50 years ago--Rabbi begins White House service with Christian hymn

Richard Nixon, who took office as the 37th President of the United States of America on January 20, 1969, was the first President to regularly host religious services in the White House. On June 29, 1969, Louis Finkelstein became the first rabbi to lead one of these services, but began the service with a Christian hymn that the largely Jewish gathering could not sing. Rabbi Finkelstein said that he was not surprised nor upset by the hymn. According to former White House aide Charles Colson in his book Kingdoms in Conflict (1987), Mr. Nixon put on the broadly ecumenical services for maximum political effect.

100 years ago--Baptist church in New Brunswick hires the province's first female minister

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I Corinthians 14:34-35

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression...
...This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife,... I Timothy 2:12, 3:1-2a

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. Titus 1:5-6

On June 27, 1919, Esther I. Clark of Fredericton became the first female minister in New Brunswick when she was hired as pastor of the Baptist Church in Grangeville. It does come as a surprise to this blogger to see this evidence of present and future apostasy occurring in a Baptist church before it occurred in the mainline churches such as the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada, but I take it as evidence that end-times apostasy has deep roots indeed.

See also my posts:

80 years ago: United Church of Canada ordains Canada's first female minister (November 7, 2016)

40 years ago: Anglican Church of Canada ordains its first female priests (November 30, 2016)

50 years ago: Presbyterian Church in Canada ordains its first female minister (May 30, 2018)

More middle-aged women are opting for Church of England priesthood (August 20, 2018)

Presbyterian church in New Hampshire hires Brazilian female "pastor" in an effort to reverse its decline (September 1, 2018)

Female Church of England "bishop" wants to redefine God (September 18, 2018)

Percentage of female clergy in liberal denominations has increased greatly in the last 20 years (October 21, 2018)

Israeli Sanhedrin mints coin of King David in preparation for the re-establishment of the Davidic dynasty

From the same people who brought you the Donald Trump Jerusalem Temple Coin; as reported by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz of Breaking Israel News, June 18, 2019 (links in original):

The newly minted Davidic coin

As the next stage in the Messianic process, the Sanhedrin of Israel released a new coin honoring King David in preparation for re-establishing the Davidic Dynasty.

Mordechai Persoff who established the Mikdash Educational Center and is marketing the coin initiative explained the significance of the new project.

“Throughout history, governments issued coins to establish their sovereignty and to mark the passage of an era,” Persoff told Breaking Israel News. “We initially issued a coin honoring President Trump and his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. That was undoubtedly a major step in the geula (redemption) process so we issued a Trump-Cyrus coin to mark the entrance of the new era. But that was just a preparation for the Temple, the Davidic Dynasty, and the Messiah. We are symbolizing that upcoming era by minting this coin.”

The coin, bearing superimposed images of the U.S. President and the Persian King Cyrus who ended the Babylonian exile and aided in the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, was a massive success and thousands of the coins were sold around the world.

“Trump’s actions will be meaningless unless the lead to the ultimate goal of the Third Temple and the re-establishment of the Davidic dynasty,” Persoff warned. “It is for this reason that we issued the King David coin: as a physical reminder of what our era must accomplish.”

To emphasize this point, the coin was issued on the seventh day of the month of Sivan, the day after the holiday of Shavuot. According to Jewish tradition, King David was born and also died on the holiday of Shavuot. On Shavuot, Jews read the Book of Ruth which describes her union with Boaz, the grandparents of King David.

“Ruth was the first from among the nations who recognized that God is the king,” Persoff explained. “That is why she merited to be the grandmother of David and the matriarch of Messiah.”

The coin bears the name of David and the image of a crown. King David originally purchased from the Araunah the Jebusite the site of the altar and courtyards of the Temple, including the place of the Holy of Holies, on Mount Moriah, known as Zion after the fortress that King David had conquered.The verse describing David’s purchase of the land for the Temple from Araunah the Jebusite is inscribed on the face of the coin in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.

“So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekalim of silver.” II Samuel 24:24

According to the version of the book of Divrei Ha-yamim (Chronicles) in the amount of 600 Shekalim, which each tribe contributed fifty shekels, and therefore all the people of Israel were partners in purchasing the hallowed ground of the Temple and Jerusalem, which is referred to as a temple, and was never divided among the tribes.

According to Midrash (homiletic teachings), there are three places in Israel that the nations cannot say Israel stole because the Bible explicitly states the full price was paid by Abraham, Jacob, and David: Hebron, Shechem (Nablus), and the Temple Mount.

“This coin symbolizes that purchase,” Persoff said. “And what you bought for full price, you cannot divide.”

Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the spokesman for the Sanhedrin, emphasized that the project is a powerful symbol of the Messianic process.

“The coin foreshadows the yearning for the return of the kingdom to Israel through the dynasty of the House of David, the Messiah of Israel, the judge of the world and who brings wisdom to it. We wait, the people of Israel for the redeemer, in flesh and blood, and even though he may tarry we continue to wait for him, every day,” he wrote. “We commemorate US President Donald Trump in connection with his Messianic activities. Donald Trump is the numerical value of the Messiah, the Son of David, who comes from Edom. Which until now has taken great steps in the rebirth of Israel and the dignity of Jerusalem like a biblical figure which we mentioned first in the world by minting Trump coins.”

“We pray that God, God of Israel, Creator of the world, will guide him and will guide him in his plan, which will be unveiled in favor of the people of Israel and the return to Zion. Will ask the Jews of the world to return to their home land. And his leadership will guarantee peace and love throughout all the nations, and let their hearts go in the ways of the Creator in peace and love.”

Persoff explained that there is a dispute as to whether the Temple will be built before the Messiah or will be built at the same time.

“In either case, we need to be prepared to build the Temple at the earliest possible moment, either before or concurrent with the Messiah,” Persoff said. “We cannot wait until the Moshiach (Messiah) is already here to prepare the Temple. By then, it will be too late.”

The coin is beautifully gold-plated since the name ‘David’ in gematria (Hebrew numerology) equals 14, equivalent to the word ‘zahav’ (gold). As such, the coin contains 14 grams of 14 karat gold.

Money from the sale of the coins is used in projects that help educate and bring the Temple. In the past, the Mikdash Educational Institute and the Sanhedrin hosted a Creation Concert for the 70 Nations and held full-dress Temple reenactments. The King Cyrus/President Trump coin can be purchased at the Israel 365 online store. The King David coin and others can be purchased at the Mikdash Institute’s website.

Presbyterian community service centre church in Philadelphia offers eight-week sermon series on Harry Potter

As the old saying goes, what you win people with is what you win them to; put another way, what wins them is what keeps them. If a church attracts people with worldly entertainment, that's what they're being won to, and what will keep them coming back. It's apparent that the lead goatherd of the community service centre church mentioned in the following article doesn't trust in the power of the gospel and the sufficiency of the Bible to bring people to church.

The church mentioned in the following article claims to be in the Reformed tradition, but their commitment to Biblical truth doesn't seem to be to the extent of offending non-Christians. A glance at their events page reveals a schedule that looks more like that of a community service centre than a Christian church (and yes, it includes yoga). As reported by Stephanie Farr of the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 17, 2019 (links in original):

The large banner on the lawn of Leverington Church in Roxborough has been raising eyebrows as if it were a Wingardium Leviosa spell.

"If I read 'Harry Potter meets Jesus,' I'd probably think it was cheesy, too," Pastor Langdon Palmer said. "But I didn't know how else to put it."

Palmer's unconventional eight-week sermon series at the Presbyterian church, which started May 12, has raised something else, as well: attendance. He said weekly attendance has risen 10% to 20%.

"People are literally saying, 'I came because of Harry Potter,' " he said. "It's a little bit of pressure because hard-core Harry Potter fans know everything."

Palmer, who has been pastor at Leverington Church for five years, almost didn't do the series. He was afraid religious people who are skeptical of Harry Potter would think he was trivializing the Gospel. And he was worried that Harry Potter fans who are skeptical of the Bible would believe he was distorting the books to fit his own ends.

But as a man who loves both and as a pastor who sees a generation of people more familiar with the stories of Harry Potter than those in the Bible, he decided to go for it.

"I think if we're going to be good teachers, we start with what people are familiar with to teach them about what they're not familiar with," said Palmer, 60.

In his sermons, which are available as podcasts on the church's website, Palmer uses audio and visual clips from the "Harry Potter" films to illustrate his points. He equates the unexpected and mysterious letters Harry receives to join Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to unexpected and mysterious messages people might be receiving from God.

And he likens the relationship between Harry and Professor Albus Dumbledore, the wise but often inscrutable head wizard at Hogwarts, to his own relationship with God.

"It's so parallel," he said. "God is so good and so kind, but there are times he seems arbitrary, where he leaves, where he doesn't explain himself – just like Dumbledore."

Palmer said he's encountered "both Christians and Harry Potter fans who are definitely not happy that I'm doing this," but on the whole, the reaction has been positive.

Despite his passion today, Palmer hasn't always been a fan – of Harry Potter or of God. For much of his adult life, Palmer was an electrical engineer and a self-proclaimed atheist, though looking back now he thinks he was probably "more of a hard-core agnostic, calling myself an atheist to be cool."

"I'm a born skeptic, and I've had many conversations with God about this: 'Why would you have me be a pastor? I question everything all the time,' " Palmer said. "I came to the conclusion that if this is the way that God wired me, maybe I could relate to other people who struggle with doubt."

As for Harry Potter, Palmer had heard the stories of religious leaders who denounced – and in some cases, even burned – the books because they believe the series promotes the occult and satanism.

"When it first came out, I was not impressed. I was not a fan," he said. "I assumed it was kid stories or promoting dark magic and stuff."

But when Palmer read the books with his children at their urging, he found they offered opportunities to talk with his kids about right and wrong and good and evil.

"I went from someone who was very skeptical to thinking it's really a significant piece of literature," he said.

Harry Potter isn't the only pop-culture touchstone that Palmer has invoked in his sermons. He once did a series on the science-fiction movie "The Fifth Element," and you'll hear him referencing Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons," "Star Trek," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Matrix" in his sermons.

He even dreams of doing a sermon series on "Nacho Libre," the Jack Black movie about a monk who follows his dream to become a Mexican wrestler.

For those who question why he mixes pop culture and religion, Palmer pointed out that even Jesus used cultural artifacts and current events to explain ideas.

"I think it can really help the church, but if you try to be hip, if you're trying to be relevant to the kids, it's all over. People can smell fake right away," Palmer said. "But if there's something that moves a pastor deeply in culture, he or she should be free to use that."

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo rebukes China for persecution of religious minorities

As reported by Eva Fu of The Epoch Times, June 21, 2019 (updated June 22, 2019) (bold in original):

U.S. State Secretary Michael Pompeo sternly reprimanded China for “staggering religious abuses” committed in the country during his unveiling of the State Department’s annual report on global religious freedom on June 21.

He warned that governments that persecute religious believers should not be able to get away with such actions without consequences.

Pompeo especially pointed to atrocities being committed in China against religious groups of all sorts.

“The Chinese Communist Party has exhibited extreme hostility to all religious faiths since its founding,” Pompeo said during a June 21 press conference.

“In China, the intense persecution of many faiths—Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, and Tibetan Buddhism among them—is the norm,” Pompeo said, adding that the department decided to add a special subsection in the China section to document human rights abuses on Islam-practicing minority groups in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. The United Nations estimates that over one million Uyghurs and other minorities are currently being detained inside concentration camps where they are forced to renounce their faith.

Individuals there won’t be able to tell their stories otherwise.

“History will not be silent about these abuses—but only if voices of liberty like ours record it,” Pompeo said.

His comments were also a rare instance of a top U.S. official publicly calling out China for its ongoing persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline for mind and body improvement based on moral teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It has been severely persecuted since 1999, with hundreds of thousands of adherents being thrown into prison, brainwashing centers, labor camps, and other detention facilities where they are often tortured.

Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, also specifically condemned the atrocity of forced organ harvesting, a state-sanctioned practice whereby hospitals amass profits by killing prisoners of conscience and selling fresh organs for transplant surgery.

A recent ruling by an independent people’s tribunal in London found substantial evidence that forced organ harvesting has taken place in China for years “on a significant scale,” and that Falun Gong practitioners were likely the principal source of organs.

The new report pointed out that although freedom of belief is enshrined in China’s constitution, the scope for the protection of such rights is not defined, giving way for the Chinese communist regime to outlaw religious activities and restrict believers’ rights when they are perceived as a threat to the Party’s control.

“The Party demands that it alone be called god,” Pompeo said.

Religious Abuses

In China, only five religious organizations have state approval to officially hold worship services under strict Party control, forcing many who refuse to conform with the Party ideology to go underground.

U.S. officials, as well as international NGOs, have repeatedly expressed their concerns over China’s crackdown on over 200 million religious believers in the country.

In Xinjiang, for example, residents are confined in concentration camps “designed to strip away the culture, identity, and faith,” said Brownback at the press conference. The Chinese regime has sought to break their faith by forcing detainees to eat pork and forbid their fasting during Ramadan.

The Chinese regime has employed a massive network of advanced surveillance cameras that tracks residents’ every movement in real time.

In Tibet, communist red flags, as well as portraits of communist leaders, are hung up prominently in Buddhist monasteries. Over the past decade, more than 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire as a public protest against authorities’ trampling on their religious practices and culture, according to the report.

Meanwhile, members of underground Christian churches face the threat of constant arrests and forced demolition. Authorities also require Christian churches to install surveillance cameras and have forced house church members to sign papers to give up their faith.

“China has declared war on faith,” Brownback said.

Falun Gong, first introduced in China in 1992, grew to a following of 70 million to 100 million in China by 1999, according to official estimates at the time. Beijing saw its popularity as a threat and began a decades-long persecution that has seen at least thousands of adherents killed for their faith.

With regards to organ harvesting, a 2016 report by three investigators, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ethan Gutmann, former Canada Secretary of State David Kilgour, and human rights lawyer David Matas, gave a conservative estimate based on hospital data that 60,000 to 90,000 transplant operations take place in the country each year, far exceeding the Chinese regime’s stated numbers based on its voluntary donation system.

“This [organ harvesting] should shock everyone’s conscience,” Brownback said.

Brownback and Pompeo both said that it is more pertinent right now than ever to promote and protect religious freedom.

“We will not stop until the iron curtain of religious freedom come down, until governments no longer detain and torture people for simply being of a particular faith or associated with it,” Brownback said.

Pompeo added that the U.S. administration will make promoting religious freedom a “top foreign policy agenda” and continue to be the vanguard for international religious rights.

“For all those that run roughshod over religious freedoms, I’ll say this: the United States is watching and you will be held to account,” he said.

“It’s a distinctly American responsibility to stand up for faith in every nation’s public square,” Pompeo added.

Chinese authorities tear down a church--and order the congregation to pay for the demolition

As reported by Olivia Li of The Epoch Times, June 10, 2019 (bold, link in original):

Local Chinese authorities tore down another Christian church in May, after church members refused to donate the building to the county government.

Moreover, church members were ordered to pay the demolition cost and were fined 50,000 yuan ($7,236) for “illegally using farmland to build a church.”

Local government officials in Tanghe County, Henan Province, had initially demanded that the church building be donated to the county, a church member surnamed Zhou told Radio Free Asia on June 7. When the demand was rejected, the local court issued a mandatory demolition notice, and the roughly 2,700-square-foot church was torn down overnight on May 16.

Forced demolitions of Christian churches is widespread in China. In addition, since 2018, crosses on thousands of churches have been dismantled by local authorities in Henan, Anhui, and Shandong provinces, and Christian believers have been forbidden from attending meetings.

Zhou also revealed that the priest, Zhang Yongcheng, had to leave the county so that local authorities couldn’t target him to pay the fine. Meanwhile, Zhang’s son, a student, was intimidated at school.

Other Churches Confiscated

After that incident, several other churches were “donated” to the Tanghe county government, and the donations were notarized, according to Zhou.

“If they refuse to donate, officials will come and tear down their church just like what they did to our church,” Zhou said.

Another church member who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the county government accused the church of using overseas funds for construction; in fact, all the money came from member donations and the church members still owe more than 400,000 yuan ($57,889) in loans.

According to a religious affairs ordinance, effective Feb. 1, 2018, religious groups aren’t allowed to accept conditional donations from overseas organizations or individuals. Furthermore, any donation from overseas that exceeds 100,000 yuan ($14,472) must be reported to a department of religious affairs at the county level or above for approval.

Liu Yi, the founder of Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness in the United States, told Taiwanese journalist Yang Hsien-hung in September 2018 that in Henan Province alone, crosses in nearly 7,000 churches were forcibly removed in 2018.

A priest surnamed Feng from Guangdong Province told Radio Free Asia that he was outraged when he heard about the recent incident in Tanghe County.

“Christian believers were even forced to pay the demolition cost. It tells us the suppression of Christians is getting worse. We’ve heard of similar incidents in Beijing, in Anhui Province and Jiangxi Province, as well as in northeastern China,” he said. “We are facing a harsh environment. We pray to the Lord to protect us and give us courage.”

The Chinese regime has recently intensified its suppression of house Christians, with reports since February that local authorities were dismantling underground churches, taking down crosses, and ramping up efforts to “sinicize” religious faith—in other words, forcing worshippers to recognize the Chinese Communist Party’s control over religion.

50 years ago: Canadian Anglican traditionalists oppose union with United Church of Canada

As reported in The Edmonton Journal, June 19, 1969, p. 5:

The Council for the Faith feels union of the Anglican and United churches should be opposed to safeguard vital Anglican interests.

The council, composed of members of the Anglican Church of Canada, will host its co-chairmen at a reception in St. Stephen's Anglican Church, 106th Avenue and 96th Street, at 8 P.M. Saturday.

Rev. C.J. de Catanzaro, parish priest of Peterborough, Ont., and Donald Masters, a history professor at the University of Guelph, will detail reasons for the council's rejection of the proposed terms of union.

Edmonton council president Dr. Arthur Greenidge feels "it is a matter of intention. The doctrine of intention is of supreme importance."

The words of union are the same, but the language is different, says the president. This leads to misinterpretation in discussing the terms of Anglican and United Church union.

The council also registers a tactical objection to union.

"It is imposed upon us from the top in Toronto. The ordinary Anglican has not realized what is happening," said Dr. Greenidge.

There is no sense of hostility between the two churches, but Dr. Greenidge hopes the Council for the Faith can "waken up ordinary Anglicans to what they've almost lost."

Rev. de Catanzaro will preach at 7:30 P.M. Sunday at All Saints Cathedral.

Following Evensong, both co-chairmen will attend an open meeting in the cathedral parish hall to discuss the proposed terms of union between the churches and the crucial questions which remain unanswered.

Thanks largely to the efforts of the Council for the Faith, the union of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada didn't come to pass. The Anglican Church of Canada became increasingly liberal in succeeding years, prompting Rev. Carmino de Catanzaro to resign from the church in 1978, soon to serve as the first bishop of a breakaway Canadian traditional Anglican communion. He died of a stroke on June 23, 1983 at the age of 67.

Although the Anglican Church of Canada and United Church of Canada still haven't achieved organizational unity 50 years after a serious attempt at union, the two are united in increasing apostasy; any differences are matters of degree.