Alas, Finally Biblical Preaching, In The Truest Sense of the Word!

Lark News reports

Pastor John Rainey’s sermons have become virtually unintelligible as he constantly references Greek and Hebrew definitions, say parishioners at Oak Creek Presbyterian. On a recent Sunday, only 20 percent of Rainey’s sermon was in English.

Finally!!!!!!!!!   Lucky Prebyterians.  No surprise though, that this disciple of Calvin would have such good sense.  With thanks to Brandon Wason for spotting it.

More Ministerial Misconduct

Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said today that two more teen victims have been identified in the cases against Michael R. and Laura Lee Click Salazar, youth ministers at The Lord’s Disciples Church, but he said no new charges will be filed against the couple until the police investigation is complete and the case goes to a grand jury. The Salazars, both 35 and married, were charged Friday in the case. Michael Salazar faces six charges, two each involving three teenage girls. He is charged with sexual battery by an authority figure and statutory rape by an authority figure in connection with each girl. Laura Salazar faces the same two charges involving only one of the girls.

As much as we lament this sort of disturbing, disgraceful behavior, it’s just a never ending parade of depravity from minister after minister. Once more, the church of Christ gets a black eye because of the misdeeds of its adherents. Ghastly.

Maid In China

The little girl who sang during the opening ceremony wasn’t attractive enough, so they got a better looking girl to lip-synch for her. That’s the word today from over at the Olympics in China.

One little girl had the looks. The other had the voice.So in a last-minute move demanded by one of China’s highest officials, the two were put together for the Olympic opening ceremony, with one lip-synching “Ode to the Motherland” over the other’s singing. The real singer, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, with her chubby face and crooked baby teeth, wasn’t good-looking enough for the ceremony, chief music director Chen Qigang told state-owned Beijing Radio. So pigtailed 9-year-old Lin Miaoke, a veteran of television ads, mouthed the words with a pixie smile for a stadium of 91,000 and a worldwide TV audience. “We had to make that choice. It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi,” Chen told Beijing Radio. “We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance.”

And that, curiously, sums up the whole of China. It is a society dominated by a facade. Underneath, it’s something quite different than the face it puts on for the world. Its fake Gucci bags and its fake churches and its fake singers are all part and parcel of the falsity endemic to the government of that ancient culture.

Oh, and by the way, the little girl who actually sang the song is as cute as a button.

The Continued Filth-ifying of Worship

Worship in some churches is becoming less and less about God and more and more about humanity. Theocentric worship is being replaced by anthropocentric worship in some quarters. And the proof is in the musical pudding.

Idea.de asks

Ist weltliche Musik im Gottesdienst erlaubt? Unter bestimmten Bedingungen sei die Verwendung etwa von Popsongs angebracht, schreibt der US-amerikanische Pastor Rick Muchow im Magazin Christianity Today (Carol Stream bei Chicago). Muchow ist für den Lobpreis in einer der größten evangelischen Gemeinden der Vereinigten Staaten zuständig, der Saddleback-Gemeinde in Lake Forest (Kalifornien). In der Kirche mit bis zu 23.000 Gottesdienstbesuchern singe man, allerdings sparsam, auch weltliche Lieder, so Muchow.

I suppose this is what we should expect from the associates of Rick Warren, ignorer extraordinaire of biblical worship in favor of man-centered pandering.

Weltliche Lieder wie Peter Gabriels „In Your Eyes“ oder Lou Gramms „I Want To Know What Love Is“ enthielten Anregungen für geistliche Botschaften. Im strengsten Sinne „christlich“ seien ohnehin nur Psalmen oder gesungene Bibeltexte.

Blah! The Church has become nothing more than a theater under the ‘guidance’ (read false teaching) of such persons. Theology is watered down to near meaninglessness. Which is why Warren et al are so popular. The public loves milk because in its immaturity it can’t stomach meat (to borrow a phrase from Hebrews).

Inspiring the Young, With Skulls on Benches

Israel National News reports

Archaeologists have discovered three 9,000-year-old skulls at the Yiftah’el dig in the Lower Galilee, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday. Experts said the placement of the skulls confirms the worship of ancestors from during that time, practiced by displaying skulls inside houses.  The skulls were apparently placed on benches in a house where they would inspire the younger generation to continue in the ways of their forefathers. A similar custom was also identified in Syria, Turkey and Jordan.

Ancient burial practices are fascinating to me.  Especially as they have such incredible staying power.  Some of the burial rituals we take part in have their roots in now unknown pasts.  Read the whole if you’re so inclined.  With thanks to Antonio for noticing it.