Inclusion of a resource/presentation does not indicate endorsement of the contents. Provided for educational purposes regarding perspectives in the fields of theology, ethics, and religious studies. Issachar Bible Church is conservative Trinitarian not affiliated with any organized denomination at this time.

Monday, November 10

Researchers Hope To Respark Interest In Da Vinci Code Hooey

Click On The Headline

Scandal Erupts That Consumation Of Duggar Wedding Insufficiently Prayed Over

Click On The Headline

Will The Jesuits Brainwash The Gullible Into Surrendering To Extraterrestrial Invasion?

Click On The Headline

Are Certain Evangelicals As Obsessed Over Sexual Identity As Radical Gay Activists?

Controversy has erupted over a Notre Dame University conference titled “Gay In Christ: Dimensions In Fidelity”.

The purpose of the meeting was to reflect upon and address those that embrace Catholic teaching on marriage and the family but also experience homosexual temptation.

But instead of encouraging those that are struggling to live the right way despite the desires of their flesh, some have instead decided to criticize the goal of reconciling these combating inclinations.

Ryan Dobson, the slovenly tattooed beatnik son of James Dobson of Focus On The Family, is quoted in a ChristianNews.net article as saying, “Sexuality is not an identity; sexuality comes from one's identity. My identity does not come from my intimate relationship with my wife; my identity comes directly from my relationship...with God.”

Those words can be a powerful encouragement for those struggling against this variety of sin --- both homo and heterosexual.

However, haven't those affiliated with Focus On The Family over the years such as James Dobson and Albert Mohler carved out for themselves lucrative niche ministries guilt tripping those not married by the age of 25?

In essence, these ministers and scholars have come dangerously close to reducing individuals to little more than their sexual identities.

In these circles, it is not simply enough to teach that heterosexual marriage is the only relationship in which the manifestation of carnal affections is not a profound sin.

On his broadcasts and audio recordings, Mohler has suggested that churches should actually interrogate and verbally harass young adult singles as to why they have not yet married.

Our identity is indeed grounded in Christ and not over what elicits a stirring in the loins.

As such, perhaps it is about time for churches to leave alone those that have not fallen into open sin in this area of their lives and lend sensitive support rather than condemnation to those that have requested assistance in battling these particularly vexing temptations.

By Frederick Meekins

Audio: Church's Opposition To Holidays Borders On The Cultic

Because God in Christ worked out the plan of salvation in a particular moment of time, I don’t see how it follows that the true Christian is obligated to have a lifelong love of history to the point where you read the discipline regularly. Isn’t that akin to say that if you don’t possess a physician’s or nurse’s level of anatomy that you don’t appreciate the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit? Everybody’s got different things they are interested in.

Wednesday, November 5

Christan Bale Damns Moses As Barbaric

Click On The Headline

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Disciples Of Christ Congregation Spices Up Hymn Sing With Free Booze

Click On The Headline

Has The Pope Abandoned Christianity In Favor Of A Platonic Mormonism?

In addressing the Pontifical Academy Of Sciences, Pope Francis pontificated, “When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so.”

If this wasn't bad enough, Pope Francis further elaborated, “God is not a divine being or a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life.”

In other words, Pope Francis is not so much a Christian but rather a Platonist.

Christianity holds that God brought forth the world from nothingness.

John 1:3 reads, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Colossians 1:16-17 stipulates in concurrence, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth...And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Platonism, on the other hand, believes in accord with the assumptions hinted at in the Pope's statement that matter exists eternally and independent from God.

God merely reshaped to the best of His ability that which was already there.

Pope Francis is to be commended for his attempt to preserve the metaphysical freedom of human beings in playing a role in determining their eternal destiny.

But in positing the cosmology that he does, what guarantee are we provided that the system won't go spiraling out of control or that the promises made by God are even trustworthy?

For example, if God did not bring matter nor the laws governing physical substance into existence and is Himself subject to these limitations as inviolable standards rather than by His own volition, why ought we to believe that He is able to cause a virgin to conceive a son, and for that son to rise from the dead after dying upon a cross so that we might have the forgiveness of sins and beatific eternal life?

For are not these greater contraventions of how the universe operates than to bring the cosmos into existence within the span of six literal days?

In Luke 5 in the account where Jesus heals the paralytic lowered through the roof, Christ inquires in verse 23, “Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?”

Thus, if the laws of nature cannot be suspended as the Divinity sees fit, on what grounds ought we to believe that He really has paid our debts in full?

On old adage asks is the Pope Catholic.

Maybe so, but these days it seems that, in terms of his foundational presuppositons, he might be trending Mormon but hopefully with a much less active sex life. By Frederick Meekins