| Editor: David E Marlett Th.D. | |
| March 16, 2001 | Vol II #20 |
"The book of Nehemiah is one of the greatest books in all of the Old Testament about revival and rebuilding the work of God. There are some wonderful principles as well about leadership and "follow-ship" which are crucial for any work for God to move forward in spiritual progress. The 8th chapter is very crucial to the record for it reveals the emphasis they placed upon the Word of God. There can be no revival, rebuilding or progress in God's work without a right relationship to God's Word.
Throughout the ages the need of every hour has been– "bring the book!" Every major awakening in Bible days and history has been accompanied by a return to the Word of God. The church today is bombarded with people who want to advertise their "experience" to the neglect of the necessary "thus saith the LORD." There is yet a remnant today like unto those in the days of Nehemiah who crave and cry out– "bring the book!" There is no greater cry today than that of the remnant of Nehemiah and no greater concern should be upon God's preachers than to "bring the book!" The elements of these days of meetings are still needed today."
Introduction to a sermon by Pastor Tommy Wensil by the same name. The outline is available at
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/bible_study/outlines/index.html
** 1st Amendment protects clergy from being sued
The First Amendment protects an LDS Church bishop from being sued for malpractice in counseling church members, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday. The ruling is expected to shield Utah clergy, whose ranks include some 460 stake presidents and 3,600 ward bishops in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints alone.
But it's unclear whether the ruling would affect a separate Utah law that requires bishops, rabbis, priests and pastors to notify police of child abuse, so long as the information doesn't come from the perpetrator.
"I don't see this decision as adding or subtracting to the law of mandatory reporting," said attorney Oscar W. McConkie, a First Amendment expert and former Utah senator who introduced the state's first mandatory reporting law. "(The court's ruling) is not new law. In a country where you have freedom of religion, the state and none of its agencies . . . can dictate to a church and tell the church what standards the state would impose for clerics."
But the attorney who took on the church in the lawsuit disagrees.
"I think given that ruling, it's very likely that if the reporting statute would be tested, the court would almost be forced to find it unconstitutional," attorney Edward R. Montgomery.
"I think the court has sent a very clear message that no governmental regulations can be placed on the church. I think it is extremely chilling. People who have suffered abuse, like my client has at the hands of the church, now have virtually no recourse."
The LDS Church declined to go into the ruling's ramifications. But a spokesman did say the church was satisfied by the court's action.
"The decision preserves religious liberty and freedom for all and confirms that lawsuits like these have no merit," LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills said. "We regret that Lynette Earl Franco and her family are unhappy with the church and hope that they can find peace."
Though it wasn't part of the case, Utah's mandatory reporting law has shone in the spotlight in the past year. Three LDS bishops have faced charges, because they didn't report their knowledge of child sex abuse cases. Charges were dropped or agreements were reached with prosecutors in all three cases.
Those cases raised questions about the statute. Some clerics maintain it hinders their ability to keep sacred communications confidential; others believe it protects victims from their abusers.
Friday's Supreme Court ruling also could invite further scrutiny of the law.
The ruling pertained to an appeal filed by Lynette Earl Franco. Franco sued the LDS Church and her former bishop, Dennis Casaday, and stake president, David Christensen.
When Franco was 7, she says she was abused by a 14-year-old boy and fellow member of her LDS Church ward. She says the abuse was so severe she repressed the memory until 1992, when she was 14 years old.
At that time, she and her parents sought spiritual counseling from Casaday and Christensen, who advised her "to forgive, forget and seek Atonement," she said. She also asked to be referred to a licensed mental health professional. But she was referred to an unlicensed Bountiful counselor, who also urged her to forget the incidents instead of calling police, she said.
Another counselor advised her otherwise, however. And once police were notified, Franco says her ward ostracized her. She since has left the church.
Franco sued, alleging misdeeds including clerical malpractice, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud.
But the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of the LDS Church, in part because Franco's lawyers didn't show intent or meet the stringent legal criteria for a successful case.
The clerical malpractice claim also was rejected, in step with rulings across the country.
"Claims against clerics that require the courts to review and interpret church law, policies, or practices . . . are barred by the First Amendment under the entanglement doctrine," associate Chief Justice Leonard H. Russon wrote. Such interpretations "would embroil the courts in establishing training, skill, areligious professions widely varying beliefs. This is as impossible as it is unconstitutional."
Montgomery said his client is seriously considering an appeal. He believes the court boiled the case down to bad advice when it really was about "protecting the perpetrator" instead of the victim.
[ Deseret News ]
An attempt to expel from the Atlanta Baptist Association two churches that affirm homosexuality came up short after messengers to the 93rd annual meeting of the association failed to reach a two-thirds majority.
As a result, Oakhurst Baptist Church and Virginia-Highland Baptist Church will remain affiliated with the 143 congregations and missions of the association. However, both churches could face future disciplinary action from the association after messengers voted to send the issue back to the ABA's membership committee for disciplinary review.
Still, that may not be enough for a number of conservative Baptist churches that have already announced their intentions of pulling out of the association.
The expulsion vote came immediately following a successful effort by Mount Vernon Baptist Church pastor Sam Boyd to amend the association's bylaws. The new amendment noted "an affiliated church does not include a church which knowingly takes, or has taken, any action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior."
That amendment passed with 300 votes, five more than were needed for a two-thirds majority. However, the vote came following a heated discussion concerning whether to conduct the vote by secret ballot. Ultimately, supporters of the amendment obtained a public vote on the issue.
"It kind of makes you wonder why the people who don't support the amendment are afraid to stand up and let people see their faces," said Paul Hampton, pastor of North Clarendon Baptist Church.
For more than three hours, association messengers discussed and debated the issues surrounding the involvement of the two churches that affirm homosexuality. John Wyatt, moderator of the meeting and pastor of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated First Baptist Church, Tucker, Ga., called the meeting historic.
"This is a very important, very historic moment that has to do with the future of our association," said Wyatt, who favored a secret vote on the pro-homosexual churches.
Immediately following the passage of the amendment, Boyd asked for a vote to expel the two congregations. That vote failed, prompting another round of bickering about the voting process.
Boyd announced to the 600-plus messengers gathered at First Baptist Church, Hapeville, that his congregation would be pulling out of the association and joining a new fellowship. As he invited other churches to join him, he was shouted down by several messengers seated in the audience.
So far, 19 congregations affiliated with the Atlanta Baptist Association have discussed leaving. Rehoboth Baptist Church, a congregation of more than 6,000 members, has already announced its intention to leave the ABA.
For traditional, conservative Southern Baptists, the decision not to oust the two pro-homosexual churches prompted reactions of shock and disbelief.
"Our Georgia Baptist forefathers are rolling over in their graves," said Gray Lambert, a messenger from Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church. "Whoever would have thought that we would be associated with homosexuals?
[ Baptist Press ]
KJV Comment: Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
II Cor 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
U.S. regulators have filed a lawsuit against a Florida Internet company and two executives for allegedly selling $3.9 million of unregistered securities to mostly fundamentalist Christian investors.
The complaint, filed in Miami Friday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, named Families On Line Corp. and Chief Executive Mark Thurman and Chief Operating Officer Robert Fiene.
Thurman and Fiene were also indicted on federal charges of alleged securities fraud, added the securities regulatory agency, whose request to freeze the defendants' assets was granted by a federal judge.
Attorneys representing the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.
For $19.95 a month, Families On Line, which is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., subscribers were offered Internet access that filtered sexual content, violence, gambling and other such content, the SEC said in the complaint.
From two private placement offerings between July 1999 and December 2000, the defendants raised $3.9 million from the sale of stocks and or rights to buy stock, called warrants, to 410 investors across the United States, "primarily fundamentalist Christians," according to the SEC complaint.
"No registration statement has been filed or is in effect with the commission with any of the securities being offered and sold by FOL," the SEC said.
The defendants were accused of placing false and misleading documents on FOL's Internet Web site.
Among the misrepresentations and omissions, the SEC alleged, was the failure to disclose that Thurman and Fiene are convicted felons and the personal use of $1.8 million of investor funds to buy luxury vehicles, vacations and merchandise from adult-oriented stores.
The company falsely told investors that Dean Witter had been selected to lead underwrite an eventual initial public offering that was "conditionally approved" by the SEC and it had entered into a marketing agreement with Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian-based television network and forged a supporting letter, the SEC said.
Among other misrepresentations was a projection of $330 million in revenues based on its claim to have 2.5 million subscribers in the first year, when it really had no more than 150.
"FOL had no basis for its claimed projected subscriber base, revenues and anticipated returns," the SEC said.
[ Reuters ]
What is the difference between faith and doubting? Many Christians are unable to answer this question because they confuse divine, God-given faith with mere animal or human belief. Animal belief arises spontaneously out of habit. If you put your dog's food in a certain bowl, he will soon believe that this is the place to go when hungry. But if you stop putting food in the bowl, his belief will begin to give place to doubt and will eventually cease. Our human beliefs likewise arise involuntarily out of our experience. For example, unless we are very ill or in great danger, we cannot help believing that we will be alive tomorrow, because this has always been our experience. Yet we cannot be sure. So when we believe anything , we partly doubt it, and when we doubt anything we partly believe it.
But our faith in God is different from all our other beliefs. For otherwise this faith would be in part a doubting, and our thinking would be no better than a dog's. God is the Truth, the Supreme Reality on which all other realities depend. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He (Deut. 32:4). And because God is most real, we must believe in Him as such. We must let nothing else be more real to us than God. For this is faith! Anything less than this would doubt. We must make God and Jesus Christ His Son the starting point of all our thinking.
We see, then, the difference between the carnally minded man and the spiritually minded man. The carnally minded man begins his thinking with something other than God and then believes in God merely as a probability or a possibility. Hence he cannot distinguish between believing and doubting. All his beliefs are doubtful. The spiritual man takes God and Jesus Christ His Son as the starting point of all his thinking...
[ From "The King James Version Defended" by Edward F. Hills ]
Read the entire text at
http://www.wilderness-cry.net/bible_study/books/kjv-defended/index.html
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