2 March 2016

Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 21:47

This news item was posted in Presbyterians Week category.

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] PCUSA’s Shenandoah Presbytery Refusing to Dismiss Unanimously-Agreed Warm Springs Presbyterian Church to the EPC

[2] Kirk Pastor Receives Widespread Blowback after Letting Local Muslims Use Church after Mosque Firebombed

[3] The Jonathan Edwards Collection: 20 Classic Works – Kindle Edition Currently Available for Free on Amazon.com

[4] Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) Services Being Held in London, England

[5] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell

[6] The Thinning Blue Line

[7] Raging Heathen and Vain Imagining

[8] The Religion of Peace

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[1] PCUSA’s Shenandoah Presbytery Refusing to Dismiss Unanimously-Agreed Warm Springs Presbyterian Church to the EPC

A 17 February 2016 The Layman article titled “Something Stinks in Shenandoah: Rejecting All Dismissals to the EPC” reports that the Shenandoah Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) is refusing to graciously or otherwise dismiss any congregations that desire to move to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) by first deciding by a one vote margin not to allow any presbytery churches to leave for the EPC.

The Warm Springs Presbyterian Church in Warm Springs, Virginia, which has substantial property and monetary assets including a large, unrestricted endowment, is a case in point. The church has voiced no opposition to leaving the PCUSA for the EPC, and has been following the presbytery’s gracious dismissal policy for quite some time. The presbytery recently called a special meeting where they voted to take original jurisdiction of the matter, to remove the session, and to remove the pastor.

Carmen Fowler LaBerge, president of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, commented:

“It appears that the presbytery is trying to kill the church to get the money. We have reached the horrific reality of an institution willing to destroy its own churches to sustain itself. It’s basic cannibalism.”

+ Presbyterian Lay Committee, 1220 West Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064, 615-591-4388, laymanletters@layman.org

+ Shenandoah Presbytery, 1111 North Main Street, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22802, 540-433-2556, shenpres@shenpres.org

+ Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, 888-728-7228, Fax: 502-569-8005

+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 17197 North Laurel Park Drive Suite 567, Livonia, Michigan 48152, 734-742-2020, Fax: 734-742-2033, webmaster@epc.org

[2] Kirk Pastor Receives Widespread Blowback after Letting Local Muslims Use Church after Mosque Firebombed

A 26 Feb 2016 The Daily Record article by Stephen Stewart titled “Kirk Minister Tells of Shocking Abuse He Received after Opening Church Doors to Muslims after Their Mosque Was Firebombed” reports that after the Rev. Stephen Stewart of the Springfield Cambridge Parish Church (Church of Scotland) in Bishopbriggs, Scotland allowed Muslims from a nearby mosque that had been firebombed to use the church for Friday prayers, Stewart began receiving blowback from local Kirk colleagues and from as far away as the U.S.

Stewart commented:

“One negative comment from the U.S.A. was sent to me via an online comment. A local colleague expressed their disapproval of our actions. Subsequently the presbytery clerk advised me that another colleague had complained about what had happened and the complainant intended to raise a formal complaint against me via the business committee of the Presbytery of Glasgow.“An academic from the University of St. Andrews approached me over the New Year to ask me to provide her with an account of this experience for a piece of research she is undertaking.

“This all made me think more deeply about how our theology can shape and be influenced by our practice. Sometimes we take action and then only later do we step back and reflect on what we did and why.”

[Editor’s Note: Perhaps you, Mr. Stewart and your presbytery, should “step back and reflect” upon what the Koran teaches regarding the murder, enslavement, and punitive taxation of Christians, Jews, and otherwise non-Islamic peoples, the Koran’s misogynistic tenets that have brought rape gangs, female genital mutilation, and widespread honor killing to Great Britain, and the Koranic tenets of jihad etc. that justify strategic alliance with non-Muslims only until a takeover of that society can be accomplished. You have invited Satan’s minions to share a presumed church of Jesus Christ, and God will hold you accountable for your treachery to Him.]

+ The Daily Record, 67 Hope Street, Glasgow, Scotland, 0141-309-3251, reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk

+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722

+ Presbytery of Glasgow, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP, Scotland, 0141-332-6606, Fax: 0141-352-6646, Presbytery Clerk

[3] The Jonathan Edwards Collection: 20 Classic Works – Kindle Edition Currently Available for Free on Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FP2VLLU?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B00FP2VLLU&linkCode=xm2&tag=thethreshold-20

+ Amazon.com, Inc., Post Office Box 81226, Seattle, Washington 98108

[4] Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) Services Being Held in London, England

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) services have been held in London, England every Sabbath since the end of October 2015. On the 24 January 2016 Lord’s Day, there were, including children, twenty different people present at one or both of the services. We are grateful to ministers, laymen and students who have travelled down from Scotland to take the services. Also there are those in the London area who are sympathetic to the doctrinal stance of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), and to its practice of purity of worship, who have preached very acceptably for us.

The services are held at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. and tea is served between the services. Helpful donations have been received into the London Outreach Fund opened by Knightswood Deacons’ Court, which bears the costs of the venture. Initially we had arranged services for just three months but we feel that the response and encouragements have been such that our trial period should continue for longer.

Our emphasis on serious worship, solid doctrine and the faithful preaching of the Word seems to be appreciated. We must express our thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Pontin who kindly and generously provide accommodation for the supply. Please continue to pray for God’s blessing.

The services are being held in Putney Evangelical Church (kindly granted). Location details are as follows:

Putney Evangelical Church, Sefton Street, Putney, SW15 1NA

www.putneyevangelicalchurch.org.uk/location.html

For further information and to check venue and times of services please contact:

Rev. William Macleod (email: william@themacleods.org.uk; tel: 0141 959 0292) or

Mr. Stephen Pontin (email: stephen.pontin@ntlworld.com; tel: 07852 571040).

+ Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Rev. John MacLeod, Free Church Manse, Portmahomack, Ross-shire, Scotland, principalclerk@fccontinuing.org

[5] News from the Deepest Recesses of Hell

— Planned Parenthood Alters Abortions So Company Can Charge US$750 per Brain

— Donald Trump Continues to Praise Planned Parenthood’s ‘Very Good Work’

— Actress Amy Brenneman: “I Have Never, Not Once” Regretted Aborting My Baby

— Infanticide: Doctors at Groningen University in the Netherlands Are Killing Babies Born with Disabilities and It’s Totally Legal