15A
RELIGION/The Charlotte Post
November 21,1996
The Prophet’s Column
This Is a paid advertisement by J. M. Little
“In whom the god of this
world hath BLINDED THE
MIINDS of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glori
ous gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine
unto them.” (II Corinthians
4:4). “For God hath not given
us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a
SOUND MIND.” (II Timothy
1:7). The god of this world,
Satan, has blinded the mind of
every lost person and you are
blinded and deceived by Satan
beyond any words of descrip
tion to any human language.
Have you ever seen that tmth?
You will before you are saved,
if you ever are to be saved. In
your mind, which is your
thoughts and imaginations,
you cannot discern between
good and evil. Why? Because
you are a child of the Devil; “Ye
are of your father the devil,
and the lusts of your father ye
will do.” (John 8:44). Now that
was a dogmatic statement of
my Lord to a bunch of self-
righteous religionists one day
back there when He was walk
ing and teaching on this earth
in His fleshly body. Every lost
person is a child of the Devil.
The Devil has you blinded in
your mind and will not let you
see that truth. Your mind
being blinded by the Devil
means that your mind is
unsound. Only those in Christ
have a sound mind. Do you
have a sound mind? One of the
evidences of sm unsoimd mind
is that you will always call evil
good and good evil (Isaiah
5:20). The blinded mind, being
a child of the Devil, cannot dis
tinguish good from evil, even
though you may be a preacher
in the pulpit or a teacher
teaching. When you bring a
message you cannot warn men
of their doom because you are
blinded in your mind by Satan
which means you do not know
the danger men are in out of
Christ Now you hold that!
Every lost soul, no matter the
position they hold, is blind and
unsoimd in their mind! That’s
why we have the mess we have
in the world today, worldwide.
Satan is of an unsound and
blinded mind and all his chil
dren are the same. In your
unsound and blinded mind you
are going away from God, and
you are declaring that you will
not have the Man, Christ
Jesus, to rule over you. You go
about your daily activities liv
ing for me, myself and mine.
And you dare anyone to get in
your way. Such an one will
remain there in that blinded
state and wake up in Hell
unless the Lord has mercy on
you, and shines the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ into
yom- darkened and blinded and
unsound mind. The only thing
God has to do for you to go to
Hell is just to leave you alone.
If He leaves you alone, you will
bust Hell wide open! You can
rebel all you want to, but I’m
setting forth your awful, lost,
and ruined condition, accord
ing to God’s eternal Word!
Congregation defies police: keeps
controversial pastor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ODESSA, Texas - The peo
ple have spoken - the preach
er stays.
The congregation at St.
James Missionary Baptist
Church has voted to retain the
Rev. R.T. McNeil as its pastor.
The vote, conducted as
ordered by a Texas Court of
Appeals judge, ended three
months of bickering, scuffling
and court action at the south
ern Odessa church.
A little more than half of
432-member church partici
pated, with McNeil’s support
ers winning 152-86.
“They’ve won it and we’ll go
along with the decision made
by the majority,” said St.
James deacon and founding
member Ben Huckaby, a
McNeil opponent. “We have no
problem with that because it
was done fairly. We’re satis
fied that the majority of peo
ple want to retain (McNeil) as
pastor.”
Church members, including
Huckaby, have declined to
explain the rift. McNeil did
not immediately return a mes
sage left Monday by The
Associated Press.
The turmoil began in
September when parishioners
voted to fire McNeil, alleging
that he was unable to perform
as spiritual adviser or church
leader.
A temporary restraining
order barred McNeil from
preaching, though his oppo
nents filed motions last month
claiming that McNeil had
ministered in contempt of
court.
As things came to a head.
both sides tapped an arbitra
tor to resolve their differences.
“We worked our rear ends off
to get most of the matters
resolved, and the election will
hopefully take care of any of
the other problems that exist,”
said arbitrator Denn Whalen,
an Odessa attorney. “There
were four to five issues I had
to resolve that the parties
couldn’t agree on, but there
were a half dozen others they
agreed upon among them
selves.”
Both sides had already
agreed to Saturday’s vote, con
ducted at a nearby elementary
school. Cries of “Praise the
Lord!” and “Thank you,
Jesus!” rang out among a
small group gathered outside
the polling place upon
announcement of the results.
White, Green wave of the future
By David Briggs
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The names that have defined
evangelicalism for a genera
tion - Billy Graham, Pat
Robertson, Oral Roberts, Bill
Bright and Charles Colson -
are entering the twilight of
their careers.
What they do not leave
behind is a similar coterie of
middle-aged leaders to take
their place at the forefront of
the religious movement.
Fortunately, however,
emerging is a new generation
of evangelical leaders, age 40
and under, with the same
urgency felt by the post-World
War II group, according to the
flagship evangelical magazine,
Christianity Today.
In its latest issue, the maga
zine profiles 50 up-and-coming
evangelical leaders selected
through a survey of nearly
1,000 Christian leaders.
The evangelicals to watch
include Lisa C. Barnes, who
founded the Bethesda, Md.-
based Neighbors Who Care,
an organization that aids
crime victims.
Also meiking the diverse list
are singers such as Rebecca
St. James and the Christian
rap group D.C. Talk; and
prominent athletes such as
A.C. Green of basketball’s
Phoenix Suns, and Reggie
White, the Green Bay Packers
defensive star who became a
national spokesman calling
for the church and nation to
confront racism as church
burnings in the South revived
old fears.
Oh a more grass-roots level,
the evangelical up-and-comers
also include the Harambee
Group; and the husband-and-
wife teams of Kafi and Rudy
Carrasco, and Kanyn Farrar-
Perkins and Derek Perkins,
who are involved in urban
ministry in Pasadena, CaHf.
They are varied relgiously
and racially diverse.
In general, the group is hard
to characterize, but some
church observers say that
together they represent a new
generation of creative evan
gelical leaders following in the
footsteps of Graham,
Robertson and the others.
After World War II, there
was a tremendous entrepre
neurial period in evangelical
ministry, with Graham at the
center but a number of other
prominent individuals such as
Roberts and Robertson also
building great institutions,
said David Neff, executive edi
tor of Christianity Today.
The next generation of peo
ple in their 40s and 50s
became managerial leaders of
many of those institutions,
largely through necessity.
However, Neff said, the cycle
is now returning to the cre
ative ministry spirit of the
older generation.
With the exception of indi
viduals such as Reed, howev
er, the new leaders are more
likely to concentrate on grass
roots efforts. Like their Baby
Buster brethren, they are sus
picious of large institutions.
“Most of these folks are
going to try to make changes
in local communities,” Neff
said.
They are people like Michael
Teague of the Union Rescue
Mission in Los Angeles and
Alvin C. Bibbs Sr., urban min
istries director of Willow
Creek Community Church in
suburban Chicago.
To the Rev. Leighton Ford,
Graham’s brother-in-law and
the head of a ministry organi
zation devoted to working
with young leaders, the future
looks good.
The 65-year-old head of
Leighton Ford Ministries said
these new leaders take the
Bible seriously emd are deeply
interested in spiritual gro\rth
and in developing their own
characters.
In many ways, they face a
tougher task than did his gen
eration because the hopeful
ness of the post-World War II
generation has been replaced
by attitudes of greater confu
sion and despair in a world
where there are cultural wars
and religious conflicts within
and among nations, according
to Ford.
But the spiritual energy and
deyjbtion of this new group of
evangelical leaders is promis
ing for the future of evangeli-
cahsm, he said.
“It fills me with great hope,”
Ford said, “because they’re liv
ing in a world with not a lot of
hope.”
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