What else would you expect from a God-Cursed sodomite?  A classic example of people making ‘god’ in their own image.

Elton John’s annual Oscar viewing party to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation is a little more than a week away, and his interview with Parade magazine is certain to help put a spotlight on the event. But it’s not talk of his charitable work that will grab the attention, but his claim that Jesus was gay.

“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems,” he told Parade. “On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.”

Source/Full Story: msnbc.com

I don’t know how much worse it can get…

SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.

Source/Full Story: Times Online

 Leviticus 20:13 (New International Version)
‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

The BBC today asked users of its news website “Should homosexuals face execution?” on a talkboard discussion for a World Service programme for African listeners.

Posted on a BBC News premoderated talkboard, the thread was designed to provoke discussion ahead of the latest edition of interactive World Service programme Africa Have Your Say.

“Yes, we accept it is a stark and disturbing question, but this is the reality behind an anti-homosexuality bill being debated on Friday by the Ugandan parliament which would see some homosexual offences punishable by death,” the post said.

Source/Full Story: The Guardian

 Leviticus 20:13 (New International Version)
‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

The BBC today asked users of its news website “Should homosexuals face execution?” on a talkboard discussion for a World Service programme for African listeners.

Posted on a BBC News premoderated talkboard, the thread was designed to provoke discussion ahead of the latest edition of interactive World Service programme Africa Have Your Say.

“Yes, we accept it is a stark and disturbing question, but this is the reality behind an anti-homosexuality bill being debated on Friday by the Ugandan parliament which would see some homosexual offences punishable by death,” the post said.

Source/Full Story: The Guardian

I don’t know how much worse it can get…

SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years’ time.

Source/Full Story: Times Online

“And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.” Deuteronomy” 14:8

“And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.”  Leviticus 11:7

“For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many.  Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD”  Isaiah 66:16-17

Egypt has begun forcibly slaughtering the country’s pig herds as a precaution against swine flu, a move that the United Nations described as “a real mistake” and one that is prompting anger among the country’s pig farmers.

The decision, announced Wednesday, is already adding new strains to the tense relations between Egypt’s majority Muslims and its Coptic Christians. Most of Egypt’s pig farmers are Christians, and some accuse the government of using swine flu fears to punish them economically.

According to World Health Organization officials, the decision to kill pigs has no scientific basis. “We don’t see any evidence that anyone is getting infected from pigs,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization’s assistant director general. “This appears to be a virus which is moving from person to person.”

The outbreak has been dubbed swine flu — now officially called influenza A(H1N1) — because scientists believe it started in pigs, but they do not know if that was recently or years ago. The name change was designed to allay fears about pigs and eating pork.

Egypt has not reported any cases of the new virus that has hit 11 other nations, but the country has been hard hit by avian flu.

Source/Full Story::  NYTimes.com

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”   Galatians 6:7

The man was a monster, plain and simple, and he indeed did reap what he had sown.  The fact that he was killed whilst serving as an usher at some “church” illustrates the level of his own mockery and hypocrisy, and also the depths to which the institutional church has sunk by allowing someone like this to be in their midst.

The idea of “christian” love today is falsely based on the idea of being nice and tolerant and friendly to the criminal, the evil doer.  “Now now, let’s not be too harsh with the child butcher, we must show him love!  In fact, to show the world just how Christ-like and godly we are, let us embrace this man, and make him an usher!”  This is wrong in so many ways.  It’s not about loving the wicked, but of loving the brethren.  The biblical concept of loving the brethren requires, for example,  the protection of the community from such evil men;  from murderers, adulterers and such, and commands that one “put away the evil that is among you.”

A 51-year-old Kansas man was charged with first-degree murder late Sunday in the death of a physician whose Kansas women’s clinic frequently took center stage in the U.S. debate over abortion, authorities said.

Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed while serving as an usher at his Wichita church Sunday morning, according to police. Tiller was one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions and had survived a 1993 shooting outside his clinic.

Scott Roeder from the Kansas City, Kansas, area is being held without bond in the Sedgwick County Adult Detention Facility, according to the sheriff’s office Web site. In addition to murder, he was charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

Roeder is expected to appear in court early this week, law enforcement officials said.

The attack drew condemnation from Tiller supporters, from some of those who tried to shut down his practice and from President Obama, who had urged Americans to seek “common ground” on the divisive issue just two weeks ago.

“However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence,” Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

The shooting prompted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to direct federal marshals to “offer protection to other appropriate people and facilities around the nation,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Source/Full Story:  CNN.com

Well, we know that this particular Rabbi won’t be teaching Biblical Law.  The Hebrew Scriptures teach us that homosexuality is an abomination.

Lev 18:22  You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

When Rabbi Aaron Katz walks the streets of Warsaw’s former Jewish quarter, scenes of that lost world fill his imagination: Families headed to synagogue, women in their kitchens cooking Sabbath meals, his father as a boy with the sidecurls of an Orthodox Jew.

But Katz’s life could hardly be more different from that prewar eastern European culture, at least in one key respect: He is Poland’s first openly gay rabbi.

Born in Argentina 53 years ago to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust, Katz is the latest rabbi to play his part in reviving a once vibrant Jewish community that was all but wiped out by Hitler.

He settled into Warsaw’s historic Jewish district in March with Kevin Gleason, a former Hollywood producer on such reality TV shows as "The Bachelor" and "Nanny 911," with whom he entered into a registered domestic partnership in Los Angeles two years ago.

They live only three streets from the birth home of Katz’s father in a modern and spacious apartment with their dogs, two gentle brown boxers. Katz says he is moved by the links to his past, but keeps his focus on the future.

…

Katz is certainly an anomaly in conservative Poland, where to be either Jewish or gay is challenge enough — at least outside the cities. Of a population of 38 million, about 5,000 are registered as Jews, while thousands more have part-Jewish ancestry, and some have returned to their roots since Poland shed its communist dictatorship.

Katz is the second rabbi to serve Beit Warszawa, a Reform community with 250 members that was founded in the capital 10 years ago by Polish and American Jews who felt little affinity with some Orthodox practices, such as separating men and women during Sabbath services. The Reform movement ordains gay rabbis.

Homosexuals have won acceptance at differing levels throughout post-communist Eastern Europe. The Czech Republic and Slovenia recognize same-sex partnerships, as will Hungary from July 1. Poland hasn’t gone that far. It has an active gay rights movement and gay nightclubs in the cities, but the Catholic church and some conservative politicians still publicly describe homosexuality as abnormal and immoral.

Source/Full Story: USATODAY.com

The Codex Sinaiticus Project is an international collaboration to reunite the entire manuscript in digital form and make it accessible to a global audience for the first time. Drawing on the expertise of leading scholars, conservators and curators, the Project gives everyone the opportunity to connect directly with this famous manuscript. [Find out more about the Codex Sinaiticus Project.]

The world’s oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday — but the 1,600-year-old text doesn’t match the one you’ll find in churches today.

Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.

The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

And some familiar — very important — passages are missing, including verses dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, they said.

Juan Garces, the British Library project curator, said it should be no surprise that the ancient text is not quite the same as the modern one, since the Bible has developed and changed over the years.

"The Bible as an inspirational text has a history," he told CNN.

"There are certainly theological questions linked to this," he said. "Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves."

That is part of the reason for putting the Bible online, said Garces, who is both a Biblical scholar and a computer scientist.

"Scholars will want to look very closely at it, and some of the Web site functionality is specifically for them — the ability to search the text, the ability to highlight a word, the degree of detail is particularly interesting for scholars interested in the text," he said.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

When it comes to judging those who practice divination or witchcraft, God’s word is clear: Witchcraft constitutes an attempt to be (like) God, therefore is punishable by death.

“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”(1Sa 15:23)

“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” (Exo 22:18)

“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” (Lev 20:27)

Technorati Tags: bible study, divination, witchcraft

This definition of antinomianism is taken from our New Geneva Study Bible.

Antinomianism means “opposed to the law”. Antinomian views are those denying that God’s law in Scripture should directly control the Christian’s life.

Read more on our “Antinomianism” page

We invite you to read the first letter of John today.  Read it carefully and slowly, read it aloud if at all possible, as God’s word is meant to be read aloud.  In the NT, this becomes especially evident in the letters, so go ahead and read it out loud, to your wife, your children.  And come back later for some comments we have to make on this first letter of John, if you feel so inclined.

Let us draw your attention to the following verses from John’s first letter:

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ” (1 John 2:3-4)

“and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:22)

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. ” (1 John 3:24)

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” (1 John 5:2)

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

If you have been convinced so far that the Old Testament was not really worth considering as the commandments it presents and refers to are done away with, think again. An antinomianistic approach cannot be maintained in the light of the quoted verses, let alone in the light of Jesus’ teaching as presented in Matthew’s account of the sermon on the mount:

“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Mat 5:1)

Have heaven and earth passed away yet ? No, they haven’t. And so the Law is still valid and binding, just like John tells us, too.

If God’s love is unconditional, and therefore our love for one another should be unconditional, then being tolerant, that is, completely non-judgmental, is a fundamental Christian value. Judging someone, then, shows a lack of Christian love. But the New Testament presents its reader with seemingly contradictory statements on judgment, so we need to take a closer look:

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”,

Jesus says (Luk 6:37, see also Mat 7:1), but at the same time you find him being rather judgmental himself, calling people dogs and pigs (Mat 7:6; 15:26, Mar 7:27-28), or brute of vipers (Mat 12:34; 23:33).

Paul urges his readers to shun fornicators, idolaters etc. (1 Co 5:11), and to deny false teachers entrance into their house (2 Joh 1:10), and also warns that who shows the fruits of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).

God doesn’t contradict Himself, however, He is not the author of confusion (1 Co 14:33) and does not change (Mal 3:6, Heb 13:8).
How then does all this make sense ?

The passages mentioned only appear to be contradictory if “judge not” is read to mean that any type of judgment is unchristian. But if that’s the case, no teacher can be identified as a false teacher, no person can be classified as a pig or a dog unworthy godly gifts or brotherly love, in short, no behavior can be called wrong and everything has to be tolerated. The bible does not call us to do that, on the contrary. It calls us to stay away from ungodly people, and by their fruits we shall know them (Mat 7:16-20), so we have to judge. The question is: By what standard ?

Jesus teaches by example that we should follow God’s assessment in every way, and not lean unto our own understanding when it comes to judgment (or any other moral and ethical, social and personal issue, for that matter, Pro 3:5-8).

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (Joh 5:30)

For example, we can follow God in saying that homosexuality is an abomination (Lev 18:22, Rom 1:26-27), without being judgmental on our own accord. We can say that liars and cowards are going to burn in the lake of sulfur (Rev 21:8), and we can avoid the company of people who don’t accept God’s Law (2 Ti 3:2-5), without being judgmental: In all this, we are obedient to His word.

The call not to judge anyone ever and to associate with everyone equally, brethren and non brethren alike, violates God’s commandment of separation, of holiness (Lev 20:26) and ignores God’s own judgments. It means to be like a god ourselves, as in ignoring God’s assessments we determine for ourselves what is good or evil, right or wrong – we create our own standard, which is exactly what the nachash tempted Eve with. But instead of repeating Eve’s sin happily and blindly, we are called to follow God in His judgment, to go by His standard alone in everything, just like Jesus did, and not to fall prey to the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11).