In case people have missed it, there is a building trend against the Christian faith in this country as unforgiving, narrow minded, and even bigoted. Any group who endeavors to apply the Bible as their standard for navigating life in this present world is ridiculed and called either naive or very narrow minded and unloving. It is not true.

It is the Gospel of the world that promotes right is wrong without regard for the laws of God or any natural order He has established. We live in an era where we are required to have forgiveness for any sin or crime without repentance being required because most people are considered victims not sinners. That is wrong and would insinuate that Adolph Hitler should have our forgiveness.

Even with that being the norm there is an exclusion for people who try to act on faith. Today they are judged undeserving of any forgiveness without first being punished because they acted apart from what is being said by the mainstream or the Government mandates.

This false gospel is being forced down our throats every day and it is influencing people around the world so that they become dull to what was once known to be the truth about what was right and Godly or even natural.

Now the masses are embracing government and legal intervention into people’s lives dictating what they can believe about life and even God himself. If this is not fascism, I don’t know what is. As a disciple of Jesus Christ I must refuse to accept what the Congress of the United States tells me I should believe about God and Jesus. I must believe the Bible, the very inspired Word of God and need to adhere to its standards and to those things the Lord requires of me through a relationship with Him. The Lord will not have me act apart from faith. If I do not know if I have faith for something, I trust he will communicate with me to let me know if I can have faith for something and establish me in that.

As for the Followers of Christ Church, they have clearly been affected by a false teaching that has become rampant in Evangelical churches called the “Name it and claim it” doctrine. God’s word does not say this. Jesus did say if you had faith as a mustard seed you could move mountains, but it is not the same. To come to faith, you don’t just decide something is the rule and then demand God make it a reality as your errand boy because you found a Bible citation to fit their idea. This is what the “name it and claim it” people do in their presumption. If they find a promise in God’s Word, they apply their brush to it and claim it as a done deal. To come to faith, you start with a hope and then ask the Lord about it and seek him about it. Until you get an answer one way or another you should continue to knock on the door of the Lord to remind him of your petition  and wait on Him. That is how you arrive at faith and can then walk in whatever the Lord’s answer is, joyfully, because it is the Father’s will.

   “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
   They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
   But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.
   And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.”  Psalm 94:20 – 23

---

On Monday, Prosecutor Mike Regan said a message needed to be sent to the organisation. He said: “These generally are good, decent, law-abiding folks, except in this one narrow area of their lives.” “They have told us stubbornly – and arrogantly, if I may – that  ‘We are not going to change.’  The law of civil society demands that they change. It demands that we send a message to all of them that whether you believe this or not in Oregon, you cannot act upon that belief.”          Oregon Prosecutor Mike Regan

Check out our advice about true faith in an article by Eloise Gardenier: Presumption is not faith

---

BLOG

With the emergence of fascism in Nazi Germany, people who held beliefs other than that of those held by Hitler and his supporters were persecuted and violated in a myriad of ways. Gypsies were arrested and imprisoned or gunned down in large groups, the mentally deficient or handicapped were institutionalized and euthanized or used in medical experimentation, and the Jews were taken from their homes, robbed, raped and herded like cattle to the slaughter, or made into slave labor in the concentration camps. These are just a few examples of the horrors inflicted on the populace of Germany and surrounding countries by the fascist regime of the Nazis.

Fast forward to today and we are beginning to see an alarming pattern of social fascism unfolding daily, right here in our own country. The prejudice is building in the United States against Christians and people who endeavor to live by faith and God’s Word as opposed to the gospel of the World and the rising Antichrist spirit. If you do not concede to this worldly gospel of acceptance of the perverse and the rejection of God, you could easily be subject to persecution and imprisonment as is the case of this couple from Oregon.

Dale and Shannon Hickman who are members of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon, elected to have their child at home, without benefit of medical intervention. It is a tenet of their faith as disciples of this evangelical denomination, to rely on their faith and prescribed spiritual approaches to care for their children, rather than the medical community and technology. When Shannon delivered their son two months early, his lungs were not fully developed and he died 9 hours after his delivery.The couple had anointed the child with oil and prayed for him and waited for him to be healed. The couple were quoted as saying they concluded it was God’s will that the child died, since they prayed and he was not healed. The State of Oregon had quite a different spin on it. The couple were charged with second degree manslaughter, because in their opinion it was likely the child had a 99% chance of survival with medical intervention.

The Hickmans were presumptuous in not considering that a premature baby would need some medical attention. In a normal live birth, with a fully developed fetus, a home delivery could be a safe choice, if both parents are agreed and have come to the decision by faith. Home births do not expose the baby to hospital germs is just one benefit. As another benefit, the infant is not subjected to monitors and other unnatural intervention like forcep delivery or drugs being administered prior to birth, that are not necessarily good for the baby. I personally know of people who have had their children at home, but all the time they knew that it must be spiritually discerned and confirmed by the Lord that they are proceeding by faith in their decision and that He is with them.

In a situation like a home birth, there is no room for presuming God will automatically intervene when life and death are on the line, just because you believe it should be that way. As a result, the Hickman’s son is dead and they have suffered the loss of their child and all the guilt and recrimination that will come with it naturally. Just saying that it is God’s will, does not remove any of the lingering doubts they are dealing with. Also, events like this can erode faith by promoting the idea that their faith was lacking, when in fact it was not faith but presumption due to the pressure of false teaching in their church organization.

There have been as many as 70 deaths of children of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City. The majority have been infant deaths but there have also been older children who were denied medical intervention and subsequently died, that might have been prevented. However, this assertion comes from State investigators who have been investigating this church group for more than 10 years, looking for any incidents that might be attributed to parental negligence. This scrutiny began because of a prior case against other church members in the death of a female toddler. The State of Oregon amended their “religious exemption” clause to exclude that as a defense in cases such as the infant death of the Hickmans. This opened up the possibility of criminal charges being brought against them and others who opt for healing and medical treatment through faith based principles.

If the Hickmans were not already suffering enough from their loss and from a very real spiritual crisis, the State of Oregon piled it on by arresting the couple on manslaughter charges. The State admitted that in all other areas they were law abiding people, but they took a very hard line on the Hickmans denying their appeals for mercy and they were convicted and sentenced to the minimum of 6 years and 3 months for the charges against them; second degree manslaughter. The couple appealed the conviction all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court, who upheld the original conviction. Both Dale and Shannon are in custody and have begun serving their sentences.