Month: July 2015
A Millennial Writes an Open Letter to the Church. And He Nails It!
Posted on July 29, 2015 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
Church “experts” and analysts seem to be in a frenzy trying to figure out how to keep millennials from walking away from the church. There’s a panic to discover the strategic secret to making sure those younger generations stay connected, attending, and active in church.
The result has been a whole-sale failure on the part of the church.
Before anyone gets too mad at me, understand that I was part of the problem. I watched church trends and attended really cool conferences and seminars to learn new tips and tricks to bringing young families in and keeping them. What I’ve come to realize is that no matter how hard the church tries to keep millennials – they will eventually walk away IF they’ve never had a life-changing encounter with Jesus.
You see, the problem is not the church format, or ministries, or anything inside the church. The problem is what’s going on inside the people inside the church. Too many people inside the church have never encountered Jesus and been saved from their sin.
Now, don’t get me wrong. If you’re still preaching topical sermons from a King James Bible after you sing every verse of 5 hymns from a dusty hymnal then your church has some problems. But those problems are just symptoms of a larger problem. The root cause can be found by looking into the hearts of the people and seeing that many that claim to be saved are in fact lost.
So trying to start new – really cool – ministries, or change the format is like putting a band aid over a gunshot wound; it simply won’t help.
I was encouraged by a recent article in which a young millennial encouraged the church to stop trying to be cool and simply preach the Gospel and address tough issues from a biblical perspective. There’s a novel idea.
What Can Selling Aborted Baby Body Parts Buy? A Lamborghini!
Posted on July 28, 2015 in Life by Nathan Cherry
People across the nation were stunned to learn that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion merchant, was also making money selling aborted baby body parts. The video of Dr. Nucatola went viral as people were shocked to see her so casually discussing how Planned Parenthood routinely harvests and sells body parts.
Planned Parenthood immediately went into crisis management mode to try and assure us all that what we saw with our eyes and heard with our ears wasn’t true. When the group that released the video was accused of editing it they released the full, unedited video that made it clear that Planned Parenthood is selling aborted baby body parts. Planned Parenthood then called on their friends in Congress to begin investigating pro-life people for being outraged and demanding that Congress defund the group.
Congress responded by proposing a new bill to defund Planned Parenthood of the $500 billion in annual tax-payer funding they receive. And many state governors called for investigations into operations in their states. All in all, this has been a really lousy couple of weeks for Planned Parenthood.
Well…it seems things are just getting worse.
A second video shows another Planned Parenthood executive negotiating the sale of aborted baby body parts.
In the second video, a senior official with Planned Parenthood, Mary Gatter, is seen discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts with people pretending to be interested in buying them. A recent article reports:
Second Video Shows Planned Parenthood Harvesting and Selling Aborted Baby Body Parts
Posted on July 27, 2015 in Life by Nathan Cherry
If you thought one video showing evidence that Planned Parenthood routinely aborts children in order to harvest their organs and sell them was disturbing. A second video will make you downright angry. The truth though is that this is Planned Parenthood at their best. More than 90% of their “services” to women in any given year is abortion. They then harvest organs to sell for profit. So while someone might be tempted to defend them as a good organization for the community – I beg to differ.
Watch the video below to see further disturbing proof of how vile this organization is. If the video doesn’t appear automatically, please refresh your browser.
Gay Affirming Christians Must Be Reading a Different Bible – Here’s What Mine Says
Posted on July 22, 2015 in Marriage, Sexuality, Theology by Nathan Cherry
One of the biggest challenges in defending traditional marriage in our current culture doesn’t come from the Supreme Court, LGBT activists, or political agendas. Instead, this challenge comes from self-described “gay-affirming Christians.”
This group believes the Bible has been misinterpreted for hundreds of years and now wants to “set the record straight” on the biblical teaching regarding sexuality. For gay-affirming Christians the issue is understanding the cultural context of passages like Romans 1 in order to properly translate them for our current culture.
One standard talking point for gay-affirming Christians is that Romans chapter 1 is not a prohibition of homosexuality or same-sex “marriage,” but only a prohibition of homosexual fornication and abuse. In other words, Paul is simply saying that as long as homosexuals are given the opportunity to marry, as are heterosexuals, their lifestyle as homosexuals will be as pleasing before God as anyone else.
Not only is this “interpretation” of Romans 1 dangerous, it violates any sensible hermeneutic in studying Scripture. First, it goes against the plain text understanding of the Scripture. There is absolutely no way for any reasonable person to read Romans 1 and walk away with that understanding. The only logical conclusion after reading Romans 1 is that homosexuality is a sin. But even if we study the passage’s meaning from a cultural perspective, or look at the original Greek to get the meaning, we see a consistent message.
Dog Fighting Gets Jail Time. Aborting Kids to Harvest Their Organs Gets Defended
Posted on July 21, 2015 in Life by Nathan Cherry
There’s a historical account in the Bible about a pagan god named Molech. Part of the ritual worship of Molech was to sacrifice infant children by burning them alive. The earliest prohibition for such pagan rituals among God’s people can be found in Leviticus 18:21. In fact, the penalty for participating in Molech worship was death.
I have no doubt that if any of us saw a group of people attempting to sacrifice a child to a pagan god we would immediately be outraged to the point of action. We could hardly see such a sight, yawn, and go back to whatever we were doing.
The reality is that such pagan sacrifices are happening each and every day right under our noses. Oh, and by the way, you’re helping fund the organization that is carrying out these atrocious crimes.
The world awoke last week to the shocking revelation that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion merchant, makes a routine practice of selling the body parts of aborted babies for profit. Not only is this a moral outrage it is also a federal crime. Yet somehow Planned Parenthood and their officials are not in jail.
An undercover video of a high-ranking Planned Parenthood official, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, explaining how the abortion giant regularly harvests organs during abortions for sale has gone viral and caused outrage across the country. Todd Starnes, writing at Fox News, transcribes part of the conversation heard on the video:
SHOCKING VIDEO: Planned Parenthood is Selling Aborted Baby Body Parts
Posted on July 20, 2015 in Life by Nathan Cherry
Considering that it is a federal crime to sell or traffic body parts of aborted babies. But, as usual, Planned Parenthood doesn’t let a little thing like the law get in the way of their profits. The following video (contains graphic discussion) shows a Planned Parenthood official describing the routine practice of securing specific body parts during an abortion procedure for the purpose of selling them to buyers.
As if abortion wasn’t enough of a morally outrageous crime. Planned Parenthood is also acting as traffickers of human organs for the purpose of profit. The ease and casualness with which the Planned Parenthood official, Deborah Nucatola, speaks about the actions of Planned Parenthood is alarming. She acts as if selling the body parts of murdered children is appropriate lunch conversation among friends. That in itself causes alarm. Does she have no conscience to act so nonchalantly about her barbaric actions?
Watch the disturbing video below.
Can You Think of Any Consequences to the Church for Accepting Homosexuality?
Posted on July 15, 2015 in Marriage, Sexuality by Nathan Cherry
What are the consequences for the church (and Christians) to accepting homosexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation and lifestyle?
Wouldn’t it be easier and more pleasant for us all if the church would simply recognize that it made a mistake on the issue and embrace the “love” of Jesus in accepting people? That seems to be a dominate talking point in our culture currently as liberal Christians increasingly call for other Christians and churches to accept and affirm homosexuality as a good and right lifestyle. Their conclusion is that the church has interpreted Scripture all wrong for centuries. But – hallelujah – Scripture has finally been properly interpreted and homosexuality is no longer a sin.
Just imagine how much easier life would be for everyone if the church and Christians would embrace these new interpretations of Scripture. No more lawsuits. No more media smearing’s that ruin people’s lives. No more death threats by activists. Our society could join hands under a rainbow banner and finally come together for a common cause.
But exactly what are the consequences for the church of accepting what – historically – the Bible and the church have taught is sin?
Writing at The Stream, John Zmirak seeks to have a conversation with a pro-gay Christian and answer that very question. He starts laying some ground work:
New Research Shows Christians Aren’t Reading Their Bibles. Thanks Captain Obvious!
Posted on July 14, 2015 in Theology by Nathan Cherry
You are never going to believe this. A new study reveals a major problem among Christians and those who regularly attend church> It’s probably not what you are thinking either.
Sure, we all have problems, no one is perfect and no one goes through a day without making a mistake. But one of the biggest problems plaguing Christians right now could very well be the source of many other issues happening among the family, community, and culture.
According to a new LifeWay Research study, only about 45% of people that claim to attend church regularly say they read the Bible more than once a week. In other words, 55% of people attending church regularly don’t pick their Bible up at any other time than on Sunday. A recent article reports:
Evangelist Says His New Movie Will Change How People Think About Homosexuality
Posted on July 13, 2015 in Marriage by Nathan Cherry
Evangelist Ray Comfort is known for walking around talking to people about the Ten Commandments on camera. He records the exchanges and puts them online in order to train people on one way to effectively share the Gospel. But his latest project has the potential to stir far more controversy.
Comfort has launched a new movie called “Audacity” – a movie about the biblical teaching on homosexuality.
While he was initially unsure about producing the movie, Comfort finally agreed and said the movie is nothing like anyone is expecting a Christian movie on this touchy subject to be. He recently said in an interview that the movie is “nothing like you would expect from a Christian movie about the subject of homosexuality.”
Comfort believes this movie will provide a new perspective to people, especially people supporting same-sex “marriage” or those believing people are born gay. Comfort said:
“There is a delightful portion in the movie where you watch pro-gay people change their minds on camera about the issue of whether or not homosexuals are born that way,” Comfort said. “This is simply because they were given another perspective. So, I think that there’s going to be a lot of mind-changing going on after people have watched.”
Why Is No One Celebrating Rachel Dolezal’s Trans-Racialism?
Posted on July 8, 2015 in Sexuality by Nathan Cherry
find the story of Rachel Dolezal very interesting. What I find most interesting is that none of the liberal media or politicians are coming to her aid. As she is scrutinized and criticized for pretending to be black when, in fact, she is white, no one is jumping to her defense and championing her cause of “trans-racialism.”
The story seems to have broken as a result of an image Dolezal posted to her Facebook page of a black man she claimed was her father. Her white family took exception to the photo and called her out. Next thing you know we’re all learning that this “black” NAACP chapter president is actually a white girl pretending.
So the usual media circus ensued as Dolezal tried to explain her reasons for lying about her racial identity. The next thing you know, she’s resigning as president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP amidst much protesting for her dishonesty. What I find interesting about the whole situation is that no one really came to her defense.
There doesn’t really seem to be a strong vocal proponent of “trans-racialism” even though our society seems bent on encouraging all sorts of alternate reality lifestyles. After all, if someone can be trans-gender, why can’t they be trans-racial? Of course Dolezal’s family finds the whole thing curious, if not disturbing. Her mother recently said in an interview: