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Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation. The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here. Off the Cuff, Part 2 MRS. CLINTON’S “FAITH” Democrats feel they lost the last few presidential elections because they didn’t promote “faith” more. To ‘fix’ the situation, they are hitting the sawdust trail with a vengeance this season. Here is Hillary Clinton’s ‘faith,’ according to an interview she gave while seeking her White House goal: "In a brief quiz about her theological views, Mrs. Clinton said she believed in the resurrection of Jesus, though she described herself as less sure of the doctrine that being a Christian is the only way to salvation." Columnist Cal Thomas observed about this: “This is a politician speaking, not a person who believes in the central tenets of Christianity. The same book that tells of the Resurrection, also quotes Jesus as saying ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me’ (John 14:6). One might ask, which the reporter did not, that if there are other ways to God than through Jesus, why did He bother to come to earth, allow Himself to be crucified and suffer rejection? He might have stayed in Heaven and told people about a spiritual GPS system that would get them there another way. “About the accuracy of Scripture, Sen. Clinton serves up theological mush: The whole Bible gives you a glimpse of God and God's desire for a personal relationship (good, so far), but we can't possibly understand every way God is communicating with us. I've always felt that people who try to shoehorn in their cultural and social understandings of the time into the Bible might be actually missing the larger point.’ “That is precisely the point of liberal Christianity, to which Sen. Clinton subscribes. “Sen. Clinton is entitled to whatever faith she wants to practice, but when she uses it as an election tactic, she should not be allowed to alter classic Christian theology.” Amen, Cal, amen! ON BORDER SECURITY Oh, yes, about that border fence Congress approved for our safety over three years ago. While a few feet have been built, the major phase still sits and waits. The latest development is that 14 Democrats in the House of Representatives have gone to court, filing an injunction to stop the project because it might hurt a few animals. Do you mean some of our representatives in Inspired – with checks and good will – by such radical environmentalists as the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, these men and women whose salaries our taxes pay want to stop Homeland Security from doing what Congress has already authorized. While they surely know their suit has all the chance of success as a snowball in a steel mill furnace, they also know it will delay the aim of national security. Unbelievable? You don’t know the half of it! As Secretary Michael Chertoff expressed it: "Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation ... Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security. We’re serious about delivering it, and these waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward.” Congressman Bennie Thompson of If we have another 9/11 because of border security failure, you’ll know who to contact for an explanation! THEY SAID IT ABOUT SADDAM! Here are some interesting quotes made just before we went to war with Vice-President Al Gore, Senator Ted Kennedy (MA), on Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) on Investor’s Business Daily, hardly a partisan journal, and from whence we took the above quotes, continued its editorial: “We could go on and on. Others said similar things. Suffice to say, support at the time for ‘doing something’ about Their excuse? They say they were lied to by Bush/Cheney (they had exactly the same data he did) about the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and when they got there none was found. True, but there seems to be an abundance of evidence that when the going got tough, Hussein sent them over the border to Iran before our first attack, expecting to get them back later. CRUEL, UNUSUAL, OR INANE? That silly case that made it to the Supreme Court, claiming the use of legal injections for executions was too hard on serial murderers, rapists, child killers and other assorted hoodlums awaiting the death penalty, was shot down in good order, as it should have been. The ruling was 7-2, upholding the injections. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was an attorney for NOW and the ACLU before being put on the Court by Bill Clinton, issued a dissent. That was no surprise. Justice David Souter joined her and that was no surprise either, although he was put on the Elite Nine by George H. W. Bush, who thought Souter was a conservative! The surprise was that Justice John Paul Stevens, who opposes the death penalty, agreed with the six naysayers. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the ruling. Scalia and Thomas, in an opinion written by the latter, said "a method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment only if it is deliberately designed to inflict pain." All the states waiting for the Supremes to rule may now go ahead with executions. WANDERING/WONDERING? AT WILLOW CREEK We had a good word for Willow Creek the other day, quoting the leadership’s apologizing for past ministers' conferences. Maybe they owe us another apology. At its "Shift" conference for student ministry leaders last April, a strange speaker was featured, Brian McLaren, an especially "weird" guy for such a conference, particularly since he is allegedly one of the “emerging church” leaders. For one thing, he suggested to the youth leaders at the Creek that they have more important fish to fry than getting kids ready for Heaven. (What’s that again?) In his book, Everything Must Change, he not only bragged on the Willow Creek leadership (maybe that's how he got the invite to Shift), but also said the teaching about Hell needs, according to Baptist Press, "radical rethinking." (And, BP noted, his argument is that “people who believe in Hell may be inclined to dominate and take advantage of other people, rather than help them." No fooling; that’s what he said.) The Press also quoted him: "Youth ministry in the postmodern world must stop pointing out to teens the faults of non-Christian religions, McLaren said, because postmodern people do not view critiques positively." Wow! Does that seem to you, as it does to me, to contradict Jude 3-7, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." And what about Galatians 1:8-10, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ"? Wow again! I believe I'll listen to Jude and Paul and keep on warning folks, both young and old, about Hell, "the vengeance of eternal fire," and saying of those preaching a false gospel, "Let him be accursed" (literally, "Let him be damned")! And evangelical youth leaders should do the same! In a follow-up article BP quoted Southern Baptist Seminary's senior v-p for academic administration and dean of its school of theology, Russell D. Moore, as pointing out that "denials of Hell and a literal second coming of Christ ... are not surprising.” He added, "What is surprising is that a Christian conference, especially one growing out of a movement designed to reach 'seekers' for Christ, would invite him to speak. When McLaren questions the existence of Hell and the hope of the second coming, he is not a 'new kind of Christian.' Such things are neither new nor Christian." Amen! POLITICIANS: PAST AND PRESENT First, let’s hear columnist Paul Greenberg on ex-President James Carter, who defied the State Department on his recent trip: “Was there any part of the globe, from the Politics in WILL “RACISM” DECIDE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT? Yvonne R. Davis is a black Republican and a successful black businesswoman, the president and CEO of “I am a black Republican. I have a confession to make. I am an Obama ‘girl.’ Most black Republicans who support John McCain won’t tell you this – but if Barack Obama is the nominee for the Democratic ticket, they will go into the voting booth in November and vote for Obama.” But wait. She went on to say, “I support most of the Republican platform.” In other words, even though she supports (and would be considered one who believes in its positions) the anti-liberal position of conservatism, she is going to vote to become President of the United States of America the most liberal politician in America (a fact based on his voting record), one who is only a half a step (if that) from full blown socialism in belief, practice and aim for this nation. Why? Simply because he is black! That is racism of the worst and lowest order. Yet if what she says is true, millions of Americans will vote for him on that basis and that basis alone. God help While I consider it incidental to the above, she went on to say that when Jeremiah Wright went ‘gangsta’ (her word) on Obama, he “had to retaliate, showing us, white and brown FREE SPEECH IN Crystal Dixon, is the “former” associate vice president of human resources at the In her rebuttal she noted that, as a black woman (about which she was “very pleased”), she insisted that this was “a genetic trait” and she had no say about that. However, to say homosexuality was “genetically and biologically” something beyond the control of a Sodomite was not true. She couldn’t decide not to be black, but they could decide not to be homosexual. In short, it was a very fine, reasonable, well-thought-out, kindly, convincing letter. What happened? First she was suspended with pay. Then So they fired her! So much for “free speech” at the And shame on SODOMITE MARRIAGES: A SIGN OF THE END? Janet Folger is the president of something called “Faith4Action” and is featured in WorldNetDaily. In one of the latter columns she pointed out a very interesting fact, then ‘documented’ it. She said that according to the Babylonian Talmud [which was the last of the Talmuds and the one in use during the days of Christ – the noted rabbinical interpretation of scripture – uninspired, of course], the only time in the history of mankind where members of the same sex married one another, was prior to the Genesis flood when they actually wrote up ‘marriage contracts’ for Sodomites. Sodomy goes way back to the early days of time – and has existed without a break to the present hour – but this is the only known case of marriage, Folger said. This was a new thought to us and we immediately tried to do research on it, but with most of our library “history” and every effort to find something on-line meeting with failure, we will just have to admit we don’t know whether this is true or not. The rabbi that Folger quoted to support her statement – Rabbi Aryeh Spero – offered no proof but his word. On her radio program she said he declared: “Even in ancient Folger referenced our Lord’s warning, “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26). “Noe,” of course, is the Greek version of the Hebrew “Noah.” And this supposed connection with Sodomy is alleged proof Christ is about to appear. However, we do not see Luke CEDARVILLE & MISSIONS Your editor went on the board of what is now Tom told of when President Jim Jeremiah called and asked him to rent a U-Haul and go to Cedarville, now a university, has come a long way from those gory and poverty-stricken days. Today it has a multi-million dollar campus and a modern, up-to-date, state-of-the-art chapel that seats thousands (one of the few large Christian schools still having daily chapels in which students are required to attend; it also requires a Bible minor for every student obtaining a degree, another unique standard for a large university). Yet the school still stands for the same fundamentals of the faith it has always maintained. And apparently the daily chapels are paying off. This summer, Cedarville has volunteer student teams ministering in the following countries (in addition to its teams in the states, of course): Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Kosovo, Liberia, Peru, Romania, Rwanda/Uganda, South Africa, Togo, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, and the Middle East. Some of these countries have second teams going into them at different times for different reasons. THIS & THAT . . . Let's not forget what John Adams said after the Declaration of Independence was signed: “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means"... Former President Calvin Coolidge put it like this: “Patriotism is easy to understand. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country"... Here is a word for those planning to vote for politicians who are offering free health care, two cars in every garage, and a chicken in every pot. Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman (economics, 1976) put it like this – or maybe it was science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein in his 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress: "There is no free lunch” Everything you get for free, some taxpayer must pay for. But, then, maybe you are so greedy and self-centered you don’t care about putting your burden on another… We are no fan of H. L. Mencken, but he was certainly on target when he said, “If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.” It is sickening to hear candidates promise voters the moon! The scary part is that when some get elected they attempt legislation to enact it!... One thing you can count on: the terrorist killings in Does our Constitution need a marriage amendment? Absolutely! The folks who dodge the bullet by calling it a “states’ right” matter ought to wake up and smell the coffee. State after State, in overwhelming proportions, passes a law stating marriage as a matter solely between a man and a woman. And some idiot on a bench (who has to have an aide tell him where his glasses are) voids the law and demands the State start marrying Sodomites. Nothing short of a Constitutional amendment will settle it… As we look to November it might be good to note Otto von Bismarck's observation: “People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election”... Noah Webster, a humble Christian with character to spare, put it like this: “In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate – look to his character...” Loud mouth liberal Al Franken, who advocates “tax and spend policies” with a vengeance, taking out after anyone who disagrees, got caught in gross hypocrisy recently. He had to pay tens of thousands of big bucks in back taxes in over a dozen states where he was trying to beat the system. Currently, the crooked tax evader is trying to get the citizens of The annual Southwide Baptist Fellowship meeting will be held October 20-22 at the Elsewhere in this issue you will read Dr. Caner’s statement about the Evangelical Manifesto (he is listed as a signer; he did not). Along that line, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell is also listed as a signer. Jerry Falwell, Jr., the Chancellor of Liberty University, immediately issued a statement: "As the founder of the Moral Majority, dad would not endorse a document that appears to undercut political activism. My dad was a man of courage who paved the way for a generation of socially conservative activists. He never backed away from his resolve to please God. He was a tireless defender of the sanctity of human life and family values"… “Just because you are ‘without honor in your own country’ doesn’t necessarily mean you are a prophet!”… Some time ago I read a sermonette of sorts on the Poor Jimmy Carter. His trip to “break bread” with terrorists was disgraceful and pitiable. The official Hamas response was that his visit gave their terrorist organization “legitimacy” before the world. How sad. On the same day, Hamas bombers attacked an Israel-Gaza border crossing (sneaking into the area under a fog cover), wounding 13. The four Hamas involved all died… Recall the words of early President John Quincy Adams: “There is nothing in life so pathetic as a former president”… Do you know when life begins? Apparently neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton do. CNN televised a Compassion Forum at Obama showed his Marxist streak (“religion is the opiate of the people”) when he said the economy was forcing small town people to resort to “religion,” guns and other crutches to survive. And Hillary, to demonstrate her compatibility with the working class, had cameras zero in on her drinking a shot of liquor with a chaser or two of beer. These are the best the Democrat Party has to offer? Which reminds me of what Bay Buchanan had to say in his The Extreme Makeover of Hillary Clinton: “One more thing – while traveling in What will Obama’s spending proposals cost the taxpayers? Human Events did a study and, although he was coming up with new ones almost daily, they figured the 188 he had already proposed would cost $1.4 trillion over five years… It's official. Senator Barack Obama is the most liberal senator in Did you see Jeremiah Wright's defense at the National Press Club? He repeated and defended all of his original charges and came across, for want of a kinder word, as an egomaniac. Thank God, most black churches in |
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