Zero-metre visibility was recorded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 8.30 am with the Runway Visual Range varying between 125 and 500 metres at different locations, the IMD said. One of the officials said six flights were diverted to Jaipur and one to Lucknow.

This hydrogen-powered train will be the first in India that will be running on water. Instead of conventional diesel or electric engines, the train uses hydrogen fuel cells to generate the electricity required for movement.

Delhi recorded the worst air quality in India on Wednesday with a severe AQI of 418 while Noida and Gurugram also faced very poor levels.

Guitarist Konarak Reddy returns to his roots with Madras 1968, an intimate music concert that journeys through decades of memories

AI can process vast amounts of data, predict demand and optimise supply of power

The round brings BiteSpeed’s total capital raised to $5.6 million

To harness this momentum, companies and policymakers must make concerted efforts to upskill and ensure a smooth transition to a tech-enabled workforce, the report suggested

George Halas and Curly Lambeau are the only pair of coaches who faced each other more times in NFL history.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa avoided a concussion when he tried to make a tackle after throwing an interception in Monday night's win over the Rams, but it was hard not to think about his concussion history when he took a knee to the helmet in the process.

Eagles Super Bowl champion Vinny Curry will retire as an Eagle on Thursday and serve as an honorary captain.

Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata is nearing a return after an IR stint with a hamstring injury.

At 9.57 am on Wednesday, January Brent oil futures were at $72.04, up by 0.21%, and December crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $68.25, up by 0.19%.

Acreage is higher in Punjab, Haryana, UP but slips in MP, Rajasthan

Forex traders said the USDINR pair has shown significant volatility in recent sessions, with the rupee inching closer to its all-time low of 84.4

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 84.40 against the U.S. dollar

The company attributes this growth to a combination of factors, primarily the increased health awareness triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a more focused strategy to expand into underserved regions

Productivity gains, include 25-30 per cent decline in customer acquisition costs, shortening account opening time to less than a day

Google’s new AI-powered ‘Learn About’ experiment will adapt to users’ interests and learning goals, per the company, but it is not yet publicly available in India

JSW Defence partners with Shield AI to manufacture V-BAT UAS, boosting India’s defense capabilities with cutting-edge technology

Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) convened a meeting with e-commerce Food Business operators (FBOs) to reinforce compliance requirements for e-commerce FBOs.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported that very dense fog began forming around 5.30 am, resulting in a thick haze over different parts of the national capital.

Brisk polling was seen for the Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala as they witnessed a turnout of 20.54 and 19.08 per cent, respectively, after the first three hours of voting on Wednesday.

A goods train derailed in Peddapalli district of Telangana, leading to the cancellation of 39 passenger trains, officials of South Central Railway (SCR) said on Wednesday.

'When I see people's faces I can see that there is a certain sadness in their eyes which makes me unhappy as a person.' 'I want to see people happy in their lives.'

A medical oncologist at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital in Chennai was stabbed seven times on Wednesday by the son of a patient allegedly over grievances on treatment to his mother at the same facility, a hospital official said.

I know it�s repetitive and boring but relapsed after two months. I want to quit again. I want to quit and be happy and not feel like I�m missing out. I was going to quit at New Years, got...

I became an alcoholic aged 45 in 2006 and quit for good at the end of 2014. I would have liked to quit sooner but I tried my best and failed so that's that. I do however wonder why, that for the...

Note: once the current article 'Areas and Doctrines' is adequately summarized with about 25 Areas and Doctrines that are central and relevant to the Christian faith - The article is going to be made open to participation from others and for group (roundtable) discussion - Then a more finalized version of the article will be published similar to 'The Chicago Statement on Biblical Application' though with the working title of 'The Pierre Statement on Biblical Doctrines' by confessing Christians - The publishing of the document 'The Pierre Statement on Biblical Doctrines' by confessing Christians should be able to be accomplished sometime within 2012 - I'll update the post with an email that people can contact me with regarding the Pierre Statement on Biblical Doctrines - All the best, God bless everyone ~ David Anson Brown

The Basic Christian Epub eBooks have been updated and now a Kindle (Mobi) version has been added for each of the five currently available Basic Christian eBooks. ~ God bless everyone, David Anson Brown

As I was watching some news last night, I saw this story on the Rachel Maddow show - and frankly, it's a bit creepy. I usually stop watching news by that late hour - else the children run screaming from the information overload. It concerns The Family, founded by Nazi-sympathizer, Abraham Vereide. As I was watching, I was figuring - 70 years ago? Um, right around the time all this gooblygook with William Branham started and the Manifest Sons of God. Actually, it is quite possible that these two crossed paths. (You may also want to check out this site as well.) -- Remember, these men who live in this house, all powerful, must surrender to being shepherded by another - and consider themselves 'chosen.' In other words, they may do as they choose for they are chosen for greatness in God, and will receive forgiveness. -- Note, from the above article: "At the 1990 National Prayer Breakfast, George H.W. Bush praised Doug Coe for what he described as "quiet diplomacy, I wouldn't say secret diplomacy," as an "ambassador of faith." Coe has visited nearly every world capital, often with congressmen at his side, "making friends" and inviting them back to the Family's unofficial headquarters, a mansion (just down the road from Ivanwald) that the Family bought in 1978 with $1.5 million donated by, among others, Tom Phillips, then the C.E.O. of arms manufacturer Raytheon, and Ken Olsen, the founder and president of Digital Equipment Corporation." -- One of the things that we must endeavor to do, is to make sure that we do not come off sounding like conspiracy theories. I detest them - they destroy when we should build up. They weaken us, because rarely ever are they true. First and foremost, this is not a conspiracy theory, nor a conspiracy in reality. What it is, is a horrible use of the gospel - something that men have been doing since it was first laid down. It takes the message of Christ and turns it into something political, something disgusting, something human. -- Instead of calling to sin, these people think themselves above the mercy of Christ. If we are chosen, then we are chosen to repentance. -- While the connection here between Ensign and Sandford will go unnoticed, it is well remembered that the Dominionists have stated time and time again that they seek to bring about a government of [Anti] Christ built on seven interconnected mountains - one of them being politics. Where else to start but politicians.

The Life And Death Of Kathryn Kuhlman: "Her life was a mystery. Many events of her life were shadowed with half-truths, deception, confusion and misrepresentation. If the righteous or wicked die as they live, then her death was a proof of her disobedience and bondage by false spirits. In fact, of all the mysteries about her, her death was the most mysterious." - "On February 20, 1976, in a strange hospital, in a strange city, surrounded by people she hardly knew, with a man she once disdained standing in the wings ready to preach her funeral. The woman whom Time magazine called a 'veritable one-woman Shrine of Lourdes' was dead at the age of sixty-eight." (Daughter Of Destiny, Jamie Buckingham, pp. 1-2.) -- "In the second paragraph above he mentioned a statement by Time magazine in which she was called a "veritable one-woman Shrine of Lourdes." A second biography, written by Wayne E. Warner, entitled The Woman Behind The Miracles, stated that people often used monies saved to visit an apparition of Mary and instead visited a crusade being conducted by Kathryn Kuhlman. It was very apparent that her healing services were on the exact same level as a so-called mystical apparition of Mary." -- ""Although she had not mentioned marriage, everyone seemed to know. A ghastly hush fell over the congregation. All the rumors they had been hearing about Waltrip divorcing his wife in order to marry Kathryn - it was all true. Women began to sob. Several got up from the choir and walked out. Men sat stony faced in their pews, looking at Kathryn in disbelief. How could she do it? This woman, who had preached such dynamic messages about purity and holiness. This woman who had been such a model of decency and divine compassion." (Daughter Of Destiny, pp. 82-83.) -- Kathryn Kuhlman And "The One World Religion" -- Kahryn Kuhlman was apparently the first minister within the Evangelical/Pentecostal world that laid a foundation for the new unity movement of religions. It was said by her official biographer, Buckingham, that Miss Kuhlman did not like to conduct her services without Catholic priests on her platform. He stated, "She had a special love for doctors, and wanted them either on the stage or on the front rows of the auditorium. The same was true of priests and nuns - especially if they were 'in uniform'. Nothing thrilled Kathryn more than to have thirty or forty Catholic clergymen, especially if they wore clerical collars or, better yet, cassocks, sitting behind her while she ministered. Somehow it seemed to lend authenticity to what she was doing - and helped create the proper climate of a trust and understanding which was so necessary for a miracle service." (Daughter Of Destiny, p. 221.) -- She had a special affinity for the Catholic style of high church grandeur. When Kathryn went to Las Vegas for her crusade, the following was reported, "Kathryn had but one pass through Las Vegas, and she would deliver the gospel with power! Hundreds of people in Las Vegas as well as the faithful in Youngstown, Pittsburgh, and Franklin had agreed to pray that the Holy Spirit would stir the city. Not far away a Roman Catholic priest said a Mass for the meeting the day before." (The Woman Behind The Miracles, pp. 229-230.) -- Please remember that a Catholic Mass is believed to be a time when the very bread and wine becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Millions of Protestants died as martyrs because they rejected this blasphemous assertion. Did her affinity for Catholic dogmas help start the declension within the Pentecostal circles that has now become a watershed of deception and compromise? I certainly believe so! "Kathryn Kuhlman was an ecumenist without portfolio." (Ibid, p. 15.) Jamie Buckingham further stated, "In 1948 while ecumenists designed programs for denominational unity, Kathryn Kuhlman threw open the heavy old doors of north Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall. Streaming through the doors and scurrying for chairs came Protestants, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, and other groups, most related to churches but others not. And they were back the next week and the next." (Ibid, p. 15.) -- This certainly would have been acceptable if they were led out of these cold-dead churches to embrace a life of separation and New Testament lifestyle. That's certainly what Jesus did. On October 11, 1972, Pope Paul gave her a private audience at the Vatican. Mr. Warner stated, "Complimenting her on her 'admirable work,' he admonished her to 'do it well!' and gave her a gold, handmade engraved medallion bearing a dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit." (Ibid, p. 172.) -- Kathryn Kuhlman And Her Spirit Guides: I am personally convinced that Miss Kuhlman was controlled by a spirit guide masquerading as the Holy Spirit. There appears to be no other possible answer. Coming to this conclusion has been a very tough and heart-rending experience. The following quote from Benny Hinn's book, Good Morning, Holy Spirit, will give you a glance at her attachment to either the Holy Spirit or a spirit. "I looked up to see Kathryn burying her head in her hands as she began to sob. She sobbed and sobbed so loudly that everything came to a standstill. The music stopped. The ushers froze in their positions. "Everyone had their eyes on her. And for the life of me I had no idea why she was sobbing. I'd never seen a minister do that before. What was she crying about? It was told later that she had never done anything like that before, and members of her staff remember it to this day. "It continued for what seemed like two minutes. Then she thrust back her head. There she was, just a few feet in front of me. Her eyes were aflame. She was alive. "In that instant she took on a boldness I had never seen in any person. She pointed her finger straight out with enormous power and emotion - even pain. If the devil himself had been there, she would have flicked him aside with just a tap. "It was a moment of incredible dimension. Still sobbing, she looked out at the audience and said with such agony, 'Please.' She seemed to stretch out the word, 'Plee-ease, don't grieve the Holy Spirit.' "She was begging. If you can imagine a mother pleading with a killer not to shoot her baby, it was like that. She begged and pleaded. "'Please,' she sobbed, 'don't grieve the Holy Spirit.' "Even now I can see her eyes. It was as if they were looking straight at me. "And when she said it, you could have dropped a pin and heard it. I was afraid to breathe. I didn't move a muscle. I was holding on to the pew in front of me wondering what would happen next. "Then she said, 'Don't you understand? He's all I've got!' "I thought, 'What's she talking about?' "Then she continued her impassioned plea saying, 'Please! Don't wound Him. He's all I've got. Don't wound the One I love!'" (Good Morning, Holy Spirit, Benny Hinn, pp. 8-9.) -- Her words reveal a view of this spirit that is extremely unusual. She said, "Don't you understand? He's all I've got." Again, she said, "Please don't wound Him, He's all I've got. Don't wound the One I love." The Holy Spirit absolutely never speaks of Himself. He glorifies Jesus Christ in His church and in you and Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:13-14). She was enamored with this "spirit" that came upon her. Often she spoke of her fear that he would leave her. She would wait behind the stage, even at times while the service languished for this "spirit person" to manifest himself. When he came she was electric and performed as the greatest of actors. Hinn continued in his description of Kuhlman's emphasis on this spirit whom she called the Holy Spirit. He said, "In my church, the pastor talked about the Holy Spirit. But not like this. His references had to do with the gifts or tongues or prophecy - not "He's my closest, most personal, most intimate, most beloved friend." Kathryn Kuhlman was telling me about a person that was more real than you or I." (Ibid, p. 9.) Source: www.pawcreek.org/articles/endtimes/KathrynKuhlmanandHerSpiritGuide.htm

In times of trouble, trial, pain or loss, we often can t see the value in what we re experiencing. We don t realize what God is doing, or why He has allowed us to struggle. But there comes a day when we look back over the road map of our lives and we understand, finally. We see the dots laid out along the path, and the events God permitted in order to move us to our destination. I am pleased to invite you to pull up a chair and listen as my Pastor Chuck tells the story of his life. This book is presented to you with the prayer that what you read will help you see how God s grace is at work in your own life. Everything you have experienced in the past, everything you re going through now, and everything that awaits you on the path ahead is all part of God s plan. His will for you is perfect, and He knows just how to prepare you for your life s purpose. Everything is preparation for something else.

The sculpting was done by E. Frudakis (the Uncle of Dino Kartsonakis, her pianist). Condition = The medallion and keychain are both in great condition with no damage or other issues. The medallion is made of solid bronze or brass. SEE PICS

Early life: Kathryn Johanna Kuhlmun was born in Concordia, Missouri, to German-American parents. She was born-again at the age of 13 in the Methodist Church of Concordia, and began preaching in the West at the age of sixteen in primarily Baptist Churches. -- Career: Kuhlman traveled extensively around the United States and in many other countries holding "healing crusades" between the 1940s and 1970s. She had a weekly TV program in the 1960s and 1970s called I Believe In Miracles that was aired nationally. The foundation was established in 1954, and its Canadian branch in 1970. Following a 1967 fellowship in Philadelphia, Dr. William A. Nolen conducted a case study of 23 people who claimed to have been cured during her services. Nolen's long term follow-ups concluded there were no cures in those cases. Furthermore, one woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer took off her brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her spine collapsed the following day and she died four months later. -- By 1970 she moved to Los Angeles conducting faith healing for thousands of people each day as an heir to Aimee Semple McPherson. She became well-known despite, as she told reporters, having no theological training. In 1935, Kathryn met Burroughs Waltrip, an extremely handsome Texas evangelist who was eight years her senior. Despite the fact that he was married with two small boys, they soon found themselves attracted to each other. Shortly after his visit to Denver, Waltrip divorced his wife, left his family and moved to Mason City, Iowa, where he began a revival center called Radio Chapel. Kathryn and her friend and pianist Helen Gulliford came into town to help him raise funds for his ministry. It was shortly after their arrival that the romance between Burroughs and Kathryn became publicly known. -- Burroughs and Kathryn decided to wed. While discussing the matter with some friends, Kathryn had said that she could not "find the will of God in the matter." These and other friends encouraged her not to go through with the marriage, but Kathryn justified it to herself and others by believing that Waltrip's wife had left him, not the other way around. On October 18th, 1938, Kathryn secretly married "Mister," as she liked to call Waltrip, in Mason City. The wedding did not give her new peace about their union, however. After they checked into their hotel that night, Kathryn left and drove over to the hotel where Helen was staying with another friend. She sat with them weeping and admitted that the marriage was a mistake. She decided to get an annulment. -- In 1975, Kuhlman was sued by Paul Bartholomew, her personal administrator, who claimed she kept $1 million in jewelry and $1 million in fine art hidden away and sued her for $430,500 for breach of contract. Two former associates accused her in the lawsuit of diverting funds and illegally removing records, which she denied and said the records were not private. According to Kuhlman, the lawsuit was settled prior to trial. -- Death and legacy: In July 1975 her doctor diagnosed her with a minor heart flareup and she had a relapse in November while in Los Angeles. As a result, she had open heart surgery in Tulsa, Oklahoma from which she died in February 1976. Kathryn Kuhlman is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. A plaque in her honor is located in the main city park in Concordia, Missouri, a town located in central Missouri on Interstate Highway 70. -- After she died, her will led to controversy. She left $267,500, the bulk of her estate, to three family members and twenty employees. Smaller bequests were given to 19 other employees. According to the Independent Press-Telegram , her employees were disappointed that "she did not leave most of her estate to the foundation as she had done under a previous 1974 will." The Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation has continued, but in 1982 it terminated its nationwide radio broadcasting. She influenced faith healers Benny Hinn and Billy Burke. Hinn has adopted some of her techniques and wrote a book about her. -- Healing: Many accounts of healings were published in her books, which were "ghost-written" by author Jamie Buckingham of Florida, including her autobiography, which was dictated at a hotel in Las Vegas. Buckingham also wrote his own Kuhlman biography that presented an unvarnished account of her life. Many other faith healers, including Benny Hinn, who have been inspired by Kathryn Kuhlman have faced similar suspicions about their methods and practices.

Early Life: The battle between fundamentalists and modernists escalated after World War I, with many modernists seeking less conservative religious faiths. Fundamentalists generally believed their religious faith should influence every aspect of their lives. McPherson [infiltrated the Christian Church and pretended to support fundamental values] sought to eradicate modernism and secularism in homes, churches, schools and communities and developed a strong following in what McPherson termed "the Foursquare Gospel" by blending contemporary culture with religious teachings. -- International Church of the Foursquare Gospel: Wearied by constant traveling and having nowhere to raise a family, McPherson had settled in Los Angeles, where she maintained both a home and a church. McPherson believed that by creating a church in Los Angeles, her audience would come to her from all over the country. This, she felt, would allow her to plant seeds of Gospel and tourists would take it home to their communities, still reaching the masses. For several years she continued to travel and raise money for the construction of a large, domed church building in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. The church would be named Angelus Temple. Raising more money than she had hoped, McPherson altered the original plans, and built a "megachurch" that would draw many followers throughout the years. The church was dedicated on January 1, 1923. The auditorium had a seating capacity of 5,300 people and was filled three times each day, seven days a week. At first, McPherson preached every service, often in a dramatic scene she put together to attract audiences. Eventually, the church evolved into its own denomination and became known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The new denomination focused on the nature of Christ's character, that he was Savior, baptizer with the Holy Spirit, healer and coming King. There were four main beliefs: the first being Christ's ability to transform individuals' lives through the act of salvation; the second focused on a holy baptism; the third was divine healing; and the fourth was gospel-oriented heed to the premillennial return of Jesus Christ. -- In August 1925 and away from Los Angeles, McPherson decided to charter a plane so she would not miss giving her Sunday sermon. Aware of the opportunity for publicity, she arranged for at least two thousand followers and members of the press to be present at the airport. The plane failed after takeoff and the landing gear collapsed, sending the nose of the plane into the ground. McPherson boarded another plane and used the experience as the narrative of an illustrated Sunday sermon called "The Heavenly Airplane." The stage in Angelus Temple was set up with two miniature planes and a skyline that looked like Los Angeles. In this sermon, McPherson described how the first plane had the devil for the pilot, sin for the engine and temptation as the propeller. The other plane, however, was piloted by Jesus and would lead one to the Holy City (the skyline shown on stage). The temple was filled beyond capacity. On one occasion, she described being pulled over by a police officer, calling the sermon "Arrested for Speeding." McPherson employed a small group of artists, electricians, decorators and carpenters who built the sets for each Sunday's service. Religious music was played by an orchestra. Biographer Matthew Avery Sutton wrote, "McPherson found no contradiction between her rejection of Hollywood values for her use of show business techniques. She would not hesitate to use the devil's tools to tear down the devil's house." Collections were taken at every meeting, often with the admonishment, "no coins, please." -- Because Pentecostalism was not popular in the U.S. during the 1920s, McPherson avoided the label. She did, however, make demonstrations of speaking-in-tongues and faith healing in sermons. She kept a museum of crutches, wheelchairs and other paraphernalia. As evidence of her early influence by the Salvation Army, McPherson adopted a theme of "lighthouses" for the satellite churches, referring to the parent church as the "Salvation Navy." This was the beginning of McPherson working to plant Foursquare Gospel churches around the country. McPherson published the weekly Foursquare Crusader along with her monthly magazine Bridal Call. She began broadcasting on radio in the early 1920s. McPherson was one of the first women to preach a radio sermon; and with the opening of Foursquare Gospel-owned KFSG on February 6, 1924, she became the second woman granted a broadcast license by the Department of Commerce, the agency that supervised broadcasting in the early 1920s.

As Lighthouse Trails Publishing (the publishing arm of Lighthouse Trails Research Project) soon nears the end of our 10th year (10 years this coming March), we'd like to take a moment to ponder 2011, which was a busy year for us. It's not easy being a small publisher in today's western society where book reading is being slowly squeezed out of many people's lives by the Internet, television, radio, and a host of other technological inventions. Not only that, small publishing houses must compete with the large houses that seem to have marketing budgets that keep them selling thousands, if not millions, of books. And many of the more established Christian publishers have been bought out by huge secular corporations giving their marketing budgets even more clout. An article in Christianity Today this past fall titled "HarperCollins Buys Thomas Nelson, Will Control 50% of Christian Publishing Market" is a case in point. HarperCollins bought Zondervan in 1988. Thomas Nelson and Zondervan are Christian publishing's two largest publishing house. -- But in spite of the huge challenge it is for small publishers to stay in business, Lighthouse Trails is still here after nearly a decade. We believe that God has continued to provide for us; and we thank Him for giving us the wisdom to keep our overhead small, live and work as simply and frugally as we can, and never lower our standards from what we believe they should be just so we can sell more books. We'll never be a Thomas Nelson or Zondervan (we think that might be a good thing considering their move toward contemplative and emerging), but we hope and pray we can be around another ten years and represent even more authors than we already have who have biblical and personal integrity.

I have just finished reading a fantastic book by G.A. Riplinger entitled, "New Age Bible Versions." Among other things, it details who the writers were of the Greek Text used to translate the NIV, NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NAB, REB, RSV, CEV, TEV, GNB LIVING, PHILLIPS, NEW JERUSALEM, and NEW CENTURY versions of the Bible. If you own one of these, you probably bought them because they supposedly come from the most ancient manuscripts and they are more accurate and authentic than the old standard King James Version of the Bible. WRONG!!!!! If you are reading one of these versions, it is a compilation of the work of Satan, Demons, drunks, necromancers, channelers, ghost followers, Nazi staff members, Lucifer worshipers, Plato, Origin, Philo, and many other NEW AGE (demon inspired) thinkers who want nothing more than to bring in a One World Government under a New World Order, with the Anti-Christ as the ruler of the world, and Marxism as the world political system. What angers me the most is that supposedly God fearing ministers of the Gospel have, like the Pied Piper, led their congregations by a passive attitude that will open up the door to the religion of the Anti-Christ one day. -- I just wrote an email to a good friend of mine, a minister, who sent me an email with a quote from one of these OCCULT translations of the bible. He is a good man and a soul-winner. I then realized that the Bible is true when it says that in the last days deceivers will come that will deceive, "if it were possible," the very elect. I then knew that it is happening right before our very eyes. People purchase Bibles thinking that there are godly men that have made these new translations with much care along with prayer and that they are delivering what is the most accurate copy of the Word of God in existence today. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Since the book that I cited above gives more evidence than I can possibly give here, I want to tell you about the men that did the translations of the revised Greek text and some of their friends and acquaintances. Once you have read this, if you can continue using one of these OCCULT versions of the Bible, God help your soul.

Doctrines and theology: The 20th century Wesley scholar Albert Outler argued in his introduction to the 1964 collection John Wesley that Wesley developed his theology by using a method that Outler termed the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. In this method, Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture; and the Bible was the sole foundational source of theological or doctrinal development. The centrality of Scripture was so important for Wesley that he called himself "a man of one book"-meaning the Bible-although he was well-read for his day. However, he believed that doctrine had to be in keeping with Christian orthodox tradition. So, tradition was considered the second aspect of the Quadrilateral. -- Wesley contended that a part of the theological method would involve experiential faith. In other words, truth would be vivified in personal experience of Christians (overall, not individually), if it were really truth. And every doctrine must be able to be defended rationally. He did not divorce faith from reason. Tradition, experience and reason, however, were subject always to Scripture, Wesley argued, because only there is the Word of God revealed "so far as it is necessary for our salvation." -- The doctrines which Wesley emphasised in his sermons and writings are prevenient grace, present personal salvation by faith, the witness of the Spirit, and sanctification. Prevenient grace was the theological underpinning of his belief that all persons were capable of being saved by faith in Christ. Unlike the Calvinists of his day, Wesley did not believe in predestination, that is, that some persons had been elected by God for salvation and others for damnation. He understood that Christian orthodoxy insisted that salvation was only possible by the sovereign grace of God. He expressed his understanding of humanity's relationship to God as utter dependence upon God's grace. God was at work to enable all people to be capable of coming to faith by empowering humans to have actual existential freedom of response to God. -- Wesley defined the witness of the Spirit as: "an inward impression on the soul of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are the children of God." He based this doctrine upon certain Biblical passages (see Romans 8:15-16 as an example). This doctrine was closely related to his belief that salvation had to be "personal." In his view, a person must ultimately believe the Good News for himself or herself; no one could be in relation to God for another. -- Sanctification he described in 1790 as the "grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called `Methodists'." Wesley taught that sanctification was obtainable after justification by faith, between justification and death. He did not contend for "sinless perfection"; rather, he contended that a Christian could be made "perfect in love". (Wesley studied Eastern Orthodoxy and particularly the doctrine of Theosis). This love would mean, first of all, that a believer's motives, rather than being self-centred, would be guided by the deep desire to please God. One would be able to keep from committing what Wesley called, "sin rightly so-called." By this he meant a conscious or intentional breach of God's will or laws. A person could still be able to sin, but intentional or wilful sin could be avoided. -- Secondly, to be made perfect in love meant, for Wesley, that a Christian could live with a primary guiding regard for others and their welfare. He based this on Christ's quote that the second great command is "to love your neighbour as you love yourself." In his view, this orientation would cause a person to avoid any number of sins against his neighbour. This love, plus the love for God that could be the central focus of a person's faith, would be what Wesley referred to as "a fulfilment of the law of Christ." Wesley believed that this doctrine should be constantly preached, especially among the people called Methodists. In fact, he contended that the purpose of the Methodist movement was to "spread scriptural holiness across England." -- Advocacy of Arminianism: Wesley entered controversies as he tried to enlarge church practice. The most notable of his controversies was that on Calvinism. His father was of the Arminian school in the church. Wesley came to his own conclusions while in college and expressed himself strongly against the doctrines of Calvinistic election and reprobation. -- Whitefield inclined to Calvinism. In his first tour in America, he embraced the views of the New England School of Calvinism. When in 1739 Wesley preached a sermon on Freedom of Grace, attacking the Calvinistic understanding of predestination as blasphemous, as it represented "God as worse than the devil," Whitefield asked him not to repeat or publish the discourse, as he did not want a dispute. Wesley published his sermon anyway. Whitefield was one of many who responded. The two men separated their practice in 1741. Wesley wrote that those who held to unlimited atonement did not desire separation, but "those who held 'particular redemption' would not hear of any accommodation." -- Whitefield, Harris, Cennick, and others, became the founders of Calvinistic Methodism. Whitefield and Wesley, however, were soon back on friendly terms, and their friendship remained unbroken although they travelled different paths. In 1770 the controversy broke out anew with violence and bitterness, as people's view of God related to their views of men and their possibilities. Augustus Montague Toplady, Rowland, Richard Hill, and others were engaged on the one side, and Wesley and Fletcher on the other. Toplady was editor of The Gospel Magazine, which had articles covering the controversy. In 1778 Wesley began the publication of The Arminian Magazine, not, he said, to convince Calvinists, but to preserve Methodists. He wanted to teach the truth that "God willeth all men to be saved." A "lasting peace" could be secured in no other way. His system of thought has become known as Wesleyan Arminianism, the foundations of which were laid by Wesley and Fletcher.

I understand the "excessive and pathological dependence on the clergy," but I'm not willing to classify all preaching within that condemnation. (This is the same old stuff - human abuse is cited as the reason to cast out something legitimate when used properly.) When we tell people what the Word of God says and challenge the right response, there is no excess or pathology in that! Let's expose and condemn the real problem, without throwing out the legitimate. -- And I'm wondering about something. Frank Viola has written a book. What is it that lifts his book out of the condemned category? What if someone read his book to a group of people (he does affirm his book to be needed truth)? Would the reading of his book stifle spiritual health and create a pathological dependence on his writings or books in general? Nonsense. -- Don't overlook, Viola is a high school teacher. When he speaks to a class in a building with attention focused on him, does he consider that to be an exercise that is passive, tradition bound and pagan? Likewise, he "speaks at church-life conferences!" Apparently the kind of speaking he does he values in some way. Yet he reacts with outrage when someone stands before an audience and directs their attention to the text of Scripture in an orderly form without interruption. This is the excess and decoration of a militant reformer, who is in bondage to his system while attacking another. It is gimmickry and passion born in the contention of a reformers narrow mentality, not based on the content of Scripture. -- Behind the charm and sophistry of these reformers there is an arrogant spirit. Mr. Viola wants us to know that "the NT is not a manual for church practice." Yet, he wants us to be led by "the light that is within you!" When all of that has been said, the footnote on the last page of the book is truly the bottom line. He says in this small print entry: "If you plan to leave the institutional church, I strongly recommend that you read the next volume in this series: So You Want To Start A House Church? First-Century Styled Church Planting For Today. It will give you the next step." -- Unbelievable! He steers us away from the New Testament, then recommends his next book as our next step. Now here is my recommendation. Don't let any man dictate "the next step." Not Viola, Berkley or any man. Open the Bible. Read what it says, and let God direct your steps (Psa. 37:23; 119:133). --- Good Recently Published Resources To Study The House Church Movement: "The House Church Movement," Harry Osborne; in The Renewing Of Your Mind, 2004 Truth Magazine Lectures, GOT Foundation, 2004. "The House Church Movement," Jim Deason; True Worship, 2205 FC Lectures. By Warren E. Berkley The Front Page From Expository Files 13.1 January 2006.

Oswald Chambers sometimes startled audiences with his vigorous thinking and his vivid expression. Even those who disagreed with what he said found his teachings difficult to dismiss and all but impossible to ignore. Often his humor drove home a sensitive point: "Have we ever got into the way of letting God work, or are we so amazingly important that we really wonder in our nerves and ways what the Almighty does before we are up in the morning!" Oswald Chambers was not famous during his lifetime. At the time of his death in 1917 at the age of forty-three, only three books bearing his name had been published. Among a relatively small circle of Christians in Britain and the U.S., Chambers was much appreciated as a teacher of rare insight and expression, but he was not widely known. Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1874, the youngest son of a Baptist minister. He spent his boyhood years in Perth; then his family moved to London when Oswald was fifteen. Shortly after the move to London, Oswald made his public profession of faith in Christ and became a member of Rye Lane Baptist Church. This marked a period of rapid spiritual growth, along with an intense struggle to find God's will and way for his life. -- A gifted artist and musician, Chambers trained at London's Royal Academy of Art, sensing God's direction to be an ambassador for Christ in the world of art and aesthetics. While studying at the University of Edinburgh (1895-96), he decided, after an agonizing internal battle, to study for the ministry. He left the university and entered Dunoon College, near Glasgow, where he remained as a student, then a tutor for nine years. In 1906 he traveled to the United States, spending six months teaching at God's Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio. From there, he went to Japan, visiting the Tokyo Bible School, founded by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cowman. This journey around the world in 1906-1907 marked his transition from Dunoon College to fulltime work with the Pentecostal League of Prayer. During the last decade of his life, Chambers served as: • traveling speaker and representative of the League of Prayer, 1907-10 • principal and main teacher of the Bible Training College, London, 1911-15 • YMCA chaplain to British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt, 1915-17. He died in Cairo on November 15, 1917, of complications following an emergency appendectomy. The complete story of his life is told in Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God (1993).

Early life: John Newton was born in Wapping, London, in 1725, the son of John Newton Sr., a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth Newton (née Seatclife), a Nonconformist Christian. His mother died of tuberculosis in July, 1732, about two weeks before his seventh birthday. Two years later, he went to live in Aveley, the home of his father's new wife. Newton spent two years at boarding school. At age eleven he went to sea with his father. Newton sailed six voyages before his father retired in 1742. Newton's father made plans for him to work at a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Instead, Newton signed on with a merchant ship sailing to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1743, while on the way to visit some friends, Newton was captured and pressed into the naval service by the Royal Navy. He became a midshipman aboard HMS Harwich. At one point, Newton attempted to desert and was punished in front of the crew of 350. Stripped to the waist, tied to the grating, he received a flogging of one dozen lashes, and was reduced to the rank of a common seaman. Following that disgrace and humiliation, Newton initially contemplated suicide. He recovered, both physically and mentally. Later, while Harwich was on route to India, he transferred to Pegasus, a slave ship bound for West Africa. The ship carried goods to Africa, and traded them for slaves to be shipped to England and other countries. Newton proved to be a continual problem for the crew of Pegasus. They left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, a slave dealer. Clowe took Newton to the coast, and gave him to his wife Princess Peye, an African duchess. Newton was abused and mistreated along with her other slaves. It was this period that Newton later remembered as the time he was "once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in West Africa." Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had been asked by Newton's father to search for him. And he made it to freedom. In 1750 he married his childhood sweetheart in St. Margaret's Church, Rochester. -- Spiritual conversion: He sailed back to England in 1748 aboard the merchant ship Greyhound, which was carrying beeswax and dyer's wood, now referred to as camwood. During this voyage, he experienced a spiritual conversion. The ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal and almost sank. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and finally called out to God as the ship filled with water. After he called out, the cargo came out and stopped up the hole, and the ship was able to drift to safety. It was this experience which he later marked as the beginnings of his conversion to evangelical Christianity. As the ship sailed home, Newton began to read the Bible and other religious literature. By the time he reached Britain, he had accepted the doctrines of evangelical Christianity. The date was March 10, 1748, an anniversary he marked for the rest of his life. From that point on, he avoided profanity, gambling, and drinking. Although he continued to work in the slave trade, he had gained a considerable amount of sympathy for the slaves. He later said that his true conversion did not happen until some time later: "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards." Newton returned to Liverpool, England and, partly due to the influence of his father's friend Joseph Manesty, obtained a position as first mate aboard the slave ship Brownlow, bound for the West Indies via the coast of Guinea. During the first leg of this voyage, while in west Africa (1748-1749), Newton acknowledged the inadequacy of his spiritual life. While he was sick with a fever, he professed his full belief in Christ and asked God to take control of his destiny. He later said that this experience was his true conversion and the turning point in his spiritual life. He claimed it was the first time he felt totally at peace with God. Still, he did not renounce the slave trade until later in his life. After his return to England in 1750, he made three further voyages as captain of the slave-trading ships Duke of Argyle (1750) and African (1752-1753 and 1753-1754). He only gave up seafaring and his active slave-trading activities in 1754, after suffering a severe stroke, but continued to invest his savings in Manesty's slaving operations." -- Anglican priest: In 1755 Newton became tide surveyor (a tax collector) of the port of Liverpool, again through the influence of Manesty. In his spare time, he was able to study Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. He became well known as an evangelical lay minister. In 1757, he applied to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England, but it was more than seven years before he was eventually accepted. Such was his frustration during this period of rejection that he also applied to the Methodists, Independents and Presbyterians, and applications were even mailed directly to the Bishops of Chester and Lincoln and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. -- Writer and hymnist: The vicarage in Olney where Newton wrote the hymn that would become "Amazing Grace". In 1767 William Cowper, the poet, moved to Olney. He worshipped in the church, and collaborated with Newton on a volume of hymns, which was eventually published as Olney Hymns in 1779. This work had a great influence on English hymnology. The volume included Newton's well-known hymns "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken", "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds!", "Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder", "Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare", "Approach, My Soul, the Mercy-seat", and "Faith's Review and Expectation", which has come to be known by its opening phrase, "Amazing Grace". Many of Newton's (as well as Cowper's) hymns are preserved in the Sacred Harp. He also contributed to the Cheap Repository Tracts.

In 1643, during a period of civil war, the English "Long Parliament" (under the control of Presbyterian Puritans) convened an Assembly of Divines (mostly Puritan ministers, including a few influential Scottish commissioners) at Westminster Abbey in London. Their task was to advise Parliament on how to bring the Church of England into greater conformity with the Church of Scotland and the Continental Reformed churches. The Westminster Assembly produced documents on doctrine, church government, and worship that have largely defined Presbyterianism down to this day. These documents included a Confession of Faith (1646), a Larger Catechism (1647), and a Shorter Catechism (1647), often collectively called "the Westminster standards." Parliamentary efforts to reconstitute the established Church of England along Presbyterian lines were soon thwarted by the rise to power of Cromwell (who favored Independency) and the expulsion of Presbyterians from Parliament in 1648, and then the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, which quickly led to the reinstitution of Episcopacy and the suppression of Puritanism. -- But things were different in Scotland. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted the Confession of Faith in 1647 and the Catechisms in 1648. The Scottish Parliament ratified them in 1649 and again (after a time of political and religious strife) in 1690. The Presbyterian character of the Church of Scotland was safeguarded when Scotland and England were united under one crown in 1707. Numerous Presbyterian bodies have been formed since then, both in the United Kingdom and around the world, and they have always been constituted on the basis of the Westminster standards (although declension from them has sometimes followed). -- When the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1788, it adopted the Westminster standards, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. However, it revised chapters 20.4, 23.3, and 31.2 of the Confession, basically removing the civil magistrate (i.e., the state) from involvement in ecclesiastical matters.