To sum it up – after reading his writings – I think this is what he is saying:

We are not saved by INFORMATION but by TRANSFORMATION

Information WITHOUT Transformation = DAMNATION

I do not think he is saying that we are saved by works… what are your thoughts?

Is Ground Zero the place for America to begin compromising our Core Essential Constitutional rights?

Is Ground Zero a place for us to begin parsing religious  freedom?

The Mosque is planned after all on Private Property and has met all the legal hurdles to being built.

Michael R. Bloomberg stated “I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime — as important a test — and it is critically important that we get it right,”

I could not agree more with Mayor Bloomberg:    the American determination to stick to our beloved tenets of freedom, and our impulse to cooperate with all that share them is what is at stake – as is the ability for anyone – Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Mormon, __fill in the blank_, and dare I add Muslim to the list – to have religious freedom in this great land we call America.

Many would argue and say ” Glenn Come on – if the KKK wanted to build there we would have the same issue…”  and while I agree – I would also answer that and state that the KKK is not a religious organization by most accounts – and its message of hatred for many sects is the sole reason they exist.

I have heard arguments with people stating – but Glenn there is a Mosque just a few blocks away – why do they need another?  I would answer that with this question?  How many “christian” churches are there around Ground Zero.  Heck here in Washington Court House Ohio – there are over 50.   That’s right roughly 50+ churches in a county with only 29K people… I am willing to bet there is a Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Unitarian, Mormon, Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, Brethren and perhaps even a Catholic church within blocks of each other… but they are all Christian right   ask each and many would not accept the other as being Christian…

I think it is a very unwise move for this Mosque to be built – I believe it will become a huge target and worse – build an Anti-Muslim mentality when these are the people that Christ called us to Love (Love thy Enemy…)  We must however place our feelings aside for the sake of our own religious freedom.

Please note – I do not view Islamic Followers as our enemies – however the point is still important enough to be made for all those who do.   If you call yourself a Christian – If you are a follower of Christ than simply put we are to love our neighbor – and love our enemy…

I value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation, and non-violent resolution of conflict where-ever possible.   This is not something I believe for which our nation should sacrifice it’s Constitutional Fiber.

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This is a copy of his blog posting:

The AP news just published the results of a new poll (pdf) conducted by the PCUSA saying  that one in three members of the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination believe that Jesus Christ is not the only way to get into heaven. (AP)

To learn where this belief comes from, you need only look at their pastors. Their numbers are even lower. Only 35 percent of surveyed pastors agreed with the statement that “only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved.” So, almost two-thirds of the pastors in the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States seem to believe that there are ways to heaven apart from  Jesus Christ.

These numbers have been the same in PCUSA internal polling since 1996, so they have reflected the Presbyterian (USA) experience for awhile. On July 29, 2000, the Rev. Dirk Ficca, keynote speaker at a Presbyterian Church (USA) peacemaking conference, declared that much of the discord that fractures humanity is fomented by groups that hold exclusive religious convictions. His solution was to declare an equivalency among many faiths.

“If God is at work in our lives, whether we’re Christian or not, what’s the big deal about Jesus?” Rev. Dirk Ficca

The Presbyterian Layman reported that, after a lengthy debate, the best the 2001 General Assembly, the denomination’s highest governing body, could say about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ was that He was “unique.”

Other recent PCUSA internal polling data has shown that, among members, only 43 percent disagree or strongly disagree that “all the world’s religions are equally good ways of helping a person find ultimate truth.” The majority of members (60 percent), elders (68 percent), and pastors (66 percent) at least agree that “the only absolute truth for humankind is in Jesus Christ.”

Forty-six percent of members and 61 percent of pastors say the Bible is the word of God, to be interpreted in the light of its historical and cultural context. Around one in three lay people and pastors say the Bible is the word of God, to be interpreted in the light of its historical context and Church teachings.

At this point it would be really easy to jump all over the Presbyterians, but the truth is that these beliefs are common in many Christian denominations. In fact, a different survey taken last year by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 57 percent of evangelical Christians in the U.S. believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”

How far have we gotten from the basics of the Christian faith? In John 14:6, Jesus told us the following….

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is no other way to salvation. Just think about it for a minute. If there was any other way for our sins to be forgiven, then why did Jesus need to die on the cross? Jesus could have simply come down to earth, pointed out a bunch of other ways to get to heaven, and then could have gone back up to heaven without ever having to deal with the cross.

The truth is that there was no other way for our sins to be paid for…(Solus Christus) Jesus Christ is our only Savior, who mediates the rupture our rebellion (sin) has placed within us, between us, and which has separated us from God. Through his life, death, and resurrection, God reveals divine love to us and upholds divine justice for us, removing our guilt, and saving us from spiritual death. Christ’s mediation frees us to be reconciled to God, to each other, and within ourselves.  All other religions reject this, and most of them involve jumping through “hoops” and doing good works of some kind or another in order to try to obtain the favor of a deity. But, the reality is this, without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ there is no way into heaven. Without Jesus to pay for our sins we are all still guilty. The truth is that the church in America is struggling.

2 Timothy 4:3 tells us this…..for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

Thankfully, traditional Christian beliefs are still around.

The world hears the voice of someone like Mr. Pat Robertson as he speaks his opinions as if they are are right from the Mouth of the Living God and it makes the job of those who are doing serious Kingdom work that much more difficult.  Mr. Robertson, after inventing his new opinion, acts overly passionate about it – often to hide his ignorance.

Max Lucado writes – “The Universe’s Commander in Chief knows your name.  He has walked your streets… There is no person he won’t touch.  No place he won’t go to find you.  For even though he is in heaven, he has never left the neighborhood.”    To me that describes the Jesus I love and worship.  A Living God that never leaves nor forsakes (Hebrews 13:5).

As a pastor, perhaps one of the hardest tasks I ever had, was knowing what to say at a funeral.    I once had a District Superintendant in Pennsylvania for a Mainline denomination tell me that it was the wrong time to give an alter call…

“Sir, he is already dead…”

I simply replied – “This message, like all funeral messages is not for the dead … but for the Living – and so that they may Live Life More Abundantly.”  Christ declared “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE…”  and for some reason Pat Robertson decides once again – during a tragedy Now is the time to show the gd of Punishment and Despair.

Are you part of the Praying Vigilant Church ? www.PrayerHelps.org

I believe the Christian Church, not just the Methodist, or the Baptist, or the Disciples of Christ, or the Church of Christ in Christian Union, (or place your denomination of choice here…)  should all call for Mr. Pat Robertson to simply do one thing… APOLOGIZE & THEN SHUT UP!

“Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no foot, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.  I will be joyful in God My Savior” – Habakkuk 3:17,18

The wilderness is a hard place to be,  I have been there.  As a homeless child, selling my body in order to have a piece of food or a warm bed.   The struggle has been a long hard road… BUT I have a God that is Victorious.   My Trials were so that God would have the ability to TRIUMPH in my life, my tests are HIS TESTIMONY.  There is always something to Rejoice in.   REJOICE THAT GOD IS STILL GOD – AND THAT HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!

Mr. Pat Robertson – your opinions are not facts.   They are not representative of the Christian Population.  More important, they are not representative of the Loving, Living, & Forgiving Savior – The God that we Serve.  I am far from someone that believes in being Politically Correct.   Erwan McManus has an entire book that is worth reading for any man called the Barbarian Way…  We are not called to be Politically Correct – but we are called to be Morally and Spiritually Correct.

Mr. Robertson, you could have used this time of hurting the Kingdom for something much more…   Did you not stop to think about those who are on site, the many who have passed and their families?   The Christians who have allowed their world to be turned upside down to become the hands and feet of the King of Kings…

Did you not stop to think about the servants of the King who are missing – the churches and families who may never see their loved ones until Glory?

• Members of a Dallas mission team working at an eye-care clinic were injured in the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake,
• Two Indiana churches are still waiting for news about their members…
• Sam Dixon, top executive of the United Methodist Committee on Relief;
• Clinton Rabb, head of Mission Volunteers (United Methodist)
• & James Gulley, an UMCOR consultant
• 21-Missionary team members from the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville NJ, Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton and Kingdom Church of Ewing NJ
• Many Hoosiers with families in Haiti have not heard from them since the quake hit.
• Red cross estimages 50K have died… This is not something to rejoice in – but rather something to be sorrowful over… How many of them Did not know Christ?

Mr. Robertson – your heart seems to narrow to Contain the Joy of the Savior.    Paul tells us

“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” 2 Cor 1:5…

Mr Robertson, just as Paul and Silas were able to overcome less than favorable situations and worship God – so should we.   This is a time for Revival – not for judgment.   Your words, your pulpit, your show DIVIDES THE CHURCH – it HYPNOTIZES THE WORLD – IT IS A CHALLENGE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS for the unsaved.

Mr. Robertson I call for a public apology from you to the World, to the Unsaved and the Saved !

Do not let anyone treat you as if you are unimportant … Instead be an example other believers with your words, your actions, your love, your faith and your pure Life.  (1 Tim 4:12 CEV ) Sir, The world is sleeping in a dark that church is finding hard to fight… because people like you – who are Leaders but not leading are simply ASLEEP in the Light.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven( Matt 5:16) NOT speak the persecution of a tyrant, ungodly with no remedy causing the world to fear and disdain the God of Love, Mercy and Justice.

Jesus told us that Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.   Mr. Robertson – create peace and end the persecution of the Church your comments have caused time and time again.

This pains me in many ways as I speak with pastor after pastor who follow McLaren and believe he is the best thing to happen to the Church in 2000 years.

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:17-19, NASB)

McLaren states:

This is, one of the huge problems is the traditional understanding of hell. Because if the cross is in line with Jesus’ teaching then—I won’t say, the only, and I certainly won’t say even the primary—but a primary meaning of the cross is that the kingdom of God doesn’t come like the kingdoms of the this world, by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes through suffering and willing, voluntary sacrifice, right? But in an ironic way, the doctrine of hell basically says, no, that that’s not really true. That in the end, God gets His way through coercion and violence and intimidation and domination, just like every other kingdom does. The cross isn’t the center then. The cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.

What are your thoughts of this conversation?

Why would Jesus come and Die so that we do not have to … unless Hell does exist ?