Category: Resource Notes

Recently we have seen stories of homosexual abuse of Boy Scouts juxtaposed against a proud announcement by a mainline Church of the appointment of a Lesbian Bishop. Meanwhile the Catholic Church is still reeling from the abuses of cabals of homosexual priests while other Churches are rushing to embrace homosexual ministers.

God help the children.

The Catholics and the Boy Scouts are victims of evil men, but what we are seeing in those churches which encourage sexual sin is far worse. It is the result of a rebellion against the Word of God which began in the 19th Century with efforts to deny the authenticity of the Bible and has been carried forward to a repudiation of Christian teaching and morally. These false prophets speaking against the Word of God have infiltrated our churches and seminaries, and are welcomed by an adulterous and perverted generation.

As people of prayer we know that we are engaged in a spiritual battle with the dark spiritual focuses of rebellion and perversion. We can recognize the Spirit of Jezebel, which was exposed in the Church of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-27) as a false prophet of sexual immortality poisoning a loving church and producing spiritual death for her followers. We can also look to God’s word for guidance, and there is a powerful scriptural roadmap in Numbers Chapter 12.

This passage records a rebellion of Aaron and Miriam against the word of God given to Moses. The Lord came down and rebuked Aaron and Miriam, saying “Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:8). This is also God’s rebuke to the modern churches which have denied the scriptures.

The Lord then punished Miriam by covering her with Leprosy. This is a terrible disease which mars the features and causes parts of the body to fall off. And, because it is contagious, lepers had to live alone and outside of the camp of God’s people (Leviticus 13:45).

Leprosy is in fact a picture of the rebellious Church. Like the lepers, these churches have lost parts of their bodies as many Christians have left them for more faithful Churches. Other Christians and even foreign affiliates of the rebellious U.S. Churches followed Paul’s admonition not to associate with an immoral brother and expel evil from the Church (1 Corinthians 5:11-13). Like the leper who cannot enter the camp, the rebellious churches are considered to be apostate, outside of the fellowship of the faithful.

Miriam’s story did not end with her leprosy, and we hope that the same will one day be said of the rebellious churches. Aaron repented of his sin and then both Aaron and Moses prayed for Miriam’s healing. The Lord heard their prayer but required that Miriam be confined outside of the camp for seven days, saying “If her father had spit in her face would she not have been in disgrace for seven days?” (Exodus 12:14). The entire company of Israelites waited for her seven days to be completed and received her back before they moved on.

Like Aaron, we should be ready to repent of our own rebellion, and like Aaron and Moses we should earnestly pray for healing of the leprous church. Like the Israelites we should wait in hope for the repentance of the leprous church. We should remember what Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians at chapter 2, v 5-8, about forgiving and comforting the repentant brother whom he had ordered to be ostracized in the first Corinthian letter. Like the Israelites and Paul, we should welcome the rebellious churches back into full fellowship when they repent.

We also know of many who have been called to remain in the leprous church to bring back the Word of God to their churches. This is a difficult assignment and it is good for us to remember that all Christ asked of the Jezebel infected Church of Thyatira was to reject the immoral teachings and hold on to what they have. We especially pray for encouragement and endurance as they stand for righteousness.

Let us stand with them for the healing to the leprous church and restoration into the body of Christ.

“The body is not meant for sexual immortality but for the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 6:13

It has become fashionable in some circles to deny the Christian foundations of the United States. Next week, when we remember President’s Day, would be a good time to listen to the words of our national Fathers and join them in their prayers for America:

Benjamin Franklin: On the Need for Divine Guidance
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; out projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down on future ages.
And what is worse, mankind may thereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.” – June 28, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention

George Washington: Prayer for the United States
“Almighty God, We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection; and Thou wilt incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field.
And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation.
Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Thomas Jefferson: National Prayer for Peace
“Almighty God, Who has given us good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners.
Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those who in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail, all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Abraham Lincoln: National Day of Prayer and Humiliation
“Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation:
And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subject to punishment and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been recipient of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sin and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.
And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping that day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand to caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. By the President: Abraham Lincoln.”

To which we can only add: Amen.

This week, beginning on January 25, people around the world are celebrating Chinese New Year. It is a good time to pray for our Brothers and Sisters in China and celebrate China’s Christians.

It was the dream of the great Catholic Evangelist Frances Xavier to bring Christianity to China, and after his death off the coast of China in 1552 others followed in his footsteps. However the Emperors feared the Church and ultimately passed laws outlawing Christianity. In the 1830’s, after Europeans forced open the ports of China, Christianity came to the treaty ports. Then Hudson Taylor and a host of missionaries carried Christianity into the heartland in the late 19th Century.

There were 1 million Christians in China when Mao Tse-Tung established Communist rule in 1949. Like the Emperors before him Mao feared the Church. As his followers drove Christian Missionaries out of China and persecuted the Chinese Christians, no one expected Christianity to survive.

Like the ancient Caesars, however, Mao did not understand that the Kingdom of God was on the inside of Believers, giving them strength to endure under persecution. The removal of the Missionaries did not end Christianity, but simply made the Church into a Chinese enterprise. When its property was confiscated it moved into the homes. And when its Chinese leaders were imprisoned, the Holy Spirit provided new leaders. As it had done during the Roman persecution, the Church provided hope in a brutal society and continued to grow. Instead of fading away, the Chinese Church has over 100 million Believers today.

Unable to stop Christianity, the Communists attempted to control it by establishing a state controlled Church structure, the Three Self Church. Some Christians elected to participate in the state church, but many others refused. Instead, they formed the House Church movement which is still outlawed in China. For Catholics whose fealty to the Pope is considered to be treason, the Communists have appointed their own bishops and viciously persecuted Catholics.

Today the new “Emperor” of China, Xi Jinping, is still afraid of the Church. He has declared himself as an opponent of Christianity and increased the persecution of Christians. Bibles and churches have been burned. Church members are under surveillance by facial recognition cameras and new regulations prohibit those under 18 from attending church. Social media is being used for oppression and religious expression on line is heavily restricted. The Communists have even launched a plan to rewrite the Bible more to their liking.

Recently one of the leading Christian pastors in China, Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, was sentenced to nine years in prison after his church was shut down in 2018. Over 100 church members were detained, 80 of whom were tortured by the secret police. Their crime? Meeting as an unregistered Home Church and advocating for religious freedom in China. Pastor Wang Yi wrote that Communism was “morally incompatible with the Christian faith” and said “I will serve my sentence, but I will not serve the law.”

Let us pray that the love of Christ shown by China’s Christians will overcome Xi Jinping’s fear and eventually lead to an end to the persecution of Christians. But let us also pray that the Chinse Church will continue to boldly proclaim the Gospel no matter what obstacles must be overcome.

And may we in America honor and support our Chinese Brothers and Sisters. May we have the courage of the Chinese Church to pray in the face of persecution the prayer of the Church in Jerusalem:

“Now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness” Acts 4:29

On Monday, January 20 the U.S. celebrates the Martin Luther King holiday, honoring the life of an American hero and a Christian martyr.

Dr. King grew up in a world where many people believed that the black African people were inferior to the white Europeans. This belief, which was used to support slavery in the U.S. and the colonization of Africa by Europe, directly contradicts Biblical teaching that all humans are from the same family and that God commands us to love our brothers. However, the rise of Secularism and a Darwinistic view of the human race gave a scientific veneer to the myth of racial superiority. To their shame, even some Churches went along with the lie. Modern science has now proven that all humans came from the same mother, as the Bible teaches, and that there is more genetic difference within the races than between them.

So Thomas Jefferson was right when he said all men are created equal. But making that statement a reality has been a long battle in the U.S. We fought the Civil War to end slavery, and the war brought God’s judgment, as one soldier died for each person left in slavery after the American Revolution, and the slaveholding South was devastated. Nevertheless, racial inequality was reborn in the “Jim Crow” system of laws which discriminated against black people in the South. After the Second World War black servicemen who had proven themselves the equal of their white brothers found it more and more difficult to accept their oppression.

In many countries oppressed minorities had taken up arms, but the U.S. was spared from this fate. Instead, a black Baptist pastor called on his people to use nonviolent Christian principles to bring about change. Dr. King’s Civil Rights crusade eventually bought an end to the Jim Crow laws and led to a broad level of reconciliation between the races. Sadly, he and many others gave their lives to bring about the nonviolent Civil Rights revolution.
We still have some work to do to reach Dr. King’s goal of a color blind society and full racial reconciliation. But on this day we celebrate a Baptist pastor who used Christian principles and his Christian faith to bring his white and black brothers together.
Let us pray that Dr. King’s memory will be honored by reconciliation and unity, and that those who would divide and promote hatred, whether white or black, will be exposed and repudiated.

At the end of 2019 there was another horrible Church shooting in Texas.

Only this one ended quite differently from the 2017 tragedy at Sutherland Springs, Texas where dozens were killed or injured. The church had learned the lesson of Sutherland Springs and the killer was stopped in 6 seconds, taking only two lives. The video revealed that in addition to the hero who shot the killer there were about half a dozen church members who had stood up with their pistols to confront the killer.

Yet with the obvious contrast to the 2017 tragedy, there were some who questioned the idea of the letting church members take their guns to church. There were, of course, the usual anti-gun politicians who apparently would rather see more “Gun Violence” victims than gun carrying heroes. However, there were conscientious Christians who wrestled with the spiritual implications of guns in church.

We know that the Temple guards and even the levities carried swords (see 2 Chronicles 23:6-10). However, a more instructive example is found in the story of Queen Esther.

You know the story. The enemies of the Jews had tricked the King of Persia into signing a decree allowing the Jewish worshippers of God to be slaughtered. Queen Esther cleverly and courageously presented her case to the King. The King asked Mordecai to write a decree “As seems best to you” (Esther 8:8).

Interestingly, Mordecai did not ask the King to send out his army or the local police to protect the worshippers. Perhaps he understood that state provided protection is only good as long as the police are there, and is not available when they are gone. In the modern case of a church killer, relying only on police protection would leave the congregation helpless for many minutes when dozens could be shot.

Neither did he ask that the King disarm the enemies of the worshipers. He would have recognized that the weapons themselves were not evil, only those who use them with evil intent. Then, as now, bad people can always get weapons and banning them only endangers good people. To a killer, a “Gun free zone” sign on the church door means “Killers welcome”.

What Mordechai did ask for is what we call the Jewish Second Amendment. He asked that the Jewish worshipers be given the right to defend themselves from their attackers (Esther 8:11). Because they had the right to defend themselves, the Jewish Worshipers of God survived the attempt to extinguish their faith and triumphed over their enemies. The Lord enshrined the right of worshipers to bear arms and protect themselves in the Feast of Purim, just as the right of Americans to bear arms and protect themselves is enshrined in our Second Agreement.
We urge the Pastors and Churches to project their worshippers like Mordecai did. Welcome those legally licensed to carry guns so that they can fulfill the calling on their lives to protect their church family. And don’t keep it a secret. Call a “Carry your gun to Church Sunday” so the cowardly killers in your community will know they can’t turn your church into a shooting gallery.

We should continue to pray for God’s protection and ask Him to send His guardian angles to our churches. But let’s not turn away the guardian angels who have concealed hand gun permits.

It seems that people are always bringing up bad news.

Most of the time they are trying to sell us something: political positions, political candidates, TV networks, newspapers, or various other dubious products.

So we were surprised to see an amazing compilation of global good news in a recent Wall Street Journal article by John Norburg of the CATO Institute.
1. People around the world becoming more prosperous. The worldwide poverty rate was cut in half, from 18.2% to 8.6%, from 2008 to 2018, and the middle class now contains more than half of the population for the first time in history.
2. People are becoming healthier as basic sanitation and medicine have reached more people. For example, Malaria cases dropped 60% between 2007 to 2017. In the last decade life expectancy increased by 3 years and childhood deaths decreased by 30%.
3. The environment is getting better. During the last decade air pollution deaths dropped by 20%. Deaths from climate disasters dropped by one third over the last 15 years and have dropped by 95% since the 1960’s.

Beyond Mr. Norburg’s good news we can report that America is experiencing a revival of its prosperity. Unemployment rates age at historical lows and stock markets are at historic highs. Minority communities are seeing the best employment and wages in history. There is a boom in American manufacturing and blue collar wages are on the rise.

But the best news of all is that the Good News of Jesus is still spreading around the globe. Millions of souls are being added to the kingdom of God every year. We are living in the midst of the greatest revival in history.

So this Christmas let us banish doom and gloom from our tables and thank God for the Good News of Christmas.

Joy to the world, the Lord has come!

Next week, December 23, the Hebrew Feast of Hanukah begins. The Feast memorializes the dedication of the Temple in 165 BC, after Antiocus IV Epiphanes attempted to stamp out the Hebrew religion. It also celebrates a miracle where a one day supply of Temple oil lasted eight days. Thus, it is called both the “Feast of Dedication” and the “Feast of Lights”.

With the cleansing of the Temple in 165BC, the Nation of Israel was reborn and the Temple and the Nation of Israel were made ready to receive the Messiah. However, it was 160 years later that He was born and 190 years later that He began His ministry. Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication and used the occasion to clarify that He was the Messiah while teaching in the Temple (see John 11:22-39).

Hanukkah is also a significant date leading to the Second Coming of Christ. It was 102 years ago on December 9, 1917, when Hanukkah began the sundown, that the Turks surrendered Jerusalem to the British. The British mandate ultimately lead to the U.N. vote to form Israel thirty years later in 1947, and to the birth of Israel in 1948. Christians all over the world saw the miraculous rebirth of Israel as preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.

Few Christians expected the return of Christ to be delayed so long after the nation of Israel was made ready. However, if we look back to the formation of Israel in 165 BC, preparatory to the advent of Christ, then a waiting period of 160 or 190 years is not so surprising. At 102 years, if counting began in 1917 instead of 1948, we would only be a little over half way through a 190 year wait.

Let us pray over the Feast of Dedication and let us remember how it made the way ready for the Messiah. The Feast of Dedication also reminds us to purify our hearts, the New Convent temple of the Holy Spirit, as the Second Temple was purified in 165 B.C.

And let us also pray that Christians do not get discouraged by the delay in Christ’s return, for no one knows the day or the hour.

Instead, let us joyfully add to the numbers of the Church and look forward to the day that the number is completed and the Lord returns (Revelation 6:9-11).

Even so, come Lord Jesus