Neanderthals are not "totally extinct"

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22

As reported by Canwest News Service:

There is a little Neanderthal in most of us, according to an international team that has added an intriguing twist to human ancestry.

The cave dwellers interbred with "modern" humans shortly after they left Africa, say the scientists, who have extracted the genetic evidence from gnawed bones found in a Croatian cave.

Their analysis shows that one to four per cent of all the DNA in people of non-African ancestry originated with our thick-browed cousins.

"The Neanderthals are not totally extinct," says team leader Svante Paabo, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, noting how their genes live on in us "a little bit."

"One to four per cent of the DNA that I carry in my cells, if I come from outside Africa, is from the Neanderthals," he says...

...The genomes show that Neanderthals interbred with the "modern" humans after they migrated out of Africa. "It's certainly an indication of what went on socially when Neanderthal and modern humans met," Paabo told a media teleconference.

Co-author David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, says it is difficult to know how much mingling and mating went on.

There may have been a "large number of matings among large populations, or a small number of matings -- even dozens -- into a quite small founding population of modern humans moving outside Africa," says Reich.

The researchers suspect the interbreeding occurred in the Middle East 45,000 to 80,000 years ago and before humans spread out across Asia...

...Neanderthals had slightly larger brains than Homo sapiens, were stockier and more muscular.

Just a few questions, Chief: If interbreeding took place between Neanderthals and "modern" humans, doesn't that mean that the Neanderthals were, in fact, human? And if their brains were larger than those of modern man, couldn't that indicate that they were smarter than us? Wouldn't that indicate "devolution" rather than evolution?

Daughters of polygamous fundamentalist Mormon leader speak out against their father's cult

30 years ago, when Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was trying to force his Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the constitution, there were a few of us warning that if he succeeded, the only people who would end up having any rights would be perverts, criminals, deadbeats, and malcontents. The charter officially became part of the Constitution Act on April 17, 1982, and events since then have confirmed my misgivings. As a white, English-speaking, Canadian-born heterosexual male Bible-believing Christian, I’m definitely less free in 2010 than I was before 1982.

No group in Trudeaupia (formerly Canada) has benefited more from the human rights cancer than sodomite activists. When the Liberal government recognized the legitimacy of sodomite and lesbian marriages in the last decade, I predicted that the next step would be to legally permit polygamy. When the objective standard for marriage of one man and one woman is done away with, then everything just becomes a matter of preference, and it becomes illogical and increasingly difficult to prohibit other "arrangements." For years there has been a community of fundamentalist Mormons practicing polygamy in the small community of Bountiful, British Columbia. The B.C. government has been afraid to prosecute the polygamists because they don’t think it would survive a Charter challenge in court. As reported by Valerie Fortney of the Calgary Herald:

In January 2009, five years after RCMP began investigating the community of about 1,000 people, its spiritual leader, Winston Blackmore, was arrested and charged with one count of polygamy. Nineteen women were named on his indictment.

James Oler was also charged with one count of polygamy, with three women listed on his indictment.

The charges against both men were quashed on a technicality. Rather than appealing that decision, British Columbia's attorney general decided to refer the issue to the B.C. Supreme Court. The action, joined by the federal Justice Department, is meant to determine whether Canada's anti-polygamy laws are constitutional.

The non-Christian scholar Jacob Bronowski, in his television documentary series The Ascent of Man, argued from a secular point of view that when human societies outlawed polygamy, it was to prevent older men taking advantage of younger women. Think of what will happen if polygamy is permitted: older men will accumulate harems of younger women--women who rightly belong with younger men. There will be large numbers of young men without the civilizing influence of compatible women in their lives, and the result will be a society full of criminals and barbarians. The B.C. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case in the fall of 2010. Should the court rule in favour of the fundamentalist Mormon leaders, Trudeaupia will be pushed back into the dark ages (back past her starting point, in fact, because polygamy was never legal in Canada)--a rather ironic legacy of the country's most "progressive" Prime Minister.

Brenda Jensen and Lorna Jean Blackmore, half-sisters who are daughters of Bountiful’s Harold Blackmore and two of his wives, are now speaking out about the life they led within the Canadian Fundamentalist Curch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Jensen alleges that in the polygamist community, systematic mind control begins not long after birth.

"We are not individuals, we are not persons," Jensen says. "Our hearts and souls are killed before we even get a chance to know ourselves."

Rulon Jeffs, who died in 2002, was the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jensen hands out copies of photographs showing the late Rulon Jeffs, then in his 90s and posing with his two teenage wives on their wedding day.

"Look at those girls' eyes; they are dead," she says.

The goal, she says, is to make sure they are "empty vessels, so that righteous brothers could fill you up and lead you to exaltation.

"This is not a religion," says Jensen, who managed to avoid marriage to her "assigned" 60-year-old husband when she was 16 and married a young man from another sect after the family had moved to Arizona.

"This is a cult, and should be treated under the law both here and in the United States, as such."

Jensen now runs from her home in Utah the HOPE Organization, a nonprofit group devoted to helping survivors of abuse within polygamous relationships.

50 years ago--The birth control pill is approved for use in the United States

Today marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the history of the sexual revolution. On May 9, 1960 Enovid, the original oral contraceptive, was approved in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration for use by married women for the purpose of birth control. An article on the pill's significance in the U.S.A. and Canada may be found here.

Campus Crusade's Power to Change's mission is to boldly go where the United Church of Canada has gone before

"Most people are devoted to causes which are neither significant nor lasting."
--Howard Hendricks, from the promotional film for the Campus Crusade for Christ conference KC '83.

It comes as no surprise to this blogger to see the continuing liberal direction taken by Power to Change (more familiar to those of us of a certain age as Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada). It’s what I predicted would happen after they announced their "new paradigm" in May 2006. An example of this is the unlikely issue of bottled water. At a general council of the hopelessly apostate United Church of Canada in Thunder Bay in August 2006, a resolution was put forward against "commodification" of water supplies that included a request that UCC congregations and members boycott bottled water. However, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

Ironically, the church's delegates are drinking bottled water this week at its meeting at Lakehead University. The conference facility was not equipped to provide drinking water.

The Calgary Herald, in an editorial, offered a dissenting view:

Of course, delegates attending a conference in Thunder Bay, Ont., can stroll to the nearby shores of North America's largest freshwater lake, Superior, and have all the water they want for free. They can even take it out of the taps for nothing more than the utilities charge. What they're really paying for is the cost of purifying it, packaging it and delivering it.

That's not commodification, it's fee-for-service.

On November 30, 2006 the UCC issued its policy position on water, which included:

Discourage the purchase of bottled water starting within its courts and congregations where possible;

The UCC social policy position page includes the link to their report titled Water: Life before Profit.

Flash forward to April 2010, and the Power to Change site contains a blog post by Claire Colvin titled Raise a Glass for Earth Day, which advises:

Yes, drinking bottled water when you’re out somewhere is healthier than drinking pop. But drinking water from a tap is even better, for all of us. This year for Earth Day, instead of turning something off, turn something on. Head to the sink and pour yourself a delicious glass of tap water. You’ll do us all a favor.

More Books and Things contains some excellent commentary (e.g., this post) on Power to Change’s use and promotion of the materials of Erwin McManus. Few of the blog posts on PTC’s Soul Cravings page mention the gospel of Jesus Christ or contain anything that’s distinctively Christian; most of the posts could have been written by any secular motivational speaker or writer. It’s almost enough to make one nostalgic for the formulaic writing of Bill Bright. The current emphasis of Power to Change is an excellent example of what Chris Rosebrough is talking about (go to Fighting for the Faith and search for "3D Theology") when he says that the material principle of modern evangelicalism, i.e., what it’s really about, has gone from "Jesus Christ crucified for our sins" to "the changed life," while the formal principle, i.e., the source of the material principle’s authority, has gone from "sola scriptura"--the Bible as our only guide of faith and practice--to "the Bible as guidebook"--containing principles for practical living.

If their website is any indication, Power to Change is becoming just a self-help movement, and is increasingly unrecognizable as Christian. To see where this sort of development has come from and where it’s headed, read the text of Samuel Tow’s prescient address from 1983 titled Today’s Evangelicals, Tomorrow’s Liberals.

Focus on the Family hired Tim Goeglein as their "man in Washington" after he was exposed as a serial plagiarist

I’d never heard of Tim Goeglein until Focus on the Family broadcast a three-part series titled Seeing President Bush in a New Light on June 8, 9, and 10, 2009, with Mr. Goeglein as the guest. The broadcasts are no longer available online, but if you contact Focus on the Family and mention the title and dates of the programs, you should be able to purchase the recordings. I listened to the programs, where Mr. Goeglein was praising Mr. Bush to the skies, and my reaction to much of what I was hearing was "What a pack of lies! Who is this guy?"

A quick search on Tim Goeglein found that he was hired in March 2009 as vice-president for external relations for Focus on the Family Action, the lobbying arm of the organization--which is to say, he acts as Focus on the Family’s "man in Washington." Mr. Goeglein spent 10 years as press secretary to U.S. Senator Dan Coats (Republican--Indiana); when Sen. Coats retired, Mr. Goeglein spent two years with Gary Bauer’s Campaign for Working Families. Mr. Goeglein joined the administration of President George W. Bush in 2001, and served as a special assistant to Mr. Bush and deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, i.e., he was the liaison between the administration and religious groups--on the opposite end of the phone from his current position with Focus on the Family.

Mr. Goeglein left the Bush administration in March 2008. And why did he leave? He was exposed as a serial plagiarist. Mr. Goeglein contributed occasional guest columns to the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, one of his hometown newspapers. A blogger named Nancy Nall discovered an instance of plagiarism in one of Mr. Goeglein’s columns, and posted it, under the title Copycat, on her blog on February 29, 2008. The item had barely been posted when readers began finding other instances of plagiarism by Mr. Goeglein. On March 3 Ms. Nall wrote an article for Slate magazine detailing how fast the evidence against Mr. Goeglein had accumulated. The News-Sentinel ran an article on March 1 saying that 20 of Mr. Goeglein’s 38 columns contained examples of plagiarism. Within two days, the number of known examples of his columns containing plagiarized material had risen to 27. Mr. Goeglein offered his resignation to the Bush administration, and the resignation was accepted.

Tim Goeglein was hired by Focus on the Family a year after being exposed as a serial plagiarist, which doesn’t say much for the organization’s ethical standards. If you read the article about Mr. Goeglein’s hiring in the Focus on the Family publication Citizen Link, you will find no mention that he left the Bush White House in disgrace. The fact that a man of such character as Mr. Goeglein can get hired by Focus on the Family may give some people hope; any readers who have had a hard time finding work because of a history of plagiarism might want to try Focus on the Family.

As for George W. Bush: In addition to being a war criminal according to the standard laid down at Nuremberg, the execution of Terri Schiavo should have been enough to dispel any belief that Mr. Bush is a Christian. If that isn’t enough, there’s the interview he gave to ABC News Nightline in December 2008, which was reported in print by Associated Press:

Asked about creation and evolution, Bush said: "I think you can have both. I think evolution can ? you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."

...Interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked Bush if the Bible was literally true.

"You know. Probably not. ... No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament for example is ... has got ... You know, the important lesson is 'God sent a son,'" Bush said.

"It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life," he said. "All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help. ... I was a one-step program guy."

The president also said that he prays to the same God as those with different religious beliefs.

"I do believe there is an almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people," Bush said.

If that still isn’t enough, you can refresh your memory with this recap of Mr. Bush’s observance of non-Christian religious practices during his years in the White House. You can also go to the site Bush Revealed for more detailed information.

January 23, 2015 update: Go here or here for a transcript of an excerpt from Focus on the Family's June 2009 broadcast with then-host James Dobson inteviewing Mr. Goeglein.

American Christians--Is your pastor a hireling of the United States government?

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Romans 13:1-7

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. I Peter 2:13-14

The above passages are often taken by Christians to mean that Christians owe almost complete obedience to human governments (the exceptions being where the authorities try to forbid the preaching of the gospel or demand that Christians worship the ruler as God). A number of times I’ve heard Christians cite these passages (especially Romans 13:1) to argue that those in authority are necessarily put there by God. I believe that to take such a view is to go against what the Bible teaches about truth, righteousness, and justice. A person could murder his way into power, take over in an illegal coup, steal an election, or lie about his constitutional qualifications for office, and yet we’re supposed to believe that such a person is in power by the authority of God. Such a view doesn’t say much for the character of God. I’m reminded of the 1888 U.S. presidential election, when Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote, but won a narrow electoral vote win over Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland. Mr. Harrison grasped the hand of Pennsylvania Republican boss Matt Quay, and said, "Providence has given us the victory." A few weeks later, Mr. Quay told reporters in Philadelphia, "Think of the man! He ought to know that Providence hadn't a damn thing to do with it," adding that Mr. Harrison would "never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."

Both of these New Testament passages contain conditions. Those in authority are to praise those who do good, punish those who do evil, and do good to the people of God. If they’re that, then they aren’t governing with the authority of God, even though they may still hold the reins of power. The Old Testament gives us an example of a king who was anointed by the LORD, but who lost that authority although he was still in office. Saul was anointed King over Israel in I Samuel chapter 10; in verse 7, Samuel told Saul that God was with him. However, Saul began to disobey God in chapter 13, and after he further disobeyed God by refusing to destroy everything belonging to the Amalekites, the LORD rejected him as king:

And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. I Samuel 15:26

And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. I Samuel 16:1

Was Saul immediately deposed as king? No, he was still on the throne, and remained King over Israel until he died in battle in I Samuel chapter 31. What he lost was the authority of God behind his rule; Saul was no longer God’s man on the throne, even though the LORD allowed him to remain in office for some time after pronouncing His rejection of Saul as king.

One pastor who takes a view of Romans 13 that’s contrary to the view often expressed among Christians is Chuck Baldwin of Pensacola, Florida. In February 2009 he wrote a column on the subject titled Romans 13 Revisited. Three years earlier, Pastor Baldwin interviewed Greg Dixon, former pastor of Indianapolis Baptist Temple, on the subject of Romans 13, and the audio can be downloaded here. In January 2010 Pastor Baldwin’s son Timothy, a constitutional lawyer, wrote a two-part column titled Biblical Mandate For Just Government: What is Good & Evil, which may be found here and here.

In May 2006 Alex Jones, at his Prison Planet site, ran a column by Paul Joseph Watson alleging that the United States government, through the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), is paying thousands of pastors to preach sermons on Romans 13, advising Christians obey the government, and not to resist a declaration of martial or other intrusive government actions. Mr. Jones has a reputation for promoting conspiracy theories, but in this case, he provides evidence to back it up. A concerned congregant from Church of New Hope, an Assemblies of God church in Stow, Ohio, wrote to Prison Planet and included a copy of a bulletin insert dated November 9, 2008 from the Ohio District AoG Superintendent, Rev. John Wootton, invoking Romans 13 to state that Barack Obama’s presidency comes from God, and that Christians should lead the way in supporting him.

Another column by Mr. Watson in February 2009 disclosed that a member of the Worldwide Church of God had asked church leaders if any WCG pastors were on the FEMA payroll, only to be told that such information was privileged. Also in February 2009, Mr. Jones interviewed State Representative Matt Shea of Washington, who expressed his concern over the use of pastors as FEMA agents. You can watch the video of the interview, or read the transcript.

It’s tempting to think that all this is just the typical conspiracy-mongering of Alex Jones, but I’ve found some evidence myself to back up his allegations. At Beaverton Grace Bible Church in Beaverton, Oregon, Pastor Chuck O’Neal had a series of four (count ‘em, four!) sermons in the summer of 2008 on the subject of Christians obeying the government. These were:

July 13, 2008 Evangelistic Sedition!

July 27, 2008 Gospel Seditionists Submitting to State Authority

August 3, 2008 Moral Seditionists Submitting to State Authority

August 10, 2008 Practical Submission to State Authority

I invite, indeed, urge the reader to download these messages. I don’t think I’ve ever heard sermons that advised a more servile attitude toward government than these. I can’t prove that this pastor is a paid government agent, but these sermons make me very suspicious.

February 12, 2015 update: As reported by Mikael Thalen of Infowars, February 9, 2015:

A church hosting a law enforcement appreciation sermon asked its followers to pledge their allegiance to government this weekend, arguing that all state authorities throughout history have been ordained by God.

According to an anonymous visitor of the Gold Creek Community Church in Mill Creek, Washington, who provided exclusive photos to Infowars, attendees were ordered to submit to the state without question.

“They had police worship today and last week was military worship where they played clips of American Sniper…” the source said. “They were telling people to basically worship government and worship police no matter what. No mention of police brutality, no mention of the stingray systems grabbing our data…”

The church’s pastor, Dan Kellog, who is also reportedly a police chaplain, used the Romans 13 bible verse to justify his position. As noted by Infowars Paul Joseph Watson, Romans 13 has long been used by authoritarian regimes to force compliance.

“Romans 13 has routinely been cited by tyrants throughout history in an attempt to prevent Christians from opposing their rule, indeed, it was Hitler’s favorite bible verse,” Watson wrote. “Religious groups such as the Catholics in 1930’s Germany also used the verse as an excuse not to rise up against the Nazis when they were still a minority political party.”

Near the end of the sermon, members of the congregation were asked to raise their right hands and make a pledge, which included the promise to call 911 on “suspicious” neighbors.

“I pledge to call 911 if I see someone suspicious in my neighborhood,” the pledge stated.

While working with law enforcement to create a safer community is a noble cause, the sermon made no mention of the duty of Americans to oppose and protest unconstitutional legislation and dictates.

The sermon’s content is eerily similar to a 2009 document passed out to churchgoers in Ohio that told Christians to support President Obama due to his status as “God’s minister.”

Since at least 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has used Romans 13 under a FEMA program to train pastors to become literal secret police. Pastors are tasked with teaching their congregations to submit to every government action including forced relocation under martial law.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, pastors operating under the “Clergy Response Team” program were used to quell dissent as police and military carried out unconstitutional gun confiscation.

Click on the link to see or hear Pastor Dan Kellogg's message on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, February 8, 2015.

Pastor Dan Kellogg in front of a screen displaying Romans 13:1

Pastor Kellogg takes the following pledge:

I pledge to do my best to follow the law.
I pledge to thank a police officer for their [sic] service.
I pledge to call 911 if I see someone suspicious in my neighborhood.
I pledge to watch the back of our officers as they fulfill their duties.
I pledge to pray for the safety of all members of law enforcement.

HT: Chuck Baldwin

City Harvest Church in Singapore expands at a cost of $310 million

And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. John 2:13-16

Because thou sayest, 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: Revelation 3:17

City Harvest Church is a megachurch in Singapore with a congregation of about 33,000. In March 2010 the church became co-owner of Suntec Singapore International Exhibition and Convention Centre, a prime piece of downtown real estate. The cost to the church of $310 million includes costs for such things as renovation and rental.

According to senior pastor Kong Hee, as quoted in City News Weekly:

"A church is not just a main sanctuary and nothing else. Having extra facilities is critical to the operations of the church. We need areas for children, rooms for Bible study, car park space and eating places. Suntec Convention Centre has more than 30 meeting rooms, and we will have access to over 8,680 car park lots in the Suntec-Marina area. Between Suntec City and the Convention Centre, there are 283 stalls/restaurants for our members to eat at, and 622 retail stores for our members to shop in."

Deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Ping said that one of the key considerations of the site is the business model that CHC will adopt for the facility:

"For Singapore Expo, we are in a lease-only business model. As such, what is being paid out does not have any returns or profit-sharing for CHC. The Board and the Building Committee discussed and concluded that with an ‘ownership-and-license’ business model, the rent we pay out will be recovered by CHC in the form of profits and dividends."

"It’s perfect for our church," says Tan. "This place has everything we need. It’s been around, it’s an established place. It has been the venue for some of the most important events that ever took place in Singapore, like the APEC CEO Summit last November, and the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting in 2006. This August it will be the venue for the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. It’s got all the facilities, and it’s super convenient. There is no other place that allows us this space size in this part of Singapore."

In the event that there are such key events on the same scale as the IMF-World Bank meetings, Tan says City Harvest will exercise flexibility and vacate the space for such clients. "We are now part-owners," he explains. "It benefits us too." Tan points out that although City Harvest will use the space for its services, the building is still a commercial entity, and technically not a "church building". "The church will lease the space to use for our services," explains Tan. "The difference is that we are also co-owners of this building."

A few weeks later the Singapore Commissioner of Charities began investigating CHC's involvement in Suntec Singapore, but the church stated that:

...its shares in the downtown commercial property were not held by the church itself, but by a separate 'special-purpose investment holding company' it wholly owned.

The CHC statement gave no details of the investment company, but said it had acquired 'an indirect minority stake' in the holding company of Suntec Convention Centre. CHC had previously described the stake as 'substantial' and 'significant'.

The church added in the statement that it would be uninvolved in Suntec's daily operations and that it did not have 'exclusive use of any areas'.

On the issue of taxation raised by the public who wanted to know whether CHC's rental income from Suntec would be taxed, the church said its investment holding company was not a charity, and so did not qualify for tax breaks or other concessions.

The deal has attracted some criticism. According to The Straits Times:

At least two megachurches here seem to govern themselves more like private foundations than public charities. While a believer at a typical autonomous, non-denominational church here can opt to become a full voting member of his church, very few - say, 700 out of 30,000 in a megachurch that is an autonomous, non-denominational set-up - may be invited to become voting 'executive members'.

Irked by the Suntec deal, investment banker Simon Teoh, who attends City Harvest, has written to the Commissioner of Charities. He alleges that the church's 12-member management board went ahead 'with utilising the church's building fund ($65 million as of end-October 2009) and committing the church to large future liabilities...without consulting the members...at the recent AGM. No EGM has been scheduled'.

During the Easter weekend services, the church announced:

...that it received a lawyer's letter last Thursday from its fellow investors in the consortium holding a majority stake in Suntec Singapore, reminding it to keep to a non-disclosure agreement in the deal.

The church, which recently invested in the consortium, said some investors in it 'did not appear pleased' that it had given its members information about its stake in the deal.

City Harvest Church has posted its notice to members regarding the non-disclosure agreement.

To see examples of the worldliness of City Harvest Church, go to the Asia-lympics and Competitions page. Among the activities that City Harvest Church promotes are a beauty pageant:

Poise, flair and talent – if you are aged between 18-26 and these are all qualities you can call your own, this competition may just be for you! Flash the crowd a smile, you could just be Miss/Mr Asia Conference 2010! The winner will stand a chance to win cash and attractive prizes worth more than S$3,000! So submit your application through your cell group leader to be notified for the first qualifying round.

...City Harvest's Got Talent:

Let your creativity shine and be part of one of Asia Conference’s most exciting and entertaining competitions! Go solo or form a team of 5 members or less and prepare to showcase your talents on Asia Conference’s stage! The rush of bright lights, applause and spectacular prizes awaits you. Whether a song, dance or music item – the sky’s the limit, you can be a star today with the most original, ingenious and talented performance.

...and on a more spiritual note, there's my favourite, the pulpit design competition:

Design a pulpit that serves the purpose of the Lord’s anointed minister as he delivers God’s Word to bless the congregation. Who knows, your pulpit design creation may very well be used on the stage of a mega church some day!

To see City Harvest Church's charismaniac credentials, look at the areas included in the courses offered at their School of Theology.

HT: Faith and Freedom

October 22, 2015 update: As reported by Associated Press, October 21, 2015:

SINGAPORE – The founder of a popular Singapore church has been found guilty of misappropriating about $35 million in donations to support his wife's singing career in Asia before helping her break into the U.S. market for evangelization purposes.

Kong Hee, the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, was found guilty Wednesday with five other church leaders of stealing 24 million Singapore dollars ($17 million) designated for building and investment-related purposes through sham bond investments. The State Court also found that they used another 25 million dollars ($18 million) to hide the first embezzlement from auditors.

No date for sentencing has been set yet. The penalty for criminal breach of trust is a maximum of life sentence.

HT: Living 4 His Glory

November 20, 2015 update: As reported by BBC News, November 20, 2015 (bold in original):

Six senior officials of Singapore's City Harvest megachurch have been jailed over a $50m Singapore dollar ($35m; £23m) fraud case.

The evangelical church's pastor and founder, Kong Hee, was jailed for eight years - others received between 21 months and six years.

The court ruled last month the group had misused church finances to fund the music career of Kong's wife, Sun Ho.

All denied the charges - the church had supported them during the trial.

State prosecutors said before sentencing it was "the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore's legal history".

'Wrongful gain'

Known for its slick image and wealth-focused brand of Christianity, City Harvest Church (CHC) has some 17,500 members in Singapore and branches around the world.

In 2002, its launched what it called the Crossover Project - a scheme to evangelise through Ms Ho's music career.

The hope was that songs like China Wine - a tune with rapper Wyclef Jean depicting Ms Ho as a Chinese exotic dancer in Jamaica - would help spread the gospel.

A church-backed music production company aimed at helping her achieve mainstream success in the US was left with millions of dollars in losses when the project failed.

The six were convicted on 21 October of misappropriating S$24m of church funds for the music project, and using another S$26m in an attempt to cover their tracks.

They were found guilty of various counts of criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts, although the judge accepted that there was no evidence of "wrongful gain" by the defendants themselves.

That lack of personal financial benefit from the fraud meant the judge did not impose the maximum sentences of up to 20 years, local media report.

Ms Ho herself was not prosecuted in connection with the case and did not attend Friday's sentencing.

She recently took over leadership of the church.

Convictions in full

Kong Hee, CHC founder: eight years.

Chew Eng Han, former fund manager for the church: six years.

Tan Ye Peng, deputy senior pastor: five years and six months.

Serina Wee, former finance manager: five years.

John Lam, finance committee member: three years

Sharon Tan, former finance manager: 21 months

All can appeal against their sentences.

HT: Dracul Van Helsing

January 10, 2024 update: A few things have happened in regard to the City Harvest Church scandal since I posted the 2015 updates. As reported by Fathin Ungku of Reuters, April 7, 2017:

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore court on Friday cut the jail sentence for the co-founder of one of the city-state's most popular churches, after he appealed his conviction and sentence for misusing millions of dollars to support of his wife's pop singing career.

The High Court sentenced Kong Hee, 52, head of City Harvest Church (CHC), to 3-1/2 years for criminal breach of trust and falsification of accounts, reducing the eight years term he got in October 2015. Other five church leaders also had their sentences reduced.

Kong was found guilty of misusing S$50 million ($36 million) of church money to fund his wife's musical career. Local media said it was the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore.

Kong's lawyer Edwin Tong, was quoted by local newspaper Straits Times as saying his client was "disappointed" the conviction was not overturned, but appreciated that the judge said he was acting in the church's interest.

Kong's church preaches a "prosperity gospel" that blends spiritual and material aspirations. His wife, Ho Yeow Sun - known as Sun Ho - is famous for a video of her English-language hit "China Wine," which shows her dancing intimately with rapper Wyclef Jean.

The defense has said Sun Ho's music career was used to evangelize. She was not charged in the case.

"This was a situation which... involved no personal gain on the appellants' part," Judge Chao Hick Tin said. "They believed that their acts ... would ultimately advance the interests of CHC."

The mix of money, faith, and scandal is unique in Singapore, which has built a system with low tolerance for corruption and where the star status is more often attributed to politicians and bankers.

While megachurches originated in the United States, some of the largest are in Asia, where packaging the traditional biblical message into a more dynamic format of pop music, lively services and social media has lured a new generation of followers and turned the churches into major enterprises.

CHC had a congregation of 16,482 and 49 affiliations in China, the United States, and seven other countries in 2015, according to its latest annual report.

Over 50 people, mostly followers, queued for a seat in court hours before the sentence.

(This story has been refiled to show High Court sentenced official in paragraph 2)

As reported by Agence France-Presse, February 1, 2018:

The leader of a glitzy Singapore megachurch convicted of misusing nearly $20 million in church money to advance his wife's music career escaped a harsher prison term Thursday as a court rejected demands to reinstate his original sentence.

The Court of Appeal ruling puts an end to the long-running case involving millions in church money and raunchy music videos featuring the wife of City Harvest Church leader Kong Hee alongside Hollywood stars.

Kong and five other church leaders were in 2015 convicted of using Sg$24 million ($19.8 million) from a church building fund to help Kong's wife, Sun Ho, 45, break into the English-language market.

They were also found guilty of misappropriating another Sg$26 million from the church to cover their tracks with a complex web of financial transactions.

Kong was sentenced to eight years while the other five received jail terms ranging from 21 months to six years.

With its heady mix of religion, pop and fraud, the case fascinated Singapore, which prides itself on its tough stance on corruption.

The church leaders' sentences were reduced on a technicality last year by the High Court, with the 53-year-old senior pastor's jail term cut to three-and-a-half years.

This triggered a storm of criticism, with more than 4,000 people commenting on it on the Facebook page of local broadsheet The Straits Times.

State prosecutors, who said the case involved the largest amount of charity funds ever misappropriated in Singapore's legal history, had sought for the harsher sentences to be reinstated but were denied by the apex court on Thursday.

Four church leaders, including Kong, are currently serving their sentences, one has finished her seven-month term and another will start serving his sentence on February 22.

Kong looked visibly thinner when he and the other convicts were brought to the dock in purple prison overalls, with their hands and feet cuffed and shackled.

He was calm and occasionally waved and nodded to the public gallery packed with supporters who had lined up since 3:00 am to get a seat.

Ho was never charged.

In a 2007 music video called "China Wine" that came out on YouTube, a scantily-clad Ho appeared with rapper Wyclef Jean. In another video, for a reggae-tinged song entitled "Mr Bill", Ho appeared as an Asian wife who sings about killing her African-American husband, played by supermodel Tyson Beckford.

As reported by Lydia Lam of Channel News Asia, August 22, 2019 (updated February 4, 2021) (bold, links, photo in original):

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee (right) leaves prison on Aug 22, 2019. (Photo: Hanidah Amin)

SINGAPORE: The founder of City Harvest Church was released from jail on Thursday (Aug 22) after doing time for his role in misusing millions of church funds, a day ahead of his 55th birthday.

The pastor walked free from Changi Prison in the late morning, looking thinner and sporting a cap on his shorn hair, about two years and four months after surrendering himself at the State Courts to begin his jail term. Inmates typically serve two-thirds of their sentences before being released on remission.

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee leaves Changi Prison after serving two years and four months of his sentence. (Photo: Darius Boey)

A small group had gathered outside the prison to wait for him minutes before his release.

When asked by CNA if he had anything to say, he shook his head and smiled before swiftly entering a black vehicle waiting for him.



City Harvest Church on its website announced Mr Kong's release, saying that he "spent most of his time seeking and studying the things of God".

"Pastor thanks you all for your unceasing prayers these last few years, for him and for his family," said the church's board and senior management team.

"Your letters brought him comfort and joy."

The church added that Mr Kong will be "taking a period to spend time with his family, especially his elderly parents".

"Please do continue to keep him, Sun, Dayan and his parents in prayer," the statement added.

UNPRECEDENTED CASE

Mr Kong was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail, the longest term meted out to six church leaders for their involvement in misappropriating S$50 million in church funds.

This sentence had been reduced from eight years’ jail upon appeal, along with the rest of his co-accused who had their terms shortened.

The other five are: Former deputy senior pastor Tan Ye Peng, former finance managers Serina Wee and Sharon Tan, former finance committee member John Lam and former fund manager Chew Eng Han.

The six of them were convicted in 2015 after a trial spanning 140 days and were originally sentenced to between 21 months and eight years' jail, terms that were later reduced significantly upon appeal.

The case was unprecedented in two ways: First, it was the largest case of misuse of charitable funds in Singapore to date, and second, because the millions were “replaced” through a series of sham investments and shady transactions, with the church ultimately suffering no financial loss.

About S$24 million was used to bankroll the secular music career of Mr Kong’s wife Sun Ho and her lifestyle, while the remaining S$26 million was used to cover up the first amount to fool auditors and to conceal the unauthorised use of the money from the church's building fund.

Mr Kong began serving his sentence on Apr 21, 2017, along with four of his co-accused. In his last message on social media before surrendering at the State Courts, he said he had reflected deeply and was at peace with what was ahead.

He said then that he was “extremely saddened” by the prospect of having to leave his family and church, but was ready to face what was to come “with the peace and grace of God in my heart”.

Ms Sharon Tan was first to complete her seven-month jail term, followed by Mr Lam, who received one-and-a-half years' jail; Ms Wee, who was given two-and-a-half-years' jail; and Mr Tan Ye Peng, who was sentenced to three years and two months in prison.

Chew was the last to begin his prison sentence of three years and four months.

However, a day before he was set to enter prison, he tried to flee the country on a sampan and was given an additional 13 months' jail. He will be the last of the six involved to finish his sentence.

Dallas Willard denies that Jesus Christ finished His work of salvation on the cross

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 (NIV)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. I Peter 2:24 (NIV)

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit... I Peter 3:18 (NIV)

The fact that an essential Christian doctrine such as penal substitution is even a matter of controversy shows how far down the road of apostasy the professing Christian church has gone. I’ve noticed two related characteristics of those who object to the doctrine: 1) They argue against the teaching on the basis of an emotional reaction rather than on the basis of what scripture actually teaches; 2) They have trouble accepting that human nature is as sinful as the Bible says it is.

Christian Research Network has posted a link to an interview between Gary Moon and Dallas Willard. More Books and Things has a post here on Mr. Willard's view of penal substitution.

I noticed a few other things in that interview:

You’ll find Leslie Weatherhead quoted approvingly by both men. Dr. Weatherhead was a mid-20th Century apostate who said in his book The Christian Agnostic, "No one, short of information not available, can say that Christ is ‘the only begotten son of God.’ There may be a son of God on Mars." (Associated Press dispatch from London, August 30, 1965, cited by Carl McIntire in Outside the Gate (1967), p. 24).

Throughout the interview, Mr. Willard uses philosophical rather than biblical reasoning, and straw man arguments to characterize views he doesn’t like. Nowhere does he address important biblical passages that teach penal substitution such as those at the top of this post. This is the same complaint that Bob DeWaay has about Mr. Willard's book The Spirit of the Disciplines (1988): Dallas Willard doesn’t even address the passage in Colossians 2 that refutes his argument. To hear Pastor DeWaay’s broadcasts on this, go here and here.

Go further down in the Moon-Willard interview and you’ll find this:

GWM: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end?

DW: No.

GWM: I knew that, but I’m trying to help you out.

DW: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end. Now, there was something finished. Primarily, it was, in the biblical sense, the days of His flesh were finished. But to think that redemption was finished or that everything needed for salvation was finished is simply a brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching about the life of Christ.

If anyone is guilty of a "brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching," it's Dallas Willard. In John 19:28 we read, "...Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled..." In verse 30, Jesus Christ, while on the cross, said, "It is finished." His statement in verse 30 results from His knowledge in verse 28. I've always heard that the phrase used in John 19:30 was an accounting term meaning "paid in full." The word "finished" in verse 30 and "accomplished" in verse 28 come from the same Greek word, teleo. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, this word "frequently signifies, not merely to terminate a thing, but to carry out a thing to the full." (W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1940).

When it comes to redemption, the scripture says:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Ephesians 1:7

The Greek word for redemption in the passage above is apolutrosis, which according to Vine, means "a releasing, for (i.e. on payment of) a ransom. This verse, which says that we have redemption through his blood, i.e., his blood shed on the cross--not through his blood plus something else, bolsters the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage from John 19 cited above. By the way, the ransom was paid to God the Father to satisfy His conditions--not to Satan, as some erroneously believe.

Mr. Willard, to put it mildly, really doesn't handle the word of God very well. The perceptive reader will notice that this is yet another example of denial of essential Christian truth that isn't coming from outside the professing evangelical church, but from within.

HT: More Books and Things

35 years a Christian

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

It was on April 26, 1975 that I first put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and received eternal life from Him. The seed had first been planted three years earlier when my brother, who had recently come to Christ, gave me a couple of gospel tracts, including that Jack Chick classic "This was Your Life." I read them, but they made no impact at the time, because I didn’t see myself as a sinner in need of a saviour.

At the end of 1974 the Father began to draw me to the Son. I was going through a time when I wasn’t doing well in school (I was in grade 9), which was unusual for me, and it was mostly my own fault. It was also around that time that I tuned in to one or two gospel radio broadcasts on out-of-town stations, and I began to think that if there really was hell, then I didn’t want to go there. My brother gave me a 5-volume paperback "Bible" in comic book form for Christmas, and I read it and enjoyed it.

In February, a high school friend named Rod invited me to the weekly young people’s gathering at his church (it was a Pentecostal church--I don’t go along with their doctrine on tongues, but they did preach the true gospel). I accepted the invitation, and began going there every week. I liked the people I met there (some of whom I already knew), and sensed that they had something in their lives that I wanted Two months later, I was at that church’s Saturday night coffee house. If you had asked me then if I was a Christian I would have said yes, but wouldn’t have been able to say just why. By that time I was acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but I hadn’t yet asked him into my life. There were some Jack Chick tracts at the table where I was sitting; Jack Chick gets a lot of knocks, and often rightly so, but on this occasion, the Lord used a few of these tracts to reach me. I read a couple related to end-time prophecy, and the conditions described in the prophecies sounded so much like the current age that I figured these predictions must be inspired by God. Then I recognized "This Was Your Life" and read it again. John 3:16 suddenly spoke to me, as if a light had been turned on in my mind, and I realized that I just had to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. When I got home that night, I knelt and asked Him to come into my life, and the prayer was answered.

Looking back, I realize more and more that my salvation was and is the sovereign work of God. There was no reason that I should take an interest in the things of God when I did, or that Rod should invite me to his church, or that I should accept the invitation, but in the sovereign timing of God, that’s what happened. I’m also very grateful that He saved me when and where (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories) He did. For one thing, I came to know Christ before ever seeing a televangelist; otherwise, I may have rejected Christianity because of the buffoonery going on in His name. I came to know Christ at the age of 13 at a time when the gospel was still communicated in a straightforward manner to young people without dumbing it down for them. The coffee house at that church was very low-tech: some tables with tracts, and a record player playing a few well-worn Larry Norman albums. And in 1975 if you came to Christ, you were a Christian. I prefer to call myself a Bible-believing Christian, rather than use the "Christ-follower" label that’s so popular with the Emerging crowd in the early 21st Century. I can’t believe that 35 years have gone by so quickly, and it’s been almost that long since I’ve seen most of the Christians I knew back then, but I’m looking forward to the reunion--and the Lord’s return is 35 years closer now than it was in 1975.

The Cross in the Egg falls short of presenting the gospel

The Cross in the Egg: The Easter Story Retold for Children is a children’s book by Shirley Taylor, published in 1999. The author was (as of 1999) a banker from Altheimer, Arkansas who was active in Altheimer United Methodist Church. I don’t question the motives or sincerity of the author, but the story, even allowing that it’s written for children, is not an adequate retelling of the Easter story. The story is about a rabbit who comes across Jesus while He’s praying in the garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. One of Jesus’ tears falls onto Rabbit’s head, and Jesus touches the place where the tear fell. Rabbit’s heart is filled with love for Jesus, and he goes home to see if he can find a gift for Jesus to make Him happy. Mrs. Hen collects a basket of eggs, and Rabbit makes some dyes out of berries and colours the eggs. He weaves roses around the basket and fills the basket with a dozen eggs. One of the eggs cracks (the crack is shaped like a cross), but Owl tells rabbit that jesus will love the broken egg as much as all the others. Rabbit goes to Jerusalem to find Jesus, but Crow tells him that Jesus was crucified by soldiers, and is dead and buried. Rabbit reaches the tomb, and finds it empty, with the stone rolled away. Rabbit is confused and heartbroken, and stops for a nap. He’s awakened by a bright light and a voice telling him that Jesus has risen. When Rabbit tells the voice about the gift he’d brought, the voice tells him that he’s already given the gift that Jesus treasures more than any other, by opening his heart to receive His love. The voice then tells him to share the eggs with children everywhere to remind them of God’s gift of eternal life. Rabbit does so, except for the cracked egg, which he keeps as a reminder of his meeting with Jesus.

A major problem with The Cross in the Egg isn't so much error within, as truth left out. For example, we’re not told who Jesus is; He’s just a man with some disciples who gets crucified and rises from the dead. When Jesus prays, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want" in the garden of Gethsemane, His prayer, although biblically correct (Matthew 26:39), isn’t put into any context; although you can’t tell from the story what Jesus is referring to when He mentions "this cup." When Crow tells Rabbit, "I saw soldiers crucify Him on a cross" (which is biblically correct--Matthew 27:27-35; Mark 15:16-25; John 19:16-23), we’re not told why He was crucified. The roles played by the Jews (Matthew 26:57-68, 27:26; Mark 14:53-63; John 18:12-14, 19-24; Acts 2:23, 7:52), Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:11-25; Mark 15:1-15; Luke 23:1-23; John 18:28-19:16), and indeed, the rest of us (Isaiah 53:5-6) in His crucifixion are ignored. There’s no mention of Him being crucified for our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6; I Peter 2:24, 3:18); that the shedding of His blood satisfied His Father’s condition of forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22; I John 2:2, 4:10); or of the necessity of repentance (Acts 17:30).

When one of the eggs gets cracked, Owl says, "Jesus will love the broken egg as much as all the others." That’s a nice-sounding sentiment, but it doesn’t square with what the Bible says. In the Old Testament, God commanded that animals that were sacrificed as offerings to Him be without any physical defect (Exodus 12:5, 29:1; Leviticus 1:3, 10; 4:23; Numbers 19:2, 28:3,9). God rebuked Israel for disobedience in this area (Malachi 1:7-8, 13-14). Even the priests presenting the offerings were to be without physical defect (Leviticus 21:17-23). Of course, the eggs in this story were offered as a gift rather than as a sacrifice; nevertheless, it’s hardly appropriate to offer something that’s broken as a gift to the King of Kings. When the wise men followed the star in the eastern sky in search of Jesus (Matthew 2:1-2), they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11)--items fit for a King.

When Rabbit goes to the tomb, he finds the stone rolled away, and the voice tells him that Jesus has been raised from the tomb. This is biblically correct (Matthew 28:2-6; Mark 16:4-6; Luke 24:2-6; John 20:1-17). The voice then says, "Rabbit, you have already given the one gift that Jesus treasures more than any other. You have opened your eyes to receive His love. Therefore, He is with you always." The trouble with this is that it’s not stated that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was His supreme expression of His love (But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8).

It hardly needs to be pointed out that Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross for the sins of man, not for animals. To try to communicate the gospel through fictitious animals just doesn’t work, in my opinion. Especially is it not appropriate to try to communicate the truths about the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ using the traditional symbols of rabbits and eggs. The word "Easter" itself is derived from Astarte (also sometimes rendered as Ishtar), the Babylonian fertility goddess. Rabbits and eggs are obvious symbols of fertility, and the book ends up Christianizing pagan symbols. When you mix truth and error, you don’t end up with truth.

According to the book’s dust jacket,

Taylor has recast the Easter Bunny as Rabbit, who tells the Easter story in a child-friendly way. By so doing, the author prepares young children for key gospel concepts.

Taylor’s story is brought to life by animal and human characters who combine...to tell the story of God’s love through grace--in spite of our feelings of unworthiness.

As for the last part of the preceding paragraph, our problem isn’t feelings of unworthiness, but actual unworthiness. It’s often said, and rightly so, that the gospel is so simple that even a child can believe it. However, it’s necessary that the gospel be clearly communicated and clearly understood. If I were reading this book as a child (and I was one, once), I wouldn’t come away with an adequate idea of what the gospel is. The Cross in the Egg contains some truth, but not enough, and it falls short of the mark when it comes to presenting the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look who Liberty University's commencement speakers are for 2010

It came as no surprise to this blogger to see a post at Defending.Contending. saying that the guest speakers at Liberty University's commencement for 2010 will be Glenn Beck and Paige Patterson. Look at my post from 2009 titled Libertine University, and you'll see the names of other Liberty commencement speakers of questionable or non-existent Christian credentials.

Mr. Beck, the well-known Fox News broadcaster (I remember him from a few years ago when he was at CNN Headline News), is, of course, a Mormon. Mr. Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is the SBC's version of Pope Benedict XVI. He's done his best to protect sex criminals among SBC pastors, while using the term "evil-doers" to describe the victims of their sexual abuse. For details on what kind of leader Mr. Patterson is and what kind of character he possesses, go to the Stop Baptist Predators website and blog, as well as Tiffany Croft's blog, and search under "Paige Patterson." Such is the kind of person that Liberty University (which, as I previously pointed out, denied--before Virginia state authorities--being a Christian university) deems suitable as a commencement speaker. I wonder which "conservative" media celebrity they'll invite in 2011.

HT: Defending. Contending.

Ancient Assyrians kept records of celestial events

An item that appeared in the Daily Telegraph, March 31, 2008:

Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Köfels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid.

Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths.

The circular clay tablet was discovered 150 years ago by Sir Austen Henry Layard, a leading Victorian archaeologist, in the remains of the royal palace at Nineveh, capital of ancient Assyria, in what is now Iraq.

...Now Alan Bond, the managing director of a space propulsion company, Reaction Engines, and Mark Hempsell, a senior lecturer in astronautics at Bristol University, have cracked the cuneiform code and used a computer programme that can reconstruct the night sky thousands of years ago to provide a new explanation.

They believe their calculations prove the tablet - a copy made by an Assyrian scribe around 700 BC - is a Sumerian astronomer's notebook recording events in the sky on June 29, 3123 BC.

The pair say its symbols include a note of the trajectory of a large object travelling across the constellation of Pisces which, to within one degree, is consistent with an impact at Köfels.

20 years ago: Earth [-worship] Day 1990

On April 22, 1990 an estimated 200 million people participated in Earth Day observances on the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Events were planned in 3,600 cities and towns in 140 countries. About 750,000 attended a rally and concert in Central Park in New York City. Although it was promoted as an event to express concern about the environment, in fact by 1990 it had become Earth-worship Day: a promotional vehicle for the New Age movement, expressed as outright pagan nature worship. This blogger and fellow investigator Chris Milner attended the Edmonton celebration at Mayfair Park, and I noticed Albertans for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Vegetarians of Alberta, Citizens Organized for Animal Liberation, and Children of Gaia (whose banner, under their name, had the words "Worship the Earth") literally under the same roof in the same tent.

40 years ago: The first Earth Day

Earth Day--April 22, 1970, which at first was just an American event, originated with U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (Democrat--Wisconsin), who was New Age before the term was used. Earth Day drew its share of protesters. According to The New York Times Encyclopedic Almanac 1971 (page 37):

...the Daughters of the American Revolution resolved that Earth Day was "subversive" and that reports of an environmental crisis were "distorted and exaggerated." And the comptroller general of Atlanta sent out a slew of telegrams to President Nixon and others, charging that Earth Day might be a Communist plot because it fell on the centennial of Lenin’s birthday, which, actually, it did.

This Sunday's service at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church is sponsored by General Motors

...and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. John 2:13b-16

It seems that consumerist "Christianity" isn't restricted to suburban megachurches mainly populated by white people. As reported in the Detroit Free Press on April 19, 2010:

In what organizers said was the first event of its kind in the area, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit teamed up Sunday with GM and the GM Minority Dealers Association to offer churchgoers a chance to test drive more than a dozen cars.

As congregants left the northwest side church at 1 p.m., Pastor Charles Adams said the idea of Ride and Drive was to demonstrate GM's commitment to minority causes, its employment of thousands of local African Americans and to encourage churchgoers to buy a new GM car.

...Banks also were on hand to show potential new car owners how to apply for a loan. The church was chosen to host the event because it has a history of activism, said event spokesman Kevin McCormick.

If you can find anything in this article that has anything to with the gospel of Jesus Christ or worship of Him, you're more perceptive than I am.

HT: Southwest Radio Ministries

An example of an untamed tongue getting someone in trouble

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. James 3:6-9

As reported in The Western Star of Cornerbrook, N.L.:

A 47-year-old Deer Lake man is facing nine charges after he shouted obscenities at a passing RCMP officer which prompted the officer to turn around and investigate the man leading to charges of impaired driving, breaches of court orders and a drug-related offence.

The man had been parked on the shoulder of the road about 6 p.m. Thursday and stuck his head out the window of his car as the marked police vehicle passed by.

The charges include two counts of impaired driving, theft of an automobile, three counts of breaching probation, three counts of breaching a recognizance, and one charge under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

For the latest on this clown, go here.

50 years later, psychedelics are back--for mental health purposes only, of course

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Revelation 9:21

The Greek word rendered "sorceries" in this verse is pharmakia or pharmakeia; according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, pharmakia

...primarily signified the use of medicine, drugs, spells; then, poisoning; then, sorcery...

...In sorcery, the use of drugs, whether simple or potent, was generally accompanied by incantations and appeals to occult powers, with the provision of various charms, amulets, etc., professedly designed to keep the applicant or patient from the attention and power of demons, but actually to impress the applicant with the mysterious resources, and powers of the sorcerer.
(W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, 1940)

In the late 1950s-early 1960s, hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD were being promoted as useful in treating mental illness. Fifty years later, here we go again. According to The New York Times of April 12, 2010:

Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness.

...Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol.

The results so far are encouraging but also preliminary, and researchers caution against reading too much into these small-scale studies. They do not want to repeat the mistakes of the 1960s, when some scientists-turned-evangelists exaggerated their understanding of the drugs’ risks and benefits.

Because reactions to hallucinogens can vary so much depending on the setting, experimenters and review boards have developed guidelines to set up a comfortable environment with expert monitors in the room to deal with adverse reactions. They have established standard protocols so that the drugs’ effects can be gauged more accurately, and they have also directly observed the drugs’ effects by scanning the brains of people under the influence of hallucinogens.

Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate.

If you're wondering how this ties in with spiritual deception in the days prior to the return of Jesus Christ, here's a passage from the article that is particularly revealing (emphasis mine):

The work has been supported by nonprofit groups like the Heffter Research Institute and MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

"There’s this coming together of science and spirituality," said Rick Doblin, the executive director of MAPS. "We’re hoping that the mainstream and the psychedelic community can meet in the middle and avoid another culture war. Thanks to changes over the last 40 years in the social acceptance of the hospice movement and yoga and meditation, our culture is much more receptive now, and we’re showing that these drugs can provide benefits that current treatments can’t."

Researchers are reporting preliminary success in using psilocybin to ease the anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses. Dr. Charles S. Grob, a psychiatrist who is involved in an experiment at U.C.L.A., describes it as "existential medicine" that helps dying people overcome fear, panic and depression.

"Under the influences of hallucinogens," Dr. Grob writes, "individuals transcend their primary identification with their bodies and experience ego-free states before the time of their actual physical demise, and return with a new perspective and profound acceptance of the life constant: change."

U.S. appeals court hears case of street preacher arrested near Liberty Bell

According to Bob Unruh in WorldNet Daily:

A panel of judges at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today heard arguments that free speech should be allowed on public property at the site of the famous Liberty Bell, which itself quotes from the Bible in stating, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

The arguments came in a case involving Michael Marcavage, a minister whose work includes street preaching. He was fined and put on probation for preaching to the public on a sidewalk outside the Liberty Bell center after a trial in which government prosecutors described his message and actions as a "clear and present danger."

That someone can be arrested for preaching on the site of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall--where much of the United States Constitution was devised--is more evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore.

U.S. Supreme Court condones censorship of speech--when that speech expresses Christian beliefs

Veteran columnist Nat Hentoff is a professing atheist, but on the issue of religious liberty, he's often more perceptive than many Christians. He states in his April 7 WorldNet Daily column:

Last November, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Brittany McComb who – as a 2006 valedictorian at Foothill High School in Nevada – had her microphone cut off by school officials when she started to speak about how God and Christ had taught her to experience something greater than herself, inspiring her to rise above her early high-school failures.

Brittany had been forewarned. Her high school required a prior draft copy of commencement speeches and censored all references in hers to her religious faith. She went ahead anyway because, as a student of the First Amendment, she knew she was speaking as an individual – and not on behalf of the state as represented by officials of her public high school.

With the help of the Rutherford Institute, headed by John Whitehead – a premier protector of all rights in the Bill of Rights – Brittany appealed the literal cutting off of her First Amendment rights (Brittany McComb v. Gretchen Crehan).

The "liberal" 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the school's censorship because she was "proselytizing." But Brittany was speaking for, and about, herself. She was not trying to convert anyone...

...Brittany's appeal came to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear it. There was no written dissent by any of the Roberts Court justices...

...The censored Brittany McComb did not injure anyone, but her public high school unconstitutionally deeply injured her free-speech rights – an injury in which the Supreme Court has become complicit.

The Family Church of Sacramento boasts about miracles--but can't make the mortgage payments

The Family Church of Sacramento (until recently known as Family Christian Center) is a charismaniac assembly pastored by Rich and Lindy Oliver in Orangevale, California. Their website's home page proclaims:

Taking New Ground
"This season will be a time of advancement and
Acceleration with shocking swiftness" - Rich Oliver

Their "events" link includes "Experience Miracles," as well as "Fridays on Fire:"

FRIDAY NIGHTS at 7pm Meeting in the Father's House - Intense Worship and Warfare, Personal Prophetic Ministry, with Guest Speakers from Around the World bringing a Fresh Word and Impartation

Under the headline Taking NEW Ground you find:

Accept No Imitations! Expect No Limitations! Embrace Infinite Possibilities!

However, if you read the pdf file on that page, it seems as though there are at least some limitations, and the possibilities are not infinite (emphasis in original):

No one will lend us the $5.6 million to pay off our bonds with the debt larger than the property value. The debt of these bonds cannot be reduced because bonds are under different federal laws than bank loans and the bond debt cannot be restructured or lowered.

Our Church Family has walked faithfully with us through this Bond Program these past ten years. With thanksgiving, we have rejoiced over the miraculous hand of God in providing for our monthly bond payments. We have openly shared our current financial circumstance, and we are all in agreement, while these buildings and property have served us well, it is time to make a move.

...We may be moving--BUT WE ARE NOT LEAVING--we are taking new Ground.

Our church family has grown spiritually, numerically and financially over the past several years. We are in a better place financially than we have been in a long time--all our bills are paid or are current.

...Because of the foreclosure on our existing property, at the recommendation of our attorney, we have created another 501c3 non-profit church, The Family Church of Sacramento.

Right now, Family Christian Center is becoming The Family Church of Sacramento.

This is followed by an appeal for $500,000 in donations, and:

As we aspire to make these three areas a living reality in our lives,
God will launch the Church into a much higher level of faith and power

Their bills may be paid or current, but that doesn't apply to the bills that will be coming due in the future. According to the April 7, 2010 edition of the Sacramento Bee:

The same economic forces that have rocked the housing industry have hit an Orangevale church, forcing Family Christian Center into foreclosure because the congregation can no longer afford its $20,000 monthly mortgage payment.

The Hazel Avenue church, a community fixture for more than four decades and the site of Club Retro, a popular teen hangout that attracts hundreds weekly, will leave the property in July.

Church leaders said they cannot make the payments on the $5.6 million bond they borrowed to build a 900-seat worship center and update their property in 2000...

...Times were good when church leaders at Family Christian Center decided to build a new worship center and make improvements on their 11-acre property 10 years ago. They added a new sanctuary called The Father's House and meeting rooms for community outreach.

Shortly afterward, a portion of the congregation split and formed another church. Others left after Family Christian Center changed its worship style. With fewer members and less in donations, church leaders refinanced their loan with a balloon payment due in September 2009. When it came time to restructure their loan, Oliver said, "everything had changed."

The value of the church property had plummeted to half its original $8 million value. Meanwhile, payments on the restructured loan would be about $40,000 a month, according to Oliver.

"We prayed about this a lot and studied every possibility," Oliver said. "Finally, about six months ago, we realized we have to go into foreclosure."...

...Church elder Tom Econome said the church had no other option. "There's faith and then there's practicality. We just couldn't do it," he said.

Mr. Oliver's statement on the move contains the following quote from the notorious Kathryn Kuhlman (emphasis in original):

The only limit to the power of God lies within the power of the individual...it is when active faith dares to believe God to the point of action that something has to happen

Either Mr. Econome hasn't read that quote, or he and the leaders at The Family Church of Sacramento, nee Family Christian Center are having trouble when it comes to practical application of the principles they proclaim.

How to access Debbie O'Hara's News With Views columns

Debbie O'Hara was an excellent columnist on issues of Christian discernment for News With Views from 2003-2005. She's no longer listed on NWV's masthead, and her columns are no longer available at their site, but a list of her columns can be found here. To see the individual columns, Google "Debbie O'Hara" and the column title, and then click on "cached."

30 years ago: The sudden and dramatic drop in the price of silver leads to indefinite postponement of fulfillment of the Great Commission

An incongruous headline? Not necessarily. March 27, 1980 was a notable day in the history of Campus Crusade for Christ. At the main gym of the University of Alberta, this blogger was a volunteer as the Athletes in Action basketball team defeated the Canadian men's national team 81-78 in an exhibition game.

More important: the price of silver, which had reached a record $50.05 U.S. per ounce in January, plunged to $10.50 per ounce--down $5 during the day, causing huge losses for speculators and threatening the collapse of the $2-billion silver empire of brothers Herbert and Bunky Hunt, who were based in Dallas, Texas. They were attempting to corner the world silver market, building up holdings estimated at more than 200 million ounces since the summer of 1979, and driving the price of silver to a record high of $50.05 per ounce in January 1980.

On March 26, a sharp fall in silver futures prices led brokerage houses to make margin calls for more cash from investors to maintain their equity in holdings of commodities bought on credit. The margin call put a severe financial squeeze on the Hunt brothers, and they had been unable to raise the cash. The investment house of Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Inc. began to sell out its holdings of the Hunts’ silver futures and stock positions. On March 27, Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Inc. announced that the brothers had failed to meet $100 million of margin calls on their silver accounts the previous day, which caused panic in the silver market.

Bunky Hunt had been appointed by Campus Crusade for Christ President Bill Bright to head up CCC’s effort to fulfill the Great Commission internationally, and as late as 1979 (in Mr. Bright’s book Believing God for the Impossible, where Nelson Bunker Hunt was described as "one of the world’s most prominent businessmen"), Mr. Bright was still predicting fulfillment of the Great Commission worldwide by 1980. The sudden and dramatic drop in the price of silver may have played a role in the indefinite postponement of that event. Had the Hunt brothers been able to pull off their scheme to corner the world silver market, some of Bunky’s share of the profits would have been given to Campus Crusade for Christ; even a small percentage would have been a considerable amount of money. It can be disputed, of course, whether Campus Crusade's efforts could be regarded as the fulfillment of the Great Commission. In the above-mentioned book, Mr. Bright said that he considered the notorious 1976 "I Found It!" bumper sticker campaign to be the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the United States.

Go here to see an article about Nelson Bunker Hunt that was published in 1980.

10 years ago: Almost 1,000 die in cult holocaust in Uganda

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. Deuteronomy 18:20-22

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:3-5

In an abomination reminiscent of Jonestown and Waco, an estimated 530 people paid the price for following a false prophet when they died in a church fire in Kanungu, Uganda on March 17, 2000. The deceased were members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, whose leader, Joseph Kibwetere, had erroneously predicted that the world would end on December 31, 1999. Authorities suspected that the incident may have involved murder, as the windows and doors of the church had been locked before the fire began. Within a month after the fire, further investigation found another 444 bodies in various locations. On March 24, 153 were found in two pits used as a base by the cult. On March 27, 74 were found on a cult leader’s land. On March 28-29, 81 bodies were found in a nearby house. On March 30, 81 more were found at the home of a cult member. On April 27, 55 bodies were found in a garage rented by a cult leader.