This comes from an elder of a Christ of Christ in Texas. All names have been removed from the document to protect the writer.
For the last 8 years I, along with two other men from our congregation have traveled to a prison every third Sunday to conduct Bible studies, worship, visits and encourage the inmates who have become followers of Jesus Christ. The numbers are growing and we have been very encouraged with the work. However, yesterday, we got a taste of what I believe is the future of Christianity in America.
Just before our assembly began about 15 inmates who have never been to our assembly showed up and asked if they could join us in our worship. Our Christian brothers welcomed them. As one of our brothers (who is an inmate) began the assembly, several in the group, (who were Muslim) began to openly and rudely interrupt the assembly by asking questions and challenging the young Christian man who was trying to start the assembly by reading scripture. It became very apparent that these visitors did not come to listen but to interrupt and indoctrinate. They were starting to become belligerent and finally I stood up and told them that this was a Christian assembly for the purpose of worshipping the Creator of the Universe, and His Son, and that they were free to stay, learn and observe, but that it was neither the time nor place for such a public debate.
This seemed to calm them down only for the moment. The guard, who was outside the room, heard their shouting, stepped in and ordered the men to be quiet or leave. Later Robby Rhodes had to again address the Muslims because of their constant interruptions of the assembly. Later, when our
brothers in Christ began passing the plates for the Lord's Supper, the leader of the radical group grabbed a plate of bread, dumped it in his lap and told the whole assembly to "Eat this."
At that point some of the Muslims came over to me and the other elders and started calling us Satan worshippers, white pigs and evil. They vowed to stop our preaching and teaching of Jesus. I thought, "How blessed we were to be verbally attacked because of the Name of Jesus."
Remember it was Jesus who said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11,12). I believe that If it were not for the presence of the guard it would have become very violent, and possibly deadly.
It will not surprise me that our continued visits will eventually lead to our being attacked and harmed. Our guard was a female about the age of 50, and it is my firm belief that if those men had wanted to, they could have harmed or even killed us yesterday before she could have received the help needed to squelch the attacks. It is my conviction that yesterday was a glimpse of the future for all Christians in America. I also believe that any faith that is not deeply rooted in Jesus will not survive the future when the attacks come. Maybe this is God's way of getting our minds back on the important things in the kingdom of His Dear Son.
I have also concluded that we must pray for those who have been too deceived by the teachings of a man named Mohammed. I ask for prayers for me, not necessarily for my safety, but that God will continue to give me the
boldness, wisdom and courage to continue preaching and teaching the gospel about Jesus Christ and Him crucified and the kingdom of God. All praise and Glory to Him.
Welcome to Christian Sodom
The Powder Puff Priesthood
By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
August 23, 2009
On Friday, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with 4.7 million members voted lifted its ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers.
Under the new policy, Lutheran congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals as pastors as long as they are in a “committed relationships” with their gay and lesbian lovers. Prior to this ruling, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate in order to administer the sacraments.
The change passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA’s national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations to become open and affirming of gay lifestyles among its priesthood
In 2008, the Presbyterian Church (USA) with 2.9 million members sanctioned the ordination of gays and lesbians as deacons and elders. In 2003, the Episcopal Church with 2.1 million members consecrated an openly gay bishop and issued this pronouncement: “God has called and may call gays in committed relationships to any ordained ministry in the Church.”
The United Church of Christ with 1.1 million members (including Barack and Michelle Obama) has welcomed gays, lesbians, and transgenders as ministers since 1980.
“I have seen these same-gender relationships function in the same way as heterosexual relationships — bringing joy and blessings as well as trials and hardships,” the Rev. Leslie Williamson, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill., said during the hours of debate. “The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us.”
Conservative ELCA congregations will not be forced to hire gay clergy. But opponents of the change in policy decried what the denomination for straying from the direction of scripture and tradition.
“This will cause an ever greater loss in members and finances. I can’t believe the church I loved and served for 40 years can condone what God condemns,” said the Rev. Richard Mahan, pastor at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, West Virginia. “Nowhere in Scripture does it say homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. Instead, it says it is immoral and perverted.”
Mahan said he believed a majority of his congregation would want to now break off from the ELCA.
David Keck, a delegate from the Southern Ohio Synod, said he feared that by embracing partnered gays as clergy that the ELCA was heading down a road that would ultimately lead to “the blessing of same-sex unions as the policy of this church,” he said.
Scripture remains unequivocal in its condemnation of homosexuality. The Book of Leviticus says that practicing gays and lesbians should be put to death (20:13), and St. Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians states that those who engage either passively (malakoi) or actively (arsenokoitoi) shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (6: 9-10).
Throughout the history of Christianity, homosexuality was viewed as a grave violation of natural law since it represented sexuality activity that was not guided by the finality of biological purpose (conception). In the Cummean Penitential, a medieval handbook for use by Catholic priests, the prescribed penance for such sexual deviation was four to seven years of fasting and prayer.
Martin Luther, in his Commentary on Genesis, denounced homosexuality as a “monstrous depravity” that was created by Satan. In an ironic twist, the ECLA, while sanctioning the ordination of practicing gays and lesbians, has expressed its “deep and profound sorrow” over Martin Luther’s rants and ravings.
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