Pope Francis and many modern Catholics no longer believe the only way to Heaven is via the Roman Catholic Church. Wonder what changed. Apostasy, the act of giving up your religion and leaving religion has always been disdained, but obviously, Catholic leaders, as well as Protestants, have been flirting with apostasy for decades.

Even well-educated people believe the Roman Catholic Church started with the Apostles and has a clear history of Popes from that time. Of course, that is not true as quick research will prove. The misinformation is believed because biased historians, kowtowing to an ever-growing authoritarian church carefully wrote a favorable, not factual history. As time passed, religious leaders got further from biblical truth and usurped authority not approved by Christ or the Bible. It took hundreds of years for a “universal” authoritarian church to emerge about 600 A.D. from the chaos of the crumbling Roman Empire.

Through the Dark Ages into the Middle Ages, Rome garnered support from political leaders throughout Europe. As the church’s power grew, so did its arrogance and pomposity followed by the exploitation of ordinary people. Slowly, as people became better educated through the invention of the printing press and reading of the Bible in their own language, they began to demand answers until a fire was burning all over Europe.

Then came the Reformers and the world experienced an unprecedented shock. Ordinary people realized that rulers, civil and religious, could and should be held accountable. While there were non-Catholic churches throughout history, the Roman yoke was broken as the light began to shine in Europe.

Rome is now trying to reconcile the “separated brethren” (rebels) and bring them back to Rome.

Compromising Lutheran leaders have almost pled with the Vatican to “fully heal their divide with Rome”; however, Luther was not consulted for his opinion since he is persona non grata. You may remember that Luther called the Pope, Antichrist. He gave credit to John Hus for that title, but Hus was not the first person to use it.

It goes back to 991, when Bishop Arnulf of Orleans, describing papal murder, lust, and intrigue, asked, “Are there any bold enough to maintain that the priests of the Lord over all the world are to take their law from monsters of guilt like these?” When a person so deficient in virtue sits on the papal throne, Arnulf suggested that he must “be the ‘Antichrist, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself as God.’”

That was the assessment of a Roman Catholic official, who like Luther had nothing good to say about the Pope.

Luther is considered one of the major villains in the great split in the 16^th century, but the founder of the Lutheran Church in Germany has been rehabilitated—without his approval. In 1999, the Lutheran World Federation signed a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification with the Vatican. The major difference was the doctrine of justification, but that disagreement has been overcome. Bible teaching doesn’t seem to matter to dishonest, defective, and devious religious leaders.

Most present-day Lutherans are embarrassed at Luther’s bellicosity and would like to cancel the Reformation if possible. Being impossible, they will apologize for the courage and commitment and character of the Reformers. Luther’s character makes compromising Lutherans look like American Indian shamans or African witch doctors.

In October 2015, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s presiding bishop, Elizabeth A. Eaton declared, “Five hundred years ago, wars were fought over the very issues about which Lutherans and Roman Catholics have now achieved consensus.” However, the two groups are not meeting in a basement singing Kumbaya and drinking hot chocolate.  There are still some points of disagreement, but “much of the heavy lifting has been done already.”

Lutherans are rushing back to the fold although there are still principled leaders in all religious groups that are not willing to bow to Rome.

To produce a world church Rome must reconcile with the Eastern Orthodox that broke off in 1054 and then try to pull other wandering Protestants back into the fold. In 2007, the Catholic Church along with Lutheran, Orthodox, Methodist, Anglican, and Armenian-Apostolic churches in Germany all agreed to recognize each other’s baptisms as valid. Wow, they voted to undo the Reformation with a single vote. Then January 25, 2016, the Pope declared, “As the bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I would like to invoke mercy and forgiveness for the non-evangelical behavior of Catholics toward Christians of other churches.”

That’s nice but it doesn’t help the millions killed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. “The numbers given include 50 million, 68 million, 100 million, 120 million, and 150 million.” Of course, those deaths are not the responsibility of living Catholics today who are horrified at such genocide.

The Catholic Church is making great strides in its push for unity with other churches. The Orthodox Schism in 1054 gap is closing quickly. A Catholic can now receive communion in an Orthodox Church and, in many cases, vice versa. However, there are different offshoots of Orthodox Churches. The big disagreement revolves around the role of the Pope, but all the above religious leaders agree on his preeminence, but there is no agreement that he is the top honcho of all “Christians.”

The Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have been courting each other with a passion—like two out-of-control teens who just recognized their raging hormones. In 2009, Pope Benedict xvi made it possible to allow “groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world” to return en masse to the Catholic Church. That included married priests who could remain in their own group. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby fervently seeks a church marriage between Anglicans and Catholics even if a religious shotgun is necessary to make the union.

King Henry VIII, the founder of Anglicans in the mid-1500s, broke with the Roman Catholics because the Roman Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon permitting his marriage to Anne Boleyn.  Henry ended up beheading his wives Boleyn and Catherine.  No, not the most principled reason to decide on church membership but then no one said Henry was a principled person. He was a gluttonous, obese, head-chopping despot. Not the best credentials to start a religion.

Whatever, Catholics and Anglicans (Episcopal in the U.S.) can now share each other’s communion, and married Anglican clergy can become Catholic priests. The fences are coming down and the rebels are going home! However, it is clear to everyone that any union “will be under the Pope of Rome.” 

America’s largest Presbyterian denomination, along with other major Protestant groups, signed an agreement with the Catholic Church in 2013 that recognized baptism reciprocity. The Pope met with major American clergy including Joel Osteen in 2014. Osteen is pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston with about 43,000 weekly attendants.

Of course, as Osteen goes, so will go lesser Evangelical leaders to the theological slaughter.

While Osteen was meeting with the Pope in Rome, his wife took 300 children to visit the Bronx Zoo. My opinion is that his wife had the more gratifying, biblical, productive, and most important meeting. Joel and Francis used each other: Joel got international attention and Francis made another push to get all the “separated brethren” to rejoin his church.

Osteen said it was a great honor to represent the pastors of America in the meeting with the pontiff, whom he described as warm, personable, and “full of joy.” Of course, Joel didn’t say that “the pastors of America” did not ask him to represent them. Joel is as arrogant as the Pope.

“I like the fact that this pope is trying to make the church larger, not smaller,” Osteen said. “He’s not pushing people out but making the church more inclusive. That resonated with me.” A few days earlier he and a group of others met with Vatican staff members, toured the Vatican, and attended the Convocation of Renewal at Olympic Stadium in Rome. At that convocation, more than 50,000 tongue-speaking Roman Catholics also attended the convocation where the Pope knelt and prayed.

The Pope is even making fervent overtures to other Evangelicals, including Pentecostals. In 2014, the Pope sent a recorded message to Kenneth Copeland Ministries, a large Pentecostal group, seeking unity. “Brothers and sisters, Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?” asked a speaker at the event. The Pope also beseeched the audience, “I am [yearning] that this separation comes to an end and gives us communion.”

While most denominations are willing to apologize for the Reformation and denigrate the brave reformers, the world uniters will never get authentic Baptists since they were never part of the Roman Catholic Church.

Two historians (not Baptists) admitted that fact when they wrote, “We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times, Mennonites, were the original Waldenses… On this account, the Baptists may be considered as the only religious community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gospel through all ages.” Dutch Reformed historians Dr. Annaeus Ypeij (professor of Theology at University of Groningen) and Isaak Johannes Dermout, Chaplain to the king).

E. Gotch, in the Encyclopedia Britannica declared, “Baptists can be traced to 618 A.D., and it is presumed that they originated from the original source of the churches.”

Uneducated people often smile when they hear something that is completely new to them; moreover, they often put their foot far into their mouths proving they make judgments without looking at the facts. The truth is there were always non-Catholic churches all over the Levant and North Africa from the earliest days of Christianity.

It appears the Catholic courtship of wandering brothers is paying off. No doubt, thousands of martyred reformers are twisting in their graves. If not, they are observing such religious treason from Heaven and shaking their heads at shameful religious leaders.

It is shocking to see religious leaders succumb to such unabashed courting and more shocking that it is working. Current weak Protestants willingly overlook all the heresy their predecessors warned about for hundreds of years and meekly surrender to the authority of the Pope.

Furthermore, they are marching, almost running, lemming-like to produce what God rejects—a world church where truth doesn’t matter all for the sake of unity. Revelation 17 reveals the condition of Christianity in the last days when a world church has been established and will be known for its biblical and moral corruption. That world church will be established with the concurrence of political officials who will turn on it and destroy it.

During a convocation of one-worlders pushing, not only for a world church, but for one world religion, witches, earth worshippers, heretics, shamans, and pagans were present along with traditional “Christianity.” The evil religious conglomeration has said their holdouts and threats come from “Fundamentalists and orthodox Catholics.”

Evidently, Pope Francis does not seem to qualify as an orthodox Catholic; however, I gladly identify with the Fundamentalists who were never part of the Roman Church or the one-world convocation.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

And it got worse, much worse.

Abundant evidence proves the James and Younger boys were horribly mistreated by many government officials, but mistreatment does not justify thievery and murder.

As the war was winding down, radical Unionists rammed through the Missouri legislature a new constitution that prohibited former Confederates and sympathizers from voting, serving on juries, holding public office, preaching the gospel, etc. That was throwing gasoline on a house fire. Such action was why Time-Life Books declared, “Jesse James (partly) turned to crime as a means of exacting revenge on all things Yankee.”

I found plenty of candidates in assessing blame for the banditry, butchering, and bushwhacking by the James boys. For sure, corrupt government officials, crooked local politicians, and evil relatives were vicious and illegal. Still, Frank and Jesse James became killers because they were raised that way in their “Christian” home!

The James family cannot be faulted for their genes or place in society since Jesse’s ancestors were blue bloods, having arrived early in the Jamestown Colony. Later they fought in the War for Independence, and some were in high political positions. Jesse’s father was a highly respected educator and pastor and provided the family with a good living from the farm and preaching engagements.

In The Rise and Fall of Jesse James, Robertus Love wrote that both the James boys were “schooled deeply in the old-fashioned religion,” and the family attended church regularly. Not remarkable since Dad was the pastor. Moreover, it cannot be argued that Pastor James was a “modernist” or doubter of the validity of Scripture. Furthermore, every indication is he was a good example for his family.

Pastor James loved people and wanted their betterment, as indicated in his being a founder of the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and planter of various area churches. Some would add that he left the comforts of home to reach people in a westward wagon train and the California goldfields; a decision that cost him his life. I question his motives (which is always dangerous) for going to California.

Pastor James probably went to the gold fields to get away from an overpowering, oppressive, and obnoxious wife— Zerelda, known as Zee! Yes, even Baptists can have such problems, and leaving for the gold fields is never a wise move. Zee, who stood six feet tall, was known as a hard-working, strong-willed farm woman.

I have no problem with that, but the records indicate she was an arrogant, assertive, asinine wench. I do have problems with that as her husband did.

Children need parents to love them, lift them, limit them, lead them, and laugh with them. Robert left that for his wife to do. She failed.

The couple dated during Roberts’ college days, but by the time school ended in the spring of 1841, they were not speaking. It seems Zee was so outspoken that it shocked everyone.  In those days, there was a strong belief that a woman should be silent and not express her views, which was stupid; however, evidently, Zee was outspoken and obnoxious, although orthodox. Robert finally decided he could live with her assertive behavior, and maybe he could change her.

He learned it is not wise to marry with the expectation of changing your spouse.

I believe the historians have missed family and church records that strongly suggest that Frank and Jesse James were made rebels at the family farm by an intimidated (and absent) father and an indulgent (and angry) mother. Such mitigating circumstances are no excuse for rebellion and banditry.

Frank and Jesse watched their father flee the safety, security, if not sanctity of his home when they were 7 and 3 years old, although the record does not reveal major home problems. However, the pastor who preached Jesse’s funeral at First Baptist at Liberty, Rev. J. M. P. Martin, provided convincing evidence of major family problems.

After Robert James left home for the gold fields, Zee married a local dude who tried to discipline the children but was resisted by her. He left her when he realized the total mess of the family and was killed soon thereafter. Zee then married a local doctor, Archie Samuels.

Pastor Martin declared Zee James’ character was “so shady that her husband, himself a Baptist minister, had to leave her and that neighborhood and sought surroundings more compatible with his ministerial work in California. Mrs. James married a man named Samuels who lacked any force of character and was simply a chore boy about his wife’s place. Mrs. Samuels upheld her sons in their work and was, indeed, able to secure almost anything at her bidding under threat of having her much feared sons set upon her enemies.”

According to the pastor, Zerelda was “shady,” and her husband “had to leave her,” but that is not true. He was not forced to leave; he had promised to leave his father and his mother and “cleave unto his wife,” becoming one flesh.  Pastor James did not cleave, but he did leave an oppressive wife under convincing cover of “preaching to the lost miners.”

Pastor Martin referred to Dr. Samuels as lacking “any force of character” and was an appendage to the family. Dr. Samuels believed in the physical discipline of children, moreover, this is a major problem Zee had with her second husband. His “lack of affection for them and his use of corporal punishment, which Zerelda did not approve of, resulted in the failure of the marriage.” He quickly analyzed the family, took off, and had a fatal interaction with a horse.

Children growing up in a home without discipline are like animals in a corral.

Zee was quick to defend her boys from any criticism at the drop of a bonnet and conducted a personal public relations campaign about how the James-Younger Gang were Robin Hood figures taking from the haves (rich Yankees) and giving to the have nots (poor Southerners).

Martin declares Zee was known to use her notoriety to force her way on others. He reveals how she boarded a train in Kearney to St. Joseph and refused to pay the fare. When the conductor insisted, Mrs. James revealed “her maternal relations with the James boys and threatened to have him shot to pieces if he refused her free passage.”

Mrs. James (now Samuels) made Jesse’s funeral arrangements without consulting those involved with the funeral. A person needing a funeral will always ask the pastor if he is willing to preach the funeral in his church and decide on the day and time of the service. Not her. She informed the pastor when the funeral would take place only “a few hours before the time she had set for the obsequies.”  The young pastor was inclined to disavow any funeral at his church since he was “not accustomed to having his pastoral work dictated by those who were not even members of his flock.”  His church members convinced him to go along with her.

When First Baptist of St. Joseph refused to have Jesse’s funeral, Pastor Martin of First Baptist in Kearney agreed to do so at the request of Jesse’s mother. The Weekly Gazette reported “more than 350 packed the church and the preacher refused to mention Jesse’s name. He read from Job 14:1 ‘Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.’ He called on those present to repent, and they sang What a Friend I (sic) Have in Jesus.”

The casket was taken to the Samuels’ farm and placed in a bedroom where Jesse’s stepbrother John Samuels lay wounded in bed.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that Zee said, “Johnny, my boy, look upon your sainted brother Jesse, your murdered brother Jesse. Look upon him, and then look upon your poor broken-hearted, shattered mother. He is dead. They have killed him, your poor brother Jesse. He is in heaven. He has gone to God, and God will judge him. He is taken from me, and I have no one now to lean upon. Johnny, live for your mother – your poor, heartbroken mother.”

The coffin was then carried outside and placed on some chairs in the yard. Zee approached the coffin and wailed, “My heart is broken, my heart is broken, broken, broken. Oh, my heart is broken. They have killed my sainted son.”

Jesse’s mother didn’t understand that Jesse, not she, was the main attraction that day, but she had to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. She wailed loudly, “My heart is broken, my heart is broken, broken, broken. Oh, my heart is broken. They have killed my sainted son.”

When visitors stopped at the farm to see his grave, Zee charged them 25 cents and sold rocks from his grave. Since there were only a few rocks on and near the grave, she replenished them from a nearby river. For an additional fee, she gave paid tours of the farm, a practice Frank continued in his final years.

One cannot be positive but after viewing the evidence, I am convinced the whole family was a victim of a wild, willful, and wicked time and location. However, others lived under the same circumstances and had a normal life. The James boys had the added problem of a self-centered, egotistical mother and a subdued, then absent father, and were unwilling to swim against the tide.

And went over the falls as many families are doing today.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

For the first time in American History, the Federal Government, under color of law, put a large Baptist Church out of the Gospel business. Well, at least they tried.

It was February 13, 2001 when 85 federal officials (FBI, ATF, etc.) supported by Indianapolis Police Officers (doing crowd and traffic control) raided the Indianapolis Baptist Temple (IBT), known as the 11th largest church in America, according to Christian Life Magazine. Dr. Greg J. Dixon was the long time pastor but his son Greg A. Dixon was now the church leader. The church was being raided not for unpaid taxes as almost everyone declared, but for permitting their school teachers (my daughter was one), administrators, etc., to pay their own FICA taxes. Thousands of American churches have always followed that practice.

It is interesting that the Marion County Sheriff’s Department under Jack Cottey refused to participate in the raid. Jack was a principled man who had also served in the Indiana House of Representatives where I had served.

The Indianapolis church leaders refused to handle the withholding since the government cannot force a church to be a tax collector: the lowest, most hated position in New Testament times. However, no one refused to pay taxes and no taxes were owed. It was simply the Federal Government, then run by newly installed President George W. Bush, letting everyone know that churches must kowtow to Washington or they would be put out of the Gospel business. Federal Marshall Frank Anderson was in charge of the illegal raid and was elected Marion County Sheriff in 2003, serving until 2011. Of course, the Feds had declared the church’s action to be illegal; consequently, the raid was “legal.”

We were seeing the assertion and application of might at the expense of what is right. The IBT discovered that Voltaire was right when he said that it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. The church was right; the feds were wrong.

Some local media people were in the church having spent many nights sleeping on the floor and church pews along with pastors from across America. Some of the media had characterized the church people, especially the pastors, as being “patriots” (gasp!), “militia” etc. Some even spoke of guns even though the pastors had made it clear that no guns would be permitted and no violence would take place. But you can’t be too careful; these are Baptists—you know like John (the Baptist) or Jerry (Falwell) or Billy (Graham)—so an overwhelming force was ordered along with the snipers on the rooftops.

You can’t be too careful you know. Some of those Baptists might even thump their Bibles (KJV, of course) and that could be dangerous especially if the thumping were caught on television.
The raid was ordered by former two-term Missouri Governor and U.S. Senator and active Christian layman in the Assemblies of God and the now U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. John also wrote, “Let the Eagle Soar” and sang it after his speech at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2002—where both my son and grandson earned their doctorates. The song was satirically featured in Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11. While the lyrics are mediocre, and John’s voice is tolerable, I recommend that John not surrender his license to practice law.

The Christian school building, home to hundreds of students and the 2,000-seat auditorium on 20 acres of prime property, were padlocked and later bulldozed to the ground to make room for a new Charter School. Hundreds of Christian students and thousands of church members were now homeless—thanks to GOP President George W. Bush.

This case had been simmering for seventeen years when pastor Dr. Greg J. Dixon and his son and co-pastor refused to withhold FICA taxes on the church school staff. At the time of the raid, the younger Dixon was pastor and served as pastor until December of 2015 when Matt Roller was called to that position.

Ashcroft wrote a book after he was out of office and dedicated seven pages to the Indianapolis Baptist Temple tragedy. He alleged that the church was guilty of “tax evasion” but that is not true. He admitted in his book that the church employees paid their own taxes from funds “received from the church.” Ashcroft also alleged that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the church; however, that is another mistake: the Court refused to hear the case.

During the raid, Pastor Greg A. Dixon asked one of the marshals if he was not a member of a local Southside, Bible-preaching church that was not taking FICA out of the church staff’s salary—what the Indianapolis Baptist Temple was charged with. He refused to answer.

About that time, another marshal asked Dr. Dixon for the keys to his car that he promised to move to the K Mart lot so it would not be impounded. Dr. Dixon appreciated his kindness. The AP carried a story revealing that the church parsonage that had been the pastor’s home for 32 years had been taken by the feds. After the eviction, the media quoted Mrs. Dixon as saying “Wait until you see me in my new home.”

All the principal people involved with the church were highly committed and principled people—not the rebels and anti-government trouble makers as presented by most of the media. Paul Harvey led his national broadcast with a fair and positive report of the raid and most of the other national media dealt with it with their normal critical spin. Congressman Ron Paul wrote a wonderful defense of IBT in his Congressional Bulletin.

About sixty of those who served in the church ministry were audited by the IRS, and it was concluded that they had no tax liability of any substantial degree and all had paid their own tax liability including both shares of the Social Security Tax. This of course means that the valuable property, built and financed over many years by dedicated Christians, was seized to satisfy a bogus tax bill that had already been paid.

Why would our government be so vicious and unethical and illegal? Because government is in the control business and true churches refuse to permit secular control since every theologian is aware of the lordship of Christ over everything. Federal prosecutor Douglas Snoeyenbos was quoted as saying that the “higher ups in the U.S. Justice Department are out to totally destroy the pastor and the Indianapolis Baptist Temple.” He also expressed personal dislike for Dr. Dixon even though he had never met him according to the church attorney. Well, I’ve never met Snoeyenbos and I don’t like him or his name, but then he can’t help that.

The church has a memo from the Treasury Department in the mid-eighties (date illegible) signed by an IRS agent declaring that the pastor of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple “spoke out against the IRS and other government agencies in general” which shows the feds have no respect for freedom of speech, religion, etc. It is perfectly legal and ethical to speak out against various agencies. After all, one can abhor an administration or agencies without hating his nation.

I often spoke out on television and wrote about government intrusion in personal lives and into church matters. I even testified at a congressional hearing in Washington dealing with the IRS attempted takeover of Christian schools. I then published it in my first book, Liberalism: A Rope of Sand! I also wrote a scalding letter to the FBI about their treatment of Dr. Dixon regarding another incident. I wonder if the feds have a file on me. Or you.

U.S. Attorney Robert Metzler admitted in federal court in Indianapolis on August 23, 2001, that the Indianapolis Baptist Temple owes no taxes if they would only file for an exemption, which shows that this was not a tax issue—but who will control the Lord’s assembly, God or the IRS. He said the same thing in oral argument at the Seventh Circuit on May 11, 2000. U.S. Attorney Metzler said twice before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal on that same day that “an uncontrolled church is untenable” in America today. But then, thousands of churches in America conduct their affairs just like the Indianapolis Baptist Temple. Will the government begin closing those churches? Are the churches left alone because they are so docile?

Frankly, I am not concerned with an uncontrolled church but I am very concerned about an uncontrolled government. George Washington said, “Government is like fire, a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Our founding fathers knew what current officials refuse to recognize about federal government: A government out of control is like a forest fire that destroys everything in its path.

So, our government planned a dangerous raid on God’s church against innocent people because the pastors had spoken against pornography, the IRS, and leftists in general and had done so for decades. Moreover, few local pastors, even Baptists, stood with the church much to their shame. Many of those pastors were and still are my friends but they showed cowardice rather than courage at that time.

Hundreds of students in their Christian school and thousands of church members had their rights attacked by their own government officials who had sworn to protect those rights. The large, expensive buildings were bulldozed to the ground. Students were no longer taught by committed teachers and hymns of praise no longer echoed along East Street. Alas, the enemy had won!

But that was the prelude. The story continues. Like the Phoenix (the pagan Greek myth), IBT rose from the ashes. The Indianapolis Baptist Temple is even stronger than before and has multiplied its ministries many times. After the raid, the church immediately moved services to a large new public high school auditorium about five minutes from the original church and school buildings.

The wounded church rented similar buildings for five and one half years. Finally, Pastor Greg A. Dixon led the church to lease a large sports building near Interstate 65, only five minutes from the interchange. The church renovated the complex and continued their work of world evangelism.

After serving as pastor until 2015, Pastor Dixon resigned to be followed by a member of the church, Matt Roller. The IBT is alive and well and the disgraced government officials responsible for the illegal raid are (mostly) now has-beens with a badly soiled record. Others have died.

Many will declare that the officials were only doing their job, a defense that is a non-defense. Principled people will never do wrong even if it costs them everything. Bush was wrong to permit the raid. John Ashcroft was wrong to authorize it and should have told Bush that he respectfully would not carry out the church raid. U.S. Marshal Frank Anderson should have informed Washington officials that he would not participate in taking a church away from its members. The 84 other federal agents should have refused to be involved. And the Indianapolis Police Department should have refused federal orders including individual officers. There is nothing wrong in resisting an authority to obey a higher authority. It’s better to be hated for being right than to be honored for being wrong.

Albert Einstein once said, “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.” Every public official involved in the raid and the critical pastors disobeyed that principle.
After resigning as pastor of the IBT in December of 2015, the younger Dixon said, “International Church planting began in 2002 after our building was taken. What men meant for evil God meant for good! Just as the persecution of the Jerusalem church accelerated church planting in Antioch among other places, the persecution in Indy accelerated church planting again. I woke up the following day and God strongly impressed me to start churches. Not to quit or complain. Start churches.”

The tragedy of the federal takeover resulted in a much larger, more aggressive ministry of church planting in Mexico, Central America, Asia, and Africa. Starting with nothing, Dixon organized Advance, a facilitator that helps churches plant churches. Since resigning as pastor, he travels the nation raising money to start and support churches all over the world and every dollar raised goes to that work. He receives no salary, retirement, or any benefit from his service! 109 new churches have been started in Asia, Africa, and North America which includes inner city Indianapolis and Mexico. Another 100 new churches have begun in 2019 around the world. The goal for new church plants in 2020 is another 200 new churches in cities and remote villages of the world.

A little touted, but extremely effective outreach is Pastor Dixon’s Urban Youth Ministry Training whereby trained volunteers from the church community go into the Indianapolis Public Schools, as they have done for 13 years. The volunteers seek to impress upon students positive values to result in a successful life in a world of confusion. So, while the feds confiscated and destroyed their Christian school, the IBT is going into the public schools with a positive message.

Another ministry is the Transitional Housing Ministry that provides assistance to men in need of housing in the inner city of Indianapolis. Men who were converted in one of the city missions get counseling and a place to stay. Pastor Greg A. Dixon says, “A warm bed helps to make a warm and receptive heart to the Gospel.”

Their Trinity House work is a soup kitchen ministry that provides an evening dinner in three locations feeding over 700 people each month accompanied by a positive message of the Gospel.
Additionally, every July a medical mission trip is taken to Oaxaca, Mexico where 39 churches have been started over the last nine years. The medical team seeks to minister to the health needs of people who cannot afford or don’t have access to medical care.

What the enemy and casual critics thought was a massive tragedy and major failure turned out to be one of the most impressive victories in a hundred years. The victory—yes, victory—of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple over the feds and their critics is another reminder that there is nothing wrong in resisting an authority to obey a higher authority.

The character of a person is not seen in where he stands in a time of comfort but where he stands in times of challenge, controversy, and conflict. The Dixons and the membership of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple stood in the face of great odds and have not only survived but have thrived.

It was a shameful day when the federal government, under a GOP president, raided and bulldozed a very successful church, but what the enemy thought to be a fatal blow became a fabulous blessing. The IBT raid should be a warning to all Americans–government out of control is dangerous. Furthermore, pastors who are faithful to their calling will be a voice in the wilderness calling wayward government officials to repentance.

As to the “scandal” of pastors who are monitored by the feds, maybe that would be true of all pastors if they were fearless spokesmen for the truth. The real scandal is that very few pastors are so courageous to make the FBI and IRS keep a file on them.

(Those interested in further information about this unusual ministry may find it at advanceglobal.net.)

Boys’ book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! is available; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Roman Catholics experienced a major scandal in recent years that is still reverberating even behind the Vatican walls. It is commendable that the media have been willing to deal thoroughly with that issue after years of delay. It is not honest or honorable if Protestant pastors come to the defense of an erring pastor while being critical of the massive Roman Catholic sex scandal. That is pure hypocrisy, but then hypocrites are found in all races, regions, ranks, and religions.

However, the giant in the room is the non-Catholic churches that range from Adventists to Zion Christians, especially the very visible megachurches. It is my opinion that there are thousands of pastors who take advantage of church members and staff. Alas, many of the victims are young girls–and boys! No doubt, the problem extends to the evangelical seminaries and universities.

Those pastors (like Roman Catholic priests) use their position, prestige, and power over members to sexually exploit them. Of course, adult women should have screamed to high heaven at the time of the sexual abuse; but later is better than never. The problem is the accused pastors have a right to defend themselves and it is difficult to prove a negative if they are innocent–as many are. The issue is compounded because the ministry demands and denotes such high standards that a false accusation can destroy a pastor. A false accusation is why the Bible demands that a rape victim must scream and fight at the attempted rape if she is to be believed. After all, women can deceive, dissimulate, defame, and debauch just as men can.

Church members are taught that the Bible requires them to forgive their perpetrator so it would be wrong to report them to lawful officials. They are then told that if they report an abusing pastor, they will be responsible for “tearing down the ministry.” Often, the sexually abused members have been in the church for years and have been deeply involved with its growth and often they have received much help from the ministry. How could they do anything to harm a church they love?

Independent Baptists have a problem that Roman Catholics and denominations with a hierarchical ruling system don’t have. Southern Baptists have a similar problem. With Baptists, there is no bishop or pope to move an erring pastor from one church to another to smother the scandal. When a priest goes bad, he is moved from Atlanta to Anchorage and often continues his lechery. Often, the Baptist pastor stays in town, denies everything, hunkers down, and stays in the same pulpit many years. And after a few months or years following the revelation of his sins, he is accepted by his peers as if he was only guilty of speeding! The acquiescing pastors must share some of the guilt when the predator pastor strikes again against an innocent one.

The non-hierarchal way is the Bible way but it is failing in our day because of weakness and vacillation of laymen and pastors. Laymen must hold their pastors accountable, but that very seldom happens–either because of intimidation by the pastor, or love for the pastor, or a desire “not to cause a disruption of the ministry.” Not hurting the church is the excuse leaders use for not dealing with a pastor’s sexual affairs. They often say, “Let God take care of it;” however, God has told the church to take care of it. Most Baptist churches are failing at this and other matters of church discipline.

According to Christianity Today, 61% of congregations have forced a pastor to leave–often for moral turpitude. According to a doctoral thesis by a Donald Q. Hicks, a Liberty University Fellow, about 2400 pastors are fired each year in the SBC! That is from the SBC alone! That means a train wreck is about to happen, since the six SBC seminaries have only produced about 1400 graduates each year during the last ten years. Shockingly, over 15,000 pastors are fired (for various reasons) each year from all denominations according to a poll done by George Barna, the Fuller Institute, and others!

If a pastor is fired, the firing church usually does nothing to inform others that they fired a predator preacher. He is free to prey on unsuspecting communities and left free to resume other sexual conquests. All groups, even Baptists, should keep a registry of pastoral offenders to warn churches to stay away from the culprits.

Some abusive pastors go through counseling, usually by a fellow pastor across town, and after a few months, he is pronounced “rehabilitated” and free to reenter the ministry. That rehabilitation back to the pulpit should be repudiated. My friend Jerry Falwell was super gracious and kind and taught that fallen pastors could serve in a church after they had counseling. While he was right in never being alone with an unrelated woman, he was wrong about returning fallen pastors to the pulpit.

Churches are careless in choosing a pastor often without doing any checking! I have been involved in calling a few pastors and always ask them very personal questions. “Have you been married before? Have you ever been sued? How much are you in debt? Have you ever been arrested? Have you ever been accused of sexual misconduct?”

I don’t like to kick a man when he is down and I believe in loyalty to friends but when a man commits horrendous sins and presents himself as a man of God (with all that implies) then I consider him my enemy when he proves that he was not what was represented. I have opposed former friends of mine, pastors of large churches, who were guilty of sexual abuse. I have written about it and testified in the Maryland Legislature on sexual abuse by Baptist pastors.

It is time to recognize that there is a “good ole boy” network in church circles where our “heroes” are protected by their peers. After all, we don’t want to appear to be self-righteous or judgmental or unkind or whatever. So we who claim to believe, follow, and preach the Bible have become unbiblical! We are more loyal to sinners than to the Savior!

That great host of Independent Baptist and Southern Baptist pastors who live godly lives are harmed by those who think being a pastor means they can get away with any kind of sin and “work” really hard for God to balance it all out. However doing a great amount of good never negates the evil.

One famous Independent Baptist pastor (himself later charged with indiscretions and adultery) said, “If I walked into [a famous Baptist pastor’s] office and saw him on the floor on top of his secretary, I would assume he was doing mouth to mouth resuscitation, not sinful activity.” That sounds so gracious but it is cultic in thinking, if not in theology.

Laymen who refuse to pursue charges brought against a pastor must accept some responsibility for that pastor’s future indiscretions. Some laymen have been taught that they should not do so. It is supposed to be disloyal to ask a pastor to explain accusations against him! It is time for Christian men to act like men and fulfill their responsibilities as board members and get the facts. If a pastor is guilty, report him to authorities if that is required, then seek to help him and help him find another occupation. He has lost his right to be in the pulpit.

Some suggestions to stop or hinder sexual abuse and false accusations:

All pastors should demand they be held accountable by their church officers. Baptist pastors are super shy about this since the Bible teaches pastoral authority; however, it does not teach dictatorship or unaccountability. I have known pastors who consider any questions as a personal attack. That borders on cultic.

Everyone must realize that preachers are simply humans who are ordained. There are all kinds: highly educated, poorly educated, gracious, grumpy, greedy, generous, all prone to the same failures, foibles, and faults of others. Respect them if they deserve it and flee from them as if your hair were on fire if they are cultic.

No accusation against a pastor should be believed until it is proved beyond a doubt, but all accusations must be investigated. Laymen must deal with charges against a pastor and biblical injunctions must be followed. No pastor is above the law–of God or man.

A pastor should not be in a room with a girl or woman without an open door. It is amazing that this is controversial. It is common sense that even the secular world is starting to recognize! It is not that women are aggressive and not to be trusted; it is that no one is beyond temptation. Furthermore, no one is safe from false accusations.

Offices of pastors and staff should have glass doors or windows so that the office areas are visible. That would eliminate most false accusations.

There are scores of preachers in prison for sex crimes as I write. How many other pastors will join them this year?

Boys’  book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Since this is the 500th year of the anniversary of the Reformation, many have asked why so many groups split from the church that Christ established while others want to know what was the first authentic church. It is assumed by the uneducated that the Roman Catholic Church was the “mother church” but that is not an historical fact. Well, if not the Catholics, then who?

The first church was in Jerusalem and it was a Baptist or baptistic church! If not, what were they? My critics can tell me what the Jerusalem church believed and practiced and I will adjust to their beliefs and practices.

J. Porter wrote in 1914, “The first Baptist preacher was John the Baptist. We learn from the Scriptures that he was a Baptist and a preacher, and certainly it is impossible for a man to be a Baptist and a preacher and not be a Baptist preacher.” Can anyone argue with that statement? Since Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, did that make Christ a Baptist? Just asking.

The Encyclopedia Britannica revealed, “Baptists can be traced to 618 A.D. and it is presumed that they originated from the original source of the churches.”

In 1819, the King of Holland appointed Dr. J. Dermout and Dr. Ypeij to prepare a history of the Dutch Reformed Church and also to report on the claims of the Dutch Baptists. Following their research, they wrote: “We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times, Mennonites, were the original Waldenses…On this account, the Baptists may be considered as the only religious community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gospel through all ages.”

The above account can be found on page 148, Volume I., of the work entitled History of the Dutch Reformed Church, by A. Ypeij, Doctor and Professor of Theology at Groningen, and I. J. Dermout, Secretary of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Preacher at The Hague, at Breda, 1819. Of course, they were not Baptists.

The best evidence for your position is when evidence comes from your enemy or opponent, and the Campbellites or Church of Christ people have been longtime opponents of Baptists. The following words of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Church of Christ movement, are taken from the authorized edition of the Campbell-McCalla Debate, “Clouds of witnesses attest the fact that before the reformation from Popery, and from the apostolic age, to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists and the practice of baptism have had a continued chain of advocates, and public monuments of their existence in every century can be produced” (Alexander Campbell, in debate with W. L. McCalla, held at Washington, Mason Co., Ky., Oct. 15, 1823, p. 378).

Baptists have been fervently opposed to government control or involvement in their church affairs even when it would have benefited them! In colonial Virginia, everyone was taxed to support the established religion of the Episcopal Church (Church of England); however, Baptists refused to support that error by not paying the tax.

Those Baptists were hassled, harassed, and hunted; then fined, whipped, and even imprisoned; but they prevailed. They would not pay taxes to support the local vicar of the Church of England. In fact, they were told that they could receive tax dollars to support their Baptist Churches, but the principled Baptists refused the free money! That resulted with the Anglican Church being disestablished in Virginia. Now, no tax dollars would support any church.

In our day, almost all groups are taking “free” money, even Baptists! Day cares, Christian schools, homeless shelters, etc., are being financed with tax dollars. And even Baptists have learned to live with the attached strings–later to be called, chains. The strings always begin very tenuously; but it must be remembered that what the government funds, it runs. Maybe not at first, but eventually with the government’s nickel comes a noose.

Baptist History is not without its blemishes and stains. Because of its independence, some peculiar people with peculiar teachings attached themselves to Baptist Churches and baptistic groups going back before Baptist was attached to a church name. The lack of a hierarchal organization without a “pope” required every single Baptist Church to police its own affairs. That system has worked rather well; after all, it is the biblical system.

Baptists have been the loudest voices for religious freedom and separation of church and state (although not separation of God and state) from the very beginning of this nation. Honest, informed historians credit Baptists for that reality.

L. W. Bacon, in A History of American Christianity, wrote of the Baptists: “….that we are chiefly indebted for the final triumph, in this country, of that principle of the separation of church and state, which is one of the largest contributions of the New World to civilization….” High praise indeed and well deserved from a Congregationalist and later Presbyterian!

Baptists are also responsible for the ten amendments to the constitution not only the first one! Cathcart tells us in his Centennial Offering that “Denominationally, no community asked for this change in the Constitution but the Baptists….The Baptists asked for it through Washington; the request commended itself to his judgment and to the generous soul of Madison; and to the Baptists, beyond a doubt, belongs the glory of engrafting its best articles on the noblest Constitution ever framed for the government of mankind.”

The separation of church and state was enshrined in the Bill or Rights in the U.S. Constitution because of a Baptist preacher named John Leland. The Bill of Rights is comparable to England’s Magna Carta signed in 1215.

The Constitution was approved in 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention and was sent to the states for ratification. Virginia was by far the largest and most politically powerful colony so there would be no Constitution without Virginia. Each Virginia County elected two members to the state ratifying convention. James Madison and James Gordon, Jr. were candidates from Orange County (and there were two other candidates opposed to the Constitution) and Madison thought he was a sure winner. He was warned by his father and others that the Baptists had turned the citizens against the Constitution because it did not have a Bill of Rights. Madison headed home from New York through Philadelphia and stopped to spend a few hours with the Baptist preacher John Leland who was the major Baptist in Virginia and Orange County, home also of Madison.

The Penn State Law Review declared that religious liberty concerns of Virginia Baptists particularly the concerns of John Leland “…played a substantial role in James Madison’s elections to the Virginia ratifying convention in March of 1788 and to the First Congress in February of 1789. Those elections, in turn, were key events in the ratification of the Constitution and in the adoption of the Bill of Rights.”

Leland was a friend of James Madison, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson, and because of that relationship, he was asked to preach to Congress with President Jefferson in attendance in the House of Representatives. Pastor Leland met with Madison, a candidate to Virginia’s ratifying convention, to convince him of the need for a Bill of Rights to be added to the newly approved Constitution of the United States. Madison was lukewarm to the subject.

The preacher and politician, both Virginians, later met near Orange, Virginia, in what is known today as Leland–Madison Memorial Park. During that four-hour meeting, Leland was successful in extracting a commitment from Madison for a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. During that meeting, it was understood that Leland would oppose Madison’s election if he did not commit to a Bill of Rights. Madison knew the Baptist pastor was very popular in his district and agreed to his request. (He also knew his party had been trounced in the previous election in Orange County.) Leland supported him strongly and the two pro-Constitution candidates won: Madison had 202; his fellow candidate 187 and the two opposing candidates 56 and 34!

Madison kept his word when he went to Congress in the first congressional election in 1788; and America became the most unusual nation in the world: the first nation having a written Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, etc.

America has a Bill of Rights because of a persistent pastor and a principled politician! This nation is short on both today.

Madison submitted twelve Constitutional amendments to the Congress about a month after Washington promised his help to the Baptists. Two amendments were rejected, but the ten original amendments were approved on September 23, 1789 after much opposition and were then submitted to the states for ratification.

The eleventh state had approved them by December 15, 1791 and America became the most unique nation on the face of the earth! We became a nation that guaranteed the people their God-given rights and limited the power of government, and we did it with a written Constitution and Bill of Rights–thanks to a Baptist preacher.

Historian of the Episcopal Church Dr. Hawks wrote in the Ecclesiastical Contributions: “The Baptists were the principal promoters of this work, and in truth aided more than any other denomination in its accomplishment.” Again, praise from a non-Baptist!

When Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, etc., pass a Baptist church, they should doff their hats in respect and whisper a word of thanks for the freedom everyone is guaranteed because of our Baptist forefathers. Even non-Baptists agree that the Bill of Rights was a fantastic achievement in the annals of government.

The smallest Baptist church in America can swell with justified pride and appreciation of Baptist forefathers who believed in personal liberty for everyone–even the right to be wrong!

Now you know why Baptists are not Protestants and why I’m a Baptist.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

I am a Christian Fundamentalist, one who adheres closely to what the Bible teaches and I don’t find much in other religions and denominations to recommend religiously. Very frankly, I am right and the other religions, even parts of Christianity, are wrong. (What did you expect me to say?) Now that I have settled that, I am willing to admit the historical truth that the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox Churches have made major positive contributions to the world especially in the fourth century forward. I still maintain my right to disagree, even declare they wrote the histories to make them seem to be original Christians, but they made valuable contributions.

For the record, it should be remembered that the Catholic Church was hundreds of years in the making with many godly, dedicated, and true preachers of the Word associated with it during that time. While the Roman Church was forming, there were numerous independent churches growing alongside it. While those independent churches stayed true to the Scripture for the most part, they did not have the clout, the cash, and the crowds of the Roman Catholic Church; consequently, they did not make the social impact on citizens of the Roman Empire as did the larger, better financed Catholic Church.

While the Roman Catholic Church was gaining more and more power as the Empire collapsed, there were unaffiliated independent churches all over the Empire who refused to conform to the growing power of the Roman Church. Each pope became stronger throughout Europe until Leo I (died 461) claimed superiority over all bishops in the West and the East! Leo was met with resistance since all bishops were to be equal. The patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria “claimed equal authority with the Roman see” so as of 450 there was still no authoritative, supreme pope. That came with Gregory I in the late 500s (died 604) who was the first supreme pope.

The fabled civilization of a thousand years could see the handwriting on the wall as the brutal barbarians were at the gates of Rome and collapse was imminent. In 410 A.D., Rome collapsed as the city of the Caesars fell to uncivilized, uneducated, and uncouth barbarians. With the collapse of Rome, a chill went throughout the civilized world; however, as the Empire fell, the Church of Rome stepped in to fill the gap.

Following the alleged conversion of Constantine in the early fourth century, the churches constructed and maintained hospitals, hospices for strangers, and houses for orphans, widows, and the indigent. As Rome crumbled, the Church remained the one (and only) stable institution that helpless citizens could depend on for help and protection.

As the Empire collapsed because of internal decay, corruption of officials, and the barbarian invasions, the social structure decayed also. The bewildered citizens looked to the only large, powerful entity for succor–the Church. The churches, primarily the Roman Catholic Church as it was gradually forming, basically replaced the failing Empire. As internal confusion and inability to maintain the army in the north accelerated, Rome became a shadow of its former glory. The more the Empire crumbled the more important and powerful the Church became. Although the Church became heretical, it provided fearful citizens with protection, food, health care, etc.

The Church at Rome (that became the seat of the Roman Catholic Church) had over fifty thousand members and supported 1,500 widows, orphans, and the poor according to Gibbon. He adds that the church at Antioch “consisted of one hundred thousand persons, three thousand of whom were supported out of the public oblations [gifts to churches].” Of course, that was long before the formation of the Roman Catholic Church.

After the Council of Nicaea in 325, the bishops were told to go into every Cathedral city (the main city of a diocese where the bishops ruled) and start a hospital–and later universities. Consequently, a number of hospitals were founded by rich Christians in various cities.

About this time, monasteries and convents were organized with many purposes but they became the bastions of scholarship in many fields. Catholic engineers constructed massive and elaborate cathedrals throughout Europe that still amaze visitors with their beauty, size, and symmetry.

Basil of Caesarea (c.329-379) was the Greek bishop in Cappadocia (part of modern Turkey) who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed Arianism and other heresies. He was from a wealthy family and founded the first Christian hospital that ministered to the sick. It was the first hospital that had wards for specific diseases. He organized a soup kitchen and distributed food to the poor during a famine. He gave away his personal family inheritance to benefit the poor of his diocese. He actively worked to help thieves and prostitutes.

An obvious outcome of establishing hospitals was the need to provide workers; therefore, brotherhoods and orders were birthed to serve in hospitals, hospices, orphanages, etc. According to historian Kenneth S. Latourette, “One of the first of which we know began late in the ninth century in Siena. In the eleventh century many cathedrals and parish churches had hospitals…A large proportion, perhaps a majority of monasteries seem to have had hospitals attached to them, several gave training in medicine, and many abbots became expert physicians. Hospitals cared not only for the sick, but also for the orphaned and the poor, and in the cities many of them fed prisoners.”

Many groups organized and formed orders to care for the sick and dying. Catholic religious orders included the Order of Saint Benedict, the Order of Friars Minor, the Carmelites, the Dominican Order, and the Order of Saint Augustine. (All orders did not serve in hospitals or provide for the poor since each order had its own specialty.) Monasteries served as hospitals and places of refuge for the weak and homeless. The monks studied the healing properties of plants and minerals to alleviate the sufferings of the sick.

Historians admit that when the Roman Empire began to crack at its foundations, the Church had not only established hospitals but had also become “the schoolmaster of Western Europe and the tutor of the barbarian of the North.” The origin of many medieval universities can be traced back to the Catholic cathedral schools (monastic schools) which appeared as early as the 6th century.The Catholic Church is to be commended for being the impetus for most of the universities of the Middle Ages.

Catholic scientists that made the world better are Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Nicolas Copernicus, Louis Pasteur, Gregor Mendel, Roger Bacon, and many others. And the popes are to be commended for permitting dissecting of human bodies for medical research.

Moreover, the Cathedral churches and monasteries were the main preservers of literature after many libraries of the ancient world had been destroyed. Dedicated monks protected and copied books making them available for scholars throughout Europe.

Latourette reveals “the [Roman Catholic] Church was the first to accumulate reserves of capital, to begin the system of deposits, credit, and banking, and to advocate a stable coinage. The Templars were famous as bankers….The Church, too, inculcated the theory of the ‘just price.’” Again, much is owed to the Roman Church in the practical area of finance.

While there is much I disagree with in the Roman Church, especially its doctrine and religious ceremonial practices, I recognize their incredible contributions to giving some stability in very difficult, desperate and dangerous times; their production and protection of vast scholarly literature; their generous alleviation of suffering of millions; the construction and maintenance of universities; etc.

For all that, I tip my hat to my theological adversaries.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

No doubt, there are some people who put their trust in a Fundamentalist leader only to be horribly disappointed and possibly emotionally abused but such people need to recognize that all groups have self-serving extremists which the group cannot control. They should not blame the movement or God, but the person. Then deal with those specific issues and move on in their Christian life. It does no good and much harm to “pick at the scab” and blame a whole group for the failure of a few nuts.

All nuts are not on trees or in secular universities. Some are in pulpits, even Baptist pulpits!

Make no mistake: Fundamentalists are the original Christians! That fact is confessed by one of the leading religious scholars to serve in mainline Christianity. Dr. Kirsopp Lake was a professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard University who affirmed that fundamentalism is original Christianity! This expert of church history wrote, “It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: it is the…survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians.” Lake added, “The Fundamentalist may be wrong; I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority.” He added that the Bible is on the side of Fundamentalists! (Kirsopp Lake, The Religion of Yesterday and Tomorrow, 1925, pp. 61, 62.)

In 1947, a critic of Fundamentalists, Harold J. Ockenga, said that “fundamentalism most nearly approximates theological truth” despite all that he thought was wrong with it. He even declared in a sermon in December of 1957, “I wish to be always classified as a Fundamentalist.”

Charles Colson, a devoted and brilliant evangelical, equated Fundamentalism with orthodox Christianity. “Everyone who believes in the orthodox truths about Jesus Christ—in short, every Christian—is a fundamentalist.” All right, why doesn’t every professing Christian belong to a Bible-preaching church?

The Apostles’ Creed was first mentioned in the 300s and has always been used by many mainline churches who, for the most part, do not believe it! It was believed, in the 4th century, that the creed was composed by the Apostles themselves. All Bible believers would accept the entire creed.

It is obvious to any honest person that Fundamentalists are original Christians since their doctrine is the same as first century Christians. Plus, the simplicity of their services as opposed to the formal liturgy in many churches is further support for its originality. The Roman Catholic Church, Episcopalians, the Greek Orthodox Church, and most of the mainline American churches do not believe in the original doctrines of the New Testament or they have added doctrines and practices that are not found in Scripture.

Another indication that Fundamentalists are original Christians is separation, both personal and ecclesiastical. Personal separation from sin is called, “godliness,” or “holiness,” and no one suggests that only Fundamentalists believe and practice that. However, the preaching of godly living today is as scarce as albino dinosaurs in Kentucky. Too much preaching nowadays pats the back and tickles the ear, but does not get under the skin. There is no conviction and therefore no conversion. I am thinking not only of the ministry of reproof and rebuke but also of the message of inspiration, of encouragement, and of comfort. The average church member leaves church at noon with his depths unstirred, his heart untouched, and his conscience unpricked. Such pastors are therefore unbiblical, unnecessary, and should be unemployed.

Of all religious groups, Evangelicals come closest to Fundamentalists (since that is the Evangelicals’ roots) but many refuse to condemn filthy television, movies, alcohol, other drugs, etc., and refuse to promote frequent church attendance, tithing, and other distinctives. Many Evangelicals work hard at convincing everyone they are not Fundamentalists.

Methinks they protest too much.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy of Muslim Invasion, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Last week the respected Southern Baptist Convention joined the fanatics in chipping away at the perceived symbol of the South by voting overwhelmingly to repudiate the Confederate battle flag. It’s one thing to admit their denomination was founded in support of Southern slavery but to flagellate themselves and others with the Confederate flag is outrageous. SBC muckety muck, Russell Moore sobbed, “It’s not often that I find myself wiping away tears in a denominational meeting, but I just did.” All right, I respect his heartfelt, although unjustified emotion; however, I assume he also sobbed when he saw the White House lit up with the homosexual rainbow flag!

Thousands of Baptists declared at the St. Louis conclave, “Today Southern Baptists affirmed that we are more committed to the gospel than we are to a flag and more committed to the future than we are to the past.” That is a fantastic statement that no Christian would deny; however, it does not justify their unnecessary, unprovoked, and unjustified attack upon a major portion of this nation.

The South-haters like to control people–all people, North and South. Those people who won’t be controlled are dangerous to the control-freak tyrants. The tyrants believe such reluctant people must be educated in the public educational system that is controlled by the “controllees.” If people will not succumb to controlled education then they must be educated against their will, hence the use of television, movies, music, as well as schools to mold people the way the “controllees” want.

A major way to control people is to control the culture resulting in the “correct” view of events. We saw this following the craven shooting by a white thug in Charleston, S.C. of nine members of a black church. The cowardly thug was seen in a photo with a Confederate flag and the fanatics went ballistic! Cowardly politicians rushed to the television cameras to denounce the Southern culture and one of its symbols–the Confederate battle flag. The South Carolina governor and the legislature removed the flag from statehouse grounds. That is much easier and safer than making a cogent defense of their hasty actions.

However, when Muslim fanatics are seen with a Koran or the Muslim flag the same liberal control freaks are strangely silent. Could it be because they are cowards or collaborators or even crusaders for Islam? If not, then what is the explanation? At least, they are hypocrites.

The fanatics are on a roll. They want to remove all historical figures who do not meet the present pristine political picture of perfection; but no person or group is without blame. All people are flawed–even the fanatics who have appointed themselves Cultural Commissars. For many years, the fanatics have castigated Columbus and insist that he be anathema. Now, the zealots are running amuck sandblasting names of famous military and political leaders from schools; ripping up statues, and tearing down Confederate battle flags. Those same people usually have no problem with the infamous rainbow flag of the perverts that was even displayed at the White House following a seizure of insanity by the U.S. Supreme Court!

The Confederate battle flag waved over slavery for only four years yet the stars and stripes waved over slavery for almost a hundred years. Slavery is a shameful, sinful, and sullied part of our history but only a part. The battle flag also stands for courage, commitment, consistency, and culture.

The fanatics are determined that while they can’t change what happened in the past, they will sure change the narrative to fit their skewed view of the past. Narrow-minded leaders have done that for thousands of years.

An example of politicians manipulating history is seen in Caesar trying to obliterate the memory of Pilate because he had offended Caesar. Pilate therefore did not exist since Caesar said so and historians and politicians willingly obeyed by removing Pilate’s name from all records. For many years, Bible critics told anyone who would listen that the Bible is unreliable because Pilate could not be found in any historical record. Then archeologists, digging in the rubble of Caesarea by the Sea, found a five-inch-thick stone that referred to Pilate and had been used in the famous amphitheater where I have preached a few times. Of course, the stone had been used because it was exactly the size needed and was used with the forbidden information about Pilate underneath! It is on display in Caesarea today.

Mark Antony had a similar experience with his memory being formally expunged from Rome’s official records even though he was related to three of Rome’s first five emperors–Caligula, Claudius, and Nero! His mother was a cousin of Julius Caesar under whom he served in the army and became second-in-command. Antony, while his wife was in Rome, had a lengthy affair with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt fathering three children, and then he and his lover killed themselves.

Antony had resisted Octavian (later known as Augustus) and when Augustus gained total power, he decided to remove Antony from the history books: “His name was obliterated from the […] state registers of official events. His statues were removed. It was to be as if he had never existed. The Senate […] voted that no member of the Antonius clan should be named Marcus […]. His birthday was made […] an unlucky day, on which public business could not be conducted.” So, Marc Antony legally ceased to exist because Caesar said so.

This kind of glaring dissimulation, distortion, and dishonesty continued to the War Between the States. During the first two years of Lincoln’s War of Northern Aggression, the South whipped the Yankees and Northern states grew weary of seeing their sons come home in boxes or buried in a Southern meadow on Chickamauga Creek or on a North Carolina mountainside. For the first two years, the reason for the war was taxes, not slavery; however, Lincoln changed the war rhetoric to a more emotional subject than finances. Slavery was the emotional button for the North that Lincoln pushed and it worked. Slavery was worth fighting and dying for, but not taxes.

Modern totalitarians, with the same bias, bigotry, and bullying as ancient Caesar, plan to dig up the body of Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest buried in a city park whose name used to identify the park. But it gets worse; the fanatics are cancelling the annual Jefferson–Jackson Day dinners because both men held slaves. But then, slaves were held by Washington (about 300), Jefferson (about 200), Madison (more than 100), and Monroe (about 75). In fact, of the first 14 presidents all owned slaves except John and Quincy Adams. Eight of them owned slaves while serving as president! Here’s a shocker: Abe Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was served by slaves in the White House even though the slave trade was abolished in Washington in 1850–long before he was elected!

So, to be consistent (never a major concern for liberals), they must change the name of the cities that honor Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and all the others who were flawed men. Moreover, all the streets, schools, and airports that honor those slaveholders must be changed. Maybe we should take a massive wrecking ball to America to satisfy the fanatics.

Thoughtless or bigoted blacks who demand that the Confederate Flag be shredded are smearing many Blacks who fought under that flag. The first black military officers in the U.S. were blacks who commanded a regiment of 1500 enlistees for the Confederacy. Of those black soldiers, Professor Walter Williams declared, “Black civil rights activists, their white liberal supporters and historically ignorant Americans who attack the Confederate flag have committed a deep, despicable dishonor to our patriotic Southern black ancestors who marched, fought and died not to protect slavery but to protect their homeland from Northern aggression. They don’t deserve the dishonor.” Oh, I forgot to mention that Williams is black!

I should also remind you that I don’t own a Confederate flag and was not born or reared in the South.

Tyrants, totalitarians, and toadies never change; and modern politicians continue as in the past: they exaggerate their successes, excuse their shortcomings, and excise their sins and they do that by rewriting history–even wrecking history.

Boys’ new book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! will be released next week by Barbwire Books.

Up until the reign of Justinian (527-565 AD), simply saying you were married was enough to establish a family. The famous Code of Justinian set some parameters for the family: any man could take a concubine but she had to be at least 12 years old. When a man lived with a free woman, it was not considered concubinage but genuine matrimony if she did not acquire financial gain by selling her body.

In 866 AD, Pope Nicholas I said “Let the simple consent of those whose wedding is in question be sufficient; if the consent be lacking in a marriage, all other celebrations, even should the union be consummated, are rendered void.” Consent was what made marriages valid and endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, then a power throughout Europe. There was no church involvement in marriages until about the ninth century other than Pope Nicholas’ decree and after the twelfth century prayers were added to the ceremony often by the bride and groom.

Up to the twelfth century, a consummated marriage was considered valid if the couple had pledged their love and commitment to each other even without any civil or church involvement or approval. Roman Catholic Church leaders thought that such an arrangement was far better than concubinage or jumping from bed to bed like a deranged rabbit. A consummated and committed marriage would also tend to repel seducers.

Then in 1215 the Roman Catholic Church required all churches in England and Wales to publish banns (a proclamation) three Sundays before any wedding. That period of time permitted objections to be made such as an accusation that one of the two was already married or underage, or they were closely related, etc. Furthermore, the marriage had to be performed in their parish church. In the 1300s, if a couple wanted to marry quickly, the church instituted a license (permission) for the banns to be avoided. The license also permitted them to be married in another parish as well. Of course, there was a fee required accompanied by a sworn declaration that there was no canonical reason to prohibit the marriage.

Many then perceived marriage by banns as a second-class ceremony; consequently, that led to an increase in the number of marriages by license. Most of the marriages done with a license were for special purposes such as a wedding done outside the usual hours for weddings or in a church not normally approved for weddings. These weddings could be done quickly without waiting three weeks to have the marriage announced in church. Another perceived benefit was confidentiality since some people did not want the town to know that they did not have an approved wedding years earlier.

After the twelfth century, Church approval of marriages was required and after 1563 a priest was required at every wedding. Peasants in some European countries were required to have permission of the lord of the manor and in some places the lord reserved the right to spend the wedding night with the bride. Just one of his perks.

Then the Council of Trent, organized as a frantic response to the Reformation in the mid-1500s, also took up the problem of secret or “clandestine” marriages without satisfying those people who were for or against. The French wanted to outlaw all secret marriages and marriages without parental approval, but the Council refused to make parental approval a requisite for valid marriages. Secret marriages were very popular because young people wanted to choose their own spouses rather than have parents choose. A young girl whose parents had arranged her marriage at birth, would say, “But, Mom, I was secretly married last year.” However, the Council did abolish secret marriages where only the bride and groom were present.

Such secret marriages had been recognized as “true marriages,” but there were problems. It was common for a man to secretly marry then change his mind after a few months or years. He met another woman and then publicly married her with all the necessary requirements met. However, he was already secretly married and had two children. What about his responsibilities to them? His former wife could not prove their secret marriage and was stranded up a creek in a leaking canoe without a paddle, along with two hungry, screaming children! How could a court hold a man accountable without some proof of the secret marriage? If the court came to her defense, supported only by her word, then all marriages could be in danger. An unscrupulous woman could choose an attractive married man and charge that he was her secret mate. It was a can of worms.

The problem was an old one. When a couple had problems and split, there was no way for the aggrieved party to prove his or her marriage by an independent witness. The Council sought to solve this oft-occurring problem by decreeing that if a couple admitted to a secret marriage it was considered a “grave sin” and they were required to renew their vows in the local church attended by three witnesses, one of them being the local priest. The priest did not make the marriage valid; the man and woman did that with vows of commitment. The priest was there as a representative of the Church and registered the marriage. The priest was often the only person in town who could read and write so he was a natural choice to keep a record of important events such as marriage.

The Council of Trent declared that people who had been secretly married would be considered married as long as the marriages were not invalidated by the Roman Catholic Church. Then the Council required that a marriage announcement must be published each Sunday for three consecutive weeks so that a planned marriage could be forbidden if anyone had a legitimate reason to prohibit the wedding. Finally the Council said that a marriage was not valid if anyone tried to be married without a priest (or his designate) as witness along with two other witnesses.

The Roman Church pushed its way further into the homes by requiring local priests to keep records of all baptisms and deaths as well as weddings. The grip was getting tighter and tighter and it must be remembered that in the Middle Ages in Europe, the Pope was literally over every person including the “sovereign” kings.

While the Council of Trent was agonizing with their decisions and trying to untie a Gordian Knot, the Protestant Reformers had declared that a public marriage was one that was consented to by the couples’ parents. If not, it was a clandestine or secret marriage and invalid. They took the position that a church was limited in its authority and that marriage is a fundamental right of an individual so only two people could create a marriage and did so by their public consent.

During the reign of England’s Henry VIII (1509 to 1547), marriage licenses were provided by the Archbishop of Canterbury (actually by King Henry) after 1534. Before that date, the Pope issued licenses. A common license permitted a couple to be married at their parish church while a special license permitted t a couple to be married any place. A special license was required for anyone not a member of an Anglican Church. Religious separatists were not pleased with that requirement and refused to obey it.

The Marriage Act of 1753 (full title, An Act for the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriage) in England and Wales took control of marriage from the hands of family and vested it in the state. From the point at which the law took effect in 1754, marriages which had not taken place in the Church of England, Quaker Meetings or Jewish synagogues, were rendered invalid. This was the first time legislation required a formal marriage ceremony in England and Wales. This caused major problems with dissident Christians (Baptists) who held strong beliefs about marriage and strong reservations about state control and interference in their homes. The parents of an underage couple had to get a license from the government and the ceremony had to take place in a Church of England. Any future children were not permitted an inheritance if those conditions were not met by everyone, including Baptists.

This effectively did away with secret marriages and gave government more control which is common for all governments.

Baptists refused to obey the law that required marriages to be controlled by the state and Baptists and other groups are doing the same today: Government, stay out of our most important and sacred traditions. It is a legitimate marriage if there is consent, commitment, consummation, and communication in any little church in the dale and needs no one’s permission!

We don’t need or want, nor will we permit the government in our weddings.

(Fourth of nine columns dealing with no state involvement in marriage. Next column: “Marriage Makes Rude, Crude, and Lewd Men into Softies!”)

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It was named after the College’s first benefactor, a young minister John Harvard. John was from a wealthy British family, most who died of plague leaving him to control the family fortune. When he died in 1638, he left his library and half his estate to fund the college that was to train ministers of the Gospel. A statue of John Harvard stands today in front of University Hall in Harvard Yard, and is perhaps the University’s best known landmark. However, practically all the faculty and almost all the students would be embarrassed if they knew what he really believed.

Harvard College consisted of an acre of land and a house with one professor. The first graduation class consisted of nine graduates. For many years, at least half the graduates became ministers. Students had to prove their fitness for the bachelor’s degree by showing that they could read the original Hebrew and Greek of the Old and New Testaments and translate them into the Latin tongue, and “resolve them logically.”

The early motto of Harvard was “Truth for Christ and the Church;” however, when unbelieving radicals took over, every word was deleted except “truth.” I’m afraid truth was also deleted and it has long been denigrated and denied.

One point of the “Harvard College Laws” of 1642 was “to know God better.” For example: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.” Plus each student was to read the Bible twice a day!

In 1654, Harvard’s first president Henry Dunster and his wife were thrilled at the birth of their son but a problem arose when he refused to have his son “baptized” as per the Congregational Church where he was a member. Dunster had recently been convinced that baptism was not sprinkling of babies but immersion of believers thereby teaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Puritans were apoplectic!

Dunster had witnessed the whipping of Obadiah Holmes for being a Baptist in New England! That incident forced the Harvard president to rethink his theology. He came out Baptist. He felt the heat from the Puritans and finally exiled himself in 1654 to nearby Plymouth Colony for his health–he wanted to stay alive!

By the early 1700s, the Christians lost control of Harvard to the unbelievers (liberals), then Unitarians and it has been downhill to this day with periods of light and darkness.

Louis Agassiz, biologist, geologist, and medical doctor, was considered one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century and taught at Harvard from 1848 to 1873. Agassiz, an active Christian, was a friend of Darwin but vigorously opposed him saying, that “the crowning act of the Creator, man, was placed on the earth at the head of creation.” Years later, Stephen Jay Gould filled the same position at Harvard as Agassiz, but he could never fill his shoes.

W.E.B. Du Bois was the first black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard and was a founder of the NAACP who championed the word “colored” instead of “black.” He died after a lifetime of leftist causes (often as a community organizer) never meeting a Communist he didn’t like.
Harvard showed their loony, leftist leanings when they had Fidel Castro as guest of the Law School Forum and gave Nelson Mandela an honorary doctorate.

Because Harvard cut itself loose from any stabilizing influence, it has become rich and raucous. It is one of the main cheerleaders for left wing activities, and is a propaganda factory for the left, supporting totalitarians on the left and the vile “isms” such as Marxism, Darwinism, Freudianism, Higher Criticism, multiculturalism, relativism, naturalism, positivism, socialism, liberalism, radical environmentalism, and other studies such as feminist studies, gay studies, transgender studies, transvestite studies, outcome-based education, etc.

Harvard’s descent from true scholarship, sanity, and the Scripture is not surprising. It has happened to all such schools and was foretold in II Tim. 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Universities were started in the Middle Ages and were modeled on guilds which trained and evaluated apprentices and journeymen. Universities majored on theology, philosophy, rhetoric, etc., instead of carpentry, cobbling, and other necessary occupations. Today, the schools of higher learning are propaganda palaces, indoctrination institutions, and sex symposiums.

This week was Harvard’ Sex Week and their website reveals the sessions”will dispel myths about anal sex and give you insight into why people do it and how to do it well.” No one will ask if it is healthy, normal, or right. Gasp! Right is whatever one believes to be right. There is no “wrong,” well, except it is wrong to disagree with abortion, perversion, same-sex-marriage, and gun control.

There were sessions on “Losing Your (Concept of) Virginity,” “Brown Girlz Do it Well: a Queer Diaspora Remix,” “What What in the Butt: Anal Sex 101,” “Fifty Shades of False: Kink, Fantasy, and Fetish” and more, much more. Ain’t education great! A lesbian porn producer was also scheduled to speak. Sure sorry I missed that.

The Sex Week pitch declares, “Learn the facts about this exciting yet often misunderstood form of pleasure, find out the common mistakes people make, and get all your questions answered!” No doubt there are millions of people who have some questions. In fact, I have some: Are there any sane people still working for or attending Harvard? Where are the few professors and students who will stand in Harvard Yard and denounce the debauchery? How can there be any educational value in such vileness? Is there even an iota of morality being taught? What have these “teachers” and students been taught in younger years? Where are the parents of the students; why are they not literally marching on the Harvard campus? Where are the university trustees? Obviously, they are not very trustworthy. Do these dummies really think they are chic?

All honest, sane people know the anus was not made for sex and is very vulnerable for all kinds of diseases and physical problems when its use is perverted.

What a tragedy that Harvard was stolen from Bible believers and is now the antithesis of what the school’s founders believed. If Harvard’s leaders had any character they would return the school to the original Calvinists who were responsible for the school.

Evidently the squirrels haven’t gathered all the nuts yet. The nuts are all over college campuses especially at Harvard this week.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY  Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”