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This newsletter is available online by
clicking here. The archived newsletter are also available by
clicking here.
The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site . Understand The Times does not
endorse these events but rather is
showing the church the current events.
The
purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a
Biblical perspective.
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September 19 - UFO Sightings Spiked This Summer
Article: Rising Interest In The Supernatural
According to an
organization that tracks UFO reports, this summer
has been an especially busy period for UFO sightings. The Mutual
UFO Network (MUFON) noted that
sightings increased over the past six weeks, with some states more than
doubling their normal numbers.
"It's pretty exciting," said
Clifford Clift, the international director of MUFON.
"When you average 500 a month [nationwide] and go to 1,013 in one month,
that's an interesting spike in sighting reports."
Clift told LIfe's Little
Mysteries that he's not sure what to make of the data at this point.
It could be the start of something big, or it could merely be a computer
glitch that accidentally counted some reports twice. Another possibility
is that we're simply in the midst of a "UFO flap," one of many periodic
increases in sightings over the years.
There are several
reasons UFOs might appear in flaps, or clusters. One is that objects in
the sky are usually seen by many people, especially when they appear
over urban areas. UFOs typically don't hover close
to Earth or in someone's back yard; instead, they are often sighted high
in the sky - just far enough away so that we can't see details or get
sharp photos.
There are also
psychological and social explanations.
Sightings are often fueled by the mass media; people read about
mysterious things or see TV shows about them, and interest or concern
about them spreads from person to person. It's not
that anyone is hoaxing or making up sightings:
Research has shown that if you tell people what to look for (a
phenomenon called "priming"), people will often see what they
are looking for - whether those things exist or not.
As Clift noted,
"It's likely that the media and
[alien-themed] movies that are coming out, like 'Apollo 18' and 'Paul,'
are piquing people's interest in UFOs." People hear
about UFOs, and for a while they tend to look at the sky more often,
wondering if they might have their own sighting. And precisely because
people are spending more time looking at the sky, they will for the
first time notice (normal) lights and objects that have always been
there.
Whether the increase in
sightings is rooted in reality, a computer glitch, or psychological and
social influences remains to be seen. One thing is certain:
This is not the first time that UFO reports have increased, and it won't
be the last.
Read Full Article ....
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September 14 - More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs
Article: Miscellaneous
If World War
II-era warbler Kate Smith sang today, her anthem could be
Gods Bless America.
That's one of the key findings in
newly released research that reveals America's drift from clearly
defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal
preferences.
The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with
self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed
their ties to traditional beliefs and practices.
Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of
exaggeration, America is headed for
"310 million people with 310 million religions."
"We are a designer
society. We want everything customized to our personal needs - our
clothing, our food, our education," he says.
Now it's our religion.
The consequence, Barna says, is that,
for every subgroup of religion, race,
gender, age and region of the country, the important markers of
religious connection are fracturing. When he
measures people by their belief in seven essential doctrines,
defined by the National Association of Evangelicals' Statement of
Faith, only 7% of those surveyed
qualified.
Barna laments,
"People say, 'I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book.
And then I believe whatever I want.'"
LifeWay Research reinforces those findings: A
new survey of 900 U.S. Protestant pastors finds
62% predict the importance of being identified
with a denomination will diminish over the next 10 years.
Bellah sees two sides to the
one-person-one-religion trend. On the positive:
It's harder to hold on to prejudices against groups - by religion or
race or gender or sexuality - if everyone wants to be seen
individually. "The bad news is you lose the capacity to make
connections. Everyone is pretty much on their own," he says. And all
this rampant individualism also fosters "hostility toward organized
groups - government, industry, even organized religion."
Read Full Article....
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September 14 - Saudi Arabia warns off US on Palestinian veto
Article: Israel And The Last Days
A former head of Saudi
Arabian intelligence and ex-ambassador to Washington, Turki al-Faisal, has
warned that
an American veto of Palestinian membership of the United Nations would end the
''special relationship'' between the two countries, and make the US ''toxic'' in
the Arab world.
The warning comes as Washington is
scrambling to avoid a scenario where it alone casts a veto in the UN Security
Council against the Palestinian bid for recognition of statehood, which is
expected to be formally requested next week.
Mr Faisal says in an article in The New York Times that
the US will jeopardize its close ties with Saudi Arabia
and further undermine its position in a changing Arab world if it again sides
with Israel.
''The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United
Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab
world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security
will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another
war in the region,'' Mr Faisal says.
''Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be
able to co-operate with America in the same way it historically has. With most
of the Arab world in upheaval, the 'special relationship' between Saudi Arabia
and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority
of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people.''
He adds: ''Saudi leaders would be forced by
domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive
foreign policy.''
''American support for Palestinian
statehood is therefore crucial, and a veto will have profound negative
consequences. In addition to causing substantial damage to American-Saudi
relations and provoking uproar among Muslims worldwide, the United States would
further undermine its relations with the Muslim world, empower Iran and threaten
regional stability,'' Mr Faisal writes.
Read Full Article....
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September 17 - Pope: All religions need to Coexist
Article: One World Religion
Comment from Understand the Times:
Once again
the pope calls for all religions to be tolerant of each other and
find a way to co-exist for the cause of peace. If tolerance means
acceptance, then why did Jesus have to die on the cross for our
sins? The pope's gospel is very confusing in light of what Jesus
said. He said that all those who worship other gods are lost and on
their way to hell.
When true
Christians profess the true gospel they are labeled as intolerant
and persecuted. This is what the Roman Catholic Inquisition was all
about. Could there be another inquisition for those who refuse to
accept the pope's rule? Time will tell.
The pope has stated that
if people of all faiths do not "give themselves to
each other" that we will create hell on earth. He insists we need to
"let our neighbor in." The pope gave his thoughts at an interreligious
dialogue meeting on Tuesday in Munich, Germany. He stated:
"The
theme of the peace meeting, 'Bound to live together,' reminds us that we
as human beings are bound to each other. This living together is in fact
a precondition that derives from our being human. And it is our duty to
give it a positive content."
He added that
living together can "transform itself into living
against one another." It "can become a hell if we do not learn to accept
one another, if everyone only wants to be himself or herself."
He continued:
"it can also be a gift when we open up to one
another, when we give ourselves to one another."
The pope explained that
living together was no longer a local issue, but is now a global issue
for all of humanity and called it a "task" and a "gift."
He
said that God wanted all of humanity to be a family and for everyone to
be "brothers and sisters."
Pope Benedict XVI concluded by
stating:
"When religion fails in this meeting with God, when it pulls him down to
us instead of raising us up to him, when we, so to say, make him our
possession, then it can contribute to the destruction of peace," he
cautioned. "But if it finds the way to the divine, to the creator and
redeemer of all people, then it is a force for peace."
Read Full Article....
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September 16 - What is a 'missional' church?
Article: Emerging Church
Comment from Understand the Times:
The term "missional"
is commonly used as part of the emerging church vocabulary. The
following article explains what the term means. In other words, the
belief is that traditional Bible believing Christianity must be
completely re-invented to become an all embracing belief system that
teaches there are many ways to God.
Jesus said
there is one way that leads to heaven, and that He was the only way.
If you choose to accept the "missional" definition of Christianity
then you will be on the wide way that leads to hell separated from
Jesus Christ for eternity.
We hear others talk about
what they are "doing" at their church. And we tell people what
we are "doing" at our church. But what Christians in all
denominations are asking themselves and others is, are "doing"
and "being" a Christian the same thing?
Something new is being
discussed and embraced by Christians around the world. Many
Christian writers are saying that the rise
of the missional church is the single biggest development in
Christianity since the Reformation. Just as the medieval
church was different from the church we see in the Book of Acts,
the church after the Reformation looks totally different from
its medieval predecessor. And the emerging
missional church will just as dramatically distinguish itself
from what we now call "church."
Missional church is a
way of living, not an affiliation with a group or an activity.
To think and to live missionally is to see all of life as a way
to be engaged with the mission of God in the world.
This missional understanding of
Christianity is literally "undoing" Christianity as a collection
of man-made traditions and recreating it as the family of
believers God planned and that we see in the New Testament.
The shifts go way beyond denominational affiliations, worship
styles, program approaches or cultural stances. The
missional development goes to the very heart of what the church
is, not just what it does. It
redefines the church's role in the world in a way that breaks
sharply with what many churches think.
The result of this
shift will be that, within a
few years, it will be impossible to think of church in the way
we used to, as something we "went to" or "participated in" or
"joined" or "attended."
The idea of missional church is being embraced by thousands of
churches across the country. But to be missional requires a new
"scorecard" for being successful as a congregation. The
typical church scorecard (how many, how often, how much) doesn't
mesh with a missional view of how the church monitors success.
The current scorecard rewards church
"activity" and can be filled without any interaction with the
community beyond the church doors. It promotes the internally
focused, program and church-based side of the ledger.
Read Full Article....
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September 19 - 40 Ways to Increase Baptisms by RICK WARREN
Article: Miscellaneous
Comment from Understand the Times:
No comment required.
Here's a list of some simple things we
do to increase baptisms at Saddleback that almost any church can do:
1. Mention the value, purpose and benefits of baptism regularly in
sermons.
2. Videotape some of your baptisms. Prepare a music video of baptisms
to show in your worship service so people who've never seen a baptism
can witness one.
3. Have clothes ready for people who decide spontaneously to be
baptized after a service.
4. Make it a party atmosphere. It's a celebration, not a funeral.
Applaud baptisms!
5. Invite small group members to witness the baptism and identify
them before each baptism.
6. Prepare a beautiful leatherette-bound baptism folder to hold their
certificate.
7. Have a required membership class that explains the meaning of
baptism in detail.
8. Always baptize on special days when relatives may be in town -
Christmas, Mother's Day, New Year's Eve, etc.
9. Always baptize on special days of the church. (We baptized over
400 on the day we opened our Worship Center.)
10. Allow entire families (after confirming that all are believers)
to enter the pool together.
11. Hug each person after they have been baptized!
12. Interview all candidates at the water's edge to hear their story
of how Jesus changed them.
13. Build a Baptism Team of volunteers who assist with all baptisms.
Have matching shirts to identify the Baptism Team and the pastors
leading the service.
14. Have a professional photographer there to capture the moment, and
include a picture of their baptism along with their certificate of
baptism.
15. Print a "Why Be Baptized?" brochure. Use Scripture and lots of
testimonies.
16. Put the brochure information, baptism pictures, and even videos
of baptisms on your website so people can forward it to others.
17. Have pre-printed invitations for the baptism candidates to use in
inviting lost friends and relatives to a service and to witness their
baptism.
18. Make the baptism pool and surrounding area beautiful, inviting
and non-threatening. (Many baptisms are perched up so high inside the
church that it feels distant and disconnected. Our baptism pool is
outside in our patio area so people can gather up close around it for a
more intimate feeling.)
19. After the baptism service, encourage people to go out afterward
for coffee or dessert to celebrate and find out what the experience
meant to the person baptized and to the family and friends who watched
it.
20. Publicize the baptisms with posters around your church. Get "one
line" testimonies from people who have been baptized. Take an 8×10 photo
of that person, and mount his/her photo and quote on a 2'x3' foam board
sign. Put this on a tripod in a visible area after the service where
people can sign up to be baptized.
21. Have small groups encourage people in the group to sign up for
the next baptism.
22. Identify and celebrate other special moments at the water's edge
(birthdays, anniversaries, spiritual birthdays, etc.).
23. Train your Baptism Team volunteers to greet everyone and make
them comfortable.
24. Provide a sound system that will allow spectators to hear the
testimonies.
25. Always have the baptismal pool warm and chlorinated before
services.
26. Have a corporate prayer of celebration at the end of each service
to thank God for those baptized.
27. Sing a great chorus or hymn about the power of God to change
someone's life.
28. During warmer weather, offer baptisms at a beach, lake or
slow-flow river.
29. Develop a "Baptism Party in a Box" kit that includes ideas for a
family party following baptism.
30. Provide outdoor heaters if you baptize outdoors in the winter.
31. Set up good lighting if you baptize outside after evening
services.
32. Have hand towels with the church's logo available as a gift
(memory keeper).
33. Ask each small group in your church to use one week where each
member shares his/her baptism experience.
34. Use banners and signs the week prior to baptisms to draw
interest, especially for beach or lake baptisms.
35. Build a baptism service into an extended spiritual growth
campaign. Build on momentum.
36. Constantly emphasize baptism as the next step after committing
your life to Christ. Have sign-ups everywhere.
37. Give a follow-up booklet, a button and a free gift for those who
obey Christ's command to be baptized.
38. Have a special Christian's baptism class as a requirement for
baptizing children. Insist that at least one parent attend with their
child.
39. When baptizing grade school children, have the baptizing pastor
hold their hands lifted high after they come out of the water, like you
would with a winner in a game.
40. Address Frequently Asked Questions in a brochure people can walk
away with, and deal personally with every fear or hang-up about baptism.
Do these 40 things, and I'm
confident the number of people wanting to publicly demonstrate their
faith through baptism will rise dramatically.
Read Full Article....
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September 19 - Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren addresses students at Liberty University
Article: One World Religion
Comment from Understand the Times:
Keep your
eyes on Liberty University and their connection with Rick Warren and
Purpose Driven Christianity. Purpose Driven Christianity along with
Tony Blair and his Faith Foundation promote a one world religion for
peace which is one of the goals of the Roman Church which is
promoted by the Jesuits. Is this another sign that we are seeing
events coming together that have long been foretold in the Bible?
A best-selling author and
founder of one of America's largest churches visited one local
hometown Monday. Rick
Warren was in Lynchburg, speaking to students at Liberty University.
During convocation Monday
morning, Warren encouraged students to let God
use their lives for a greater purpose.
Warren wrote
"The Purpose Driven Life,"
a New York Times best-seller that's sold more than 30-million
copies. He's the senior pastor at Saddleback Church in California,
which boasts the nation's eighth-largest congregation.
Warren was supposed to speak
at Lynchburg's Thomas Road Baptist Church yesterday. He had to
postpone his visit due to a scheduling conflict.
Read Full Article....
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September 19 - Conference Emphasizes Yearning for the Holy Temple
Article: Israel Amd The Last Days
The Holy Temple Conferences by the Movement for Temple Renewal, with the
participation of leading temple-oriented organizations, took place in the
Great Synagogue in Jerusalem on Sunday. The conference
included lectures on different
matters connected to the Temple Mount and to the rebuilding of
the Temple.
Following the lectures, a general meeting was
held inside the Great Synagogue, where participants heard more lectures and
music related to the Temple. They then ate what is called the Seudat
Hamikdash - the Temple Repast.
"This is all in order
to raise awareness of the Holy Temple, the Temple Mount, and its
significance to the Jewish people," explained Ben Yosef.
He said that it is no coincidence that the
conference took place this week, as the Palestinian Authority prepares to
present its unilateral statehood bid to the UN. "It's
obvious that the vacuum caused by there being no Temple and a lack of Jewish
presence on the Temple Mount led the Arabs to call the creation of a new
state," said Ben Yosef.
"Jewish presence on the Temple Mount is a
natural part of the view," he said. "We're
here trying to gather our energy and work together towards this goal."
From whatever point on the globe they are,
Jews pray facing the Temple Mount and have done so since the first Holy
Temple was built during King Solomon's reign. Their
prayers included the hope to rebuild the Temple and ascend the Temple Mount
to worship there. Seeing mosques standing on the site from the 7th
century on due to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem was a difficult pill for
the Jewish people to swallow, in addition to mourning the Second Temple's
destruction by the Roman legion in the 1st century.
Read Full Article....
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September 17 - United Methodist Future in Jeopardy, Say 400 Clergy
Article: Perilous Times
Hundreds of United Methodist clergy are
expressing deep concerns over a pledge made by a large group of fellow
ministers to marry same-sex couples.
They argue that if the pledge is
carried through, the future of the denomination is in jeopardy.
"We do not know how many, if any, marriages or 'holy unions' of
same-sex couples will be performed by UM clergy in the near future,"
reads a letter, currently signed by more than 400 pastors, to the
Council of Bishops. "But we do know the
destructive effects that will result in our local churches and
throughout the denomination if such services are performed by UM
pastors."
The concerned clergy
are
referring to a pledge that some 900 ministers have endorsed in support
of same-sex civil unions. By signing the pledge, they agreed to defy the
denomination's ban on blessing same-sex unions.
The United Methodist Church holds the position that the practice of
homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and that
homosexual unions "shall not be conducted by our ministers" or in UMC
churches.
While the denomination has debated the issue of homosexuality for
decades, the growing number of clergy
willing to disobey church laws and marry gay and lesbian couples has
many in the church concerned.
The United Methodist Church's General Conference meets every four years.
In its most recent meeting in 2008, delegates voted to maintain the
church's policy prohibiting the blessing of same-sex unions and the
ordination of partnered homosexuals. But with hundreds now signing on to
a pledge to defy the decisions of the denomination's highest governing
body, many clergy say this could prove
destructive to the unity of the church.
"Honestly, we fear that many of our people will decide that if The
United Methodist Church will not live by the covenant that holds us
together, it will be time for them to find another church,"
they state in the letter to bishops.
Read Full Article....
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September 18 - Christians in Mexico Forced From Village / Traditionalist Catholics in Puebla state threaten to kill Protestants
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand the Times:
The following
article could be a preview of the what will soon be happening world
wide as we move towards a one world religion, the Roman Catholic
way. Those who refuse to go along with Rome will very likely face
another inquisition.
UTT would
like to challenge the pope to confront the traditional Catholics
mentioned here in Mexico and to stop treating Protestants the way
they are treating them.
About 70
Protestant Christians lived in the village of San Rafael Tlanalapan,
Puebla state, until Monday (Sept. 12),
when they faced a frightening ultimatum -
leave immediately or be "crucified or lynched."
Traditionalist Catholics in the village, near
the municipality of San Martín Texmelucan about 60 miles from Mexico
City, reportedly threatened to burn
down or otherwise destroy their homes. The Protestants left.
The traditionalist Catholics,
who practice a blend of indigenous and Catholic rituals,
reportedly asserted that 20 years ago an assistant village president
had vowed that no temple of any non-Catholic faith would ever be
permitted in San Rafael Tlanalapan. Protestants in Puebla,
Hidalgo, Chiapas and other states
sometimes refuse to help pay for and participate in traditionalist
Catholic festivals, which often include drunken revelry and what
they regard as idolatrous adoration of saints.
In 2006, the Protestants in San Rafael
Tlanalapan asked for government help
after Catholics led village authorities to cut
off their water supply.
Tensions reached a crisis level two weeks ago,
when local priest Ascension Benitez
Gonzalez reportedly said in a Sept. 4 sermon that his parishioners
should pressure the Protestants to leave for good.
Although their number has grown to 70, the evangelical Protestants
have been allowed no place of worship.
On Sept. 7, the village's assistant president, Antonio Garcia
Ovalle, reportedly met with the Protestants. The evangelicals
promised to leave, though the 200
traditionalist Catholics present sought to beat them and expel them
right then. According to Puebla online news
portal Quince minutes.com, the priest rang the church bells
continually during the meeting.
The evangelicals' departure date was set for Monday (Sept. 12). In a
newscast two days later on TV Azteca of Puebla, area traditionalist
Catholic Irma Diaz Perez rejoiced, saying,
"They will never return, because we have drawn up a document wherein
they have no permission to come back now or ever."
Read Full Article....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely,
Roger Oakland
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