The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the Year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality.

In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.

He has no price tags.
He is totally “otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith
the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in “splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival.

Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and
stagnant “churchianity.”
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous,
nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move
men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has
received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the
clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision
no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the
wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where
enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!

Source: Ravenhill.org

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A Florida county will now allow atheists to give invocations at the start of government meetings and was ordered to pay $490,000 as part of a recently agreed upon legal settlement.

The Brevard County Board of Commissioners reached a settlement with a group of plaintiffs who were prohibited from giving invocations at the meeting.

The plaintiffs will now be allowed to give invocations, according to an announcement by Americans United for Separation of Church & State.

The county will also dole out $430,000 in court costs and legal fees, as well as $60,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.

Alex J. Luchenitser, associate legal director for Americans United who helped represent the plaintiffs, supported the settlement.

“This settlement protects the religious freedom of everyone in Brevard County. No one should be excluded from participating in local government because of their beliefs about religion,” said Luchenitser in a statement released Tuesday.

In 2014, David Williamson of the Central Florida Freethought Community and other leaders asked to do an invocation at the beginning of the Brevard County Commissioners meeting.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

Hebrews 3:12-14 “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Why do we cling to error, even when the truth is so clear?  Perhaps it is because we prefer a certain formula that we find comforting.  We prefer to believe that it’s just “one and done.”  But is that really an honest interpretation of the scripture?  Shouldn’t we be impartial and interpret the scripture without bias?  That would be wise.  The Spirit of God leads us in these things.

Today we consider the issue of salvation and continuance, or in other words: “Are we once saved always saved?”

According to the scriptures, this is not a reasonable exegesis based on key scriptures like John 15, Hebrews 3:12-14, Revelation 3, and many others.

The simple theme of John 15 is that of continuance, or “abiding” in Christ.  To abide means to remain.  Jesus urges us to “remain in me.”  And then he says in response “then I will remain in you.”  It’s a fairly simple formula, we receive Jesus Christ as Savior, through faith, and then we must continue in the faith, remaining and walking with Jesus throughout our whole lives, overcoming sin, living in victory, and living out holiness in all we do.  This is the teaching of the new testament.

But unfortunately some today teach a dangerous false doctrine of “once saved always saved.”  This is the idea that once you get saved you can never lose it no matter what you do.  You can leave church, you can never come back, never read your Bible, never do anything related to Jesus, and then you’re still saved.  Interesting isn’t it?

We often see so many come to Christ, but then they never follow through.  They don’t continue in the faith.  They don’t dive into discipleship, and study of the word, and prayer.  Because often they’ve been left with a false impression, much like what has sometimes been inferred by child baptism, or even adult baptism, that it’s “one and done.”  And thus someone would say, “well I was baptized when I was 28, or 2, so I’m good.”  And we’ve left people who are now in danger of eternal hellfire and darkness, with the impression that they are really eternally saved.  What a terrible danger! What a terrible thing to teach followers of Jesus.  Who will hold us accountable if we teach such a false way?

SOURCE: Christian Post, Justin Steckbauer

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Amid an ongoing court case scrutinizing the use of puberty-blocking drugs on minors who self-identify as transgender, the U.K.’s National Health Service is revisiting its rules that allow children to take experimental drugs without parental approval.

Youth who are diagnosed as having gender dysphoria or show signs of distress about their bodies are permitted to begin transitioning after as few as three therapeutic assessments and without parental input or approval, The U.K. Sunday Times reports.

Expert sources told the outlet that the advice given within The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in north London, the U.K.’s lone gender identity clinic, lacks scientific evidence and comes “from clinicians with close links to transgender groups.

“Existing NHS treatment draws heavily on international guidelines that recommend approaches in care for gender dysphoria. An NHS contract with the Tavistock trust issued in 2016 says that it will ‘conform’ or ‘broadly conform’ to standards of care issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in 2012. These say that they reflect the best available science and ‘professional consensus,” the U.K. Sunday Times added.

Dysphoric youth are encouraged to develop “autonomy” in making decisions, self-declare their gender status, and can use hormone blockers as early as age 12. Most youth who begin down the path with puberty suppressants go on to cross-sex hormones and many pursue surgery.

The review of the regulations comes on the heels of an announced review of experimental hormone drugs by a team of doctors, the findings of which will be published later this year.

Both the review of the NHS rules about when children can begin transitioning and the heightened attention to the medicalization surrounding transgender identities is believed to be occurring in part because of recent developments in a court lawsuit against the Tavistock clinic.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

It seems like every time we turn on the news, we see anxiety-inducing tragedies. From the horrific loss of Kobe Bryant and his daughter recently to the spreading panic of the coronavirus, it seems like something is out to get us. When faced with the encroaching darkness, some even wonder if there’s Someone who is trying to wipe us off the planet.

I’m certainly no stranger to this feeling. As a young woman trapped in an abusive marriage, I was sure God wanted me dead. I lived in constant fear that God would strike me down at any moment. I hardly left my home, isolating myself in my misery.

You see, I had made some mistakes in my youth, turning my back on my Christian upbringing and willfully entering into a sinful relationship with my high school sweetheart. Fast-forward a few years, and I was married to that same man, who turned out to be a horrific abuser. I was sure God was punishing me for my sin and that His ultimate plan was to kill me.

So when we face tragedy, frightening disease, or even abuse, does God want us dead? Of course not.

When I chose to walk away from God to choose my own path, I removed myself from communication with Him, therefore allowing Satan to use my external circumstances to warp the truth of God’s love for me. I had closed the door to God and accidentally opened the door to evil.

Satan used my fear and the brainwashing that takes place in abuse, and pointed it toward God. God never wanted me dead, but Satan did. And while I wallowed in my misery, God was patiently calling me back to Him.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Autumn Miles

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Leaders of the Church of England unanimously passed a motion apologizing for past racism, in particular regarding the treatment of African and Asian immigrants.

The General Synod passed the motion on Tuesday, with the motion focusing on a group of immigrants known as “Windrush Generation.” The generation were minority British citizens from the Caribbean who immigrated to the United Kingdom between the years 1948 and 1971. They were named after the ship Empire Windrush, which brought 500 of them in 1948.

According to the motion, the Synod offered a “lament” and apology for “the conscious and unconscious racism experienced by countless black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Anglicans in 1948 and subsequent years, when seeking to find a spiritual home in their local Church of England parish churches …”

The motion also called for, among other things, the Archbishops’ Council to research the impact of discrimination, gratitude for the contributions racial minorities have made to the Church, and for an “independent person external to the Church” to investigate how the ecclesiastical body can better achieve racial reconciliation.

The General Synod also called on the church body to “resolve to continue, with great effort and urgency, to stamp out all forms of conscious or unconscious racism.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivered a speech before the General Synod, informing them that the problem of racism still remained.

“I’m ashamed of our history and I’m ashamed of our failure. There is no doubt when we look at our own Church that we are still deeply institutionally racist,” stated Archbishop Welby, as reported by the BBC.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski

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The backing of voters who never attend religious services helped propel Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary election Tuesday while Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar surprised many with a third-place showing aided by religious voters. 

Nearly 3,000 Democrat voters in New Hampshire took part in exit polls after they cast their ballots. They were asked several questions about who they voted for, their identity, age, job, race, education level and even how often they attend religious services.

Among 11 percent of voters who say they attend religious services weekly, Klobuchar was the favorite even though she sits in sixth place in the Real Clear Politics average of national primary polling with just 4.6 percent support.

Klobuchar, a 59-year-old attorney, received just under 20 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, as of Wednesday afternoon. She was backed by 28 percent of voters who attend religious services each week.

Pete Buttigieg, a gay Christian and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who finished second in New Hampshire and won the Iowa Caucus, received 16 percent of voters who said they attend religious services weekly.

Meanwhile, 15 percent of weekly service goers backed Sanders and 14 percent said they voted for former Vice President Joe Biden, who finished fifth in New Hampshire.  Just 8 percent of weekly service goers said they voted for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren finished fourth in the New Hampshire primary.

But among the 37 percent of respondents who said they attend religious services “occasionally,” Buttigieg (26 percent) was the favorite.

Twenty-three percent of “occasional” religious attendees said they voted for Klobuchar, 20 percent said they voted for Sanders and 14 percent said they voted for Biden.

Warren again struggled with this demographic as she picked up just 7 percent of support among occasional service goers.

Among the 51 percent of voters who said they “never” attend religious services, Sanders was the clear favorite as he won 34 percent of the demographic. Biden was least favored among those who never attend religious services with only 4 percent.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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