Lord of the Rings Film Star Rips Out Bible Pages That Speak Against Homosexuality

The Lord of the Rings star, Ian McKellen, has admitted to removing the pages of the Bible that speak against homosexuality. He has admitted publicly to doing this since 2004.

The verse that he says he does not like is Leviticus 18:22, "'You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." He says that he does not like the verse or the fact that the punishment for it was death. He says, "I think it's rather obscene and pornographic, and shouldn't be there, so I remove it."

This is so absolutely ludicrous. Does he think that by removing those pages that God's word is changed and that all of the sudden homosexuality is okay? In the article he says that others do it too, and send him the pages as proof.

Mr. McKellen and all of you others who vandalize the Word of God:
I have news for you. God does not change. You do not change the Bible or anything in it by tearing out pages or parts you do not like. Homosexuality is still wrong! How are the words in the Bible "obscene and pornographic"? The act of homosexuality is what is obscene and pornographic!

The Bible still says the following, and it always will:
1 Cor 6:9 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals"
1 Tim 1:9-10 "realizing the fact that (civil) law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers"
Rom 1:26-27 "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."

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Religious Speech and Religious Freedom Being Attacked

A Federal District Court has ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania school which barred a parent of a kindergarten student from reading from the Bible as part of a social studies assignment. This assignment was supposed to have no content restrictions, but the school felt that to read from the Bible was too proselytizing. In this assignment the students were supposed to be able to share their interests and learn about other's interests. In this case, one of the student's interests was the Bible and he asked his mother to come and read some of the Bible. Part of the assignment included an invitation for parents to come and read part of their child's favorite book. The child's teacher instead suggested that the mother read a book about "witches and Halloween".

This is yet another example of an attack on religious freedom when it involves Christianity and the Bible. It is also an attack on freedom of speech when it involves Christianity or the Bible. I would be willing to bet that if the child had wanted to share about the Muslim faith or an interest in sorcery, then it would have been allowed. It probably would not even have been questioned!

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For Those Who Don't Like the Truth!

Over at Slice of Laodicea a reader wrote in and commented about how she thought it was wrong for the writer of that blog to "call out what they see as false teaching in the church today". The commenter felt that the blog owner and those who comment on the site "seem so filled with hate and rage". I commented on the post and because I felt it pertained to people who have a problem with this site, and some of the topics I discuss, I thought I would post my comment here on my blog. So, here it is:

"When you talk about the people at CT, you are talking about people I know, people I love, people I respect and admire, people I’m guessing most of you have never met." (part of the reader's comment)

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that on Judgment day God will be looking to see if you were , "respected, "admired", or "loved". He is going to be looking at whether or not He knew you and you knew Him, whether or not you are Born Again. Lots of "wonderful" people have been deceived into going the way of ecumenicalism, and trying to be more like the world to "fit in". Lots of "good" people are not really Born Again. "Christian" is a term too widely used today, with to broad of a definition. Far to many pastors have been deceived into believing that they have to change their message to suit "the times".

"But isn’t it possible to do so with compassion and the love of God in your hearts?" (part of the reader's comment)

When Jesus went in to the temple and saw what the moneychangers were doing did He confront them in a quiet, somber way? No! But surely it was out of love because God is love!

As for having compassion, when you look up compassion at Websters.com this is what it says..."COMPASSION implies pity coupled with an urgent desire to aid or to spare". This sure sounds like what Ingrid is doing and many others of us who point out the problems with the apostate church of today.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?
But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

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Great Quotes

"Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet." -JOHN FLAVEL

"Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honour, and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure, and pays with pain; he promises profit, and pays with loss; he promises life, and pays with death. But God pays as he promises; all his payments are made in pure gold." -THOMAS BROOKS

"He that knows nothing will believe anything." -THOMAS FULLER

"Every thing that a man leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. He who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life." -THOMAS BROOKS

"There are three things that earthly riches can never do; they can never satisfy divine justice, they can never pacify divine wrath, nor can they every quiet a guilty conscience. And till these things are done man is undone." -THOMAS BROOKS

"Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and careless spirit, will cost no great difficulties; but to set yourself before the Lord, and to tie up your loose and vain thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon him: this will cost you something. To attain ease and dexterity of language in prayer and to be able to put your meaning into appropriate and fitting expressions is easy; but to get your heart broken for sin while you are actually confessing it; melted with free grace even while you are blessing God for it; to be really ashamed and humbled through the awareness of God's infinite holiness, and to keep your heart in this state not only in, but after these duties, will surely cost you some groans and travailing pain of soul." -JOHN FLAVEL

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Marriage Before Ministry

"It is tremendously hard to balance a relationship," said the Rev. Cynthia L. Hale, pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church. "If you happen to be more successful than your spouse or make more money or have greater prestige that is where the challenge comes in. There are many men who are secure in life, but there are also men who are insecure and they have struggled with having their wives [or girlfriends] excel in ways they don't."

This quote is taken from an article about Juanita Bynum being assaulted by her husband Bishop Thomas Weeks. First let me say that I hope and pray that Juanita Bynum and her husband can both repent, put God first and their marriage can be healed and restored. "With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

"It is tremendously hard to balance a relationship," That is true, and that is why God wants us to always and in all things put Him first. Second should come your family; spouse and then children. Thirdly is your ministry, and last but not least, the community, including your home church. "Who answering, said to them, Have you all not read, for he that made humans at the beginning, made them male and female? and he said, for this cause a man will leave father and mother, and he will cleave to his wife: and they will be two in one flesh. And so they not two now, but one flesh: therefore a human separate not, that what God has joined." Matthew 19:4-6.

It is wrong to neglect your marriage to build your ministry. It is also wrong to neglect your marriage to raise your children. Children need to see a healthy relationship, with God put first. When women submit to their husbands and men love their wives as Christ loves the church it creates a beautiful thing, a God centered marriage. And in case you are wondering, this is tried and true because it worked for my husband and I. God can take a mess, and when you follow His principles and put Him first, He can make it beautiful!

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Too Much Importance Placed On Church Membership Numbers

I just read a couple different articles about the "number crunching" of church membership rolls and the statistics games played by many churches today. The importance that is put on numbers and statistics by churches and pastors of many different denominations is very disheartening. Being on a church's membership rolls does not get you to heaven. The ONLY book I am concerned with having my name in is THE LAMB'S BOOK OF LIFE! It doesn't matter what church membership roll you are on. If you are not in that book you are not getting in to heaven!

I am not saying that it is wrong to be on a church's membership roll, if that is what you want. I am saying that none of that will matter on Judgment Day.

Revelation Chapter 21
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them ,
4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said*[An * in the text marks verbs that are historical presents in the Greek which have been translated with an English past tense in order to conform to modern usage.], "Write, for these words are faithful and true."
6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
7 "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.
13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.
14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.
16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.
17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.
18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;
20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;
26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;
27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

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Marriage and Divorce...The Real Truth

Matt.5:31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32. but I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

1Cor.7:10 And unto the married, I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband.
11. But and if she depart, LET HER REMAIN UNMARRIED, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.

Mark.10:11 And He saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.
12. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marrieth another, she committeth adultery.

Mark.10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Nothing could be plainer than these statements. Anyone who divorces and remarries committeth adultery by doing so, for Jesus DOES NOT authorize the DIVORCE. Once married, ALWAYS MARRIED: till death do you part. This is EXACTLY how Jesus Christ sees it, and describes it.

1Cor.7:12 But to the rest, speak I, not the Lord: if any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
13. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.

Once again, there is NO PERMISSION to either get divorced AND remarried in any of this. Paul simply states that if the UNBELIEVER wants to go, you may let them go. The one who is left is still divorced, and whosoever shall marry her (or him) that is divorced COMMITTETH ADULTERY. Paul takes this fact; that marriage is BINDING as long as both partners shall live SO MUCH FOR GRANTED, that he uses it as an illustration of the permanency of the Law over a man until that man has realized and embraced the full significance of the death and resurrection of Christ:

Rom.7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2. For the woman that hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4. Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that ye should bring forth fruit unto God.

1Cor.7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; but only in the Lord.

Okay, I know that this is going to be a tough subject. Marriage and Divorce... This is something I never really dug real deep into the scriptures about until recently. I was raised in a Christian home, so I always knew in my heart that God does not take marriage lightly. I knew it was a covenant in His sight. I knew that when you marry someone you are making a vow, that it is supposed to be forever. These beliefs are what kept me from walking out on my marriage years ago when the going got tough. Of course "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence". My husband and I "made it" through the rough spot because we turned to God. We let Him fix our marriage. He took what was a "mess" and has made it into something beautiful. Aside from "knowing" all of these things about the sacredness of marriage and its importance to God, I wanted to know what does the Bible really say. Not what does the preacher say or what does the "church" say, but what does God say?

The above scriptures say a lot. They say a lot more than what is being taught. After reading these scriptures one should ask, "Why are churches and pastors marrying people who have been previously divorced?" It plainly says, "Mark.10:11 And He saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marrieth another, she committeth adultery." I didn't make it up. That is what the Word of God says. If you are divorced and the person you divorced is still alive, to remarry is to commit adultery.

1Cor.7:39 The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; but only in the Lord.

How have WE foreshortened marriage? By not AGREEING WITH and TEACHING the SAME THINGS The Bible says about the conduct of marriage and sexual sin; we have UNDERMINED the PERMANENCE of marriage. We make EXCUSES for divorce that The Bible does not give; we make REASONS to justify both DIVORCE and REMARRIAGE in flat out contradiction to Jesus Christ, Who said: Whosoever shall marry her (or him) that is divorced, committeth ADULTERY (Matt. 5:32).

Who among you will now show me how I have misrepresented what the Bible says about these things?

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