Saturday 3 December 2011

Suspect Religion!

J. C. Ryle said:  A man's religion may well be suspected when he is content to go to heaven alone."

Unaccompanied Faith!

Joy and peace in believing will never accompany an inconsistent life!

Every Sin Forgiven

I ought to go to Christ for the forgiveness of each sin.  In washing my body, I go over every spot, and wash it out.  Should I be less careful in washing my soul?"

Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne

Friday 2 December 2011

Lloyd-Jones, Romanism and Assurance of Salvation

Speaking of assurance of salvation, DMLJ makes the point that "The Roman Catholic Church deliberately discourages it.  Obviously, were she not to do so, there would not be so much need for the priesthood, and for the power of the Church and her authorities.  She deliberately keeps her people in uncertainty about their condition in this life and in the next.  So the Romanist prays for the dead, and so on.  But this is a gross and a terrible travesty of the New Testament teaching."

It is about time that preachers today spoke out about this 'travesty' that presents itself as a bona fide Christian church.  Too many mealy-mouthed preachers will not expose Romanism for the counterfeit it really is.  They think that by staying dumb, the problem and challenge of Rome will go away.  But there's not fear of that happening.

One can recall how not too many years ago, Paisley and Co. would have lambasted the church of Rome for its deviant teachings and practices, but not today.  Why?  because Paisley and Co have joined the ecumenical bandwagon through the political back door, and are happy to say nothing in public against Rome or its doings.  They would have too much to lose of they stuck to preaching the truth.  They now play it safe and say nothing.

If ever there was cowardice, this is it!  DMLJ in his day refused to stay silent when the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Saviour of the whole world was being undermined and attacked by Rome very existence, and, believe it or not, facilitated by every church that either owns Rome as a Christian Church, or knows better but refuses to make a big point of it. 

Rome denies that Christian can be sure of their salvation, because to teach that would be to render redundant the entire Roman edifice.  Christians can know they are saved and forgiven and justified; Romanists cannot.  Christians can know that Christ died for them; Romanists cannot.  Christians have a glorious heritage to enter into, but Romanists have NOTHING to look forward to in the next life and nothing to cheer the heart in this one.  

Do you know you are saved?  Do you know that you are a citizen of heaven?  Are you sure of eternal life?  You can be.  Get into the Scriptures primarily and trust yourself and your all to the fidelity of the promises that God has given in His Word.  "He who comes to Me I will not drive away (or cast out)." 

Thursday 1 December 2011

A Counterfeit, a Sham

Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, speaking about the Roman Catholic church, preached:
"It is a counterfeit, a sham; this is prostitution of the worst and most diabolical kind.  It is indeed a form of the antichrist, and it is to be rejected, it is to be denounced; but above all it is to be countered."


In the light of this, it is utterly amazing that the mainline churches can still have 'fraternal relationships' with a church that is as corrupt as Church of Rome, still regard it as a Christian Church, and still have 'fellowship' with it.

But what fellowship has light with darkness, or what fellowship can Christ have with Belial?  The ecumenical churches are now in a most difficult, indeed, untenable, position. To still support Rome after all these revelations is totally wrong.  Evangelicals within these liberal and ecumenical churches must speak out clearly and uncompromisingly so that their own members know that child sex abuse by clergy and priests is unacceptable.  They need to know that regardless of any Criminal Review Board findings, there are people within the churches who are actively involved in child abuse - at a spiritual level.  Young lives are being eternally destroyed because they are being taught by unconverted Sunday School teachers and unconverted youth leaders a religion that differs nothing from Roman Catholicism.  Do your best, attend church regularly, be a good neighbour, and be kind to the elderly - all good things in themselves, but they will get no one into heaven.

If these young leaders are not themselves Christ-centred in their living and teaching, they are closer to Rome than they are to the Christian faith.  And if these young lives are being influenced by a protestant form of Romanism, this is nothing short of spiritual child abuse. Sadly, the church authorities are party to this abuse, because they appoint these people are leaders of their young people, and spiritual overseers of their lives.

So Romanism is not far from the ethos of the Protestant churches; indeed, it has infiltrated them, and no one seems to notice or care!

Horrific Child Abuse Within Romanism

Irish church reports reveal horrific child abuse

 
 
 
 
 
Parishioners and visitors attend mass at a Roman Catholic Church in the village of Knock, County Mayo, in this photo taken May 29, 2010. There are new reports of abuse at churches along the north and south of the Irish border.
 

Parishioners and visitors attend mass at a Roman Catholic Church in the village of Knock, County Mayo, in this photo taken May 29, 2010. There are new reports of abuse at churches along the north and south of the Irish border.

Photograph by: Cathal McNaughton, Reuters

DUBLIN- A new series of reports into Catholic dioceses north and south of the Irish border on Wednesday revealed horrific child sex abuse by priests and mistakes by church authorities in dealing with them.

Audits of abuse in six dioceses by the Church's own National Board for Safeguarding Children were published by bishops, providing fresh evidence of a widespread cover-up of sexual abuse.

In Raphoe in the northwest of the Republic, Bishop Philip Boyce said horrific acts of child sex abuse were carried out by priests in his diocese over the last 35 years.

"We are truly sorry for the terrible deeds that have been inflicted on so many by a small minority of priests," Boyce said in a statement.

"During the past decades there have been very poor judgements and mistakes made.

"There were horrific acts of abuse by individual priests, that should never have happened and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner," Boyce said.

The Raphoe report said 52 allegations of abuse by a total of 14 priests were made to police between January 1975 and August 2010.

"It is clear that significant errors of judgment were made by successive bishops when responding to child abuse allegations that emerged within this diocese," the Raphoe report says.

"Too much emphasis was placed on the situation of the accused priest and too little on the needs of their complainants.

"Judgments were clouded, due to the presenting problem being for example, alcohol abuse and an inability to hear the concerns about abuse of children, through that presenting problem.

"More attention should have been given to ensuring that preventative actions were taken quickly when concerns came to light," the report says.

A report on the diocese of Derry in Northern Ireland says that 31 allegations of abuse were made against priests. The allegations involved 23 priests.

"Priests about whom there were clear concerns were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often 'handled' by moving them to postings elsewhere.

"There is evidence that abusive behaviour continued to be exhibited by priests who were moved on in this manner," the Derry report says.

Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has been rocked by a number of landmark reports on child sex abuse stretching back decades, and on Church leaders' complicity in covering it up.

Why are Jews so Powerful?


UNBELIEVABLE AND WRITTEN BY A MUSLIM (Pakistani official)

It sure makes interesting reading... particularly coming from a Pakistani official.
A Sypnosis by Islamic columnist on Jews

By:  Dr Farrukh Saleem
The writer is the Pakistani Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, a think tank established in 2007, and an Islamabad-based freelance  columnist.

Why  are Jews so powerful?

There  are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in  the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe  and 100,000 in Africa. For every single Jew in the world  there are 100 Muslims.

Yet, Jews are more than a  hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together.
Ever wondered why?

Jesus of  Nazareth was Jewish.
Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine's 'Person of the  Century', was a Jew.
Sigmund Freud -- id, ego, superego --  the father of  psychoanalysis was a Jew.
So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman.

Here are a few other Jews whose  intellectual output has enriched the whole  humanity:

Benjamin  Rubin gave humanity the vaccinating needle.
Jonas Salk  developed the first polio vaccine.
Albert Sabin  developed the improved live polio vaccine.
Gertrude Elion gave us a leukemia fighting drug.
Baruch Blumberg  developed the vaccination for Hepatitis B.
Paul Ehrlich  discovered a treatment for syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease).
Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize in infectious diseases.
Bernard Katz won a Nobel Prize in neuromuscular transmission.
Andrew Schally won a Nobel in endocrinology (disorders of the endocrine  system; diabetes, hyperthyroidism) .
Aaron Beck founded  Cognitive Therapy (psychotherapy to treat mental disorders, depression and  phobias).
Gregory Pincus developed the first oral contraceptive pill.
George Wald won a Nobel for furthering our understanding of the human eye.
Stanley Cohen won a  Nobel in embryology (study of embryos and their development) .
Willem  Kolff came up with the kidney dialysis  machine.

Over the past 105 years, 14 million  Jews have won 150 Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than  Peace Prizes).

Why are Jews so powerful?

Stanley  Mezor invented the first micro-processing chip.
Leo Szilard developed the first nuclear chain reactor;
Peter Schultz, optical fibre cable;
Charles Adler, traffic  lights;
Benno Strauss, Stainless steel;
Isador Kisee, sound movies;
Emile Berliner, telephone microphone;
Charles Ginsburg, videotape recorder.

Famous  financiers in the business world who  belong to  Jewish faith include :-
Ralph Lauren (Polo),
Levis Strauss  (Levi's Jeans),
Howard Schultz (Starbuck's) ,
Sergey Brin  (Google),
Michael Dell (Dell Computers),
Larry Ellison  (Oracle),
Donna Karan (DKNY),
Irv Robbins (Baskins &  Robbins) and
Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin  Donuts).

Richard Levin, President of Yale  University, is a Jew.
So was Henry Kissinger (American secretary of state),
Alan Greenspan (Fed chairman under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush),
Joseph Lieberman (US Senator), 
Madeleine Albright (American secretary of state),
Casper Weinberger (American secretary of defense),
Maxim Litvinov  ( USSR foreign Minister),
David Marshal ( Singapore 's first chief minister),
Issac Isaacs (governor-general of  Australia ),
Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman and  author),
Yevgeny Primakov (Russian PM),
Barry Goldwater (US Senator), 
Jorge Sampaio (president of Portugal ),
John Deutsch (CIA  director),
Herb Gray (Canadian deputy PM),
Pierre Mendes  (French PM),
Michael Howard (British home secretary), 
Bruno Kreisky (chancellor of Austria ) and
Robert Rubin (American secretary of treasury).

In the  media, famous Jews include :-
Wolf Blitzer (CNN),
Barbara Walters (ABC News),
Eugene Meyer  (Washington Post), 
Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief Time),
Katherine Graham  (publisher of The Washington Post),
Joseph Lelyveld  (Executive editor, The New York Times), and
Max Frankel  (New York Times).

Can you name the most beneficent philanthropist in the history of the world?
The  name is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal $4 billion most of which has gone as aid to  scientists and universities around the world.

Second to  George Soros is Walter Annenberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries by donating an estimated $2  billion.

At the Olympics, Mark Spitz set a record of sorts by winning  seven gold medals.
Lenny Krayzelburg is a three-time  Olympic gold medalist.
Spitz, Krayzelburg and Boris Becker (Tennis)  are all Jewish.

Did you know that Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra  Bullock, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben  Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Cary Grant, William  Shatner, Jerry Lewis and Peter Falk are all Jewish?

As a matter of fact, Hollywood itself was founded by a Jew.
Among directors and producers, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling ( Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1/2/3), Michael Man (Starsky and  Hutch), Milos
Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest),  Douglas Fairbanks (The Thief of Baghdad ) and Ivan Reitman  (Ghostbusters) are all Jewish.

So, why are Jews so powerful?

Answer:  EDUCATION.
   

Why are Muslims so Powerless?

UNBELIEVABLE AND WRITTEN BY A MUSLIM (Pakistani official)

_________________________________________

Why are Muslims so  powerless?

There are an  estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet:  one billion in Asia, 400 million in Africa, 44 million in Europe and six million in the Americas.
Every fifth human being is a Muslim; for every single Hindu there are  two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims.

Ever wondered  why Muslims are so powerless?
Here is why: 
There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together  have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims.
The United States has 5,758  universities and India has 8,407.

In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' , and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.

As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per  cent.

A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an  average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is  no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per  cent.

Some 98 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same.

Around 40 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent  of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the  same.

Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims.
The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million.
In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time  researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians  per one million Arabs. (in the Christian world there are up  to 1,000 technicians per one million).

Furthermore, the  Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends  around five per cent of its GDP.

Conclusion: The Muslim  world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge!

Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society.

In Pakistan,  there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360.
In the UK , the number of book titles per million stands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20.

Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse  knowledge.  

Exports  of high technology products as a percentage of total  exports are an important indicator of knowledge  application.
Pakistan's export of high technology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one  per cent.
The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait, Morocco, and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent, while Singapore
is at 58 per cent.

Conclusion:  The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.  


Why are Muslims powerless?
.....Because we aren't producing knowledge,
.....Because we aren't diffusing knowledge.,
.....Because we  aren't applying knowledge.


And, the future  belongs to knowledge-based  societies.

Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion.
America, just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion;
China $8 trillion,
Japan $3.8 trillion and
Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis).

Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500  billion;
Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion.

..... ( Muslim GDP as a percentage of world  GDP is fast  declining ). 


So, why are Muslims so powerless?

Answer:  Lack of education. 
All we do is shout to Allah the whole day and blame everyone else for  our multiple failures!!!!!
 

Irish Church Reports Reveal Horrific Child Abuse

Irish Church reports reveal horrific child abuse

A new series of reports into Irish Catholic dioceses on Wednesday revealed horrific child sex abuse by priests and mistakes by Roman Catholic Church authorities in dealing with them.

Some of the cases detailed by the Church's own child protection watchdog occurred as recently as August 2010, and the Irish republic's Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald warned that still more abuse could be revealed.

"The reports collectively indicate that across the six dioceses over 160 allegations of abuse were made to the statutory authorities in respect of 85 priests. The allegations resulted in eight convictions," she said.

She warned: "The fact is that it can take 10, 20 or more years for survivors to unearth and face deeply buried memories, so we must not assume we are free of this plague and that it belonged to one period of Church history only."

In Raphoe in the northwest of Ireland, Bishop Philip Boyce said "horrific" acts of child sex abuse were carried out by priests over the last 35 years.

Some 52 allegations of abuse by a total of 14 priests were made to police between January 1975 and August 2010.

"We are truly sorry for the terrible deeds that have been inflicted on so many by a small minority of priests," Boyce said in a statement.

"During the past decades there have been very poor judgements and mistakes made.

"There were horrific acts of abuse by individual priests that should never have happened, and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner."

The report added: "It is clear that significant errors of judgement were made by successive bishops when responding to child abuse allegations that emerged within this diocese.

"Too much emphasis was placed on the situation of the accused priest and too little on the needs of their complainants."

A report on the diocese of Derry in the British province of Northern Ireland meanwhile found that 31 allegations of abuse were made involving 23 priests.

"Priests about whom there were clear concerns were not robustly challenged or adequately managed and problems were often 'handled' by moving them to postings elsewhere," it said.

"There is evidence that abusive behaviour continued to be exhibited by priests who were moved on in this manner."

The Republic of Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, has been rocked by a number of landmark reports on child sex abuse stretching back decades, and on Church leaders' complicity in covering it up.

Further reports revealed 25 allegations of abuse against 18 priests in Tuam in the west of Ireland; 35 allegations of abuse concerning 10 priests in Dromore in Northern Ireland; seven allegations of abuse involving seven priests in Kilmore, which straddles the border; and 14 allegations of abuse concerning 13 priests in the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.

Ireland's Roman Catholic Archbishops covered up abuse

Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops 'covered up abuse to protect church's reputation'

Source:  The Telegraph.  Thursday 1st Dec 2011.

Ireland's Roman Catholic archbishops and police covered up four decades of child sex abuse by priests in a conspiracy to protect the reputation of the church, a report found.

 Cardinal Desmond Connell
Cardinal Desmond Connell who as Archbishop of Dublin failed to address the abuse scandals in the Dublin Diocese. Photo: EPA
Clergy were able to molest hundreds of vulnerable children because of a "systemic, calculated perversion of power" that put their abusers above the law, the Irish government said.
The damning verdict on the conduct of church and secular authorities followed a three-year investigation into allegations of child abuse by priests in Dublin going back to the 1960s.
Investigators who were given access to 60,000 previous secret church files accused four Archbishops of Dublin of deliberately suppressing evidence of "widespread" abuse.
Archbishops John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan and Kevin McNamara, who have all since died, and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who is retired, all refused to pass information to local police, the report said.
Evidence was kept inside a secret vault in the archbishop's Dublin residence, with suspect clerics moved between parishes to prevent the allegations being made public.
For their part, Gardai frequently ignored complaints from victims, effectively granting priests immunity from prosecution. The inquiry found that church authorities nurtured inappropriately close relations with senior police officers.

Last night the current Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, apologised to the victims, describing their abuse as an "offence to God". He said: "I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened."

In a 750-page report published yesterday the Commission to Inquire into the Dublin Archdiocese blamed the church's "don't ask, don't tell" approach for perpetuating abuse.

"The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities," it said.

"The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up.

"The State authorities facilitated that cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes."

The inquiry, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy, dismissed the claims of former bishops that they did not know sex abuse was a crime.

It concluded that the the church hierarchy was preoccupied with "the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets".

It added: "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities."

The commission looked at a sample study of allegations made by 320 children against 46 priests between 1975 and 2004. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

Two of the priests featured in the report have their names blacked out so not to undermine ongoing criminal actions.

Dermot Ahern, the Irish justice minister, said that the Gardai would review its procedures for dealing with sexual abuse complaints, and promised to continue to pursue the perpetrators.

"The report catalogues evil after evil committed in the name of what was perversely seen as the greater good," he said.

"There is no escaping the cruel irony that the church, partly motivated by a desire to avoid scandal, in fact created a scandal on an astonishing scale."

Victims called for senior Catholics and police officers to face criminal charges over the cover-up, and for the inquiry to be expanded to cover every Irish archdiocese.

"Those who turn a blind eye to these offences are as much a part of the problem as those who actually commit them," said Andrew Madden, who helped blow the whistle on the abuse 10 years ago.

The publication of the report, which was submitted to the Irish government in July, is expecte
d to prompt a wave of new child abuse allegations against Catholic priests.

On Wednesday the Christian Brothers religious order announced it had set aside £145 million to compensate children who had been abused in its schools in orphanages in Ireland.

That offer came six months after a landmark report revealed widespread sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children in Catholic-run institutions dating back to the 1930s.

Irish Roman Catholic Church Protected by the Establishment

Why aren't the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church being arrested for covering-up this horrendous epidemic that went on under their noses for decades, even to the point of protecting those they knew to be serial child sex abusers?  Why haven't the authorities, especially social services and the police, taken steps to apprehend those who have been involved in such criminal activity?  This 'church' has actually promoted such despicable behaviour by not taking decisive action against known abusers.  Yet the authorities have done absolutely nothing to deal with serial child sex abusers within their jurisdiction.  NOTHING!

Is there collusion between the RC Church and the police in this as in the Claudy terrorist bombs planted by the IRA?  Is there also collusion between the RC Church and social services in this matter?  Are government bodies involved in this cover-up?  It appears so.

Indeed those politicians and churchmen who have targeted the RC Church for particular attention have, in the past, used the media to lambast that church for its errors and behaviour, are strangely silent.  Why is this?  Have they now become the friends of error and falsehood?  Would it not pay them to highlight such global abuse perpetrated by that institution?  It appears that this is indeed the case. 

How is it that an institution like the Roman church can get off 'scott free' when it admits having abused children and young people on such a grande scale?  Can the bishops and other diocesan leaders not be brought in for questioning by the police?  Have the police been instructed by their political masters NOT to make such arrests? 

These are questions that have to be asked and answered by the authorities.  Do you agree?

Irish Roman Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse Report

The scandal within the Roman Catholic 'church' has again hit the news headlines in Northern Ireland, with revelations of priestly child sex abuse being endemic with that institution.  The 2,600 page report, started in 2002, has demonstrated that sex abuse was endemic within children's institution, and that the safety of children in general was not a consideration.  The launch of the long awaited and shocking report saw the victims and survivors of clerical sex abuse banned from the event in Dublin.  It appears athat no child abusers will be prosecuted.

If this had happened in any other institution, there would be impassioned calls for that entire organisation to be closed down with immediate effect.  If these were isolated cases with only a few individuals involved, then taking action against those individuals would go some way to resolving the situation.  But this criminal activity was endemic within that religious organisation.  In fact, the religion operated by that organisation allowed such abuse to take place, with the guaranteed cover-up that goes along with totalitarian regimes.

As is normally the case, the innocent victims of clerical sex abuse are barely mentioned - they even prohibited from attending the launch of this devastating report.  What they experienced in all its chronic horrors seems to be of no account.  The church of Rome has not considered the ongoing impact of this behaviour, and victims and survivors are left having to deal with their horrendous past as and how they can. many are addicted to alcohol and other destructive drugs, and find it difficult to maintain normal relations with other people.  Their trust in people, especially clergymen, is well rehearsed.   Any loyalty they have to their church is mis-placed in the extreme. 



The following report is taken from the Mail Online, Thursday 1st Dec 2011.

Church leaders and government watchdogs covered up 'endemic' and 'ritualised' abuse of thousands of children in Roman Catholic schools and orphanages in the Irish Republic, a shocking report revealed yesterday.

For six decades, priests and nuns terrorised boys and girls in the workhouse-style schools with sexual, physical and mental abuse.

Enlarge   Kevin Flannigan, right, and John Kelly, left, from the group Survivors of Child Abuse, protest at not being allowed into the launch of the long-awaited Child Abuse Commission report at the Conrad Hotel Dublin today

Kevin Flannigan, right, and John Kelly, left, from the group Survivors of Child Abuse, protest at not being allowed into the launch of the long-awaited Child Abuse Commission report at the Conrad Hotel Dublin
But officials in Ireland's Catholic Church shielded paedophile staff from arrest to protect their own reputations despite knowing they were serial attackers, according to the 2,600-page report, which took nine years to complete.

Irish government inspectors also failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation, it found.
Justice Sean Ryan launches the report at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin today - but refused to take questions from journalists
Justice Sean Ryan launches the report at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin today - but refuses to take questions from journalists

About 35,000 children and teenagers who were orphans, petty thieves, truants, unmarried mothers or from dysfunctional families were sent to Ireland's network of 250 Church-run industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s up until the early 1990s.

The report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found 'a climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys'.
It added: 'Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.'
Judge Sean Ryan, who chaired the commission, said that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by moving the sex offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.

'There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse,' the report said.

'The safety of children in general was not a consideration.'

Away in a Manger!

This excellent article was first printed on this site on 24th December 2009 to help readers read the NT accounts of Jesus' birth much more accurately, thus exposing some of the mythology that surrounds the Saviour's birth. It is posted again now for that same reason.

Mike Moore casts a sideways look at some assumptions about the birth of Messiah and concludes that they ain’t necessarily so.

The most enduring images of the birth of Jesus, perpetuated through paintings, literature, Christmas carols, nativity plays and sermons, is that the Lord of glory was born in a stable because there was “no room in the inn”. Even though the carols and some of our English Bible versions call Bethlehem a “town” or a “city,” in New Testament times, it would have been a village too small to support an inn. Also, inns were normally found only on major roads, especially the Roman ones, but Bethlehem was not on a major road.

Lost in translation
The misunderstanding is due to our English Bibles. The Greek word, katalyma, should never have been translated “inn”, as it is in Luke 2:7. The 1395 edition of John Wycliffe’s translation of Luke 2:7 reads: “And sche bare hir first borun sone, and wlappide hym in clothis, and leide hym in a cratche, for ther was no place to hym in no chaumbir.” For reasons known only to themselves, William Tyndale and the translators of the Geneva Bible and the Authorised Version opted for “inn” rather than “chaumber”. And so it has continued. The two exceptions to this translational custom are The New English Bible and David Stern’s The Jewish New Testament. The NEB translates Luke 2:7 as: “She wrapped him in his swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them to lodge in the house.” The JNT renders Luke 2:7 as: “She wrapped him in cloth and laid him down in a feeding trough, because there was no space for them in the living quarters.

In Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14 (the only other places in the New Testament where the word appears), katalyma clearly does not mean an inn: “Then he shall show you a large, furnished upper room [katalyma] ...” (Luke 22:11.). If Luke had intended to refer to a commercial hostelry in chapter 2, he would have used pandocheion, the very word he uses in the parable of the Good Samaritan in 10:25-37: “... he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn [pandocheion], and took care of him.” The 1915 edition of The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia observes that “Luke with his usual care distinguishes between [katalyma] and pandocheion, and his use of the verb katalúō (Luke 9:12; Luke19:7) makes his meaning clear... It is the word used of the ‘upper room’ where the Last Supper was held (Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11, ‘guest-chamber’), and of the place of reception in Bethlehem where Joseph and Mary failed to find quarters (Luke 2:7). It thus corresponds to the spare or upper room in a private house or in a village...” (available online at www.bible-history. com/isbe/I/INN).


...in a lowly cattle shed?
In Luke’s birth narrative, the Messiah was laid in a manger from which animals ate. Does that not strongly suggest a birth in a stable? According to the Biblical and Middle Eastern scholar, Kenneth Bailey, from the time of King David until the mid-twentieth century, most village homes in Israel and the Middle East consisted of two rooms; one for the family and the other for guests. The family room had an area, usually about four feet lower than the living space, in which the family donkey, cow and two or three sheep spent the night. The animals were brought into the house last thing at night and taken outside first thing in the morning. In the house they ate from mangers dug out of the stone floor of the raised family living area. The katalyma was the room reserved for guests and visitors. Contrary to the traditional Christmas story, Mary was not in labour when she and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem. Luke 2:6 records, “So it was, that while they were there [not upon arrival], the days were completed for her to be delivered.” The ESV reads, “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.” How could we have ever concluded from the biblical text that Mary was in labour at the time she and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem? The idea may have originated with a second-century apocryphal work of fiction, The Protevangelium of James: “And they came to the midst of the way, and Mary said unto him: Take me down from the ass, for that which is within me presseth me, to come forth. And he took her down from the ass and said unto her: Whither shall I take thee to hide thy shame? for the place is desert.” (Protevangelium of James 17:8, available online at www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancyjames.html).


No crib for a bed
Matthew records that when the magi arrived in Bethlehem they entered “the house,” not “the stable”, and there they “fell down and worshipped Him” (Mt. 2:11). Jews and Arabs have traditionally placed a high value on family and hospitality, so when Caesar Augustus decreed that the Jewish population of ancient Israel had to return to their home towns to register for the census, Joseph went to Bethlehem “because he belonged to the house and line of David”(Luke 2:4). “To turn away a descendant of David in ‘the City of David’ would be an unspeakable shame on the entire village,” writes Kenneth Bailey in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (p. 26). Even if there had been no room to stay with Joseph’s relatives in Bethlehem, no village in the hill country of Judea was more than an hours ride on donkey from Bethlehem, so Joseph could easily have taken his betrothed to her relatives, Elizabeth and Zechariah.

From these considerations, we can construct a more accurate scenario of the events surrounding the birth of Messiah. Joseph and his pregnant fiancée Mary made their way to this ancestral village of Bethlehem for the census decreed by Caesar. There, he and Mary stayed with Joseph’s relatives for the remainder of her pregnancy in a home which was crowded due to the census being taken and where there was no longer any space in “the guest room”. Consequently, Mary gave birth to her child in the family room and the baby was placed on clean straw in one of the stone mangers. The birth of the Lord of glory was indeed humble but the manger in which he was laid was in a warm, friendly family home, not in a cold, dirty and lonely stable.

This is not a call to preachers to devote their Christmas sermons to denouncing the traditional misunderstandings of the birth of Messiah. Still less is it an encouragement to ministers to ignore the festive season and to steer clear of preaching on the nativity. It is a plea for more careful reading, exegesis and exposition of Scripture in order to draw out better and more appropriate applications from the text of the Bible.


Mike Moore
This article was first published in the Herald, the official organ of Christian Witness to Israel, in December 2009.

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Robbers of Christ's Glory!

It is very clear that, from a biblical viewpoint, Romanism is a massive error and deception.  One only has to look at the way in which she imposes herself and her devilish doctrines and practices between the souls of their people and the Lord Jesus Christ.  To get to Him, they must comes through the Mass, where they actually eat the Body of Christ!!!, the saints with their superabundance of merit that they can then share with those less meritorious, the priesthood (as they understand it - they seem to ignore the fact that all true believer in Christ are themselves priests, and the only Priest they go to is the Great High Priest, Christ Himself); they must go through confession - to another equally, or as recent h times have shown more sinful individual; the papacy; and even His very mother, the blessed Virgin Mary.

These are all set up as obstacles to be negotiated on the way to heaven.  But they are unScriptural additions, or road blocks, for the saints of God.  They were invented by Rome to keep a tight hold on their adherents, as all totalitarian systems do.  And Rome is a totalitarian system!  It holds its people with a tight grip!  In this regard, it is no different from other religious denominations; and one way in which you can tell if a person is more devoted to the church than to Christ is to suggest to him about leaving his denomination and joining another.  If he finds that impossible, then that man has a serious problem.  His devotion is to the church, and not to Christ or the Gospel.

What a subtle way of keeping sinners from becoming Christians! And many throughout the world have fallen for this subterfuge.  The devil has employed his "wiles," his schemes and subtle plans to divert sinners away from the Saviour of the world because he wants them with him in hell forever.  So crafty is he that he has deceived many church leaders and church members, and even many Christians.  They live only for today, and do not see further down the road, or where the devil's crafty schemes are leading them.  Rome has done this most successfully, there being almost 1.1bn Catholics in the world.  That amounts to approximately one sixth of the world's population!  What massive world-wide deception!  It would be very wrong to say that there are no true Christians among them, but such a massive population of deceived people is utterly astounding.  Any Christians within that institution are so despite the church's teaching and practice, not because of it - a statement that is also true of many Protestant churches.

The truly amazing thing is that so many have been taken in by this clever religious organisation.  They imagine Rome is exactly how she portrays herself.  They have been sucked in by her honeyed words and sentiments, and blinded by her authority and size.

But not all Christians have gone down that road to perdition.  Thank God for those with spiritual insight and discernment.

Lloyd-Jones on Roman Catholicism

When, in May 1963, Rev. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones described Roman Catholicism as "the devil's greatest masterpiece!" was he going too far? When he added to this that this religious institution was described by the Reformers of the 16th century as "apostasy," was this accurate?  He calls her "the whore" thus aligning her with "the great whore" that sits on the seven hills in Revelation 17; and, and this is a most interesting point, he says that "if we accept her teaching, we are believing a lie!" "Her dogma is a counterfeit."

Now these are very strong word, and would not be well accepted in today's PC world.  The ecumenicals would be doing their nut; the clever PC people would be having a nightmare; and churches would distance themselves entirely from such uncalled for comments; and the evangelicals would, as usual, remain silent.

How sad a thing it is that many churches and amongst them evangelicals, now see Rome as a harmless religious body that is essentially harmless.  It has truth - I do not doubt that - at times more truth than many Protestants!  They see her leaders as nice men, very pleasant, easy to get along with, believing much the same as protestants believe, not much difference between them, and so on it goes.

But Lloyd-Jones claims that "if we accept her teaching, we are believing a lie!"  All those in the protestant churches who accept Romes teaching are, themselves, believing a lie.  The really disturbing thing is that amongst them are to be found many evangelicals, Christians.  Evangelicals are people who know the truth, they claim, and they know the difference between truth and error.  They know and love Jesus Christ who is "the truth."  But if this is true of these people, how is it that, in accepting the teaching of Rome, they are believing a lie?  How can an evangelical say he is preaching the truth while at the same time is believing a lie? There is surely something seriously wrong with such an approach.  But they do not see it!

But in addition to this, there are many evangelicals who say they do not accept the teaching of Rome, and yet the church to which they belong does accept it as a Christian Church. They draw their salaries from such a denomination, and will defend it to the last breath in their bodies.  Woe betide the man who criticises their church! they will get the full blast of their tongues! then you will know for sure what or Who has prime place in their thinking and devotion - Christ and His gospel, or their church.

How could this possibly happen?  here is only one answer: Rome is the greatest vehicle for ministering "the wiles of the devil" and is itself a manifestation of the devil's subtlety.   Only by being overcome by "the wiles of the devil" could a church or a professing evangelical, even come close to accepting the teaching of Rome as the truth.

Like many issues today, a man's attitude to Rome will tell you a ot about what he really believes!

Monday 28 November 2011

Don't Tone Down Your Message!

Church ministers are not leading their people aright of they are not preaching "the whole counsel of God" to their congregations.  They are leading them astray.  There is an urgently needed radical message that must be preached into this post-Christian world in which we live.  But its a very costly message for the congregation, and especially for the preacher.  In our preaching, we must treat men with love and talk to them humanly, as Schaeffer said. 

But we must NOT tone down our message.  That's what happened in Jeremiah's day; and it is also happening in our day, too.  Israel was being led astray at that time, and the churches are being led astray by their leaders today - by those who are not preaching the full Gospel of Christ.  By preaching, I mean explanation of the text and application of the message to those listening to them.  What has been lost and forgotten in today's church is the fact that simply being a church or religious leader does not protect from the judgement of God as revealed in Scripture.  The truth is, in fact, that because a man is a church leader, the all-searching eye of the Lord is upon him.  He who teaches is liable to an even greater judgement.  That's why not many are to put themselves forward as preachers/teachers. 

"Woe is unto me if I do not preach the Gospel, " cried Paul. Terrible consequences are laid up for me if I fail in this the highest of all callings.  Woe to those false shepherds who flatter the people, telling them how good they are, and that they are good enough for God and right for heaven.  Woe to those false prophets who claim to speak in the name of the Triune God, but who are prophesying for Baal.  Woe to those false preachers who accept all and sundry into full church membership, thus accepting them as Christians, when they experienced no new birth, there was no repentance, no faith, no conviction of sin, no turning to Christ as their only hope of eternal salvation.  Woe to those church elders who deceive their people into imagining that co-habitation is acceptable, that adultery is OK, that blasphemy is proper, that lying and cheating is good, whereas being faithful to Christ is not!  Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil.  Pharisees, hypocrites!  Away with you into the bottomless pit prepared for the devil and his angels!

And woe to you who know the truth and prefer to listen to error!  Woe to you who cooperate willingly and gladly with anti-Gospel ministers and elders within your church and denomination.  Woe to you who defend the right of ministers within the church to hold to an anti-Gospel position.  Oh, the woes of God are cascading upon the adulterous church in the 21st century.  Come out of her, my people, and be ye separate have nothing to do with her adulteries.  Flee as fast as your legs can carry you, and join yourself with the true people of God.