PASTOR TOBE WITMER
LIGHTHOUSE BAPTIST CHURCH
NEWARK, DELAWARE
SERMON OF JULY 19, 2015:
"THIS PRESENT BATTLEGROUND" A MISNOMER
"THIS PRESENT BATTLEGROUND" A MISNOMER
GAY FASCISM IMMINENT THREAT
PASTOR FUNDAMENTALLY MISUNDERSTANDING AN ENEMY WHO WANTS TO STEAL, KILL, DESTROY
DOES LOVE REALLY WIN?
THEN OUR FOUNDERS SHOULD HAVE LOVED THEIR BRITISH OPPRESSORS
SELF DEFENSE IS REQUIRED
LOVE WON'T WORK WHEN GAYS TRY TO COERCIVELY CHANGE THE CHURCH & THE GOSPEL FROM WITHIN BY FORCE
A BATTLEGROUND IN DISARRAY
PASTOR FUNDAMENTALLY MISUNDERSTANDING AN ENEMY WHO WANTS TO STEAL, KILL, DESTROY
1 Peter 5:8-"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
THEN OUR FOUNDERS SHOULD HAVE LOVED THEIR BRITISH OPPRESSORS
SELF DEFENSE IS REQUIRED
LOVE WON'T WORK WHEN GAYS TRY TO COERCIVELY CHANGE THE CHURCH & THE GOSPEL FROM WITHIN BY FORCE
MILITANT HOMOSEXUALS DEFINE THE CULTURE
CHRISTIANS HAVE RECEIVED CONFUSING MESSAGES FROM TREMBLING HIRELING PASTORS
THE GOOD:
THE GOOD:
HE WILL NOT GIVE HIS BOY A BABY DOLL
HE WILL NOT PERFORM GAY "MARRIAGES"
HE WILL NOT ALLOW UNREPENTANT GAYS INTO MEMBERSHIP, MINISTRY, OR EMPLOYMENT AT HIS CHURCH
THE NOT SO GOOD:
HE WILL NOT FIGHT THE MILITANT GAY AGENDA
BLAMES CHRISTIANS FOR BEING HOMOPHOBIC, UNFRIENDLY,
UNKIND, PREJUDICED, ACTING CONTRARY TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE, MERCY, FORGIVENESS
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE;
A STATE OF PANIC SETS IN ABOUT POTENTIAL LOSSES OF FREEDOM & ASSETS
WHEN YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR 501C3 TAX EXEMPTION, A VISIT FROM THE IRS, AND NOW ATTACKS FROM GAYS, NOTHING OF ANY CONSEQUENCE IS PROCLAIMED IN FEAR OF REPRISALS.
HE HAS LESBIAN "ACQUAINTANCES" WHO ARE SUCH NICE PEOPLE;
SO WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAKE GAYS SO MILITANT?
ADMITS THAT AMENDING THE CHURCH CONSTITUTION IS FUTILE WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE WOULD HAVES, THE COULD HAVES, THE SHOULD HAVES
"FUNDAMENTALIST" TAKES SERMON CUES FROM A FEMALE AUTHOR
SEE: http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/from-radical-lesbian-to-redeemed-christian-an-autobiographical-interview-with-rosaria-champagne-butterfield
SEE: http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/from-radical-lesbian-to-redeemed-christian-an-autobiographical-interview-with-rosaria-champagne-butterfield
POINTS FINGER OF BLAME AT CHRISTIANS' TREATMENT OF GAYS
RIDICULES PREPPERS, AMMUNITION & FOOD HOARDERS
IS THIS A TIME TO DISARM CHRISTIANS
WHEN THE BATTLE IS JUST BEGINNING? NO!
ARE YOU "HYPOCRITICAL, PHARASAICAL"?
PASTOR TOBE WITMER
LIGHTHOUSE BAPTIST CHURCH
NEWARK, DELAWARE
JULY 19, 2015
FIRE & BRIMSTONE NOT
"POLITICALLY CORRECT";
GAYS MUST BE TREATED WITH KID GLOVES?
NOT A "PRESENT BATTLE;
MAYBE A FUTURE ONE?
FIRE & BRIMSTONE NOT
"POLITICALLY CORRECT";
GAYS MUST BE TREATED WITH KID GLOVES?
NOT A "PRESENT BATTLE;
MAYBE A FUTURE ONE?
WHEN YOU ARE A REPORTING AGENT OF THE STATE YOU CAN ONLY SAY SO MUCH; AND EVEN THAT HAS TO BE STATE COMPLIANT.
A FAR CRY FROM THE COLONIAL BLACK REGIMENT'S
"TAKE UP YOUR ARMS!" FROM PULPITS
"PRACTICING" HOMOSEXUALITY
LEFT UNDEFINED BY WITMER
NO "PRACTICING, PRACTICING, PRACTICING" GAYS WILL BE ALLOWED INTO MEMBERSHIP, MINISTRY, AND/OR EMPLOYMENT;
BUT FREEMASONS CAN BE VOTING MEMBERS???
HOW WILL "PRACTICING" BE VERIFIED???
BY THE CHURCH MORALITY POLICE?
IS GAY PROSELYTIZING OF YOUTH CONSIDERED PRACTICING???
SEE:
"THE 'GAY' AGENDA TARGETING YOUTH"
BY LINDA HARVEY OF MISSION AMERICA:
http://www.missionamerica.com/articlelistbody.php?catnum=200
AND: "12 WAYS HOMOSEXUAL ADULTS ENDANGER CHILDREN"
by Linda Harvey
HIS CONDESCENDING WORDS PARAPHRASED:
YOUR BESETTING SINS NO DIFFERENT FROM THE SINS OF GAYS!
HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN GAYS!
WHY, IF SAVED, ARE YOU STILL GAWKING AT WOMEN
ON THE BEACH BOARDWALK, OR AT THE MALL?
IF TEMPTED, THEN PUT BLINDERS ON?
CITES JOHN PIPER WHO SEES NOTHING WRONG WITH RICK WARREN,
SEE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faWtI-oSzb8
AND A CONVERTED LESBIAN WHO CLAIMS "REPARATIVE CONVERSION THERAPY" IS A HERESY EQUAL TO THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL
SEE: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_secret_thoughts_of_an_unlikely_convert/12124
WHO'S THE OSTRICH
WITH HIS HEAD IN THE SAND?
WITMER HOLDS UP OBAMA AS A SUPPORTER OF THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY
A MODEL FOR ALL?
NO, JUST FOR THE IGNORANT & GULLIBLE
"DOOMSDAY" PREPPING WILL KEEP THE CHURCH ALIVE FOR THE BATTLE; AFTER THAT, WE CAN LOVE THEM WITH THE GOSPEL!
SOME OTHER OPINIONS ABOUT AN AGENT OF SATAN
BRINGING A REAL "DOOMSDAY" CLOSER THAT THE CHURCH IS STILL DENYING AND ILL EQUIPPED FOR:
VIDEO OF JOAN RIVERS CALLING BARACK GAY,
& MICHELE A TRANSGENDER:
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRESIDENT
OBAMA'S LIFE IN HAWAII BY SOMEONE WHO KNEW HIM AS A PIMP, DRUG DEALER, HOMOSEXUAL, TRADER OF SEXUAL FAVORS FOR DRUGS, MANIPULATOR OF PEOPLE
OBAMA: A/K/A "BARRY SOETORO"
MAC DADDY OBAMA, COCAINE SMOKER
BUT WITMER AND THE ASSISTANT PASTOR
SEE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faWtI-oSzb8
AND A CONVERTED LESBIAN WHO CLAIMS "REPARATIVE CONVERSION THERAPY" IS A HERESY EQUAL TO THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL
SEE: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_secret_thoughts_of_an_unlikely_convert/12124
WHO'S THE OSTRICH
WITH HIS HEAD IN THE SAND?
WITMER HOLDS UP OBAMA AS A SUPPORTER OF THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY
A MODEL FOR ALL?
NO, JUST FOR THE IGNORANT & GULLIBLE
"DOOMSDAY" PREPPING WILL KEEP THE CHURCH ALIVE FOR THE BATTLE; AFTER THAT, WE CAN LOVE THEM WITH THE GOSPEL!
SOME OTHER OPINIONS ABOUT AN AGENT OF SATAN
BRINGING A REAL "DOOMSDAY" CLOSER THAT THE CHURCH IS STILL DENYING AND ILL EQUIPPED FOR:
VIDEO OF JOAN RIVERS CALLING BARACK GAY,
& MICHELE A TRANSGENDER:
VIDEO OF OBAMA REFERRING TO HIS WIFE AS "MICHAEL":
NOTICE THE BULGE TOO:
EXCERPTS:
“Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, was born Michael LaVaughn Robinson in Chicago, Illinois on January 17th, 1964. He was the second son born to Fraser Robinson III, a well known cocaine dealer and union thug for Crime Lord/Mayor Richard J. Daley, and Marian Shields Robinson, a transient street prostitute who was diagnosed with the HIV virus in 1998. He was a popular high school athlete and in 1982, he accepted a scholarship to play middle linebacker for the Oregon State Beavers.
After finishing a respectable rookie season with 88 tackles and 7.5 sacks, he suddenly dropped out of the school. Fellow teammates observed that Robinson could regularly be heard lamenting over how he is a “woman trapped inside a man’s body”, and on January 13th, 1983, he underwent sex reassignment surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. To hide the shame of his new identity, Michael left Oregon State to attend Princeton University under his new legal name, “Michelle Robinson”. Years later, he met Barry Obama Jr. a Kenyan immigrant who later became aware of “Michelle’s” true identity. They subsequently married and adopted two children.”
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRESIDENT
OBAMA'S LIFE IN HAWAII BY SOMEONE WHO KNEW HIM AS A PIMP, DRUG DEALER, HOMOSEXUAL, TRADER OF SEXUAL FAVORS FOR DRUGS, MANIPULATOR OF PEOPLE
OBAMA: A/K/A "BARRY SOETORO"
MAC DADDY OBAMA, COCAINE SMOKER
2013
2013
2015
BUT WITMER AND THE ASSISTANT PASTOR
GIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING
YOU DON'T NEED THE ADVICE OF THESE!
INSTEAD:
YOU DON'T NEED THE ADVICE OF THESE!
INSTEAD:
EPHESIANS 6:10-17-"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
____________________________________________________________
EX LESBIAN, A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR PASTOR TOBE WITMER ABOVE?
FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosaria_Butterfield
"Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (born 1962) is a writer, speaker, homemaker, and former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. Butterfield, who earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in English Literature, served in the English Department and Women Studies Program at Syracuse University from 1992 to 2002. During her academic career, she published a book, as well as many scholarly articles. Her academic interest was focused on feminist theory, queer theory and 19th century British literature. She achieved tenure in 1999, the same year that she converted to Christianity.
Butterfield is more widely known today for the autobiography she published, "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith," in which she tells about her transformation from a postmodern lesbian professor to the wife of a Reformed Presbyterian Church pastor and homeschooling mother. Following her religious conversion to Christianity, Butterfield developed a ministry to college students and frequently speaks in churches and universities about her experience. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College. She now lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Kent Butterfield, and their children
She does not identify herself as "ex-gay" and does not think any Christians should identify themselves as "gay Christians." She notes that "The job of the adjective is to change the noun." Butterfield has criticized conversion therapy for contending that the "primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation." Butterfield suggests this is a version of the prosperity gospel."
_______________________________________________________
THE SIREN SONG OF SOUTHERN BAPTIST APOSTASY
J.D. Greear, lead pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C., said Oct. 29 during the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's conference, “we have to love our gay neighbor more than we love our position on sexual morality.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
1 Corinthians 6:9-11-"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."
NEW CREATURE? NOT SO FAST!
DENIAL OF THE EFFICACY
OF CHRIST'S ATONEMENT
WHICH GOSPEL WINS OUT? NEITHER ONE HERE:
WITH HER WISDOM, FEMINIZED PASTORS WILL TRY
THE SOFT APPROACH TO GAY MILITANCY
WHICH GOSPEL WINS OUT? NEITHER ONE HERE:
WITH HER WISDOM, FEMINIZED PASTORS WILL TRY
THE SOFT APPROACH TO GAY MILITANCY
EXCERPT: "Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore denounced reparative therapy, saying the controversial treatment that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation has been “severely counterproductive.” Faithful Christian living demands obedience to biblical teaching, not automatic release from same-sex attraction, said Moore, president of Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea,” Moore said. “Faithfulness to Christ means obedience to Christ. It does not necessarily mean that someone’s attractions are going to change.” Some pastors, like John Piper, a respected Minneapolis preacher and author, still encourage the possibility of change for those who have same-sex attractions."
SEE: PARENTS & FRIENDS OF EX-GAYS & GAYS:
EXCERPT: I give thanks to God for Rosaria Butterfield's conversion from unbelieving lesbian activist to faithful Christian witness. I don't agree, though, with her buy-in to the view that there is a "sin of homophobia" any more than I buy in to the view of "incest-phobia" or "poly[amory]phobia." Nor do I think she reads Romans 1:24-27 correctly in context when she suggests that Paul viewed homosexual practice as no worse than any other sin. And her category of a "reparative therapy heresy" is uninformed. Reparative therapy is not a "name it, claim it, pray the gay away" form of therapy. Quite the contrary. Nor does it presume that one will never again struggle with sexual temptation. Nor does it contend that becoming heterosexual is "a primary goal of Christianity." It aims are more modest: To help persons with same-sex attractions to deal with emotional wounds that contributed to the intensity of such attractions. In this it is no different from numerous other valid therapies that seek to help Christians who struggle with depression, anger, insecurity, and various other intense sinful desires.
_____________________________________________________________
Rosaria Butterfield on Understanding and Loving Our Gay and Lesbian Friends
SPENT TWO YEARS IN DIALOG WITH A MARRIED PASTOR?
EXCERPTS:
"Homosexuality is a sin, but so is homophobia.
Homosexuality, then, is not the unpardonable sin.
Three Unbiblical Points
As I write and speak today, 14 years have elapsed since my queer activist days. I'm a new creature in Christ, and my testimony is still like iodine on starch. I'm sensitive to three unbiblical points of view Christian communities harbor when they address the issue of Christianity and homosexuality. Everywhere I go, I confront all three.
1. The Freudian position. This position states same-sex attraction is a morally neutral and fixed part of the personal makeup and identity of some, that some are “gay Christians” and others are not. It's true that temptation isn't sin (though what you do with it may be); but that doesn't give us biblical license to create an identity out of a temptation pattern. To do so is a recipe for disaster. This position comes directly from Sigmund Freud, who effectually replaced the soul with sexual identity as the singular defining characteristic of humanity. God wants our whole identities, not partitioned ones.
2. The revisionist heresy. This position declares that the Bible's witness against homosexuality, replete throughout the Old and New Testaments, results from misreadings, mistranslations, and misapplications, and that Scripture doesn't prohibit monogamous homosexual sexual relations, thereby embracing antinomianism and affirming gay marriage.
3. The reparative therapy heresy. This position contends a primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation. This heresy is a modern version of the prosperity gospel. Name it. Claim it. Pray the gay away."
As I write and speak today, 14 years have elapsed since my queer activist days. I'm a new creature in Christ, and my testimony is still like iodine on starch. I'm sensitive to three unbiblical points of view Christian communities harbor when they address the issue of Christianity and homosexuality. Everywhere I go, I confront all three.
1. The Freudian position. This position states same-sex attraction is a morally neutral and fixed part of the personal makeup and identity of some, that some are “gay Christians” and others are not. It's true that temptation isn't sin (though what you do with it may be); but that doesn't give us biblical license to create an identity out of a temptation pattern. To do so is a recipe for disaster. This position comes directly from Sigmund Freud, who effectually replaced the soul with sexual identity as the singular defining characteristic of humanity. God wants our whole identities, not partitioned ones.
2. The revisionist heresy. This position declares that the Bible's witness against homosexuality, replete throughout the Old and New Testaments, results from misreadings, mistranslations, and misapplications, and that Scripture doesn't prohibit monogamous homosexual sexual relations, thereby embracing antinomianism and affirming gay marriage.
3. The reparative therapy heresy. This position contends a primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation. This heresy is a modern version of the prosperity gospel. Name it. Claim it. Pray the gay away."
Rosaria Butterfield on the Christian Response
to Homosexuality
Published on Jan 5, 2015
Rosaria Butterfield lived as a lesbian professor before experiencing a "train-wreck" conversion to Christianity. Now a pastor's wife and a homeschool mom, she offers a unique perspective on how Christians can treat those within the homosexual lifestyle.
Rosaria Butterfield lived as a lesbian professor before experiencing a "train-wreck" conversion to Christianity. Now a pastor's wife and a homeschool mom, she offers a unique perspective on how Christians can treat those within the homosexual lifestyle.
Secret Thoughts Of An Unlikely Convert | Rosaria Butterfield and Russell Moore
Reaction To The Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage by Russell Moore
John Hagee's Response to Supreme Court Marriage Ruling
Published on Jun 30, 2015
“I vigorously disagree with the decision of the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court’s ruling does not change the Biblical truth that marriage is between a man and a woman. I agree with the Supreme Court's dissent that this ruling is a direct attack on states’ rights and usurps the liberty of the American people to govern themselves.” Pastor John Hagee
“I vigorously disagree with the decision of the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court’s ruling does not change the Biblical truth that marriage is between a man and a woman. I agree with the Supreme Court's dissent that this ruling is a direct attack on states’ rights and usurps the liberty of the American people to govern themselves.” Pastor John Hagee
Dr. Moore on Reparative Therapy: So Broad a Term That Could be Interpreted As Giving the Gospel to Someone.
OTHERS DON'T SEE CONVERSION THERAPY AS BENIGN:
White House seeks to ban gay 'conversion' therapy
Supporting a Ban on Conversion Therapy:
GAY PERSPECTIVE:
Sims Against "Conversion Therapy"
Published on Jun 25, 2015
PA state Rep. Brian Sims speaks out against so-called "conversion therapy" intended to change a person's sexual orientation, which is still legal in Pennsylvania.
PA state Rep. Brian Sims speaks out against so-called "conversion therapy" intended to change a person's sexual orientation, which is still legal in Pennsylvania.
PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR GAYS:
Coming Out to My Dad, the Founder of Conversion Therapy (by Richard Socarides)
Stephen Fry meets an ex-gay therapistStephen Fry meets the founder of NARTH, Dr Joseph Nicolosi and also interviews a former patient Daniel Gonzales.
Samuel Brinton: "Ex-Gay Ministries" Talks at Google
Published on Jul 4, 2014
Hear Samuel Brinton, son of two Southern Baptist ministers, talk about the years of reparative therapy designed to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Sam speaks often about his experiences in the hopes that others who have endured similar struggles will find hope.
Hear Samuel Brinton, son of two Southern Baptist ministers, talk about the years of reparative therapy designed to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Sam speaks often about his experiences in the hopes that others who have endured similar struggles will find hope.
OTHERS SEE THE COERCIVE ELEMENT WITHIN THE GAY AGENDA
DR. JAMES WHITE,
REFORMED BAPTIST APOLOGIST:
"DEFINED BY GOD'S CREATIVE ACTS":
The Gay Christian Movement: Part I (Audio Begins at 1:26).
The "Gay Christian" Movement: A Response Part 2
Get Your House In Order NOW! -- The Supreme Court
THE PATRIOT NURSE:
_____________________________________________________
I THOUGHT PLANNED PARENTHOOD PROTECTED FAMILY VALUES
by Rosaria Butterfield
July 21, 2015
SEE: http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/i-thought-planned-parenthood-protected-family-values; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
I was 11 years old when Roe v. Wade (1973) gave women a constitutional right to abortion. My parents told me a story to help me understand this momentous event.
Here was the content: a member of my family, whom I loved, once used her own knitting needles to abort a baby she knew she couldn’t afford to feed.
Here was the meaning: we were practical, hard-working Italians, and nothing was going to hinder us from achieving the American Dream for each and every family member.
This was a story of heroism. The woman was a matriarch who knew how to take control of her own womb, a loving mother who knew poverty and starvation were far worse than death before birth. This was also a story of a nation. Our country was advancing in its high regard for women, leaving the barbaric days of back-alley abortions and welcoming one where medical care came to the aid of heroic women like my beloved relative.
Grip of Old Family Values
This was one of the first times I remember history folding into future and holding me solidly in the grip of family values: we were a progressive family, and even our unschooled ancestors showed the grit and goodness of the progressive ideas we knew were best.
My family member was not a feminist. Although long dead, she would not want to be remembered this way. She was a poor woman abused by her husband and trapped by a life with too many children to feed. I was taught that the right to choose came to the aid of all women, but especially poor ones.
For most of my childhood and early adulthood, the name “Planned Parenthood” conjured feelings of safety and security. The institution represented for me and my family of origin a bedrock of civilization: a woman’s right to liberation from the oppression of bearing a child. As I understood it, because of Roe v. Wade a single mistake wouldn’t result in a lifetime of punishment for women. For as long as I can remember, my parents would designate Planned Parenthood as their end-of-the-year monetary donation.
We believed only third world countries would abandon women without medical solution to terminating pregnancy. Not only did abortion rights secure each person’s free right to consensual sex without impunity—a fundamental right of personhood, we believed—but it made the world a better place for children. Indeed, the sheer fact that the world was overpopulated and that “unwanted” children were subject to poverty and abuse proved abortion was good for both the environment and the family. It also seemed to us that the wrong people kept having babies—and lots of them—while educated people like our family knew to have only one child or two.
Long before I became a self-conscious feminist supporting the worldview of Planned Parenthood, I believed abortion was more than just some “necessary evil.” I believed abortion was a compelling good.
Frankenstein and Jesus
The goodness of abortion followed me through graduate school, when I wrote my dissertation on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
In 1818 Shelley, the 17-year-old child wife of poet Percy Shelley and the classically educated daughter of natural philosopher William Godwin and first feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote a novel on a dare. Deeply influenced by natural philosopher and English physician Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles),Frankenstein is about a bachelor who learns how to create life in a laboratory. The protagonist scientist, Victor Frankenstein, is raised by a progressive family, one that protects him from the foolish superstitions of organized Christian religion and affords him the best education in the natural sciences. He’s therefore unafraid to collect body parts from a church graveyard by dismembering bodies. The novel records how night after night he returns to the graveyard and hacks away until he has the bloody parts he needs. It’s base and gruesome work done in the name of higher-minded science. Frankenstein works hard to extract intact internal organs. He skimps on the skin, though, creating a creature whose skin doesn’t stretch to cover all his internal organs. Frankenstein’s “monster,” in spite of having natural science as its mother and receiving the very best Rousseauian education, is literally falling apart at the seams, his internal organs spilling out for the whole world to behold and ridicule.
Like Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, Dr. Victor Frankenstein understood the need for intact hearts.
Like Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Dr. Victor Frankenstein believed there’s no higher calling on the human body than the donation of tissue for scientific research.
And like both doctors, one fictional and one real, I followed in their footsteps.
Like Victor and Deborah, I wanted to control nature and believed I could with enough hutzpah and smarts.
And then I met Jesus Christ.
But when I was first converted, I did not understand why abortion was a sin.
I remember asking the women in church why Christians condemned abortion and celebrated capital punishment. I never heard a compelling argument.
And then, one day during worship, we sang Psalm 102 and it hit me between the eyes. Here was the line of my undoing: “And peoples yet uncreated shall praise and magnify the LORD” (Ps. 102:18). I got it: abortion is not a right or an entitlement. Abortion steals praise from God by denying image-bearers the opportunity to live through and for him. Abortion despises and attacks and destroys the image of God.
Yes, children must be protected from abuse, but abortion does not accomplish this.
What Could Have Been
Before committing suicide, Victor Frankenstein’s “monster” diagnoses his problem. He laments, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on” (emphasis mine).
Frankenstein is an abortion novel. The “monster” declares he is an abortion—a present-tense, walking-and-talking, breathing-and-reading embodiment of a culture that values intact hearts but not the children who need them, and that values the all-cleaned-up Proverbs 31 woman but not the Mary Magdalene who precedes her.
The monster in Frankenstein is me—and you—and my sins are always so much worse than I confess. The wages of sin is death. It is always death—even if medical science promises the wages of sin is life.
I am a Christian now, and a wife and mom as well. All of my children are adopted, and all bore the label “unwanted” by somebody at one time. But their birth mothers loved them even when they could not raise them.
And today, as I reflect on the outrage of Planned Parenthood, I think of my life.
I could have been Dr. Deborah Nucatola. I was groomed to be her. I could have been videotaped pausing between bites of arugula salad and salmon to pontificate on the price of a dead baby’s intact heart and lungs.
Staying for the Long Haul
As I pause today to reflect on the outrage of Planned Parenthood, I think of Frankenstein’s monster. And the monster that I am. And for the life of me, I don’t understand how people like my beloved relative and her unborn child could have been helped apart from God’s people taking her and her kids into their home for long-term, real-life care. She needed more than a word in season. She needed the hands of God.
The worldview that redefines “personhood,” denies the God who created us, despises Jesus—the prophet whose wisdom knows no earthly bounds, the priest whose grace and sacrifice knows no earthly shackles, the king whose power and authority orchestrates the details of every life and every day—is the worldview manifested in the recent SCOTUS decision and the viral Planned Parenthood videos.
It was my worldview not too terribly long ago. And it would be my worldview now—if Jesus and his people hadn’t shown up in my life and stayed for the long haul.
__________________________________________________________
RELATED; SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD; THESE ARE JUST TWO:
__________________________________________________________
THE PROBLEMS WITH JOHN PIPER;
ALLEGED REFORMED NEO-CALVINIST:
HIS ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN HIS CONFUSED WORDS
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2014/11/rick-warren-defends-promotes-roman.html
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2014/04/rick-warren-daniel-plan-double-chin.html
http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2014/04/rick-warren-daniel-plan-double-chin.html
JOHN PIPER & BETH MOORE PRACTICING CATHOLIC "LECTIO DIVINA"
WAITING FOR MESSAGES FROM GOD:
QUOTES FROM DAVID CLOUD'S WAY OF LIFE: www.wayoflife.org
"John Piper has joined hands with Rick Warren in ministry and has proclaimed him theologically sound, we would remind our readers that Warren signed “A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You’” in November 2007. This document says that Muslims and Christians worship the same God and claims that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.” The statement says, “... we must engage in interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other’s good, for the one God unceasingly seeks our good” (http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm). It was signed by the two major evangelical church growth gurus in America, Rick Warren and Bill Hybels. In this act they joined hands with hundreds of other signatories, including Roman Catholics."
"When Piper publicly interviewed Rick Warren in 2011, he showed his support for the Purpose Driven pastor’s doctrine when he stated: “At root I think he is theological and doctrinal and sound” (Cecil Andrews, “John Piper Invite to Rick Warren,” Take Heed Ministries, April 3, 2010). This caused much dismay for those who understand the underlying beliefs of “America’s pastor.” Rick Warren is a strong advocate and promoter for contemplative mystics (such as Henri Nouwen) and the spiritual formation movement (the vehicle through which contemplative is entering the Protestant church) (“Saddleback Is a Contemplative Church,” Lighthouse Trails, Jun. 16, 2008). So with John Piper’s embrace of Warren coupled with his apparent acceptance of Richard Foster, Piper students should be asking some prudent questions of their teacher. They should also dismiss the notion that we can distinguish between good and bad contemplative prayer. There is no such thing."
QUOTES FROM KEN SILVA'S "APPRISING": www.apprising.org
"HAS JOHN PIPER LOST HIS MIND?"
http://apprising.org/2013/01/05/has-john-piper-lost-his-mind/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
So said my sister in a phone call shortly after the start of this year’s Passion Conference, taking place now in Atlanta, GA (Jan 1-4). I’m sure she said this with all due respect to Dr. Piper, who has long been looked to as a solid teacher of the Reformed tradition. And yet in recent years, Dr. Piper has gone about giving his stamp of approval to various and sundry teachers, many of them solid and trustworthy, but some of them quite dangerous.This stamp of approval first reared its ugly head when Dr. Piper brought out a young whippersnapper named Mark Driscoll as his keynote speaker at a Desiring God conference, years ago. In 2006, to be exact. This was the same Driscoll who went on later to shock us with his pornographic divinations and his fascist like handling of church members. And yet, no public rebuking or distancing has gone on, that I know of, between Dr. Piper and his protégé .Then Rick Warren got Dr. Piper’s stamp of approval at the 2010 Desiring God Conference. Yes, that’s right, Rick Warren. To paraphrase my friend Pastor Bob DeWaay, what made this particular alliance so very shocking was that Dr. Piper, who has long been regarded as one of the faithful few guarding the flock against false teaching was the very one who had opened the pen gate and ushered the wolf (Warren) right into the fold of his Desiring God conference.“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” Gal 1:8“Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what wea have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.” 2 John 1:8-11“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” Romans 16:17Then, out came the approval stamp again at last year’s Passion 2012 Conference, when Dr. Piper stood benignly by on stage as Louie Giglio exhorted the audience members to “(hear) the voice of God speak,” during a Lectio Divina-ish type mystical exercise.And now we have this year’s Passion 2013 Conference, currently underway in Atlanta, GA, at which John Piper is sharing the stage with false teachers Jesus Culture. Don’t know who Jesus Culture is? Oh well, let me fill you in: Jesus Culture is an offshoot group out of Bill Johnson’s heretical Bethel Church in Redding, CA. That’s right, the same Bill Johnson of the glory dust and the angel feathers fame.“For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Titus 1:7-9So why doesn’t Dr. Piper storm out on the stage like a man on fire and rebuke this madness? Or, he could leave the conference and write an eloquent and heartfelt apology for his part in confusing the flock in his care by knowingly linking with false teachers. I’d be all for that. And yes, I get that he’s just a man, and no man is perfect. I’m not expecting perfection, but what I do desire to see is him seriously taking to heart the admonition in Scripture that not all should teach because those who do are judged more strictly (James 3:1). BUT, if Dr. Piper is unwilling to repent of going around giving false teachers his stamp of approval, then maybe one of our Godly pastors could fly to Minneapolis and wrestle the stamp away from him to keep him from further harming the flock. Just a thought.Additional Resources
The original appears here.
Further reading
- LOUIE GIGLIO, PASSION 2013, AND JESUS CULTURE
- JESUS CULTURE—YOU SURE IT’S THE REAL JESUS?
- FRIENDS OF BETHEL CHURCH, HOME OF JESUS CULTURE
QUOTE:
Giglio, Chan, Moore and Piper return to Passion from last year and now we have sinfully ecumenical emerging musician David Crowder added to the mix. In closing this, for now, I’ll show you something that gives us real cause for concern in the seeming dangerous drift of Beth Moore and John Piper.
Following are clips from Session 5 of Passion 2012 where we were to enter into the silence to let God speak to us, not only through Scripture, but directly inside of us as well. However, this is language actually straight out of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and its crown jewel Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is meditation in an altered form of consciousness.
QUOTES:
Why would Dr. John Piper, a Calvinist, want his followers exposed to this kind of man-centered, and blatantly false, mystical mumbo jumbo of Foster-Willardism? I wonder, could we actually be witnessing the rise of some kind of a Reformergence? In closing this, for now, you’re probably aware that John Piper has for some reason recently taken it upon himself to begin promoting the pragmatic semi-pelagian (at best) Church Growth Movement ministry of “Protestant” Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren.
Both John Piper and Rick Warren are promoting the book Celebration of Discipline by Quaker mystic Richard Foster, who by following the approach to spirituality he teaches within, is nearly a universalist who is definitely sinfully ecumenical repudiating the Lord’s Protestant Reformers. Here’s what the aformentioned Dr. Gary Gilley has correctly stated concerning Foster’s magnum opus in his excellent series called Mysticism:
___________________________________________________Celebration of Discipline alone, not even referencing Foster’s other writings and teachings and ministries, is a virtual encyclopedia of theological error. We would be hard pressed to find in one so-called evangelical volume such a composite of false teaching.
VIDEOS:
RICK WARREN: FRANCIS IS "OUR POPE";
"DOING EVERYTHING PERFECTLY"
IS HE THEOLOGICALLY CORRECT?
"OUR POPE, RICK WARREN?"
BY DR. JAMES WHITE
REFORMED BAPTIST APOLOGIST
Thoughts After the Profaning of Marriage Day-Supreme Court
TOTALITARIAN FASCIST GAY ELEMENTS
IN YOUR FACE REVOLUTION
More on Rick Warren's Capitulation to Rome
THE DANGER OF GAYS RECRUITING OR INDOCTRINATING YOUTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CHURCH;
INTERVIEW WITH FRANKLIN GRAHAM, RUSSELL MOORE. RALPH REED: