God's Promise.

Jesus said: "'Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."'"  Mark 7:6 (NRSV)

This is significant because God looks upon the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

God is not so concerned with our obedience to rigid commandments and laws as He is with the condition of our hearts.

This can be seen in the exhortations of the Old Testament prophets: the orphan, the widow, the alien; the poor, the naked, the oppressed.....

"I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh."  Ezekiel 11:19 (NRSV)

This is God's promise to Israel.

And His promise to us.   

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ©  1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ ion the U. S. A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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Pray for the Powers.

The powers of this world are controlled by evil.

Their corrupt practices are hidden by darkness.

Deception and lies cover their crimes.

They attack their enemies with hate campaigns.

And they conspire with evil in the popular culture.

Pray for them to turn from evil.

Pray for them to see God's Love.

Pray for them to overcome their fears.

Pray for them to open their hearts.

Only then will the world change. 


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Do You Know?

I wonder whether all those youths with their caps on backwards and tattoos of skulls and snakes realize what they represent.

They are symbols of Satanism.

Satanism is backwards and upside-down, and skulls represent death.
Snakes are obvious symbols of the devil.

Do you realize that the purpose of Satanism is to get your soul into hell?

Hence all the fire.

And if you do realize then how come no one believes me when I tell them that Satanism is rife in our popular culture.

Wake up!

We are being deceived.


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Half-Measures.

If you are going to reform the Church half-measures will not work.

Fudging change while hanging on to old ways will not be seen as authentic reform.

Sitting on the fence and trying to please everyone is doomed to failure.

The Church has to be seen to be genuinely contrite about child sexual abuse.

And genuine about changes to theology and preaching.

It also has to be seen to have genuinely changed its stance on homosexuality and sexuality in general.

Half-measures will not work.


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Why?

Why have so many people left the Church?

There are a number of factors:

Firstly, the Orthodox interpretation of Christianity no longer makes sense to an educated public.

Secondly, Satanism in rock music and entertainment works actively to destroy the Churches.

Thirdly, they are preaching the wrong things.

Finally, those in the Churches do not practise what they preach.

All of these factors combine to see our churches empty.

But there can be no revival until the authorities in the Churches address these factors.


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Lot.

The Koran talks repeatedly about the sin of Lot.

This is assumed to be homosexuality because Lot lived in Sodom.

But the Bible tells us that the sin of Sodom was that she had: "pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."  Ezekiel 16:49 (NRSV)

And many modern scholars claim that Sodom's sin was a breach of Middle Eastern hospitality customs.

It is interesting to note that the only time that Jesus mentioned Sodom was in the context of hospitality.  (Luke 10:12)

So it is not at all certain that Lot sinned at all.

But the terror of punishment which is contained in the Koran prevails.

And homosexuality is condemned.

But God does not condemn homosexuality.

His Love does not discriminate.

He loves us like His gay sons.

And a good father does not condemn his gay sons.

So we need to reinterpret the Koran in the light of modern scholarship.

And banish the fear of homosexuality for good.


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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The Cure.

The justification for religious people's condemnation of homosexuality is that AIDS is a punishment from God for their sin.

So now that AIDS is virtually cured how can they continue to justify persecuting gays and lesbians?

Doctors can now stop HIV from developing into AIDS.
So no one dies of AIDS anymore.

And when treated HIV is undetectable which means that you cannot pass it on to your partner.

And there is a pill called PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) which can stop you getting HIV.

So AIDS is virtually cured.

This leaves the flimsy evidence of contested passages of scripture.

But now that AIDS is no longer a death sentence the fear that drives homophobia is gone.

And soon the condemnation will be gone also. 


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