Throwback Thursday: National Day of Prayer?

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. The post below was originally published back on April 15, 2016, but has been revised to reflect the upcoming 2021 National Day of Prayer.

The National Day of Prayer is coming up next week on Thursday, May 6th. Back in 1952, during the Korean War and Red Scare and in response to a groundswell of support sparked by a young Billy Graham, President Harry Truman signed into law the bill which mandated that an annual day of prayer be observed throughout the nation. The observance day was later fixed as the first Thursday in May. On this day, people of all religious faiths in the United States are called upon to pray for the nation and its leaders. Many born-again followers of Jesus Christ will join in “prayer” with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, New Agers, and followers of various aberrant “christian” denominations and sects including Roman Catholicism and Mormonism.

Many evangelical Christians see participation in the National Day of Prayer as a good thing. After all, doesn’t God’s Word instruct us to pray for the authorities over us, “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:1-4)? But the National Day of Prayer also has some critics within evangelicalism, including myself.

The National Day of Prayer is an event that promotes American civil religion (see here), a conflation of religion and American patriotism. Christians should never join with unbelievers in spiritual endeavors. God’s Word is explicitly clear on this:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.'” – 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.” – Ephesians 5:11

“…holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” – 2 Timothy 3:5

Jesus proclaimed that He is the ONLY way to salvation. That’s definitely not a popular message in our post-modern era of cooperation, pluralism, tolerance, inclusiveness, and relativism. But Christians should NOT join with religious unbelievers as they pray to their false deities. That is cooperation with idolatry. Yes, we Christians must pray for our country’s leaders so that the Gospel can continue to be preached unhindered throughout this land, but we cannot join with religious unbelievers in this ministry.

Some Christian supporters of the National Day of Prayer argue that the event can be used as an evangelism tool, however, compromise works both ways. Cooperation and compromise with unbelief always leads to betrayal of the Gospel. The Old Testament is largely a record of the disastrous consequences of God’s people cooperating with idolatry.

In closing, I would ask born-again believers who regularly read God’s Word to try to imagine the Lord, Jesus Christ, or even the Apostle Paul, joining with the pagan religionists of 1st-century Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor in ecumenical prayer. The notion is beyond preposterous and yet many followers of Christ will enthusiastically join with religious unbelievers in the National Day of Prayer. For many evangelicals, shared national citizenship and religious-tinged, patriotic fervor take precedence over fidelity to the Gospel. The pastor of the Southern Baptist church we previously attended encouraged participation in the National Day of Prayer, which was one of several warning signs that we were worshiping at the wrong place. This is pretty cut and dry, folks. The fact that the National Day of Prayer is so popular with American evangelicals is another example of the lack of discernment when it comes to ecumenism and “interreligious” cooperation.

“The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel. Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this? It is the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

Truth from Arkansas! Sunday Sermon Series, #81

It’s Two-fer-Tuesday, my friends, which means two new sermons from the brethren down in Arkansas.

First, we have Pastor Roger Copeland of Northern Hills Baptist Church in Texarkana, preaching from Luke 8:22-25 on “When Storms Come.”

Next, we have Pastor Cody Andrews of Holly Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Star City preaching from Galatians 4:7-9 on “Don’t Turn Back.”

Both of these sermons were delivered on Sunday, April 11th.

Pastor Roger Copeland – When Storms Come

Pastor Cody Andrews – Don’t Turn Back

Kazan Redux: Elia Kazan’s Fifteenth Film: “Splendor in the Grass”

Today, as part of our “Kazan Redux” series, we’re going to re-review director Elia Kazan’s fifteenth film, “Splendor in the Grass.” The review below was first posted on October 16, 2017 and has been slightly revised.

Splendor in the Grass
Directed by Elia Kazan and featuring Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, and Audrey Christie
Warner Bros., 1961, 124 minutes

After the dismal commercial failures of his three previous films (the so-called “Southern Trilogy”), Kazan turned to popular playwright, William Inge, for a box-office-friendly teenage melodrama.

Plot

Arthur “Bud” Stamper (Warren Beatty) and Wilma Dean “Deanie” Loomis (Natalie Wood) are king and queen of their high school in 1928 Kansas and madly in love. Bud is from a wealthy family and the top jock on campus (although not a gifted student), while Deanie is from a much more modest background, but is one of the school’s most attractive and popular girls. Together, they’re an ideal couple, but must increasingly battle the temptation to become more intimate. Deanie’s materialistic mother (Audrey Christie) counsels her daughter to remain chaste because Bud is the “catch of a lifetime” and he surely wouldn’t marry a “bad girl.” In the meantime, Bud tells his Type-A-on-steroids father, Ace Stamper (Pat Hingle), that he can no longer fight lustful temptations, so he’s determined to marry Deanie immediately after graduation and run the family ranch, but the small-town oil baron insists that academically-challenged Bud go to Yale in order prepare himself to take the family oil business to the next level. Bud’s scandalously immoral older sister, Ginny (Barbara Loden), has brought shame to the Stamper name and Ace hopes Bud can redeem the family’s reputation.

Recognizing that he can no longer control himself, Bud cools the relationship with “good girl,” Deanie, but lets off some steam with Juanita (Jan Norris), the school “floozy,” thereby humiliating Deanie, and sending her into an emotional breakdown. Somewhat recovered and desperate to win back her boyfriend, she forces herself on Bud, but he rejects her uncharacteristic advances. Deanie becomes so distraught, she attempts suicide. As Deanie teeters on the verge of a complete mental collapse, her doctor advises an anxious Bud to end all contact for her health’s sake.

Bud goes to Yale, but his heart isn’t in it and he’s failing all of his subjects. An Italian waitress, Angelina (Zohra Lampert), befriends him in his lovesick misery. His father visits Yale in an attempt to rally Bud, but ends up jumping from a New York City skyscraper when the stock market crash of 1929 devastates his business. In the meantime, Deanie is sent to a sanitarium to recover her mental and emotional stability. There, she befriends a male patient and a lukewarm romance blooms. When Deanie is released after a long, thirty-month stay, she returns home, and immediately asks to see Bud to determine if there’s any spark left in their relationship. She visits Bud on his struggling ranch and learns he’s married to Angelina, with one infant child and another on the way. Disappointed but not broken, Deanie stoically commits to going forward with her life, “finding strength in what remains behind.”

Commentary

“Splendor” resonated with audiences across the country. Inge won an Oscar for his screenplay (Kazan had a large amount of input) while Wood was nominated for her performance. This was Beatty’s film debut, another notable “find” for Kazan. Hingle’s full-throttle performance is quite memorable, but skirts with being “over the top.” Most of the movie was shot around New York City.

I first watched “Splendor” when I was in my early teens and was floored by the unorthodox conclusion (the video below captures the final 3.5 minutes). Kazan stated in later interviews that the last reel was his favorite of all of his films. It certainly wasn’t a stereotypical Hollywood ending. Two characters in love are supposed to live “happily ever after,” but real life is rarely so orderly, which is why “Splendor” struck a chord. I remember being quite smitten with the lovely and vulnerable Deanie character, probably like many of the film’s teenage male viewers. The startling uniqueness of this film launched my decades-long study of its director.

The two DVD’s of “Splendor in the Grass” released by Warner Brothers unfortunately provide no commentary or remarkable bonus features.

Trivia alert: Screenwriter, Bill Inge, has a small role as a Protestant minister saddened by the spiritual emptiness of his church’s biggest contributor, Ace Stamper.

Additional thoughts from a Christian believer

Kazan was a Marxist atheist who rebelled against religious and societal norms of morality. Perhaps more than any of his previous films, Kazan used “Splendor” to attack “middle-class materialism” and “puritanical morality.” Antagonists Ace Stamper and Mrs. Loomis are presented as the duplicitous enemies of the pure love of their children. Bud and Deanie struggle to adhere to their parents’ hypocritical moral code, ultimately destroying their love.

“Splendor” was somewhat revolutionary in its day for its exploration of teenage sexuality, but by today’s standards it hardly raises an eyebrow. It’s interesting to note that Leftist crusader, Kazan, carried on an affair with Loden throughout the filming of “Splendor,” returning to his wife and children each evening at his comfortable estate in the tony suburb of Newtown, Connecticut. Hypocrisy?

Christians understand we cannot satisfy the ultimate moral code, the Ten Commandments. But God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross. He conquered sin and death and offers eternal life and fellowship with God to all those who accept Him as Savior by faith alone. As Christians, we attempt to follow the Lord in obedience, albeit imperfectly. As a teenager, I struggled with sexual temptation. Those hormones were firing like a well-tuned 350 V-8 engine. It’s a common experience, right? These days, teens are experiencing even greater pressure to give in to temptation at an even earlier age. The Lord gave us guidelines for a reason. To protect our physical and emotional well being and the well being of others. Rampant premarital and extramarital sexuality have led to all kinds of individual and social problems. Perhaps the church would have done better to present sexuality positively, as a natural and wonderful gift of God for married couples, rather than negatively, as something dirty and not to be spoken of. After all, The Song of Solomon is in the Bible. But a person must accept Christ as Savior before they can follow Him in obedience.

Natalie Wood left her then-husband, Robert Wagner, for co-star Beatty during the filming of “Splendor,” much to the delight of Kazan, who sought emotional reality from his actors. Wood would reunite with Wagner in 1972. She died under suspicious circumstances in 1981 while on an excursion on the Wagners’ boat, the ironically-named “Splendour.” William Inge committed suicide in 1973. Beatty would go on to achieve fame mainly as Hollywood’s celebrated #1 Lothario.

After watching “Splendor,” I can remember scrambling to the library to read William Wordsworth’s “Ode on Intimations of Immortality” (1804), with the famous passage cited in the film:

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.

Scholars still debate whether Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a Christian. Most of his earlier poetry glorifies nature as a semi-deific force. Later poems displayed a much more orthodox Christian view. In his “Ode,” the poet admonished his readers to move forward with their lives rather than dwell in the past.

God’s Word has much to say about looking back. Believers are to focus on Christ and Christian service and not look back at the world’s temptations with desire.

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” – Philippians 3:13

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1: 24-25

See here for more Bible verses about looking forward in Christ.

Below, the final poignant scene of “Splendor in the Grass”:

Next up: Kazan’s sixteenth film: “America America”

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 4/24/21

• Revival Breaks Out at Nashville-Area Church with 1,000 Baptisms: It’s Solely a ‘Movement of God’

I tend to be wary and skeptical of trendy, hipster mega-churches, but God works in spite of my skepticism and in spite of hipsterism.

• Priests should think twice before denying Communion to Catholics in same-sex unions.
• Diocese backs move to fly gay pride flags at Catholic schools, muzzles opposition from priests
• German Catholics plan huge blessing of gay unions on May 10

Angry opposition to a March 15th statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, forbidding the blessing of same-sex “marriages,” continues to swell. It’s foreseeable that the progressive German Catholic church will approve the blessing of same-sex unions in defiance of the Vatican as a part of its current Synodaler Weg (Synodal Path) reform initiative.

• Catholics and Protestants in Germany announce intercommunion move despite Vatican objections
• 500 years after Luther and the Diet of Worms the ecumenical movement is strong
• A Theological Virus Is Spreading

Not only is the German Catholic church leading the charge in calling for the blessing of same-sex unions, it’s also championing the cause of intercommunion between Catholics and (nominal) Protestants. The Germans’ push for immediate “reforms” is too radical even for progressive pope Francis.

• Pope Francis applauds beatification of monks who died protecting the Eucharist

Roman Catholicism teaches that its priests transform dried bread wafers into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, Catholics have sacrificed their lives in the act of “protecting” the Jesus wafer, either from natural calamities or from “desecration” as this article describes.

• The future of Catholic liturgical reform

Few evangelicals are aware of the significance of the liturgy (i.e., a form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted) of the mass in Roman Catholicism. Catholic theologians and scholars spend their entire careers examining the precise wording of the mass liturgy and recommending and debating possible changes. One is reminded of the Pharisees expending their time and energy debating the exacting details of the Mosaic Law while refusing the Savior who walked in their midst.

• Liberty Sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million, Alleges He ‘Damaged’ School’s Reputation

Jerry Falwell Sr. obscured the Gospel by dragging the church into political activism and Jerry Jr. dishonored the Gospel with his sexual escapades while also continuing his father’s advocacy of Christian nationalism. Liberty U. should back off and allow Jerry Jr. and his “legacy” to fade away.

Throwback Thursday: Creepy “Damien” TV series cancelled, but false “servants of righteousness” continue

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on May 31, 2016 and has been revised. Wow! Has it really been five years since “Damien” was broadcast?

As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife and I were big fans of the movie, “The Omen,” when it was released in 1976 (see here). I remember how we rushed home from the theater and opened up my wife’s deceased father’s Bible, the first time either one of us read from God’s Word (after a combined 24 years in Catholic schools), to find the passage in Revelation 13 that referenced 666, the “mark of the beast.” The Lord used many other things and people in our lives to eventually lead us to trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior by faith alone in 1983.

This past March 7th, the A&E cable television network premiered the series, “Damien,” which was based on the 1976 film. There were 10 episodes with the last one airing on May 9th. The plot line began with Damien as a 30-year-old war photographer who begins to encounter unusual people and troubling circumstances in his life. Shortly thereafter, it’s revealed to him that he’s the anti-christ. Over the course of the remaining episodes, Damien struggles against his inevitable “fate.” The Vatican is made aware that the anti-christ has been revealed and sends a solitary nun on a mission to murder him. She’s unsuccessful (natch), so the Vatican sends a SWAT team of priests, replete with silver daggers in aluminum military attache cases (LOL, simply hilarious), to America to stop Satan’s spawn. Before the Vatican forces can arrive, Damien accepts his destiny and pledges his allegiance to Beelzebub.

This past weekend, news sources reported “Damien” will not be picked up for a second season by the network because of low ratings.

Many Christians would think twice about watching such entertainment as “Damien,” but “The Omen” was part of our journey to Christ. We were also able to use “Damien” as an opportunity to speak several times to our unsaved sons about Jesus and the Gospel. They’re also fans of the original movie.

You can always count on Hollywood to get it wrong when it comes to spiritual issues and many of the usual trite stereotypes were used in “Damien.” Satan and his minions are presented as utterly repulsive figures that only the mentally deranged could possibly be attracted to. The Hollywood stereotype of demons as dreadful beings who oftentimes sport horns, goatees, tails, pointed ears, and goat-like hind legs is utterly preposterous. God’s Word says Satan masquerades as an “angel of light” and his servants masquerade as “apostles of Christ” and “servants of righteousness.”

I dare say that the Hollywood cliches (based on popular religious folklore) may possibly be ruses hatched by Satan himself. It’s not hideous monsters that we need to be on guard against, rather it’s those seemingly goodly people and their religious institutions who have twisted the Gospel of Jesus Christ from salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone into salvation by works (i.e., sacraments, being good, baptism, religious piety and emotionalism, etc.).

In “Damien,” it’s the Vatican and the Catholic clergy that are presented as the “good guys,” but, ironically, it’s the Vatican that has twisted God’s Word by teaching salvation by sacramental grace and merit. People fear ridiculous red trolls created in Hollywood studios, but it’s those upstanding and highly respected members of our communities who masquerade as ministers of righteousness, but teach a false gospel of works who are leading people to Hell. Instead of warning their flocks against such people and institutions, some evangelical ministers openly embrace them.

There are evangelicals who would strongly caution others not to watch silly nonsense like “Damien,” but would determinedly jostle in line for a photo op with the pope. Does not compute.

“For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” – 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

Truth from Arkansas! Sunday Sermon Series, #80

It’s Two-fer-Tuesday, my friends, which means two new sermons from the brethren down in Arkansas.

First, we have Pastor Roger Copeland of Northern Hills Baptist Church in Texarkana, preaching from Job 19:25-27 on “I Know.”

Next, we have Pastor Cody Andrews of Holly Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Star City, preaching from Luke 24:1-9 on “Just As He Said.”

Both of these sermons were delivered on Sunday, April 4th.

Pastor Roger Copeland – I Know

Pastor Cody Andrews – Just As He Said

Catholicism vs. the Bible, 101

What Every Catholic Should Know
By A.J. Gary
WestBow Press, 2015, 136 pp.

In the introduction to “What Every Catholic Should Know,” author A.J. Gary explains that she was raised as a Roman Catholic, but accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior by faith alone through the outreach ministry of a nearby evangelical church. She then witnessed to her family and some also professed to have trusted in Christ, including her mother. However, Gary’s mother was determined to remain in the Roman Catholic church. But how can a reborn child of God remain in a religious institution that unabashedly teaches works-righteousness and many other anti-Biblical doctrines? Gary states that she wrote this self-published book with her mother in mind and therein examines the irreconcilable doctrinal differences between Roman Catholicism and Gospel Christianity.

Gary hits upon the main doctrinal differences (see chapter headings below), including the prime doctrine of justification; how a sinner is justified/made righteous in their standing before Holy God. Catholics believe justification is a lifelong process whereby a person must avail themselves of their church’s sacraments in order to receive graces, which are alleged to enable them to become intrinsically, subjectively sanctified/holier in their thoughts and actions in order to hopefully merit salvation at the moment of their death. In contrast, Gospel Christians believe they are justified at the moment they accepted Jesus Christ as Savior by faith alone and received His imputed perfect righteousness. Christians then follow the Lord in obedience as the fruit/evidence of their spiritual re-birth, albeit imperfectly.

It’s apparent that Ms. Gary does not have any formal theological training. Her arguments are quite basic. However, by comparing official Catholic teaching with Scripture, she more than adequately makes her points and draws her valid conclusions. Gary’s basic approach would actually be an asset for anyone looking for an easy-to-understand primer on the doctrinal differences between the RCC and Gospel Christianity while avoiding heavy theological jargon. One criticism I have is the brevity of her chapter on justification. It’s the shortest chapter in the book at only three pages, whereas the all-important topic deserves the lengthiest exposition. That aside, I do recommend “What Every Catholic Should Know.” Well done, sister A.J.!

You can order “What Every Catholic Should Know” at Amazon here. The price of the Kindle version is very reasonable at $3.99.

Chapters

• Baptism
• The Eucharist
• Confirmation
• Penance
• Matrimony
• Prayer
• Purgatory
• Justification
• The Papacy
• The Worship of Mary
• Tradition

Welcome to the Weekend Roundup! – News & Views – 4/17/21

• Ask Dr. Land: Should President Biden be described as ‘devout’ Catholic?

It’s nauseating to see influential Southern Baptist, Richard Land, weighing in on whether abortion supporter, President Joe Biden, is a “devout” Catholic or not and whether he should be allowed to receive the faux Jesus wafer. Land, one of the three Judas evangelical signatories (along with Chuck Colson and J.I. Packer) of the 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics Together ecumenical accord, views Roman Catholicism as one of many valid Christian “traditions.”

• Hans Kueng, dissident Catholic theologian who took on the pope, dies

As a young theologian, Hans Kueng, had an inordinately influential role at the Second Vatican Council in moving the Roman Catholic church toward modernism. Kueng would later incur the wrath of popes and prelates by challenging the RCC’s claim of papal infallibility. One of these days I need to read Kueng’s “Infallible?: An inquiry.”

• Will Catholics come back post-pandemic?
• Cardinal Dolan implores Catholics to return to Sunday Mass

The issue of mandatory Sunday mass attendance for Catholics keeps popping up in the media. Will Catholics return to mass after the COVID-19 virus subsides? After foregoing the allegedly essential Jesus wafer for thirteen months and noticing no change in their “spiritual condition,” will Catholics put two and two together and just stay home?

• US Catholic Theologians Echo Fears of Schism in Catholic Church in Germany

Yes, another reoccurring headline in the Catholic media is the German Catholic church’s current Synodaler Weg (Synodal Path) effort to steer the national church towards radical reform. This is a boiling pot that conservative Catholic prelates and theologians are viewing with trepidation.

• Pope calls all Catholics to be missionaries of God’s mercy

Last weekend, Pope Francis celebrated “Divine Mercy Sunday” with a mass in Rome. A Polish nun, Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), claimed Jesus visited her several times and instructed her on the rubrics of the increasingly popular “Divine Mercy” devotion. In his homily, Franics urged all Catholics to be missionaries, but they have little incentive to be ambassadors of their religion when their church officially propagates that all religionists and even atheists may also merit Heaven.

• A Century Ago, White Protestant Extremism Marched on Washington

Evangelical Protestants followed the lead of Jerry Falwell in the 70s and 80s and became enmeshed in temporal politics. The misguided conflation of faith and nationalism continues. But Falwell’s Moral Majority wasn’t the first time Christians in America got their priorities mixed up. The radical conservatism of the reconstituted Ku Klux Klan appealed to many Christians back in the 1920s. A large field about a half-mile from our home was used as the site for multiple Klan rallies here in Rochester, New York in the 1920s. Some might be surprised that the KKK wasn’t restricted to the South. I placed a library hold on “Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930″ by Kelly J. Baker that’s mentioned in this article.

• How nuns, once suspect, won the heart of non-Catholic America

There were few things more strikingly cultish in the largely-Protestant American landscape of yesteryear than groups of virginal Catholic women living communally together as nuns in convents and practicing severe forms of asceticism including wearing 12th Century garb. Early American Protestants were appalled by the convents, but eventually became inured to the cultish extremism.

• Girl Rushed To Hospital For Emergency Gender Reassignment Surgery After Showing Up To School With A G.I. Joe (SATIRE)

It’s satire, BUT there’s some truth therein.

Throwback Thursday: The “unchanging” Roman Catholic church changes once again

Welcome to this week’s “Throwback Thursday” installment. Today, we’re going to revisit a post that was originally published back on April 11, 2016 and has been revised.

Catholics often boast that theirs is the UNCHANGING, “one true church,” but even a casual student of church history knows that is not the case. And now we have another example.

In the past, any Catholic who divorced and remarried without obtaining an annulment was said to be living in a state of mortal sin and was officially barred from receiving the eucharist Jesus wafer. But in his new “apostolic exhortation,” Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), released last week, pope Francis tacitly suggests via an obscure footnote that it’s now up to the local parish priest to evaluate the circumstances of each remarried divorcee parishioner and decide if they are able to receive the sacraments (see article below). With so many Catholics divorcing these days, Francis was compelled to change the policy in an effort to keep the church viable.

But this ex-Catholic saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone has a couple of important questions regarding this new policy. First, what about all the divorced Catholics who remarried and died in a state of mortal sin prior to this change? Do they all now receive a “Get Out of Hell, Free” card or is the declaration not retroactive? Also, how could such an important doctrine affecting faith and morals that was upheld by all previous infallible popes now be so conveniently discarded? Catholics would rather not confront such questions.

I’m so grateful to the Lord for leading me out of Catholic legalism, ritualism, and man-made traditions. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by faith alone and then ask the Lord to direct you to an evangelical church in your area that teaches God’s Word without compromise.

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Pope Francis to church: Be more accepting of divorced Catholics, gays, and lesbians
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/08/europe/vatican-pope-family/index.html?eref=rss_world

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Note from April 2021: I couldn’t have possibly known when I wrote the above post in April 2016, that pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia encyclical would have MAJOR repercussions within the Roman Catholic church. Conservative Catholic prelates, priests, and laity did in fact note the doctrinal incongruity of Francis’ lifting of the ban on communion for remarried divorcees and reacted with zealous indignation. Formal protests were submitted and ignored by the pope. Cautious conservative prelates and priests advised their followers to ignore Francis’ doctrinal novelty while a few went so far as to openly call Francis a heretic. Amoris Laetita was the start and Francis has continued to roil conservatives with his progressive reforms.

Communion for the divorced and remarried, papal critics and family life: Pope Francis’ ‘Amoris Laetitia’ at 5 years
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/04/08/amoris-laetitia-pope-francis-five-years-divorced-remarried-catholics-240412

Truth from Arkansas! Sunday Sermon Series, #79

It’s Two-fer-Tuesday, my friends, which means two new sermons from the brethren down in Arkansas.

First, we have Pastor Roger Copeland of Northern Hills Baptist Church in Texarkana, preaching from Luke 7:18-30 on “When You Are Angry With God.”

Next, we have Pastor Cody Andrews of Holly Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Star City preaching from Luke 18:35-43 on “Come Now.”

Both of these sermons were delivered on Sunday, March 28th.

Pastor Roger Copeland – When You Are Angry With God

Pastor Cody Andrews – Come Now