Category: Bible

Pope Francis At White House: “Koran And Holy Bible Are The Same”

1-156On Wednesday the Bishop Of Rome addressed 11,000 ticketed guests on the South Lawn of the White House, during which he pontificated on the dire importance of exhibiting religious tolerance. During his hour-long speech, a smiling Pope Francis was quoted telling the White House guests that the Koran, and the spiritual teachings contained therein, are just as valid as the Holy Bible, and should therefore be respected as such.

“Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world. For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths. This, however, should be the very concept which unites us as people, as nations, and as a world bound by faith. Together, we can bring about an unprecedented age of peace, all we need to achieve such a state is respect each others beliefs, for we are all children of God regardless of the name we choose to address him by. We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now. No longer shall we slaughter our neighbors over differences in reference to their God.” Source

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Indiana state trooper fired after asking drivers he pulled over if they had been saved by Jesus Christ

 

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An Indiana state trooper is off the force after offering people he pulled over tips on their faith.

Brian Hamilton, a 14-year veteran of the state’ police force, was fired Thursday after a second public complaint that he was preaching while on duty.

Hamilton asked a driver he pulled over if she had “been saved” and invited her to his church, even giving her directions.

The second infraction came in January, and the motorist filed suit with the American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday.

“Ms. Pyle was extremely uncomfortable with these questions,” the lawsuit says, adding the plaintiff felt intimidated by the religious interaction in a middle of a traffic stop, where she was given a warning for speeding.

“In order to hopefully end these inquiries Ms. Pyle indicated that she did attend a church and that she was saved.”

The lawsuit also claims Pyle was approached by someone from Hamilton’s congregation shortly afterwards, who told her the trooper had put her on a prayer list.

Hamilton’s behavior in January was an apparent violation of a 2014 order demanding he would not “question others regarding their religious beliefs nor provide religious pamphlets or similar advertisements” while on duty, according to The Herald Bulletin. Source

 

 

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Why promising God will bless you if you tithe misses the point about giving

moneyThere’s a change machine in my local supermarket. Drop in a pound’s worth of coppers – the irritating one and two pence pieces that just weigh your pocket down and that you hardly ever spend – and you get a shiny £1 coin back. It’s a great idea, and one that seems to have been ripped off by Perry Noble’s NewSpring church in South Carolina. The megachurch pastor has a reputation for controversy, and it’ll be interesting to see how many eyebrows his current project raises. Because the church is encouraging its members to tithe – give 10 per cent of their income – by offering a 90-day money back guarantee. Source

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The Bible – Given For Practical Purposes

The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times and divers places. Men wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. There is “first the bud, then the blossom, and next the fruit,” “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” This is exactly what the Bible utterances are to us.

There is not always perfect order or apparent unity in the Scriptures. The miracles of Christ are not given in exact order, but are given just as the circumstances occurred, which called for this divine revealing of the power of Christ. The truths of the Bible are as pearls hidden. They must be searched, dug out by painstaking effort. Those who take only a surface view of the Scriptures will, with their superficial knowledge, which they think is very deep, talk of the contradictions of the Bible, and question the authority of the Scriptures. But those whose hearts are in harmony with truth and duty will search the Scriptures with a heart prepared to receive divine impressions. The illuminated soul sees a spiritual unity, one grand golden thread running through the whole, but it requires patience, thought, and prayer to trace out the precious golden thread. Sharp contentions over the Bible have led to investigation and revealed the precious jewels of truth. Many tears have been shed, many prayers offered, that the Lord would open the understanding to His Word.

The Bible is not given to us in grand superhuman language. Jesus, in order to reach man where he is, took humanity. The Bible must be given in the language of men. Everything that is human is imperfect. Different meanings are expressed by the same word; there is not one word for each distinct idea. The Bible was given for practical purposes.

(1SM 20)

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Christ The Immediate Surety

Adam and Eve at their creation had knowledge of the original law of God. It was imprinted upon their hearts, and they were acquainted with the claims of law upon them. When they transgressed the law of God, and fell from their state of happy innocence, and became sinners, the future of the fallen race was not relieved by a single ray of hope. God pitied them, and Christ devised the plan for their salvation by Himself bearing the guilt. When the curse was pronounced upon the earth and upon man, in connection with the curse was a promise that through Christ there was hope and pardon for the transgression of God’s law. Although gloom and darkness hung, like the pall of death, over the future, yet in the promise of the Redeemer, the Star of hope lighted up the dark future. The gospel was first preached to Adam by Christ. Adam and Eve felt sincere sorrow and repentance for their guilt. They believed the precious promise of God, and were saved from utter ruin.

As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew that He would have to suffer, yet He became man’s substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented Himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.

(1BC 1084)

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Jesus Died Of A Broken Heart

The priests and rulers were amazed to find that Christ was dead. Death by the cross was a lingering process; it was difficult to determine when life had ceased. It was an unheard-of thing for one to die within six hours of crucifixion. The priests wished to make sure of the death of Jesus, and at their suggestion a soldier thrust a spear into the Saviour’s side. From the wound thus made, there flowed two copious and distinct streams, one of blood, the other of water. This was noted by all the beholders, and John states the occurrence very definitely. He says, “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” John 19:34-37.

After the resurrection the priests and rulers circulated the report that Christ did not die upon the cross, that He merely fainted, and was afterward revived. Another report affirmed that it was not a real body of flesh and bone, but the likeness of a body, that was laid in the tomb. The action of the Roman soldiers disproves these falsehoods. They broke not His legs, because He was already dead. To satisfy the priests, they pierced His side. Had not life been already extinct, this wound would have caused instant death.

But it was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered “with a loud voice” (Matt. 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.

(DA 772)

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Jesus Means Me

In His promises and warnings, Jesus means me.

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that I by believing in Him, might not perish, but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)

The experiences related in God’s word are to be my experiences. Prayer and promise, precept and warning, are mine.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)

As faith thus receives and assimilates the principles of truth, they become a part of the being and the motive power of the life. The word of God, received into the soul, molds the thoughts, and enters into the development of character.

In his words of instruction, Jesus means me.

I may appropriate to myself his merits, his death, his cleansing blood, as fully as though there were not another sinner in the world for whom Christ died. In listening to his teachings with understanding open to receive his words, we display the highest wisdom. In being doers of the word,–obeying Christ by leading self-denying lives and forming pure and holy characters,–we shall secure the life which measures with the life of God.

 

(DA 390; RH, July 22, 1884)

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