I’d like to be able to say I sigh and shake my head in disbelief – but the following news clips don’t surprise me anymore.
From Eternity a publication of the Bible Society.
AND
From Catch the Fire Ministries Inc. News, summer edition 2016.
Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’
In other words, the concerns and ways of Jesus’, Kingdom are NOT the concerns and ways of the world’s Kingdoms.
The second clipping from Danny Nalliah’s ministry is an example of his continued attempts to meddle in politics that was most infamously demonstrated in 2007 when he tried to influence the outcome of a Federal election by “prophesying” details of God’s (alleged) favoured candidate. His attempt failed miserably, but instead of repenting of his false prophecy, he turned the blame on Australian Christians for not voting according to his (“prophesied”) instructions.
More recently Nalliah (a Sri Lankan born Australian citizen), aligned himself with a commemoration of the 2005 Cronulla race riots – despite the fact that he, as a dark skinned man, would have found himself a target of the violence had he been present on the day of the riots.
(see articles here: https://onesimusfiles.wordpress.com/category/danny-nalliah/ )
Onesimus Files 
Welcome back, brother ! Hope you had a good vacation.
Thanks Steve,
it was far too short.
Obviously, the solution is to stop going to church. LOL!
Hi Jeanne,
If churches are creating the conditions that convince Christians to vote for and promote a lying, self-confessed sexual abuser of women, leaving that type of church should be seriously considered. That news clipping highlights a serious problem within a large number of churches.
Sadly far too few Christians seem willing to take responsibility for themselves and the kind of “teaching” they subject themselves to. They far too easily abrogate personal accountability for their choices and actions and merely “follow the leader”.
The nature of Trump’s character was made blatantly clear throughout his campaign, and yet, not only did Christians vote for him – they had actively PROMOTED him and rejoiced at his victory.
I see something seriously WRONG in that: “believers” yoking themselves together with Trump.
But more importantly, there is something seriously wrong when a church confuses patriotism and party politics with their commission to take the gospel to the world. That is probably the CORE of the situation – encouraging and “excusing” the support of a blatantly ungodly candidate; where hoped for political outcomes are seen as more desirable than taking a stand for righteousness.
As I said, the answer is obviously to stop attending church.
Yes, the answer is to stop “attending” church and following church traditions and start being a follower of Jesus. Many confuse the former with the latter and follow the teachings, attitudes and agendas of “a church” rather than Him.
Of course, following Jesus also includes relationship with others who follow Him – but increasingly rarely is that the same as “attending church” or following church teaching.
Of course, I agree with you, Tim (in case you thought otherwise, and I suspect you did).
i would never attend a church that refuses to pray for a President because it could “lead to trauma”. Such a church is in direct disobedience to the command that we pray for those in authority over us, whether we voted for them or not……
But then, this is California, and it’s an Episcopalian church, so we shouldn’t be sighing or shaking our heads when we read something like this:
http://ascideas.org/2017/01/06/we-pray-for-our-leaders/
Thanks for the confirmation Jeanne. I was hoping that was the case, but wasn’t sure.
Maybe I’ve been around blogs and forums for too long.
I’m not surprised that you weren’t sure, Tim. It has nothing to do with being around blogs and forums for “too long”, but most likely the fact that you came out of cult and the “residue” of that is often reflected in your comments, IMO.
Unfortunately I couldn’t access that link. My employer’s internet security can be extremely difficult at times and is very arbitrary in the sites it blocks.
Yes, and that as well! 🙂
Once misled – ever cautious.
“Once misled – ever cautious.”
Or ever critical.
Only critical of those things that require criticism.
“Only critical of those things that require criticism.”
Well, you never come up short on that.
Well today’s church and the world around us don’t come up short on reasons for critical assessment.
If God shows us His view of the times, it’s not a function of OUR personality or will. And if He gives us spiritual vision that the Church is turning from The Way it should walk in, He intends us to call out to His people in correction, not to keep it to ourselves. When is prophetic correction MORE needed, than when the Church is monumentally deceived and misled: a time such as this ?
Hi Steve, sadly it IS a time such as this.
It’s not exactly a new situation, but the level of deception in current times seems to be accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
To share from the Episcopalian site {demonstrating wisdom and care} you couldn’t access:
….
…you’ll notice that we have removed the proper names from our prayers for those in authority. Whereas before we prayed for “Barack, our president,” we are now praying for “our president, our president-elect, and all others in authority.” This practice will continue for at least the near future.
We are in a unique situation in my lifetime where we have a president[-]elect whose name is literally a trauma trigger to some people – particularly women and people [to ]who[m], because of his words and actions, he represents an active danger to health and safety.
This presents a challenge. We are rightly charged with praying for our leaders … but we are also charged with keeping the worshipping community, while certainly not challenge-free, a place of safety from harm. As I have said before, for some it could be as if we demanded a battered woman pray for her abuser by name. It’s not that the abuser doesn’t need prayer – certainly the opposite – but prayer should never be a trauma-causing act.
The question is – does saying the president’s name in prayer in this way compromise the safety of the worshipping community? Let me be clear that I believe this is a high bar … much more than “I disagree with the president” or even “the president deeply offends me.” This is the level of compromising the safety of the worshipping community.
The truth is, I don’t have an answer to that – I don’t have nearly enough data about where people are to make an informed decision. So over the next several weeks, I will be doing a lot of listening and praying and asking about this as a pastoral and liturgical issue. In the meantime, in consultation with Liturgy Director Melissa Hayes and others on our staff, I have made the change to remove the president’s name (while continuing to pray for him by title) and beginning to pray for the president-elect (though not by name). We have also removed the names from the prayers for our bishops for consistency of style.
I ask you to continue to pray not only for our president and president-elect, but for our nation – and particularly those most fearful and vulnerable among us in this hour.