attitude with in the Christian Church must be done away with in order to preserve the true gospel that Jesus Christ gave us. We most know and understand God’s word so that those who would invade the body are recognized for what they are and rejected for the over health of the Christian community. Look at the liberal changes that are happening with in most of the major protestant denominations today. Sin is being redefined and what is abhorrent to the Lord is being taught to new congregants as being something that is good and pleasing before God. Liberal leaders of the visible Church feel that lowering the bar of sin will attract new members, but what point is there to attract someone to the Church if the convictions of the Church will damn them to hell? Could the motivation be more money in the coffers?

If more worshipers where aware of what the Bible teaches us then these types of heresies would not be as easy to perpetrate on the modern Christian Church as they seem to be. Christ’s commandments have not changed in two thousand years and the God’s word is the same as it always has been, but because of the lack of Christian education, discernment of the truth is a lot harder than it use to be. All members of the body of Christ must pick up the Bible and educate themselves. It should become a daily habit to read a few chapters and then think upon them. Christians should be reading books explaining the history of their faith to them and why we do what we do for our Lord and Savior. Only then will we as Christians stand firm against the misconceptions of our beliefs by the outside world and against the heresies that arise from within. God be with us and bless us all!

Another Pilgrim

Link: http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/06/05/news/gnp-church05.txt

Here were have more of the same. Another congregation being tossed out of their place of worship in the most Christ-like manner that the Episcopal can muster. When the National Church decides that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that has been taught for nearly 2000 years, is no longer amendable to their goals it decides to teach a new gospel. When parishes that disagree with apostasy that is being touted at the highest levels of church they must either walk away from their places of worship or be sued and thrown out.

I would suggest that the Diocese of Los Angeles refer to it’s copy of the New Testament and seek for what Christ had to say about law suits among Christians but a couple of things would prevent that. First of all, their bible is apparently so different from the real Word of God that it probably states that legal actions are a gift from god to recall what Trinitarians are trying to steal from them. Secondly, Jesus’ comments are meant to discourage litigation between Christians and this suit was not between Christians. The Diocese of Los Angeles stopped being a member of the Body of Christ the moment it told it’s lawyers to go to court.

St. Luke’s vestry, a 12-member governing body, argued that the property and 83-year-old church building belonged to its congregation.

In July 2007, the Los Angeles Superior Court sided with the Episcopal Diocese, citing a 1979 church law that established its ownership of all Episcopal parish property. But a month later, the court stayed the potential eviction pending the outcome of the appeal.

“We would hope that the court would recognize that we hold the title to the property,” said the Rev. Rob Holman. “We are the people who built these buildings and maintain these buildings.”

A spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles cited the California Supreme Court January ruling, which upheld a similar eviction of St. James Church in Newport Beach, St. David’s Church in North Hollywood and All Saint’s Church in Long Beach, which all aligned themselves with the Anglican Province of Uganda.

“We in the Diocese of Los Angeles are awaiting the appellate court’s decision,” said Robert Williams, canon for community relations. “And we are hopeful that it will uphold the earlier decision of the trial court.”

If a parish decides that it is time to toss off the yoke and free themselves from the unbelievers that wish to offer false doctrines taught to them by their satanic masters then that parish must render unto Satan what is God’s. Christ warned us that in the later days the hearts of people would grow cold and that they would turn away from God. This is what is happening in TEC. They no longer have hearts made of flesh with God’s Law written on them. They have traded their hearts and souls to bow before the prince of this world and given away the Glory of God.

Link: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090604/episcopal-theologians-study-same-sex-relationships/index.html

I guess I’m getting very jaded when it comes to announcements by TEC. Today they have publicized that they have formed a “diverse” panel of Episcopal theologians to study the issue of same sex marriages in the life of the Church. Why do I get the feeling that the panel’s conclusion has already been given to them and the theologian’s task will be to distort Scripture in order to upload the heresy that is being being called a “new thing".

Names of the panel members have not been released, but the chair of the Theology Committee of the Episcopal House of Bishops says the group “very intentionally represents a robust range of views on the subject and includes gay and lesbian persons.”

“It has always been the committee’s intention to publish the names of the panel when the work has reached the appropriate stage,” said the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr., in a statement Wednesday. “We believe that for a season the work can best be accomplished by allowing the panel to work in confidence. This supports the full collegiality and academic freedom of the theologians and provides the space they need for the deep dialogue and reflection that is taking place among them.”

The House of Bishops had requested that the theology committee study same-sex relationships to contribute to the listening process and discussions on homosexuality currently occurring worldwide across the Anglican Communion.

According to Parsley, the project is “designed to articulate theologically a full range of views on the matter of same-sex relationships in the church’s life and to foster better understanding and respectful discernment among us.”

The committee stated earlier that a “diverse and balanced panel of theologians” was appointed and has begun its work – which is slated for completion in 2011.

TEC believes that it is best that these so far unnamed theologians work in confidence to better promote academic freedom. I suspect that TEC is not being completely honest about this either. They are working in the dark so as to avoid the criticism tha that is sure to come their way once their names are made public. Why hide them? If TEC is so positive that this heresy is a good thing and has Christ’s complete approval then it seems rather unfaithful to do things in the dark.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

John 3:19-21

The report will be finished in 2011. Does it really take that long to read what the LORD has to say about same sex marriage? How many ways are there to interpret: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”? This really doesn’t seem like that difficult of a thing to do… unless this is not what they are doing at all. Perhaps someone is trying to invent something new and say it in a way that sounds like it was derived from Scripture in order to fool those who have little knowledge of what the Bible has to say. The type of folk who sit in the pews every Sunday and believe every word that passes out of a minister’s mouth without every bothering to go to the source and see if what is being taught is the true Word of God.

I guess it is just easier to trust and believe. Ministers and priests would not teach anything false would they? They would not lead people astray would they? To promote an agenda of deception, yes they would. TEC is determined to walk the broad path that leads to the wide gate and they are determined to lead as many as they possibly can down a road of darkness. They have given away their souls to the hungry adversary who stalks like a lion looking for someone to devour. Dinner is served.

Reading through the Gospels and the book of Acts a person cannot help but be astonished at the nature and volume of miracles that were performed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Some of the miracles were utilitarian in nature such as the incident where Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11) or when the Apostles spoke at Pentecost and those attending could hear the words spoken in their own languages (Acts 2:1-12). Other miracles were merciful and kind as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44) or when Christ healed the demon possessed man who lived in the tombs of Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20). No matter what the nature of the miracle, however, each was done with one purpose in mind, to bring glory to God the Father. The blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, the lepers were made clean and the lame could walk. The items on the list of miracles that Christ and the Apostles performed seem almost countless. Many of the people who witnessed these miracles came to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God. The miracles were proof of the divine nature of the Lord. Since the Ascension of Christ and the passing and martyrdom of the Apostles miracles seem to be less common. Also science has come along to make miracles seem less miraculous. There is, however, a miracle that happens daily and no one seems to mention it.

Not only is this miracle not mentioned but many do not see it for the miracle that it truly is. Some of the unregenerate even call it a delusion and a sign of ignorance. This miracle that I am referring to is the miracle of belief. It happens daily as new members are accepted into the Body of Christ and hardly a soul realizes the true power of this miracle. Christ understood this when after proving to Thomas that He was indeed the risen Lord, Jesus said “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). No believer today was there at the crucifixion and watched Christ’s redemptive blood seep from his hands and feet. Not a soul alive heard Jesus saying “It is finished” (John 19:30) as he relinquished his life on the cross. There are not witnesses still alive who can say that they saw the Lord being removed from the cross and laid to rest in his tomb. I dare say that no one, man or woman, who walks the Earth can claim to have seen the risen Lord immediately after his resurrection and release from the tomb. Not a person alive can say that they have seen any or all of these events but all believers have no doubt that they took place.

What a miracle we have here and hardly anyone acknowledges it as being the miraculous occurrence that it is. Is not this an amazing thing that mere moments before we come to know the Lord Jesus we are doubters and scoffers (to say the least) and in the precious moment that God’s grace descended upon us we understood perfectly the truth of Christ on the cross and we felt completely assured as to what He did for the sake of our souls. God blesses us with the miracle of belief as part of bestowing grace upon us. With the gift of grace comes not only belief but faith, forgiveness and the desire for repentance. It is belief, however, that is the key to unlocking the door to our salvation. Without the miracle of belief then of what use is faith to us? We would have nothing in which to have faith in if we never came to believe in the forgiveness and salvation that Christ offers us with his sacrifice upon the cross.

I have heard people say that they could easily believe in Jesus had they heard Him teach and witnessed the miracles he performed. But that option is not available to us. What we have instead is a gift from God to believe the stories that are written about Him and to accept the salvation that He offers us. They should pray to God that He grants them the grace to believe in these things and if He does their doubts will seem frivolous and they will wonder why it took them so long to come to this understanding. From my vantage point as one who has been blessed with faith and salvation I can see the miracle of belief. I can still remember a time when I did not believe and today I ask myself, with everything that I know how I could have been so ignorant and blind to the glory and majesty of God. As a believer I see it everywhere, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3b). Nothing around me changed, God just blessed me with belief and then I changed. All these miracles are about glorifying God and we can glorify the Lord our God every time that we acknowledge the miracle of belief when it is given to a new believer.

We must never forget what a miracle belief really is. Just look around and see all the people who have heard the Word but have not believed. Generally they have heard the same message that believers have but they have rejected the possibility of Christ being God and of His dying upon the cross to pay the debt that humanity’s sins have incurred. They are no different than you or I for we were once unworthy sinners unable to believe in the mercy and forgiveness of God. For the most part we did not even realize that we where sinners and that we needed forgiveness. Then the miracle started and the Lord’s grace began working on us. First we were made aware of our sinful nature and given a desire to do something about it. Then we were shown the revelation of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. Finally the key to freedom was miraculously handed to us and we believed. At last we were truly free…

Another Pilgrim