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BY ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ/ISRAEL 365 NEWS
SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

The Temple Institute and Boneh Israel made a huge step towards reinstating the Temple service on Thursday when five red heifers landed at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The red heifer was the main component in the Biblically mandated process of ritual purification for impurity that results from proximity or contact with a dead body. Because the elements needed for this ceremony have been lacking since the destruction of the

Second Temple, all Jews today are considered ritually impure, thereby preventing the return of the Temple service.

The Temple Institute launched its Red Heifer program about a decade ago, led by Rabbi Azariah Ariel. But even in Temple times, an animal that fulfilled the Biblical requirements was exceedingly rare. Failing to produce a suitable candidate from ranchers in Israel, The Temple Institute began investigating alternative sources for a red heifer.

Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, stepped in to help. Led by Byron Stinson, a native Texan, Boneh Israel understood ranchers.

"I didn't set out to do this, but right now, I am probably the best red heifer hunter in Texas," Byron quipped. "The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said."

"The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel,"

Byron said. "Now they need to build a Temple. But it's like buying a really nice car. If you don't have the key, you aren't going anywhere. The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it's supposed to."

Boneh Israel took out full-page ads in ranching magazines, explaining the situation to ranchers. They requested that any red calves be set aside.

"Several years ago, the farmer is a devout Christian who became intensely interested in the Biblical commandment," Stinson explained to Israsel365 News."He began breeding cattle for this trait. So when my team and I set out to search ranches in Texas for a red heifer, his were already better suited."

One of the major difficulties was that the government requires tagging calves right after birth. The ear tag creates a hole in the calve's ear, a blemish that disqualifies the calf for the Mitzvah. The farmer explained that because of COVID, the employee who normally puts in the tags did not come to the farm when these five calves were born.

A team of rabbis from the Temple Institute flew out to inspect the calves last year. The requirements are incredibly demanding, requiring that there be no more than two non-red hairs on the entire calf. It must also never have been used for any labor or have been impregnated.

The heifer must be two years and one day old to be suitable for the ceremony. Sometimes, a calf that is perfectly red when it is young develops black or white hairs as it grows older or may develop a blemish.

Sometimes, the colored hairs fall out or disappear. Certifying the calf requires a complete and intensive inspection in which a rabbi knowledgeable in the laws goes over the entire calf with a magnifying glass.

Chanan Kupietzky, an Orthodox Jewish resident of Efrat, is the liaison between Boneh Israel and the rabbis of The Temple Institute.

"The Jews don't need to be pure to build the Temple or to bring the public sacrifices," Chanan explained. "On the other hand, purity will take it to the next level and will facilitate rebuilding the Temple and doing the service."

"Education is essential to move forward, for the Jews and non- Jews," Chanan said. "Boneh Israel is an Israeli organization whose main goal is education."

The cows were between 5-8 months old. To be suitable for the red heifer ceremony, the cow must be two years and one day old so these heifers will be raised in Israel until they reach the proper age. Chanan pointed out that last year was 5781 in the Hebrew calendar.

"In Hebrew numerology, this is תשפא . That is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה אדומה (it will be the year of the red heifer). The cows we are looking at now were conceived last year," Kupietzy said. "This year is 5782 ב ,תשפ , an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה בישראל (It will be a year for the heifer in Israel). In two weeks we will begin ,תשפג 5783, the year in which the ceremony of the Red Heifer will be performed. This is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה גאולה (It will be a year of the Red Heifer of redemption)."

Originally published at Israel 365 News - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?popular_news_slot=1L

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JILL LAWLESS
November 29, 2022

LONDON (AP) — Fewer than half the people in England and

Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census — the first time a minority of the population has followed the country's official religion.

Britain has become less religious — and less white — in the decade since the last census, figures from the 2021 census released Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Some 46.2% of the population of England and Wales described themselves as Christian on the day of the 2021 census, down from 59.3% a decade earlier. The Muslim population grew from 4.9% to 6.5% of the total, while 1.7% identified as Hindu, up from 1.5%.

More than 1 in 3 people — 37% — said they had no religion, up from 25% in 2011.

The other parts of the U.K., Scotland and Northern Ireland, report their census results separately.

Secularism campaigners said the shift should trigger a rethink of the way religion is entrenched in British society. The U.K. has state-funded Church of England schools, Anglican bishops sit in Parliament’s upper chamber, and the monarch is “defender of the faith” and supreme governor of the church.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the charity Humanists U.K., said “the dramatic growth of the non-religious” had made the
U.K. “almost certainly one of the least religious countries on Earth.”

“One of the most striking things about these results is how at odds the population is from the state itself,” he said. “No state in Europe has such a religious set-up as we do in terms of law and public policy, while at the same time having such a non-religious population.”

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, one of the most senior clerics in the Church of England, said the data was “not a great
surprise,” but was a challenge to Christians to work harder to promote their faith.

“We have left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian, but other surveys consistently show how the same people still seek spiritual truth and wisdom and a set of values to live by,” he said.

Almost 82% of people in England and Wales identified as white in the census, down from 86% in 2011. Some 9% said they were Asian, 4% Black and 3% from “mixed or multiple” ethnic backgrounds, while 2% identified with another ethnic group.

Census: Christians a minority in England; non-religious grow
(yahoo.com)

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Robert Emmett Curran
November 4, 2022

While exploring the Millstone Festival in Richmond earlier this month, my wife and I came upon the Republican Party headquarters in the historic Glyndon Hotel. I thought back to 2016 when the Glyndon had been the Democratic Party’s quarters. I had gone there looking for Clinton bumper stickers and was taken aback to discover that they had none. The Madison County Democrats had abandoned the Democratic nominee for president. Eight years of a Black Democrat in the White House had put Kentucky too deeply in the column of Red America. Donald Trump was the perfect candidate to enable the Republican Party to gain near-total hegemony, as its takeover of the Glyndon announced to all passersby.

Prominent in the Glyndon’s front window display was a “Save America” sign. If anyone had any doubts about who controls
the Republican Party, she need look no further than that sign. “Save America” being the latest call-to-arms by the twice impeached former president currently under multiple civil and criminal investigations. But what, I wondered, are Republicans saving the country from? From teachers who dare lay out to their white students the racism which has permeated our history or to widen their horizons about the boundaries of gender? Are they saving it from asylum-seeking immigrants demonized as criminal invaders? From those labeled socialists for seeking to empower government to promote social and economic justice? From those dismissed as job wreckers for recognizing and calling for critical action to address the climate crisis? From an inflationary cycle largely brought on by nonpolitical forces? From “tax-and-spenders” who dare to insist that a progressive tax system is the only way for government to fulfill its constitutional obligation to promote the general welfare?

Does a party “save America” by packing the courts with judges pledged to combat labor, public education, women, voting rights, gun regulation, and campaign financing reform, as well as the administrative state in general? Does a party save it by protecting the hedge fund vultures who are systematically destroying a vital prerequisite for an informed citizenry, an independent, well-staffed press? Or by nominating to the highest offices in the land persons blatantly unqualified? Or by running on a platform of retribution against opponents it deems enemies? First to feel the Republican wrath will surely be the January 6 committee, which has revealed to all the world the dishonorable complicity of a majority of Congressional Republicans in Donald Trump’s failed coup.

In the main, Republicans, particularly since Trump hijacked the party, have increasingly focused on cultural issues, both to sustain the dark grievances and fears cultivated by the vast right-wing media-sphere, as well as to distract from the worsening economic, ecological, and political threats to the well-being of this republic. And the threat that Republicans want most to distract from is the war which the vast majority of them is waging against the infrastructure of our democracy. At the center of this war is the “Big Lie,” the fiction that rampant fraud prevented Donald Trump from being re-elected. That bogus claim led to multiple efforts by Trump and his circle, including congressional allies, to overturn the election, culminating in the January 6 insurrection. And the war continues, in the passing of voting restrictions and changes in the certification of elections in Republican-controlled states. It continues in the candidacy of election deniers across the country for key offices, including governor and secretary of state. It all represents a massive effort not only to undermine trust in our elections, but to ensure permanent Republican rule, even though they very much constitute a political minority.

If all this resonates with you as appropriate means toward the noble goal of saving America, the Republican Party is counting on your vote. Indeed, your vote will help confirm the decision of Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Hal Rogers to choose survival and power over constitutional duty. If, however, you see such behavior leading, not to America’s salvation, but its further destruction as a democracy; if you think it crucial for the seditionists, both active and passive, to be held accountable, your civic duty this November could not be plainer. VOTE.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exactly-gop-saving-america-days-1446433204.html

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CP OPINION | MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2022

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist
The premise of the film, "1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted
Culture," is that the biblical translators of the Revised Standard
Version made an error when they chose to use the word
“homosexual” in a couple of verses that appear in two of Paul’s
New Testament letters. The contention is that those working on the
text should have rendered the Greek term in the manuscripts to be
something that represents an abusive form of sex vs. what
eventually appeared in the English RSV translation.

The real question is not whether those working on the RSV made
a mistake in translation but rather what was the Apostle Paul
originally saying in those verses. To do that, we need to push past
all the emotional baggage and cultural TNT that accompany the
LBGTQ+ debates and take a vanilla, academic approach using
the literal-historical-grammatical method of interpretation, which
aims to discover the meaning of a particular passage as the
original author would have intended and what the original hearers
would have understood.

When we do that, what do we find?

Investigating what Paul wrote

Let’s first take a look at the verses in question that are found in
Paul’s first letters to the Corinthians and Timothy:

“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” (1 Cor. 6:9–10).

“But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it
lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a
righteous person, 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, and whatever else
is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious
gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been
entrusted” (1 Tim. 1:8–11).

The Greek word in question – the one translated as “homosexual”
by the RSV translators – is arsenokoitēs. We need to ask why Paul
used that word, along with what is its origin and meaning.

Some say this is the first case of that word ever being employed,
although a few historians point to earlier uses of the expression.

Even if used for the first time, Bible scholars note that Paul coined
over 100 terms in the New Testament, which is not uncommon for
a learned man. The critical question is, what was he trying to
convey with it?

The word is a compound term made up of arsēn, which means
“male” and koitē which means “bed”, with it referring to a bed being
used in a sexual manner (our word ‘coitus’ for sexual intercourse
from it). If Paul did devise the term, where would he get the idea to
mate those two words together?

The Bible used by Paul and others in the first century was the
Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old
Testament. And in the Septuagint’s translation of Leviticus 20:13,
which speaks to homosexual behavior, the terms arsēn and koitē
are side by side and form the compound word that Paul used in his
New Testament epistles.

Given that evidence, the most straightforward, hermeneutical
conclusion we can come to is that Paul was against the idea of
males engaging in sexual intercourse together.

This argument becomes stronger when one reads Paul’s discourse
in Romans where he speaks to the same subject without using the
word arsenokoitēs. As with his other New Testament letters, some
argue that Paul was preaching against temple prostitution or
pederasty in the passage.

However, those contentions make a number of interpretative
mistakes and fail to be convincing. There is no explicit biblical,
textual evidence in Romans or 1 Corinthians/Timothy that I see to
support the assertion that these verses of Paul are describing
abusive forms of sex.

So where does this leave us?

Most every Christian I know, including myself, will tell you we have
no axe to grind or agenda to push on this subject. Frankly, it would
be far easier for many of us if the "1946" film was correct in its
conclusion.

But it isn’t.

The bottom line is that when the literal-historical-grammatical
method is used to interpret the writings of Paul on this topic, we
find the Apostle can’t be used to validate homosexual behavior.

That being the case, the most logical thing to do for those wanting
to justify homosexuality is to stop trying to modify what the Bible
says on the subject and instead assume the position of the late
atheist Christopher Hitchens who once remarked, “What do I care
what some Bronze Age text says about homosexuality?”

Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and
Christian apologist

Examining the claims of the film '1946' | Opinion News
(christianpost.com)

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CP CHURCH & MINISTRIES | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2022
By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter

PLANO, Texas — How important is it for young people to have a biblical worldview in today’s culture?

Whether it’s about sex and gender, scientific evidence that supports the Scriptures, or simply wondering whether objective truth even exists, students, young and old, are seeking answers to some of life’s biggest questions.

That’s the driving force behind “Anchored,” a two-day conference at Prestonwood Baptist Church, which drew hundreds of students from Christian schools earlier this week.

Presented by the Christian Thinkers Society and Prestonwood Christian Academy's Biblical Worldview Institute, the conference brought together a slate of Christian thinkers and speakers to offer students a thoughtful challenge to mainstream culture.

“There has never been a more critical time to instill a Christcentered worldview in today’s youth. The list continues to grow of individuals who have ‘deconstructed’ their faith and walked away from Christianity,” said PCA Dean of Spiritual Development, Jeremiah J. Johnston.

Touching on a range of topics from creation versus evolution to Christian ethics and heritage, current cultural trends, and more, speakers such as Sean McDowell, Alisa Childers, and Scott Stripling held both plenary and breakout sessions designed to stimulate conversations around biblical truth.

Childers, whose theme was “Live Your Truth (And Other Lies),” compared the cultural command to “be your authentic self” to the truth of the Bible.

“In Christianity, authenticity isn’t everything. Holiness is everything,” said Childers.

Explaining the law of noncontradiction and its implications for the exclusivity of Christ, Childers pointed to Jesus’ truth claims in John 14:6, adding, “Truth is what lines up with reality. Truth is not what you make up.”

Stripling, who serves as both provost at The Bible Seminary just outside of Houston and as the director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at Khirbet el-Maqatir and Shiloh, Israel, spoke on the topic of archaeology, which he described as a “long, slow process.”

“It is not like Indiana Jones,” he added.

Pointing to the reliability of the Bible, Stripling underscored how the numerous geographical references made in the ancient text are as accurate as one would expect from the Word of God.

“The Bible doesn’t change,” he said. “If it says there was a river, I can take you to that river today. If it says there was a mountain, I can take you to that mountain today.”

But, Stripling conceded, merely affirming geographic accuracy isn’t enough when it comes to salvation through Christ.

“I can prove to you when [Jesus] died, where He died, and how He died,” said Stripling. “But what I cannot do is prove He died in your place.”

In a breakout session on deconstruction, McDowell spoke candidly about the “deconstruction” movement in the Church, which even McDowell conceded lacks a “defined, clear, black-and-white” definition.

There are those, he said, who use the term to refer to another form of apostasy or departing from the faith, while others use it to describe the process of simply reassessing or rethinking one’s faith.

“It’s somewhat of a nebulous term,” he said. “There’s debates among even people who are speaking [at the conference] about whether or not Christians should use the term deconstruction to refer to a questioning period.”

The topic has become so prevalent, said McDowell, that he’s planning on releasing a book sometime next year tentatively called Set Adrift, which looks at deconstructing “without losing your faith.”

While there are those who avoid using the term deconstruction because it’s so often interpreted to mean walking away from the faith, McDowell sees it a bit differently.

“I don't have a problem with using the term if we define it, talk about what it means, and make sure we focus on the right things,” he said.

He recommended asking someone who says they are deconstructing their faith, “What does that mean?” so they can define their terms.

“If it’s to strip away what is false and hold onto what is true, “I’d be like, ‘Amen,’” he said.

But if they say they're deconstructing their faith by abandoning it, “that’s a very, very different conversation,” McDowell said.

The deconstruction movement, which has gained a high profile among certain Christian celebrities, musicians, and young Evangelicals, finds its roots in 20th century philosophers like Foucault and Derrida, founders of queer theory and postmodernism, respectively.

Earlier this year, Childers also weighed in on the debate, writing, "The vast majority are from people who've de-converted from Christianity, become progressive Christians, embraced same-sex marriage and relationships, rejected core historic doctrines of the faith, or are on a mission to crush the white Christian patriarchy."

Worldview conference looks at 'deconstruction' of Christian faith | Church & Ministries News (christianpost.com)

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CP VOICES | FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2022
By Dan Delzell, Christian Post Contributor

It would be a huge mistake to believe everything you hear about race, religion and gender. These three topics generate plenty of interest, dialogue, debate, questions, confusion and various lies. In order to know the truth about these crucial topics, we need an accurate source of information. Thankfully, “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). Satan, on the other hand, lies constantly. Jesus said, “There is no truth in the devil. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Satan's lies have led to an immeasurable amount of pain and suffering over the centuries. For example, a vicious lie rose up from the pit of Hell maintaining that white people are superior to black people. And shockingly, some people still believe this lie today. Satan has even flipped the script by inciting misguided teachers to indoctrinate white students with the lie that they are inherently racist. Samuel Sey exposed this lie in his recent oped, “You’re Fearfully and Wonderfully White.”

Have you been deceived into believing that “white identity is inherently racist," or that the color of your skin makes you superior to others? If so, then choose today to reject the devil’s lies concerning race. After all, your immortal soul is colorless. God determined your race before he created you, and no race is superior or inferior to another. Satan wants you to become judgmental and look down on other races, or to look down on yourself because of your own race.

But the thing Satan lies about more than anything else is religion. Scripture reveals that there are actually “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Satan does not care which religion you choose, provided that your religion does not lead you to place your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. The devil knows that those who trust Christ alone for salvation are forgiven of their sins, and that new believers immediately begin to follow the Lord. (Romans 1:5; Ephesians 2:8-10)

Satan has a death grip on the souls of those who are “religious,” but not saved, redeemed, born again, justified, and forgiven. “All who rely on observing the Law are under a curse” (Galatians 3:10). That is, everyone who attempts to earn salvation by their works is under a curse and on the highway to Hell. The only solution to this monumental dilemma is to repent of your sins and believe the good news of the Gospel.

Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Gender is another topic Satan lies about in order to confuse people and mess up their minds. Sadly, a significant number of people have fallen for the notion that gender is simply a social construct, and that your gender might be different than your biological sex.

If you are told a lie repeatedly, especially at a young age, you are inclined to believe it. And once a lie is embedded in your mind, it becomes a stronghold that can only be brought down by the truth. The Apostle Paul wrote,

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

In other words, truth defeats lies by tearing down strongholds in your mind. For example, meditating upon the following passage of Scripture helps to deliver people from satanic lies about gender: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

When lies about race, religion, or gender are accepted as true, the devil establishes a fortress in your mind from which he gains a certain measure of control over your life. The father of lies is a master at establishing strongholds in the mind of man. Thankfully, God’s power is greater than Satan’s strongholds, and the truth really does set people free. (John 8:32)

Children everywhere deserve to know the truth about gender, and especially children who experience gender dysphoria. “The Swedish U-Turn on Gender Transitioning for Children” describes why “Sweden has officially ended the practice of prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors under age 18.” The truth tore down strongholds in the minds of Swedes who had previously believed gender lies. These lies were of course based on false information.

A similar awareness occurred in London: “Why the Tavistock Clinic Had to Be Shut Down.” They had treated “thousands of patients with gender dysphoria over the past two decades with an ‘affirmative’ approach that many staffers have described as ’unquestioning’ and ‘pressured.’” You see, Satan not only lies, but he also pressures people to accept his lies. Fortunately, a growing number of experts around the world are speaking out about the stark reality of this dire situation: “Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids is Going to Backfire: Experts."

Multitudes of people have suffered terribly as a result of Satan’s schemes from the day the devil first tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-13) And the sooner you recognize his lies about race, religion, and gender, the sooner you can assist others who are still “under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

Scripture declares, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). This fallen angel wants you to believe his lies so that he can establish strongholds in your mind. Rejecting Satan’s lies about race, religion, and gender is an important part of Christian discipleship.

Therefore, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.

Rejecting Satan's lies about race, religion and gender | Voice
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CP WORLD | MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2022
By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter

The Rev. Franklin Graham rebuked the notion that Jesus Christ
has a "trans body" after a research student at the University of
Cambridge made that assertion during a sermon, offending many
churchgoers in the process.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Graham reacted to the outrage
that ensued after Joshua Heath, a junior research fellow at
Cambridge, delivered a sermon at the school’s Trinity College on
Nov. 20, likening Jesus’ side wound and blood flowing to the groin
in Jean Malouel’s 1400 work Pietà to looking like a vagina.

John 19:34 says that when Jesus was crucified and died on the
cross before His Resurrection, Roman soldiers broke the legs of
the two men who were crucified alongside Him, but seeing that
Jesus was already dead, one of the Roman soldiers decided not to
break Jesus' legs but instead pierced His side with a spear, "and at
once there came out blood and water."

According to The Telegraph, Heath displayed three paintings at a
Sunday sermon, including the depiction of Jesus' crucifixion.
Heath contended that the wound, also depicted in the 14th century
Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg, “takes on a decidedly
vaginal appearance.” The Telegraph also reported that Heath
discussed “non-erotic depictions of Christ’s penis in historical art,”
which the research fellow maintained “urge a welcoming rather
than hostile response toward the raised voices of trans people.”

“In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these
works, if the body of Christ as these works suggest the body of all
bodies, then his body is also the trans body,” Heath declared.
Heath’s sermon prompted considerable outrage, with one
churchgoer writing a letter to Trinity College’s Dean Michael
Banner recalling how they “left the service in tears.”

Graham joined the chorus of criticism directed at Heath’s sermon,
which he described as “repulsive and shameful.” The prominent
televangelist and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association and Samaritan’s Purse asserted that “to insinuate that
Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, is transgender or to sexualize
in any way His sacrificial death on the Cross for the sins of
mankind is utter heresy.”

Noting that “the Bible warns us about false teachers,” Graham
maintained that “this speaker and the dean at the University of
Cambridge who defended him are false teachers, preaching
heresy.” Graham insisted that “people don’t need messages from
the pulpit that are trying to interpret art like this speaker was —
people need the truth of the Word of God that has the power of
God to change hearts and lives for eternity!”

“The Bible warns us to beware … ‘there will be false teachers among you,
who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master
who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction,’” he
concluded. As Graham alluded to, top officials at the University of
Cambridge stood by Heath following the firestorm that erupted due to his
remarks.

For his part, Banner defended the sermon as “legitimate.” In a
statement obtained by The Telegraph, the academic summarized
the thesis of the speech as a suggestion “that we might think about
these images of Christ’s male/female body as providing us with
ways of thinking about issues around transgender questions today.”

“For myself, I think that speculation was legitimate, whether or not
you or I or anyone else disagrees with the interpretation, says
something else about that artistic tradition, or resists its application
to contemporary questions around transsexualism,” he added.
Banner insisted that “he would not issue an invitation to someone
who I thought would deliberately seek to shock or offend a
congregation or who could be expected to speak against the
Christian faith.”

A spokesperson for the school issued a statement describing the
sermon as an exploration of religious art “in the spirit of thoughtprovoking
academic inquiry, and in keeping with open debate and
dialogue at the University of Cambridge.”

As reported in The Christian Post, lawyers for the U.K.-based
group Christian Concern called into question Cambridge’s
commitment to “open debate and dialogue” earlier this year when
contending that the school’s Fitzwilliam College violated national
law by canceling an event organized by a group opposed to samesex
marriage.

A member of Fitzwilliam College’s staff told the event's organizer,
Wilberforce Academy, that its views were “not compatible with the
values of the college.” The values of the college, as identified on
the University of Cambridge’s website and outlined in the school’s
response to Heath’s sermon, include an expectation that staff and
students “be tolerant of the differing opinions of others, in line with
the university’s core value of freedom of expression.” The
university also expressed the importance of tolerating the “diverse
identities” of others.

Heath is not the only person to attempt to tie Jesus to LGBT
ideology in recent weeks. On ABC’s daytime talk show “The
View” earlier this month, co-host Sunny Hostin declared that
“Jesus would be the grand marshal at the pride parade,” implying
that Christ would fully support the LGBT movement at the center of
the annual event.

Franklin Graham rebukes claim Jesus has transgender body, vagina |
World News (christianpost.com)

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CP U.S. | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2022
By Leonardo Blair, Senior Features Reporter

While most American adults believe in absolute truth — a reality that is fixed and a concept supported by the Bible — a new poll sponsored by Summit Ministries shows a majority of adults under 30 don't, and researchers are concerned the finding could have negative consequences on mental health and community.

The poll, produced in partnership with polling firm McLaughlin and Associates, was conducted from Oct. 12–17 among 1,000 likely general election voters nationwide.

Researchers found that 60% of 956 respondents who gave a definitive answer to the question expressed a belief in absolute truth, while 40% said each person determines their own version of the truth. Four percent of the 1,000 survey respondents said they "don't know."

A breakdown of the poll results by age group shows that the younger an adult is, the less likely they are to believe in absolute truth. And for adults younger than 30, 55% say they believe each person determines their own version of truth, while 42% say they believe in absolute truth.

More than half of all respondents ages 30 and up say they believe in absolute truth, including more than six out of 10 respondents over the age of 56.

"The number of Americans who say there is no absolute truth is alarmingly high. But among young adults, we have now officially passed the tipping point. The majority of youth now say that each person determines their own version of truth," Summit Ministries President Jeff Myers, the author of Truth Changes Everything: How People of Faith Can Transform the World in Times of Crisis, said in a statement to The Christian Post.

"The loss of truth has grave consequences for community, justice, a sense of purpose and mental health. I'm not aware of any civilization that has abandoned reality to this extent and survived," he added. "The good news is that Americans still hold out hope that each person can make a difference. If there ever was a time to stand for truth, it is now."

The polling also shows that conservative respondents (67%) were more likely than their moderate (55%) and liberal (48%) counterparts to say they believe in absolute truth. Meanwhile, liberal respondents (48%) were more likely than moderate (40%) and conservative (30%) respondents to say they think an individual determines their own version of the truth.

Married respondents (61%) were more likely than single respondents (50%) to believe in absolute truth.

When broken down racially, white respondents (61%) were more likely than African American (49%) and Hispanic (49%)respondents to say they believe in absolute truth. White respondents (35%) were also less likely to say they believe an individual determines their own version of truth compared to

Hispanic (49%) and African American (46%) respondents. Embracing the concept of absolute truth is essential to embracing the teachings of the Bible, according to Mark Kreitzer of GrandCanyon University's College of Theology.

He noted in 2019 that: "Jesus meant that truth is not merely some abstract thing floating out in space that we have to mystically experience or something we have to force our will to follow, but it was a person, himself. 'In Christ,' Paul adds, 'all the riches of the Godhead dwells bodily' and in Him also 'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' are hidden."

Mark R. Teasdale, the E. Stanley Jones associate professor of evangelism at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, noted in an earlier interview with CP that a search for meaning in a postmodern culture also appears to be leading some Christians to abandon deeply held beliefs about God and moving them away from traditional congregations.

"Before the time when evangelicalism arose, the focus was in making certain that we had absolutes. So the belief of modernity was the belief that there are absolutes. Everyone could have access to those absolutes if they simply use their reason appropriately and that those absolutes would hold no matter what situation you're in," Teasdale said.

"What happens in postmodernity is that the idea of absolutes become far less important. Instead, we're looking at a time when narrative story becomes much more important. And so people are looking for something meaningful, a meaningful story to make sense of their lives."

"And it doesn't really matter much whether it's 'true' in the sense that it fits with an absolute truth that's out there somewhere," he continued. "What matters is that it's meaningful for you, and that's really what's important."

Majority of young Americans say there is no absolute truth: poll | U.S. News (christianpost.com)