Something's Wrong With the Church Today

Back in the 90's, the rock band Aerosmith had a song called Livin' on the Edge. The first verse starts with "There's somethin' wrong with the world today, I don't know what it is. Something's wrong with our eyes. We're seein' things in a different way, and God knows it ain't his. It sure ain't no surprise ..."

Now, I'm not trying to try to figure out the theology behind the song, but I couldn't help but think of those lyrics when I was thinking of the state of the world, but mostly the Christian church today.

Normally, I'd post something like this on my Understanding the Biblical Prophecies blog, but something about all of the apostasy in the Church is not just a prophetic happening, but is a sad state of the church, and it's influence or lack thereof on our society. I thought it would be in keeping with my old No Apologies Blog.

Something is wrong with the world today- and it is evident by what is wrong in our churches- or more importantly, the men and women who are the "heads" of the church. It has been throughout history, the church which has been the influence on society. Good or bad, the actions of society has been a direct result of the action or inaction of our church pulpits.

Back in the early days of America, the church pastors and elders could be found among and even as some of the signers of our founding documents. They could be found on the battlefields among those "Minute Men" fighting at a moment's notice against the British.They could be found in the earliest congress- not as career politicians, but as servants to the people, their flocks. They viewed public service as their God given duty to shape and help the new nation grow into a prosperous and morally driven land, begun for, Blessed by and "under God".
It was because of the Christian influence that so many people came from all over the world- for the freedoms. The fact that our basis was formed by the acknowledgement that it is God who created all equal, and that He has given each human the liberties espoused in the Declaration and our Constitution. People may argue, but the fact remains that it was because of our Christian heritage that all people had the freedom of worship or not to worship, the freedom of any religion. Ours was not a theocracy, because true Christians know that the only theocracy is ruled by Christ, and not men.

I wanted to start with the short history lesson because it does have much to do with what I am talking about when I said, good or bad, the actions of society has been a direct result of the action or inaction of our church pulpits. When pastors recognised Jesus as God, the Bible as the sole authority of the Lord's very Word, and when pastors taught the truth of Christ from the pulpit, and lived the truth in their private and public lives, in their communities and in their politics, ours was a Blessed nation. Where the people knew where those blessings came from. Once heretic ideas crept into the church, more modern gospels, designed to be inclusive to other religions, the old idea of the Bible being the Word was thrown out. It has come to where the people teaching, the leaders of the flock are ignorant of the Word, they don't believe it to be the Word.

We have leaders such as the bishop of the Episcopal Church who recently said "the evangelical notion that individuals can be right with God a "great Western heresy" that is behind many problems facing the church and the wider society," and spoke about "the great Western heresy -- that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God." And of course she blames individualistic views of salvation for everything that is wrong in the church in the United States. The article goes on about humaneness, caring, sharing and being in harmony with all of creation.

This is clearly unBiblical teaching from a woman who, although may have attended theological seminaries and years of schooling, but has no clue of the Truth of God who gave us His Word.
We are saved by our INDIVIDUAL choice to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are saved by our acceptance of the Grace of God, who sent His only Son to take on the sin of the world on the Cross. Jesus is the only way, and we can not depend on church memberships, the salvation of our parents, or other people's beliefs to be saved. We all must come to Him as ourselves to be washed by His blood, to be sanctified by Him. We must confess with our mouth that He is Lord and Savior. There is no other way around Him.

I agree that simply saying some words to the effect of "please Jesus, come into my heart" are not enough. There must be a genuine feeling and knowing of personal sin and the desire to repent and ask Jesus to free us from our sin, and acknowledge Him as our Savior and Lord.
Once saved, we do have the need and command to be with the body- other believers. We have to follow His command to spread the Gospel of Christ and to show His love, but without the individual choice to come to Him in the first place, the rest is useless.

We have mega star pastors such as Rick Warren, who although have sometimes enough of the Gospel message in his church, does not have much of a message of Christ outside of the church. The past few years have brought attention to Warren, and for him, it has been enough of a good thing. Unfortunately for the people he could be witnessing to, it has been at the expense of their souls. This man may be one of the most well known pastor of the world since Billy Graham. He has an incredible opportunity to tell the Gospel message of Christ to heads of state, to individuals and to groups of all faiths- but he doesn't use it. Instead of talking about sin, the cross and redemption by Jesus Christ alone, he talks of helping the world by interfaith ideas and love.
Again, in a world focused society, this is a good message, and it is important to show love to others and help the needy and the infirm. However, without the message of Christ, these people may be given temporary comforts of this life, but will be lost for eternity. Again, one without the other is useless.

People have a hard time, it seems distinguishing the difference between tolerance and truth, or between offending and saving. While only the Holy Spirit can convict hearts, we are denying people the chance of salvation when we don't tell them the truth of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Some people are so worried that they won't be allowed to attend and be asked to speak at high profile events and councils if they include the Gospel message. They are more interested in image than salvation of the lost. Pastors of the modern postBiblical churches seem to be more willing to pay attention to human words than to follow and teach from God's Word.
It is no different offending those of other religious beliefs than those who practice sinful lifestyles. These days it is considered hate speech to tell the message of a Loving Creator, who willingly took sin upon Himself so we could all be right with God. Again, people do not accept anymore, that offensive and divisive word called sin. If they are not considering themselves as sinful, they do not need the message of a Righteous God- so they accept the touchy feely, love and peace only god.

We have the church telling the people that homosexuality, adultery, pornography, witchcraft, abortion and idolatry are all OK. That in our more modern society, these practices are normal, and that we are so different than the societies in the Bible were which prohibited such acts. For the fact is, that many do not take the Bible as the Word of God, so the parts which speak against these behaviors is ignored or brushed of as obscure passages. Those who believe in God's Word are considered divisive, narrow minded and bigoted.

We have people such as the Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts, The "Rev" Katherine Hancock Ragsdale who thinks that the people who run abortion clinics are “heroes” and even “saints”, and considers the access to affordable abortion as "not a tragedy in sight - only blessing.” All the while comparing pro life groups as harassing and annoying. She goes on to explain about how their work of keeping abortion legal is not done- saying, "When doctors and pharmacists try to opt out of providing medical care, claiming it’s an act of conscience, our work is not done, " claiming that "others pay the price for their principles.""These are the two things I want you, please, to remember - abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing...You’re engaged in holy work."

Clearly, I am missing something here. This woman is a Dean of a Divinity school, so obviously she is educated. She is also a "Reverend". What parts of the Bible which the Lord talks about children and His knowing them before they are born does this woman not understand? Again- she, like so many others are more concerned about individual and feminist ideas, that they ignore the Word of Him who Created them and every unborn child who has been murdered in their mother's womb. They place a higher priority on the woman's individual rights while ignoring that she is not the only person to consider when there is a life inside of her. It is teaching how to place more value on a temporary situation instead of helping the lost come to a Salvation in Christ and be with Him for eternity.

We have Pope Benedict XVI, who while visiting Jordan, spoke of his "respect" for Islam. The Vatican's official transcript of the Pope's comments at the Amman airport records him as saying:"My visit to Jordan gives me a welcome opportunity to speak of my deep respect for the Muslim community, and to pay tribute to the leadership shown by His Majesty the King in promoting a better understanding of the virtues proclaimed by Islam."
The Pope is not a diplomat, he is not a head of State. He is the head of the Catholic Church. He is to be an ambassador of Christ, not a politician. He is talking of respect for Islam, which we can respect individual people, but to say as a Christian leader that he respects another religion is not Biblical. We can not respect someone into heaven, but we can disrespect them as a human beings by not telling them the Truth of Christ, and in not doing so, chance them being condemned as unbelievers.

By someone such as the Pope to highlight another religious belief, is in essence pulling others away from Christ. It is denying the truth of Christ Himself and blinding non believers from the only salvation possible.
We can respect Muslim people for their contributions and culture. But we cannot respect a belief system that denies the truth of the gospel, insists that Jesus was not God's Son, and takes millions of souls and dooms them. The only way we as Bible believing Christians can truly respect others is by sharing the Gospel message of Christ's love and Salvation.

The Pope also made a more recent statement just before the G8 summit. He called for a "true world political authority" to manage the affairs of the world. At the same time, however, the Pope also warns that such an international order could "produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature" and must be guarded against somehow. So which one to choose?
Sounding like Obama , Pope Benedict says this new international order can be accomplished through "reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth." He is also espousing the environmentalist ideas of global warming, suggesting "a worldwide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them." He goes on, sounding more and more like algore than the Leader of the Catholic Church.
In short, much of Pope Benedict's speech sounded more like an endorsement of the soon to come Antichrist's One world government.

When those who are in authority in the Church ignore or are ignorant of the truth of the soon coming of Christ, and the end times, they teach that it is up to man to solve all the world's problems, and that we are in essence left on our own. There is no teaching that Christ will be coming soon to make things right.

There are many in the church today who believe that the end time prophecies are fiction, or symbolic. They think that those of us who believe in the prophecies are dangerous. They also have the ignorant belief that some how the church has replaced the nation of Israel as God's chosen. Hence the term the "replacement theology."

That is one of the reasons why so many who call themselves Christians are anti Israel and pro palestine. They do not see Israel as God's chosen, and to them, Israel is a trouble making, apartheid making evil doer who use excessive force against those who only wish to live in the land owed to them. To them, Israel is the enemy. Israel is what is wrong- and they are the ones holding up the peace process in the Holy Land. There is no belief in the very real fact that Israel has a huge part and is still the apple of God's eye.

People such as The Episcopalian Bishop, Jefferts Schori, church groups such as the NEA, mega church pastors such as Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, Emergent leaders such as Rob Bell, and political figures such as Jimmy Carter are all focused on the world, but using Christ for their own purpose. They are more interested in popularity, money to build bigger and bigger buildings, and receiving accolades from social groups and prominent people. They are the politically correct, but Biblically incorrect.

I am not saying they have no genuine concerns for people, they obviously do because they are always pushing for human rights, issues of the poor and social change, and they care about the world and push for better stewardship by joining with environmental groups.

The problem lies with, and I have addressed this in the past, is that they forget about Christ's reason for coming the first time, and will not recognize Him when He comes again. They are more focused on their will be done on this earth to make it like heaven, instead of God's will be done on earth as it already is in heaven. No matter how much we all want a better world- it will not be so until Jesus comes and makes things right.

The problem in the church is that those who are leading the people don't know themselves, the Deity Jesus, and His Word. They know that He is love, but they ignore that there is such a thing as Divine wrath. The thought of it makes them uneasy and it goes against their grain of thought that there is no real sin, so they work at erasing all thought of it, lest anyone of the world finds offense. They argue that God is loving and merciful, and therefore God's Anger is merely a fairy tale with which to scare misbehaving children. However, the same Bible which tells of God's Mercy speaks of His Wrath, and as a matter of fact, refers more frequently (much more so) to His anger than it does to His love.

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience" (Eph. 5:6).

In these, and in other passages too numerous to mention, the fact of the Divine wrath is affirmed. And now in closing, let us think.

Because God is holy He hates sin, and because He hates sin His anger burns against the sinner. Notice though, He does not hate the sinner. His anger is against the sinner.
God's wrath is not some thing that's symbolic. His wrath was not symbolic when He poured it all out on His only Son, who was hanging on a Cross.
Everything about God is unique. His power is omnipotent. His wisdom is so great that no one can comprehend it. His love is unsearchable and long suffering. His grace is unfathomable. His holiness is unapproachable. And like all of these, God's wrath is incomparable, incomprehensible, infinite.And what will the wrath of the Almighty be like during the time of Tribulation? And what can humans do to withstand it? Nothing. It will overwhelm them. It will sink them into the lowest thoughts of hopelessness. It will be, in a word- unbearable.
The unsaved is moving down a very slippery path. It is not that God is not coming back- it is because of His love for all humanity that I am even still here, that we are still here, He is waiting for all who would come to come. But someday soon, He will come again.
The unsaved see little cause for need of immediately accepting Christ as his Savior. They imagine themselves secure, especially since they are not taught otherwise! They are not given the Gospel Truth from modern feel good and inclusive messages.
We never know when our time is coming. There is no chance after death. The only warnings people have are in this life- which are to be given out of love yes! But out of truth, which too many mega star pastors and those who are more concerned of worldly things are not telling!
It is up to all to warn our neighbors, our family, our friends. And even to the strangers among us- no matter who they are or what their beliefs. We need to be more worried about the unsaved spending eternity apart from God's pure love and grace than risk offending them.

"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found: Call ye upon Him while He is near."

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

Thought for Independence Day

“From the day of the Declaration…they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”

John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1821

This Week's American Song

I get tears in my eyes when I hear this one. I love this country so much, I do sometimes wish I was born here- but then again, maybe like some, I wouldn't appreciate so much the history, God given Blessings and freedom of this land if I had been born here. This week's song, I think appropriate for Independence Day:

Aaron Tippen's

Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly

Well if you ask me where I come from
Here's what I tell everyone
I was born by God's dear grace
In an extraordinary place
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly
It's a big 'ol land with countless dreams
Happiness ain't out of reach
Hard work pays off the way it should
Yeah, I've seen enough to know that we've got it good
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

There's a lady that stands in a harbor
For what we believe
And there's a bell that still echoes
The price that it cost to be free

I pledge allegiance to this flag
And if that bothers you, well that's too bad
But if you got pride and you're proud you do
Hey, we could use some more like me and you
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

Yes there's a lady that stands in a harbor
For what we believe
And there's a bell that still echoes
The price that it cost to be free

No, it ain't the only place on earth
But it's the only place that I prefer
To love my wife and raise my kids
Hey, the same way that my daddy did
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle fly
Where the stars and stripes and the eagle...flyWhere the stars and stripes and the eagle fly

An American Summer

Hi everyone. I am going to be taking a bit of a hiatus from this blog for a little while. I will still be posting from time to time on the others, and if anything real breaking happens, I will post here as well. What I would like to do here is to post music lyrics to good songs about America and her patriots. I'm sorry, but I don't have the computer speed or know how to play music here, so if if I can, I will link to you tube or something if you want to hear it. Anyway, I hope everyone has a Blessed summer-

Love Carolyn

OK- First up, let's get down to business- it's Charlie Daniels with and excellent and very appropriate song- Simple Man

I ain't nothing but a simple man
Call me a redneck, I reckon that I am
But there's things goin' on that make me mad down to the core
I have to work like a dog to make ends meet
There's crooked politicians and crime in the street
And I'm madder than hell and I ain't gonna take it no more
We tell our kids to just say no
And then some panty waist judge lets a drug dealer go
And he slaps him on the wrist and he turns him back out on the town
Well, if I had my way with people sellin' dopeI'd take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope
And hang 'em up high and let 'em swing till the sun goes down

Chorus:
Well you know what's wrong with the world today
People done gone and put their Bibles away
There livin' by law of the jungle not the law of the land
Well the good book says it, so I know it's the truth
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
You'd better watch where you go
And remember where you've been
That's the way I see it I'm a simple man

Now, I'm the kind of man that wouldn't harm a mouse
But if I catch somebody breakin' in my house
I've got a twelve gauge shotgun waitin' on the other side
So don't go pushin' me against my will
I don't want to have to fight you but I durn sure will
So if you don't want trouble that you'd better just pass me on by
As far as I'm concerned there ain't no excuse
For the raping and the killing and the child abuse
And I've got a way to put and end to all that mess
You just take those rascals out in the swamp
Put them on their knees and tie 'em to a stump
And let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest

Boy, this one's short!

Am I the only one who finds things interesting in that Obama is not wanting to "meddle" in Iran's political situation right now, but he has no problem dictating to Israel?! I mean, people are dying on the streets of Tehran, people only wanting to have a more free system and no more nut jobs like Ahmadinijad (even though the rest of those who were running for election weren't much better!) Obama of course is "concerned" over the unrest, but he refuses to take part in anything to do with the election.

A little while back, I wrote about the fact that whenever our American Gov'ment meddles with Israel, we get something happening here. I pointed out about the Biblical principal of whoever Blesses Israel will be Blessed, but whoever curses Israel will be cursed. I also pointed out the facts that all these so called peace deals and the road map have had our government meddling and trying to divide Israel to give land to arabs who call themselves Palestinian. Every time our government has forced something on Israel, something has happened in America. For example, the day that Katrina hit the Gulf States, was the day that Jews were forced to leave their homes in Gaza. If you haven't read that post, you can see it here.

When Obama started messing with Israel, I was wondering what would come here. Would it be more economic disasters? Or another natural disaster? Well, I do find it very interesting that while Obama will not meddle with Iran, who is developing nuclear weapons, he is telling Israel to back off. Israel will be the first to be affected when Iran decides to launch a weapon on Israel. So, now, we are facing a real threat from North Korea. Kim Il Jong has declared that they will launch a missile toward Hawaii on the 4th of July. Some people are laughing that off, thinking there is no way they have a good enough missile for that- or that they will no get far with declaring war on us. Have you any idea how militarized that country is? They have a massive armed force which has been training for the past 40 years! They have been developing nukes, they have biological weapons.

It's not a stretch to think of what the rest of this year will be like as the obama regime meddles with Israel- while rogues like North Korea and Iran are plotting. Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence. God's Word is the truth.

She Says it So Much Better than I

I don't do this often- that is, post someone else's messages, but this was so much of the truth, and Ms. Gabriel says it with such grace and she is much more polite than I. It's a long read, but please do, as it is very well written, and something that is on a lot of our minds. Ms. Gabriel should know what she is talkng about, as she grew up knowing Muslim terror. You can learn more about her by looking on the side here under American Congress for Truth. (sentences in color are my emphasis)


An open letter to President Obama from Brigitte Gabriel

Dear Mr. President, You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical Islam and terrorism. These are challenges that have vexed past presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them. I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no matter what you said in your speech last Thursday in Cairo, there would be those who would take issue with you.

That is always the case when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and emotionally-laden as these challenges are. I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have chosen to take, as evidenced by what I’m sure was a carefully crafted speech, will ultimately prove successful. However, it pains me to say this sir, but, while you said in your speech that you are a “student of history,” it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do not know history and thus, as Santayana noted, you are doomed to repeat it. In doing so your efforts, however well-intentioned they may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce. A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong conclusion. With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective study of the ideology of political Islam. You began in your speech by asserting that “tensions” exist between the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is correct. Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of America and the West. You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War, and even modernity and globalism. A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it telling that you mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the circumstances that led to it. That treaty was but one of numerous attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and enslaving our citizens and our soldiers ­ and who by their own admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad.These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy, which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to scapegoat. They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done throughout history ­ acting upon the hundreds of passages in the Qur’an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill, conquer or subjugate the infidel. A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed. The student of history would know that Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from Arabia after Mohammed’s death, and then succeeded in conquering all of North Africa, most of the Middle East, much of Asia Minor, and significant portions of Europe and India ­ eventually creating an empire larger than Rome’s was at its peak. The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to total more than 300 million. What’s more, the wealth of many of the conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic conquerors, and millions of millions of non-Muslims who did survive were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the “jizya,” a humiliation tax to the Islamic caliphs. Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their neck as a mark of their dishonor.These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread throughout the world.

You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that exist between America and the Muslim world. That is a laudable notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor, you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the Muslim world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its holy books and acted upon for 1,400 years. Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or extremists. We all know that the majority of Muslims are not. We also know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide to call for the death of Jews?What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons? What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a British teacher whose only “crime” was allowing her students to name their teddy bears “Mohammed”? What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in, or fund, or provide nurture to, terrorist organizations? What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels? What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a Christian church or synagogue?

To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other “root causes,” most of which you lay at the feet of America and the West, is at best naïve and at worst dangerous. Lastly, I must address your statement that “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the exception rather than the rule.Historically speaking, I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.

For instance, Christians and Jews became “Dhimmis,” a second class group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing; it was Baghdad’s Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, in the ninth century, who designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.I witnessed first-hand the “tolerance” of Islam when Islamists ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon, in the 1970’s, leaving widespread death and destruction in their wake. I saw how they re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them. My experience is not an isolated one.

When you make an unfounded assertion about the “proud tradition” of tolerance in Islam, you do a great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced ­ in the cause of Islamic jihad.

Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. Most Americans would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America and the West. It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur’an and the Hadith. Who regard “infidels” as inferior and worthy of conquering, subjugating and forcibly converting. Who support “cultural jihad” as a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within. Who take seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur’an and the Hadith to convert the world to Islam ­ by force if necessary ­ and bring it under the rule of Allah.Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are doomed to fail.

Sincerely,Brigitte Gabriel

Vigilantism is bad no matter who it's against

Yesterday, I saw a headline on AOL news about an abortion doctor's murder. I didn't bother to read it, figuring I would hear more later. Hear I did, and found out it was George Tiller. I was shocked, but not surprised, saddened- but in a different way, and I immediately lifted up his family and the family of the responsible party in prayer.

I was shocked because after all the news during the past few years about Tiller, it seemed the guy was untouchable. After all, he had escaped justice over and over again through the court cases and grand juries against him. Then Gov. of Kansas- Kathleen Silibius (now the Secretary of Health and Human Services) did all she could to squash any efforts by prosecutor Phil Kline to bring this abortionist known to most, as Tiller the Killer, to justice for performing illegal late term abortions- also known as partial birth abortions.

I was not surprised however, as people such as Tiller, while not deserving to die by some vigilante's means- they do a "service" which in the views of more than half this country- is wrong, and is murder.

Through the course of all means to shut down George Tiller (both lawful and those unlawful), he was never stopped. No one in the pro life groups that I know is cheering that this man is dead. Those of us, which make up almost the whole of the pro life movement, know that the man who killed Tiller has only brought more slander and injustice to those of us are against abortion. Especially touching- is the fact that the man was in church when he was murdered.

Whether Tiller was a true Christian or not, and whether the church he attended was a Bible believing Church or not- it was so very wrong. It was wrong in the eyes of the law, and in the view of God's Law- thou shall not murder.

Yes, George Tiller was a murderer as well. I don't ever hear the pro abortion side crying over the thousands of innocent babies, who by the actions of Tiller- as well as thousands of other "doctors" who were tortured by having a pair of scissors shoved into the backs of their skulls and their brains sucked out. I don't hear them crying for those babies who squirm and writhe in pain from burning saline solutions injected into the womb of the "mother". Or those who are born alive- burned, and alive- only to be thrown in a trash can and left to die.

Yes- in the view of God, abortionists are murderers. That said, there is no excuse for someone to take justice into their own hands. God says Judgement belongs to Him. If we can not find justice through changing hearts, through the legal system and whatever other legal course we can- we will only TRUST in the LORD that He will do as He sees fit. It is not up to us to be judge, jury and executioner. That is murder- no worse, no better, no different than the abortionists.

All this did was shine a spotlight on the "fringe" group which is a fraction of a percent of the pro life movement. All this did was push back any kind of progress the peaceful, God loving, child loving pro life people had made. All this has done is take the spotlight off the fact that millions of babies- many of which would be perfectly capable of living outside the womb- are being slaughtered- tortured and sacrificed in the name of "family planning", "reproductive rights" and feminist rights.

For Christian pro lifers, we need to remember that God knows exactly what is happening to these innocents. He was aware of Tiller's hypocrisy of attending church on Sundays, while murdering children Monday through Friday. We need to continue to pray for the abortionists- that their hearts will change, and they will see the carnage they have done in the name of "rights". We need to show love and compassion to women who think there are no other choices available to them. We need to help women who are going through, thinking of going through or have gone through an abortion. We need to change hearts through showing Christ's love.

We may not understand all the reasons that people like George Tiller are able to get away with legalized murder for years, but it is not up to us to play God.

The shooter may have though he was carrying out justice, and doing the Lord's work- he was not.