Christianity Today is now promoting Catherine of Siena and holding her life up as one from which we can learn much about following the Lord Jesus Christ. I challenge Slice readers to read two pieces from Apprising Ministries on the life of this mystic who claimed to have undergone a betrothal to Christ himself. If Christianity Today has abandoned justification by faith alone, and its editorial board believes that we can/should encounter and please God through starving ourselves, beating ourselves with whips, wearing hair shirts, and conjuring up erotic experiences with Christ himself, they should come out and say so. But to continue to feature these mystics as laudable and exemplary when many of them understood nothing of salvation through the grace of God, in Christ alone, through faith alone, and many of which fatally abused their bodies in their attempts to please God, is a betrayal of Holy Scripture.

These two excellent articles from Pastor Ken Silva will fill you in on just how bizarre the beliefs and behavior of Catherine of Siena actually were. You fill find yourself asking, “This is what CT finds exemplary for us today?” It’s time for another Reformation.

CT Promotes Catherine of Siena

Who Is Catherine of Sienna?

Pastor Bob DeWaay’s latest Critical Issues Commentary is titled, “Why Evangelicals are Returning to Rome”. We will be discussing the various streams within evangelicalism that are all feeding into this Home to Rome trend, and why the issue of Sola Scriptura is so important to sound doctrine. The foundational teaching of Scripture Alone is routinely rejected today, either openly, or simply in practice by many evangelical churches today. Join us at 2pm Central Time at our website where you can either listen live or listen to the podcast later.

I was about to sign off work today when I opened my mail and received a hard copy of Bob DeWaay’s latest Critical Issues Commentary. This is just a superb overview of what I’ve been warning about for some time. As the chaos of evangelicalism worsens, Rome is looking better than ever to a growing number of befuddled and confused Christians who are looking for moral leadership, reverence in worship, and a sense of history and tradition. But in order to cross the Tiber, some very essential biblical doctrines must be overlooked. Here’s the Commentary from Pastor DeWaay.

Luther called the pope the anti-Christ. Today’s head of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Jerry Kieschnick, eagerly turns out for an “ecumenical meeting” with the the pontiff. If Luther were alive today, the first thing he would do would be to post any number of theses on the door at what’s  called the “Lavender Vatican” in St. Louis where the LCMS headquarters is and start a new reformation. Blogger Scott Diekmann comments on the unbiblical conduct of Dr. Kieschnick who is currently overseeing unprecedented turmoil in the LCMS—a battle between man-centered Purpose Driven-style pragmatists and confessional Lutherans who refuse to follow the corrupt church growth model Kieschnick loves so much.

Reformation Nation has an interesting map of the United States that is broken down by church affiliation. Seeing it visually like this is impressive. (Click the map to make it larger.) When we lived in Greenville, South Carolina for a year, my husband and I were perpetually shouting, “Look at that one!…There’s another, and another!” as we drove down the main arteries in town. Never in our entire lives had we seen as many gargantuan and expensive Baptist churches. When you look at the entire state of Wisconsin, you’ll see why we were so amazed. Gargantuan and expensive Catholic churches are the norm here in Southeastern Wisconsin, with old, historic Lutheran churches occasionally breaking the monotony. Baptist churches here are generally small, (there are a couple of independent Baptist exceptions to this). Conservative Reformed churches generally tend to be very small, 40-60 people, that meet in makeshift facilities. The jumbo new churches are usually not Catholic but are the circus-driven evangelical churches that are going either the emergent or Rick Warren route off the cliff. I often comment on how hard it is to find Bible-preaching churches in some parts of the country. This map visually makes my case. I love the line under the map: “I wonder how the chart would look if they charted lukewarmness.”

This news story today talks about efforts on the part of Pope Benedict XVI to reconcile Roman Catholics with the Eastern church. The rift that caused the creation of the Eastern Orthodox church 950 years ago began over a disagreement regarding three words in the Nicene Creed. Things went downhill from there. A unified Catholic church would be a very interesting development. In other news, the Pope is also pushing ecumenical dialog with non-Catholics. Very interesting.

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I read recently about Youth Front in Kansas City, Missouri. Led by a man named Mike King, the former head of Youth for Christ there, Youth Front is a full bore, emerging and contemplative spirituality movement for kids that is taking its lessons on spirituality directly from the Society of Jesus. (Jesuits). Here’s a link to make my point. Here is the home page for the New York Society of Jesus, calling attention to Youth Front’s new Sacred Spaces site. Click here and scroll down to see the announcement near the bottom regarding Sacred Spaces. You will find Youth Front under, and I quote, “Jesuit Linksâ€. Compare this kind of behavior by American evangelicals, (yes, that is exactly Mike King’s provenance) with the faithfulness to Christ of John Huss. Here is an account of his last days as he was hauled before the Roman Catholics to give an account for his biblical preaching and his fearless adherence to the teachings of Scripture. See how he died. Ask yourself what cowardice, spiritual treason and complicity we now have going on in the name of emerging youth ministry. We are now †friends†with those who teach error that is sending millions to an eternity in hell. (This is taken from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs which accounts for the old English spellings.) read all »

The Christian Post reports that the Pope is supportive of a call for Muslim-Christian unity. If Christians are obeying the call of Christ, however, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, this unity will dissolve pretty quickly. Obedience to Christ in this life always comes with a price tag and those who are only interested in earthly peace will be willing to join up with anyone to achieve it.