Showing posts with label SIN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SIN. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2026

Call Sin by its Right Name


The greatest want of the world is the want of men,–men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.–Education, p. 57.

​ Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1

We are living in the solemn scenes of this earth’s history. If ever there was a time when things should be called by their right name, it is now. This is no time to call sin righteousness, and righteousness sin. We must lay hold by faith now. It is time for every one to be wide-awake.—Pamphlet 146.

Deal faithfully with wrongdoing. Warn every soul that is in danger. Leave none to deceive themselves. Call sin by its right name. Declare what God has said in regard to lying, Sabbathbreaking, stealing, idolatry, and every other evil. “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:21. If they persist in sin, the judgment you have declared from God’s word is pronounced upon them in heaven. In choosing to sin, they disown Christ; the church must show that she does not sanction their deeds, or she herself dishonours her Lord. She must say about sin what God says about it. She must deal with it as God directs, and her action is ratified in heaven. He who despises the authority of the church despises the authority of Christ Himself.—DA 805.

​​The history of Achan teaches the solemn lesson that for one man’s sin the displeasure of God will rest upon a people or a nation till the transgression is searched out and punished. Sin is corrupting in its nature. One man infected with its deadly leprosy may communicate the taint to thousands. Those who occupy responsible positions as guardians of the people are false to their trust if they do not faithfully search out and reprove sin. Many dare not condemn iniquity, lest they shall thereby sacrifice position or popularity. And by some it is considered uncharitable to rebuke sin. The servant of God should never allow his own spirit to be mingled with the reproof which he is required to give; but he is under the most solemn obligation to present the Word of God, without fear or favour. He must call sin by its right name. Those who by their carelessness or indifference permit God’s name to be dishonoured by His professed people, are numbered with the transgressor,– registered in the record of heaven as partakers in their evil deeds….

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Giants’ Pride hat controversy: Tolerance does not apply to Christians


Opinion

Published June 15, 2026.

The San Francisco Giants held their annual Pride Night last week to honor the LGBTQ+ community. The celebration included 10 gay couples renewing their wedding vows and a drag queen standing along the first base line.

Four Christian ballplayers on the Giants chose to make a statement about their faith. While all the other players wore a “Pride” hat (a Giants hat with a rainbow patch attached), one pitcher, Sam Hentges, wore his regular Giants cap without the rainbow.

Three other Giants pitchers — Landon Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker — wore the Pride hat, but cited Bible verses next to the rainbow logo.


A Giants logo is displayed over a heart with various LGBTQ colors at Oracle Park.

Hentges added: “It’s just something that I feel like I was forced to support when I don’t morally support it. There wasn’t hatred behind it. I think that’s kind of something that’s misinterpreted. I don’t hate the LGBTQ community.”

Tuesday, June 02, 2026

The Earth Shall Wax Old




Volume 41 Issue Eight August 2022

Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org



“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

The Earth Shall Wax Old


“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.”

Isaiah 51:6

“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”

Psalm 102:25-27

When people hear the word “apocalypse” they often think of the Book of Revelation. This is fitting because the word apocalypse is taken from the Greek word “apokálypsis;” which means “revelation.” (1) In particular, the word apocalypse is usually associated with revelations regarding end-time prophecy and events. While the book of Revelation contains many Scriptures regarding the world’s final days, there are an abundance of other apocalyptic messages found throughout God’s Word. For example, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spends the entirety of Matthew, chapter 24, describing both the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D. and also the end of the world. The Apostle Paul devotes II Timothy, chapter 3, to the “perilous times” (verse 1) that would occur in “the last days” and even warns that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (verse 13.) The Apostle Peter wrote of the end times in II Peter, chapter 3, warning in verse 3; “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” He then offers a vivid description of God’s judgment upon the earth by writing in verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

How is it that God, who lovingly and meticulously created this world and then proclaimed His creation to be “very good” in Genesis 1:31, could ever allow this world to be burned up? Over time, this planet has been ravaged by sin, suffering the effects of greed, selfishness, unbridled lust, hatred, and a lack of regard for Almighty God. When God decides it is time for this world to be destroyed, much of the damage will have already been inflicted by mankind. Thus, as a property owner might find a dilapidated and unsound building condemned and subject to demolition, God, too, will demolish this world.

Scriptures in the Old Testament tell us that the world we now occupy will eventually wear out and “wax old like a garment.” Isaiah 51:6 declares, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” A remarkably similar passage can be found in Psalm 102:25-27, which tells us, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Even as these verses reveal the ultimate demise of our world, we see the promises that not only will God Himself endure for all eternity, but His salvation, too, will endure for all eternity. It is for this reason that Jesus promises in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” As the forthcoming content of this newsletter will reveal, our world is facing astonishing trouble in the days ahead. As such, the promises of God are exceedingly precious to His people, and we will need His mercy and grace to endure the coming months and years.

Same Sex and the Seminary: Building a Joyful Life Together that God Sees




Alexander Carpenter

How did you first meet, and what drew you to each other in the beginning?

Kendra and Roxan

Well, surprisingly, and ironically we met at seminary.

But our love story wasn’t a clean simple journey that people often imagine when they think of two people falling in love. Maybe it’s just us, but I suspect a lot of queer couples, especially those raised in more conservative religious spaces, understand that reality. Seminary was the last place anyone would expect queer love to happen.

Our lives hold a lot of beauty now, but that’s not necessarily how it started.

I sometimes wish our journey began the way love stories are “supposed” to start, the ways we see in movies or portrayed in social media. You like each other, you go on dates, your friends are excited for you, your families are supportive, everyone celebrates it. But when you are living inside a tight-knit religious community, people often feel deeply invested in your life choices, especially if they feel you are “walking in sin,” and partaking in actions that will lead to your eternal destruction. Believing our budding relationship was something we needed to “repent” of, doesn’t exactly create the cinematic portrayal of romance.

For me, the beginning of our romantic relationship meant the collapse of my relationship with Adventism.

When we met, we were both in seminary trying to understand ourselves, God, and what we were meant to do with our lives. Seminary was a spiritual journey for me, completely existential. For women to go to an Adventist seminary at all, means something else is driving her than the hope to one day be an ordained pastor. We enter school knowing that ordination is not possible for us, but we go anyway hoping that some church will recognize our intelligence and ability to lead, and invite us alongside them in “the work.”

We met in a class where a professor described having excommunicated a woman from his church some years ago because 10 years after she divorced her physically abusive husband, she wanted to remarry. She had been single for 10 years, but this professor believed scripture meant she no longer had the right to marry again. I remember another student, a young man, actually, getting so upset that he walked out of class entirely.

And I remember thinking: Something is very wrong here. Where is the common sense? The compassion, the humanity, the shame. I looked around seeing so many heads nodding in agreement or in silent acquiescence. Roxan did not nod along or fear confrontation. Much like me she had a righteous stubbornness.

It was sad to see the scarcity of those willing to openly challenge what felt so obviously oppressive. For some it was ignorance. For others, cowardice. For Roxan, it was neither.

That was our first real connection.

We would spend hours at the coffee shop after class debriefing on the absurdity and hurtfulness of the myriad of beliefs that continued to deny the validity of our experience and value as women. We admitted to each other and ourselves, all the ways we could no longer force ourselves to carry a yoke of beliefs that were crushing us.

The beginning of our love story felt biblical. Like the Exodus. “You have broken the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,” (Isaiah 9:4, author paraphrased).

Friday, May 15, 2026

Rededicate 250: Pastor Gary Hamrick to call for national repentance, rebuke 'lies of gender confusion, marriage redefinition'


By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter
Thursday, May 14, 2026


An undated photo of Pastor Gary Hamrick teaching at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia. | Courtesy Cornerstone Chapel

As thousands prepare to gather at the National Mall on Sunday to pray for the nation ahead of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, Cornerstone Chapel Senior Pastor Gary Hamrick is calling for national repentance and a return to the God of the Bible.

Hamrick, who is one of over a dozen pastors set to speak at “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” on May 17, says his message to the nation is the same as that of the Apostle Peter at the dawn of the Christian era.

“Rededication begins with repentance,” Hamrick told The Christian Post. “Acts 3:19 says, ‘Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.’ We must turn from our sin and turn to God and stand upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ, because He is the only hope for the soul of our nation. Jesus is always the answer.”

While the “Rededicate 250” event is expected to mark the nation’s largest religious gathering in more than 50 years, Hamrick expressed concern that despite a rich heritage of religious freedom, the country has drifted from its founding principles when it comes to issues like abortion, marriage and gender identity.

Saturday, January 31, 2026

On the “March to Death”


On the “March to Death”—Satan is busily at work in our crowded cities. His work is to be seen in the confusion, the strife and discord between labor and capital, and the hypocrisy that has come into the churches. That men may not take time to meditate, Satan leads them into a round of gayety and pleasure-seeking, of eating and drinking. He fills them with ambition to make an exhibition that will exalt self. Step by step, the world is reaching the conditions that existed in the days of Noah. Every conceivable crime is committed. The lust of the flesh, the pride of the eyes, the display of selfishness, the misuse of power, the cruelty, and the force used to cause men to unite with confederacies and unions—binding themselves up in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days—all these are the working of Satanic agencies. This round of crime and folly men call “life.”...

The world, who act as though there were no God, absorbed in selfish pursuits, will soon experience sudden destruction, and shall not escape. Many continue in the careless gratification of self until they become so disgusted with life that they kill themselves. Dancing and carousing, drinking and smoking, indulging their animal passions, they go as an ox to the slaughter. Satan is working with all his art and enchantments to keep men marching blindly onward until the Lord arises out of His place to punish the inhabitants of earth for their iniquities, when the earth shall disclose her blood and no more cover her slain. The whole world appears to be in the march to death.—Manuscript 139, 1903.


Evangelism, E. G. White, p.26.

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Tuesdays with Ezekiel (Chapter 16)




on April 27, 2021by Rick and Linda

From the shortest chapter in Ezekiel (15), we move to the longest chapter. Dan Block points out that chapter 16 is longer than six of the minor prophets. But what makes chapter 16 so memorable is not primarily its length but its content. It is one of the most evocative, emotional, disturbing sections of Scripture. The Lord gives Ezekiel an extended word-picture of Jerusalem’s spiritual infidelity that is graphic and grisly. Jerusalem is compared to a wife who, after having been saved and served by her divine Husband, opts to become a foolish prostitute with other gods and surrounding nations. After brazenly playing the whore, she receives the “blood of wrath and jealousy” from the Lord (38). Although we would expect a complete and final divorce, the Lord astounds once again by promising to establish an “everlasting covenant” (60) with the very one who broke His covenant (59).

This chapter is difficult to read but not difficult to understand. The chapter reads like a movie script, starting with the birth of an unwanted girl to a mixed marriage (Amorite and Hittite—3). This daughter was cast into an open field to die, left wallowing in her own blood, completely uncared for (4-5). But the Lord saw this orphaned, helpless child and showed compassion by giving her life (“‘Live’ I said to you . . . ‘Live’”—6). He takes the girl in and, when she has grown up, takes her as His bride (“entered into a covenant with you”—8). He cleans her up (9) and then lavishes her with the finest of clothing, jewelry and food (10-12). She becomes a queen (crowned—12), stunning in the beauty and splendor given her by the Lord (14).

Then, instead of hearing they “lived happily ever after,” the story line takes a dark turn. The queen goes rogue. Over the course of the next 20 verses (15-34), we read a sexually-explicit account of her infidelities. She plays the whore with false gods and surrounding nations. And she does it all at her own expense, paying her other lovers with the very riches and children she received from her divine Husband. The translators of the Hebrew text had a difficult time bringing some of the phrases into English in a way that would be appropriate for all-ages. This is no longer a G or PG movie.

The Lord—the divine Husband—is both broken hearted and outraged. He sentences her (Jerusalem) to a just but gruesome punishment. Her so-called lovers will be brought to turn on her, strip her bare and cut her to pieces, and burn her houses (39-41). Thus the Lord says He will “satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you, I will be calm and will be no more be angry” (42). This woman (Jerusalem) has proven to be more wicked than her “sisters”—Samaria and Sodom (46-51).

Monday, March 17, 2025

WHO CAN FORGIVE SINS?


Excerpt taken from "Night Journey From Rome"

Copyright © 1982 by Chick Publications, Inc.


CHAPTER SIX

WHO CAN FORGIVE SINS?



When I walked out of St. Clare’s Catholic church on the morning of August 6, 1978, reborn in Jesus Christ, one of my abiding new realizations was that all the sins of my lifetime had been forgiven. Jesus had washed them in His blood; they had been annihilated; no guilt remained requiring me to perform acts of penance. I could now walk with God, my sins erased, no longer under the burden of having to confess to a human priest and beg his absolution. Truly Christ had released me from captivity according to His promise.

And thus I thought with relief that I would never again have to set foot in a Roman Catholic church building to seek forgiveness, justification, the Holy Spirit, Jesus in the Eucharist —whatever— through the Roman labyrinth of sacramental dispensation of grace. But I knew that someday it might be fitting or expedient, through courtesy or familial bonds of charity to enter a Catholic church building in consideration of the feelings of others. That is precisely what happened in a relatively short while.

Some six months after I was led to the Lord, a young Hispanic and Catholic Detroit police officer took his life in a violent manner. I did not know the young man personally; I knew of him and that he had problems. The deceased and I had a mutual friend, Steve, also a Detroit police officer, Puerto Rican, and Catholic. Steve and I are casual but good friends in the Department, often meeting for lunch “in Spanish” at a downtown Mexican restaurant. Steve is Catholic in name only, largely ignorant of the teachings of his church. But he knows I am a former priest, and he questions me continually about religion. And I witness Jesus Christ to him.