July 10, 2015 Steps to Life Newsletter

Dear STL Supporter

What's Going On Out There?

Do you ever get time to stop, take stock and compare what the Bible says about our time in Earth's history, with what's going on out there? Perhaps we are kept busy, so we won't have time to objectively weigh up what's going on around us in Australia and the world at large. We certainly live in a global village of great tensions and rapid change.

The apostle Paul writing to Timothy had it pretty well summed up, but I wonder if he really understood the intensity, frequency, hatefulness, visibility and relentlessness of last day events as happening right now. Nevertheless, his words ring true. He said - This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Tim 3: 1 to 5)

Consider some of the events, changes and challenges that are pushing our world inexorably towards an impending global crisis.

1. We are presently celebrating the 800th year of the Magna Carta, otherwise called, the Great Charter of the Liberties. In the name of preservation of freedom, the people in democratic countries are accepting governments reducing the legal right to freedom of speech and to be considered innocent until proven guilty. All in the name of 'homeland security'. Civil liberty is dramatically being diminished. Our fears for safety make us accepting. (Luke 21: 26 - Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.)
2. Deterioration of the environment has become of such urgent significance, with its associated impact on people's health and the future of the planet, that Pope Francis released on June 19, an encyclical entitled Our Home or Laudato Si. It details environmental degradation, the ensuing social and political impacts, the imbalance in the distribution of the world's wealth, social injustice, climate warming catastrophe, etc. . It's laced with the mystical, pantheistic teachings and practices of St Francis of Assisi, from whom Pope Francis has taken his own papal name (Francis). The pope argues that the world and all that is in it, was created by God, so therefore God is in the plants, animals and us. Further, because of God being in us, we have a 'brotherhood/sisterhood' with all created things. (The Biblical teaching is that humankind was created in the image of God as the crowning act of creation and assigned the specific privilege of caring for the lower orders of creation as God's stewards here on the Earth. We are not 'little gods' and 'brothers' of other orders of creation). The climax of Laudato Si, is the pope's argument that people of all nations should consider the institution of the Sabbath. He states it was provided by God at the end of the creation week, for all the blessings of recognizing God as Creator, rest, restoration, fellowship, etc, that come with it.

By Sabbath observance we gain God's blessing - a way of restoring the Earth and resolving the social injustices resulting from the misuse of resources and disregard of the environment. The reasons the pope provides for observing Sabbath are sound Biblical reasons for Sabbath observance. He extends his reasoning to the Jewish cycle of land being rested every seven years, of debt termination, and the 50 year jubilee. The catch is that the Catholic Church changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first-day, Sunday, claiming to have the God given authority to do so. God never gave the Catholic Church or any pope this authority. God has never blessed any other day than the seventh day of creation. In fact the Bible predicted that the Catholic Church would act to change 'times and laws'. (Daniel 7: 25 - And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.)
3. President Obama was quick to go public endorsing Laudato Si. The Catholic Herald of June 19 quoted him as saying - I welcome His Holiness Pope Francis's encyclical, and deeply admire the Pope's decision to make the case - clearly, powerfully, and with the full moral authority of his position - for action on global climate change. As we prepare for global climate negotiations in Paris this December, it is my hope that all world leaders and all God's children will reflect on Pope Francis's call to come together to care for our common home. Here we have the president of the USA, which was founded on the principle of separation of church and state, by people fleeing papal tyranny in Europe, reaching across the divide to strengthen the moral authority of the present pope. No doubt paving the way for the pope's schedule to address the Congress of the USA later this year. Another unprecedented event.
4. Back in the 12th century the people of northern Italy broke away from the teachings and tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church to become known as the Waldensians. For nearly a thousand years they resisted, to the point of starvation and death, being 'reunited' with the non-Biblical teachings of the Catholic Church. Recently the Catholic press reported Pope Francis as apologizing for the genocide the Catholic Church had perpetrated on the Waldensians as an ecumenical gesture of modern day acceptance of the contemporary Waldensian Church. Was he genuine? In his remarks, Pope Francis said the principle benefit of ecumenism is the rediscovery of the fraternity that unites all those who believe in Jesus Christ and are baptised in His Name. He added: But the unity that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit does not mean uniformity. Brothers have in common the same origin, but they are not identical among themselves. (Catholic Herald, June 22, 2015, London). Fine words. Can unity be based on a spectrum of differing beliefs? Or can true unity be only based on the Biblically grounded truth? Ecumenism is established on the basis that the Catholic Church is the 'mother church' and that all the 'daughter churches' need to come back to 'mother' in recognition of its unbiblical, supposed, spiritual and moral authority. Pope Francis is simply applying the Catholic Church's age-old practice of syncretism - worship on the day we have established recognize our supremacy, accept the Mass and

retain your remaining beliefs. There is no regard for Biblical truth. The 45,000 Waldensians of the present Waldensian Church amazingly have come back into the ecumenical fold of Catholicism.
5. Then there is the tsunami of forced immigration stemming from a never-ending range of genocidal conflicts. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people suffering incredible hardships, driven from their homelands, are desperately looking for safe places to live. A problem that up until now has proved beyond solution, but is rapidly escalating. Many of these truly unfortunate people are knocking on Australia's door and what is our response? What would Jesus do?
6. The recent ruling of the USA's Supreme Court in favour of same sex marriage has taken the world into territory never before ventured into, in the era of modern history. What follows next? The legal recognition of polyamorous (more than two people and possibly of both sexes) relationships as marriage? Chief Justice Roberts, one of the dissenting judges, who took part in the same sex marriage case in the USA, is quoted as stating - that polygamy (more than one husband or wife of the opposite sex) has deeper roots in history and that the decision allowing gays to marry would apply with equal force to the claim of a fundamental right to plural marriage. (Polygamy or polyamory) If the majority is willing to take the big leap (to gay marriage), it is hard to see how it can say no to the shorter one (Polygamy or polyamory). (Bracketed notation supplied).

Sir Richard Kirby, retired judge of the Australian High Court, is on record as stating that should same sex marriage be recognized in Australia, then another step of the gay lobby is to have polyamory recognized as a form of marriage.

Paul in writing to the Roman Christian's offered this advice pertinent to us and today - And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11) Both a warning and an encouragement!

Next Weekend Spiritual Seminar Series: Omega Emerging and a General Conference Report - July/August 2015

This is a seminar not to be missed. Please read the enclosed advertising for full details, dates, locations and times specific to where you live. For those who are unable to attend a DVD of the seminar will be made on the Melbourne weekend of the seminar.

Christian greetings from Cherryl and the Steps to Life team.

Brian Way/Programs Coordinator