• America In Prophecy, Freedom of Speech and Religion

    Posted on April 20th, 2012

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    University Takes “Christ” Out of Christianity

    University Takes “Christ” Out of Christianity

    According to email correspondence from the university, the group’s constitution was not approved because the university took issue with a requirement that leaders have a “personal commitment to Jesus Christ.”

    “Please change the following statement in your constitution,” a university official wrote to the group.

    The original statement read: “Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, personal commitment to Jesus Christ, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability.”

    The university directed the group to change the statement to read: “Criteria for officer selection will include level and quality of past involvement, commitment to the organization, and demonstrated leadership ability.”

    Ironically, Vanderbilt University was founded as a Methodist institution established for the purpose of practicing – among other things – theology.

  • Breaking News, Encouragement, For Christians, Iran, Islam, Jesus v. Religion, Rob Robinson

    Posted on February 22nd, 2012

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    What if Death Was the Cost of Following Jesus?

    What if Death Was the Cost of Following Jesus?

    If today, it actually cost you something to believe in, or claim to be a follower of Jesus, would you be willing to pay that cost?

    Are you sure?

    If to this point it has not cost you anything to be a follower of Jesus, it is highly unlikely that you would now be willing to pay the cost that might be asked of you. If we have not been wiling to walk away from all sin in our life and correct our behavior in order to follow Jesus, it is not likely that we would be willing to now, to lay down our life for Him, if that was the cost demanded.

  • America In Prophecy, Breaking News, Persecution, Philippines, Signs on the Earth, Terrorism

    Posted on December 26th, 2010

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    The Danger of Following Jesus

    The Danger of Following Jesus

    While I write this article the sound of roosters crowing echo with the voices of children singing Christmas songs nearby. The Barangay where I am living with my wife’s family in Talisay is a peaceful place even though it is filled with much activity.

    The people of the Philippines are a gentle and peaceful people. They treasure the joys of being with their family members on a Sunday outing to the beach, or an afternoon of laughter around the songs they sing in their living rooms.

    Not far from the peace and serenity of a simple life, Al Qaeda lurks nearby. In the southern part of the 7,200 islands of the Philippines there is an evil that threatens the way of life that Filipino’s love. An evil that does not care for family, the love that is felt and shared, nor the simplicity of a humble and loving people.

    Those demonically inspired men who have turned other quiet neighborhoods of the world into war zones would like nothing better than to bring their brand of terror to all the streets of these peaceful islands. The people of the Philippines will not have it here though. They fight hard against the efforts of these selfish men. Brave soldiers and private citizens die for freedom from evil, just as Americans have died for their freedom in past and current battles. I pray that my amigo’s here continue to be successful in eradicating Al Qaeda from every corner of this lovely place.

  • Controversial Subjects, Encouragement, Rob Robinson, Witnessing

    Posted on December 5th, 2010

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    On Knowing Yourself, or Not

    On Knowing Yourself, or Not

    If you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, then I am sure that you have also determined to follow Him no matter what the cost. Perhaps you have made the confession that you love the Lord above all other things and if necessary, you would be willing to give your life to follow Jesus. I certainly hope that if presented with a situation where we had to make that decision, that we would be able to follow through on that desire.

    The confession that we have made that we will follow Jesus as all cost, is one of the major reasons that the Lord allows us to have an opportunity to test that confession.

    How would we genuinely know if we really were committed to Jesus the way that we claim, unless we have an opportunity to deny Him? It is for this reason that the Lord will place us in a situation where we can see how we will react when under pressure. Maybe it is a stressful situation where you have the choice to either be patient or loses your temper. Perhaps it will be at a time when your friends or family will make fun or scold you for your trust in Jesus. It may be during the loss of something that you love desperately in your life that you see who you really are.

  • America In Prophecy, Freedom of Speech and Religion, Persecution, Rob Robinson, The Last Days

    Posted on November 23rd, 2010

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    Arrested in America for Preaching the Gospel

    Arrested in America for Preaching the Gospel

    It seems almost unbelievable that any American Citizen could find themselves in handcuffs and under arrest for simply preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Doesn’t the first amendment guarantee the right to free speech, which includes the right to tell someone about your faith? Every time I read a story such as this one that happened in Kansas, it brings me to the realization that before Jesus returns American Christians may find themselves arrested in their own church for simply assembling to worship God.

    During the period of history in which the church of Smyrna existed, 100 to 313 A. D., Foxes Book of Martyrs records that over five million Christians were killed during the reign of ten separate Roman Emperors for simply worshiping Jesus Christ.

    Jesus promised this church that if they would be faithful to Him even unto death, they would receive the “Crown of Life” and that they would not be hurt by the “Second Death”.

    Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

    The “Ten Days” that Jesus refers to here, were ten periods of intense persecution under these Roman Emperor’s:

  • America In Prophecy, Freedom of Speech and Religion, Fulfilled Prophecy, Homosexuality, Persecution, Rob Robinson

    Posted on November 11th, 2010

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    Fulfillment of Prophecy: Persecution For Following Jesus

    Fulfillment of Prophecy: Persecution For Following Jesus

    I wonder what would happen to the Christian church in America should they find that it would cost their lives or comfort to follow Jesus Christ? It very well may be that persecution and perhaps even the threat of death for following Jesus Christ and believing that the Bible is the Word of God, is coming to our land. The storm clouds of an approaching tempest are already gathering. As recent laws enacted in the United States have already begun to target the speech of pastors as “Hate Crimes”, who proclaim that homosexual relationships are sin, and abortion is murder.

    It is for certain that as the day of Jesus return nears, there will an increased cost to follow Him. Jesus described the fact that in the Last Days, those who follow Him will be “hated by all nations…”

    Matthew 24:9-10 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

    As these days approach, let us prepare ourselves and our families so that when persecution does fall upon our lives we will be ready to accept it and be diligent to hold on to Jesus at all costs.

  • Encouragement, Jesus Church, Persecution, Rob Robinson

    Posted on November 2nd, 2010

    Written by Rob Robinson

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    Signs of the Last Days: Increased Persecution.

    Signs of the Last Days: Increased Persecution.

    As we read the news of Christians being killed in Iraqi churches and a mass exodus of believers from the middle east, we might think that this is the normal environment for those who take up residence in these areas.

    Jesus said that persecution would be a normal part of life for those who live in close proximity to His return to Earth. If that person who is persecuted does not have their roots down deep into the Word of God and remain in close fellowship with Jesus, they will not be able to endure it.

    Matthew 13:20-21 “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”

    We can expect greater trouble from those in the world, towards us, if our commitment to Jesus is true and we are in fact visibly living for the Lord every day. Jesus spoke of the fact that “In this world we would have tribulation…” He told us that we should not be offended when people hate us because we love Him, because in essence they hated Him before the hated us.

  • Jesus Church, Persecution, Prayer

    Posted on November 2nd, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    58 Dead, 78 Wounded in Iraqi Christian Church

    58 Dead, 78 Wounded in Iraqi Christian Church

    BAGHDAD — After the gunmen killed the priest and nearly everyone in the first row, an eerie quiet descended over the pews. The only occasional sounds were sporadic gunfire, the muffled cries of the hostages and the shouts of Islamic militants — sometimes over their cell phones.

    Suddenly the lights went out. Iraqi forces began entering the building, telling parishioners: “We will save you.” Then a shattering blast shook the church as a suicide bomber set off his explosives. By the time the siege of Our Lady of Salvation church was over Sunday night, 58 people were dead and 78 wounded — nearly everyone inside the building.

    The attack, claimed by an al-Qaida-linked organization, was the deadliest recorded against Iraq’s Christians since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion unleashed a wave of violence against them.The scope of the slaughter only became clear on Monday after a long night of confusion and conflicting reports. Iraqi officials had initially provided a much lower death toll.

    Pope Benedict XVI denounced the militants’ assault as “ferocious,” the White House condemned it as “senseless” and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said it harkened back to the days of sectarian warfare between Muslim sects. Christians who cowered for hours inside the stone building that used to be their peaceful sanctuary wondered why they were yet again the target of violence.

    “They are criminals and more than criminals. What type of man kills people at prayer? What have we done to receive this?” said Aida Jameel, a 65-year-old Christian woman who was shot in her leg. The violence began around 5:30 Sunday evening in what a senior Iraqi security official said appeared to be a suicide mission.

  • Jesus Church, Persecution

    Posted on November 2nd, 2010

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    Christians Departing the Middle Ease Amid Persecution

    Christians Departing the Middle Ease Amid Persecution

    Over seven years have passed since President Bush declared victory in Iraq, and two months have now gone by since Obama declared that same conflict to be over, but for Christians in the Middle East, such talk of victory is hollow. For centuries, Christians living under Muslim domination have endured cycles of persecution and tolerance, but now an virtually unprecedented exodus of Christians from the region is underway.

    According to an article by Robert Fisk for The Independent, nations where long-suffering Christians have managed to survive intimidation and periodic persecution at the hands of Muslim authorities are witnessing the flight of large portions of their Christian population. In Fisk’s words:

    Across the Middle East, it is the same story of despairing — sometimes frightened — Christian minorities, and of an exodus that reaches almost Biblical proportions. Almost half of Iraq’s Christians have fled their country since the first Gulf War in 1991, most of them after the 2004 invasion — a weird tribute to the self-proclaimed Christian faith of the two Bush presidents who went to war with Iraq — and stand now at 550,000, scarcely 3 per cent of the population. More than half of Lebanon’s Christians now live outside their country. Once a majority, the nation’s one and a half million Christians, most of them Maronite Catholics, comprise perhaps 35 per cent of the Lebanese. Egypt’s Coptic Christians — there are at most around eight million — now represent less than 10 per cent of the population.

  • America In Prophecy, Jesus Church, Persecution

    Posted on August 20th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Online Ministries Denied Tax Exempt Status

    Online Ministries Denied Tax Exempt Status

    God may be listening, but the IRS isn’t — or at least, not if you’re preaching online. The federal tax agency won a victory Monday for its decision not to grant church status to a religious organization that primarily conducts its worship services via radio and internet, reports theNational Law Journal. Why would it matter? Becasue non-church non-profits are subject to greater regulatory scrutiny and oversight than are churches.
    The Foundation of Human Understanding, “based upon Judeo-Christian beliefs and the doctrine and teachings of its founder,” Roy Masters, had appealed the IRS classification to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where a three-judge panel waded into the murky waters of church classification precedent. Despite what Federal Circuit Judge William Bryson said was a decided dearth of guidance about how to apply the “church” label, the panel largely looked to the associational test, which requires that members meet regularly for organized worship. Not good news for the Foundation of Human Understanding. “The fact that all the listeners simultaneously received the Foundation’s message over the radio or the Internet does not mean that those members associated with each other and worshiped communally,” Bryson wrote.

  • Increasing Sin, Persecution, Terrorism

    Posted on August 9th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Killed For Serving Jesus in Afghanistan

    Killed For Serving Jesus in Afghanistan

    KABUL, Afghanistan — Their last meal was a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan. Returning home from a three-week trek on foot to deliver free medical care to the remotest regions of the country, the aid workers — six Americans, a Briton, a German and four Afghans — had just finished eating when they were accosted by gunmen with long dyed-red beards, the police said. The gunmen marched them into the forest, stood them in a line and shot 10 of them one by one. The police found their bodies, seven men and three women, on Friday, the Badakhshan Province police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, said Saturday.

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion, Is The Bible the Word of God?, Persecution

    Posted on July 3rd, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Florida Schools Ban Bibles on Religious Freedom Day

    Florida Schools Ban Bibles on Religious Freedom Day

    Maitland-based Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit Thursday to overturn a ban on Bible distribution on public school campuses in Collier County. According to the Liberty Counsel, the Collier County School Board allowed World Changers to distribute free Bibles to students during off-school hours on Religious Freedom Day, but now the school officials claim that Bibles do not provide any educational benefit to the students and the distribution should stop. The Collier County School District policy specifically allows the distribution of literature by nonprofit organizations, but only with the approval of the superintendent and the Community Request Committee, whose members are appointed by the superintendent. Approval was denied to World Changers, despite the fact that its distribution included a disclaimer of any school endorsement or sponsorship and that receiving a Bible was purely voluntary.

  • Jesus v. Everything, Jesus v. Religion

    Posted on May 15th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Atheists Lecture Believers on Faith in God

    Atheists Lecture Believers on Faith in God

    I love watching atheists try to tell religious people what they should believe about God. I’m not talking about atheists trying to convince religious people not to believe in God. We expect that. I’m talking about atheists telling religious people how to continue properly believing in God. I find this incredibly amusing, because, you know, atheists are experts in things like keeping faith. Michael Ruse is a prime specimen.

    An atheist (he says “I find it a great relief no longer to believe in God”) and self-declared “ex-Christian,” a few years back Ruse wrote a book titled Can a Darwinian be a Christian? and answered “Absolutely!” (p. 217) Now, in a recent piece in the UK Guardian, Ruse lectures none other than the Archbishop of Canterbury on proper belief in God:

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion, Obama Watch, Persecution

    Posted on May 15th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Supreme Court Nominee for Redistributing Speech

    Supreme Court Nominee for Redistributing Speech

    Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan said the high court should be focused on ferreting out improper governmental motives when deciding First Amendment cases, arguing that the government’s reasons for restricting free speech were what mattered most and not necessarily the effect of those restrictions on speech. Kagan, the solicitor general of the United States under President Obama, expressed that idea in her 1996 article in the University of Chicago Law Review entitled, “Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine.”

    In her article, Kagan said that examination of the motives of government is the proper approach for the Supreme Court when looking at whether a law violates the First Amendment. While not denying that other concerns, such as the impact of a law, can be taken into account, Kagan argued that governmental motive is “the most important” factor.

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion

    Posted on March 24th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Music Can Be Banned If It Even Sounds Religious

    Music Can Be Banned If It Even Sounds Religious

    A public school has banned performance of an instrumental version of “Ave Maria” at its high-school graduation simply because the superintendent fears it might sound religious — and the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the ban to stand by refusing to hear the case.
    Kathryn Nurre, a former student at Henry M. Jackson High School in Everett, Wash., brought the action against Carol Whitehead, superintendent of Everett School District, alleging that she engaged in unjustified censorship of expression.
    Nurre, a member of the Jackson High School Wind Ensemble who played alto saxophone, received her high school diploma in June 2006. The group was expected to perform at the graduation ceremony, and 17 students unanimously chose Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” as their selection.

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion, Jesus Church

    Posted on March 18th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Signs of Things to Come: Permit Required for Home Bible Study?

    Signs of Things to Come: Permit Required for Home Bible Study?

    RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — For the second time in six months, the city has ordered a group of Christian worshippers who meet inside homes to get a permit or shut down.
    It’s the latest incident in which religious groups in Southern California have been targeted by cities for home gatherings, though many of those groups were eventually allowed to meet without obtaining permits.
    Rancho Cucamonga is trying to halt Friday night meetings at a home after receiving a complaint in February from a neighbor that 40 to 60 people were gathering weekly in the San Bernardino County location.

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion

    Posted on March 12th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    Court Upholds “Under God” in Pledge of Allegiance

    Court Upholds “Under God” in Pledge of Allegiance

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments on Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.
    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.
    “The Pledge is constitutional,” Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in the 2-1 ruling. “The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded.”

  • Freedom of Speech and Religion

    Posted on March 10th, 2010

    Written by B.P.U Contributor

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    School Enraged Over the Mention of God

    Members of a California school board, unhappy that they were told by a federal court not to censor a teacher’s patriotic classroom banners that mention “God,” have voted to appeal the ruling.
    The case comes from the Poway Unified School District, which lost its tussle with teacher Bradley Johnson just days earlier.
    WND reported the math teacher had had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 17 years

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