as i travel thru ThisPilgrimLand

Al Mohler’s Excellent Response

In this month’s copy of The Atlantic an article appears discussing the “end of men” in America.  I read the article after seeing the author on the Colbert Report a week or so ago and if correct, the author of this article raises some very concerning issues.  The best Christian response I have found to this article thus far comes from the wonderful author Al Mohler.  I would highly recommend that all who read this blog click on the link below and read Mohler’s brief response.

The End of Men? — A Hard Look at the Future

Also, for some much needed comic relief after Mohler’s piece and some perspective from the author of the article, watch Stephen Colbert interview with her on The Colbert Report below.  {CONTENT WARNING:  THERE ARE SOME PORTIONS OF THIS VIDEO THAT KIDS SHOULD NOT SEE OR HEAR}

Worth It’s Own Post…

Granted, I do not know the person who provided this information and I can only take them at their word. However, in the post below taken from the comment section of previous posts on this website, a reader provided their own personal experience with The Ramp. I believe that posting this information is worth while and that you should determine for yourself if this woman is telling the truth or simply has sour grapes. If true, this is quite the sad tale and hearkens to the hypocrisy that many others believe is taking place at The Ramp in Hamilton, AL.

We lived there. My son was ill. He had a Word he believed was from the Lord. Said if we moved there, he would be healed. I had lost my job and am a single Mom. We moved there with what little we had (since then, we have lost everything). I write this at the risk of those at the Ramp seeing this and knowing who I am. However, I will let you know that we ended up with almost nothing. They knew from the beginning I questioned some of their practices. If you don’t agree, they ignore you. Try to make you believe you have strongholds on you that need to go. You are to become accustomed to being ignored, it forces you to be alone with God. They tell you to expect to be offended but to not allow offense in while living there. They take pride in this. The money? Oh wow….they tell you that if you don’t have a job, give more money because out of faith God will give you more. They tell you to increase you tithes and offerings. If you were in “good” with them, they could help you find work. If you weren’t, they wouldn’t lift a finger. We were able to get food from the Storehouse that they ran twice a month. That is how we survived, my son and I. In the meantime, I allowed kids who moved there at the prodding of God to stay with us and I fed them. They devoted 100% of their available time to volunteering for free for the Ramp. Some were exhausted beyond measure. Then the kids who lived there (some underage because their parents allowed them) would have late night gatherings watching movies and listening to music that went completely against the Ramp’s “No Compromise” ideology (which I agree, we should not compromise in our lives). They had 3 a.m. prayer services for only certain kids who were in the “in” crowd. My son stopped going after a while because the girls showed up in pajamas and he was the only one who stayed awake while everyone else slept. He felt it was a waste of time and he didn’t want to see scantily dressed girls and those in leadership did nothing to stop this.

Watching online is one thing. Attending a few conferences is still one thing. Living there is another. They said that Bob Jones prophesied 10 million people would be moving there and Damon (who drove a Hummer and new jeep and lived in a 5000 sq ft house donated to him for free) always told those of us who moved there and had no jobs (most of us at the time) to hang in there because businesses were going to come there and there would be Starbucks and Chick Fil A’s and Target, etc. Everyone walks around at least pretending they are happy but outside of that some of the families I spoke with were hurting financially. No jobs. No money. Almost 2 hours from Birmingham. The kids were exhausted who lived there. Yet, people continue to move there and give it all. I can tell you even more horror stories but I will leave it be. I gave almost all of my extra money to them. Our apartment was mold infested. No one would help us. God got us out of there. Now my son is back to going to a new hospital (his sixth) in a different state. He actually questioned the existence of God when we lived there because they ignored him most of the time except when they needed him to work for them. They rarely checked on him. He had four surgeries and not one person seemed to care. We drove round trip to Birmingham alone each time. It has taken months for me to see his enthusiasm to worship God return.

The Ramp breaks my heart.

A Good Look at our Idols: The Bendito Machine II

Take six minutes and watch the short animated film below.  Without saying a word, the idols of the 20th and 21st century are summed up.  This is a brilliant piece of art.

HCU Sells the Lord Out

“For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.”

Jeremiah

Sadly, this can now be found once again on the website of Heritage Christian University.  As discussed on this website in previous posts, Heritage Christian University had scheduled Laura Bush for the annual fundraiser that this school has.  The fundraiser is a big money maker for the college and is one that in the past the college has turned a blind eye to non-Christian teaching in order to appeal to the world and raise as much money as possible.  It seems that not only have the elders of churches that support this school been apathetic about this matter, but the board of directors, made up of several preachers of the gospel, have as well.  I am disappointed to say that as of today, at least a majority of the HCU board of directors remains so.

When Bush first came out in support of gay marriage and abortion, HCU, though slowly, made the decision to take the event advertisement off of their website and to call together a meeting of their board of directors to decide which way to move forward.  It seems that there were only two choices:  stand with God and cancel the event or stand with the world in support of a financial gain.  We know today which side they chose.

My response to this will be a short one as I believe my thoughts in previous posts sum up the absolute heresy these “men of God” are complicit to.  I of course know the decision they had to make.  The board of directors discussion had to be one regarding a loss of money they had already paid Bush and if they do act as the Bible would call them to, who to replace Bush with.  Of course, as any professing Christian should know, neither of those two things would matter if HCU true intention was to be light unto the world and to teach young men to be able to effectively teach the gospel.  Last I checked, leading by example is much more efficient than lecture and online courses.

Heritage Christian University has shown itself to be more concerned with mammon than teaching the word of God unto the world.  This is truly sad and even more disappointing is that HCU will not have the audacity and honor to at least take the word “Christian” out of their name.  As I asked a member of the board of directors of HCU today who is also a preacher, will any of the other preachers on that board be willing to stand in front of their congregations and justify their actions using scripture?  Of course they won’t and I would be willing to state that many of them hope this issue never comes up in their church because they know they are wrong.  Let me repeat, they know they are wrong.  God places the Holy Spirit and knowledge in our hearts and these men spat in the face of both in their decision.  I find it disappointing that some of the men who teach at this school are willing to stand up and champion a cause such as sell of alcohol in their home towns, but when something much larger, in which much more impact could be made for the cause of Christ, these same men will go along with the flow in order to not place their paychecks in peril.  These are the facts of the matter, this is the truth, there is no denying it.  This is not my opinion but rather the teachings of Christ who stated:  “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13).  What is mammon?  It is excessive materialism or greed.  HCU, you cannot serve two masters, and you have shown yourself to serve mammon.  I believe the conclusion is self-evident and we can say that as of this date, you do not serve God and until you recognize your error and repent, the Church of Christ should have no other opinion.

Sadly, minus a few faithful brethren who have contacted me privately, the church does not seem to care about this.  The proper response to this matter would be for the churches to withdraw all support and to send no other money to this now secular college.  As mentioned before though, apathy reigns.  Rather than call this school and its leaders to repentance, we want to make excuses and turn a blind eye to their error.  Not this Christian, not this time.  Join me and request from your elders that not one more dime of your contribution be sent to this secular institution that when given an opportunity to stand up for the Bible and truth, cashed it in for a big pay day.  Hold these men accountable, if you know people involved with the secular university, ask them what the heck is up with you remaining affiliated with them (I ask this especially of a contributor of Apologetics Press who has an office there and has written multiple articles against both abortion and gay marriage – time to put your publishing into action).  If you think this matter is Heritage’s only straying from the churches teaching, you would be mistaken and in the coming weeks a new article regarding their affiliation with an adulterous judge will be written here.  Your church may not listen to you when you floor this matter, but at least you know you stood with God, not man and their institutions.

I close this writing with a lesson we can learn from the Southern Baptist Convention.  I have discussed the SBC on this blog before and yes, they are slipping into dangerous doctrine and mystic teaching, but in this case, the Church of Christ and Heritage Christian University could learn a real lesson.  It would seem that in January of 2009, a Southern Baptist Church in Texas made the decision to ordain some gay deacons and to side with the world’s views on the matter of homosexuality.  What did the Southern Baptist Convention do when they learned of this churches affiliations?  They booted them from the Southern Baptist Convention, total disassociation due to the Broadway Baptist Churches failure to comply with Biblical teaching and understanding on the matter of homosexuality and church leadership.  How long did it take them to make the decision when floored?  30 seconds was the time, 30 seconds.  It took HCU close to a month to make the wrong decision.  Most impressive in my eyes though, that despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s declining numbers and revenue, the SBC made a radical decision.  They took all the money sent in from the apostate church from the time they ordained their gay deacons, and SENT IT BACK.  They said we don’t want your dirty, filthy, secularist money and sent it packing.  Sad that when a church that prides itself on being better than all denominations allows one of it’s main targets to one-up it in the matter of managing the Christian life in this world.

Will any of the members of the HCU family or board have the courage and faith to stand up and walk away from this secular school wearing a Christian mask?  If so, where are you?

The Cartel

I REALLY want to see this documentary film.  I have seen several interviews with the filmmaker and it looks excellent.  I wish it was in a theater nearby but I will probably have to wait for it to come to Netflix.  I would suggest that you check out the website for this film by clicking this sentence.  In the meantime, here is the trailer:

Pilgrim’s Map of the Day

Here are some links that I am finding interesting today.  More posts coming soon.  I’ve been a little tied up the past few days.

• I don’t like to talk about politics much on this blog, but I am still trying to figure out if Ron Paul is someone I want to be supportive of.  I really enjoy his views on the economy of the U.S., and I am trying to decide if I like what he is saying about America staying out of other nation’s business in this video.  I’d love to read your comments and interpretation of what he is saying in this video.  Take six minutes and watch this:

• I LOVE THE RAPPING WEATHERMAN!!!!  WATCH THIS VIDEO!!!!!

• The Blog Prophet shares his thoughts on some of the Bibles he found at a recent trip to the Christian bookstore.  The absurdity speaks for itself in this short article.  Make sure you read about New Bibles Available Soon
• Finally for today, The Baptist Press published this excellent article discussing the new link found between abortion and substance abuse.  This should make all of us say DUH!!!, but sadly it won’t.  Take the time to educate yourself in this excellent article on the link between substance abuse and abortion.