Healing ‘Revival’ Claims Spiritual Connection to William Branham

A Canadian healing evangelist, Todd Bentley, is drawing large crowds to the Auburndale Life Church in Lakeland, Florida, dubbed the “Lakeland Helaing Outpouring.” 

Bentley is 32 years old and does not look like a typical evangelist, with facial piercings and a goatee, but attendees claim that they are being physically healed and spiritually rejuvenated.

Other charismatic revivalists like John Arnott, pastor of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, and John Kilpatrick, pastor of Brownsville Assembly of God, are hailing the move as the next “wave” of awakening.  Both pastors experienced strange manifestations during protracted revivals at their assemblies in the 1990s.

Perhaps most interesting is the “prophetic” pronouncement of Bob Jones that the same angel that visited the controversial healing evangelist William Branham is now with Bentley.  Bentley claims to have encountered the angelic visit on the 3rd of April, the day after he arrived in Lakeland, and Jones identified the angel’s name as “Winds of Change.”

William Branham, who was a leader in the Latter Rain movement that attracted both Oneness and Trinitarian followers, attracted crowds of over 10,000 to his healing meetings.  Before his tragic death in December 1965, Branham claimed to be Elijah the prophet.

Meetings in Lakeland are being held twice daily and show no immediate signs of abatement.

Click here to read the full story.

Former Pentecostals Charged in Death of Diabetic Daughter

Former members of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church, a United Pentecostal Church in Wausau, Wisconsin, have been formally charged in the death of their 11-year-old daughter, who died of untreated diabetes on 23 March. 

The couple believed that prayer would heal their daughter and denied her medical attention.  The teaching is not embraced by the United Pentecostal Church or Pastor Derrald Hilderbrand, who pastored the family at Lighthouse Pentecostal before they left. The couple had left the church and became isolationist in their religious devotions, involved in a small prayer group of approximately five people.

The couple could face 25 years in prison if convicted of the charge against them–second-degree reckless homicide.

Click here to read the full story.

 

Madam Speaker? That’s not in the Bible

Pete Chagnon – OneNewsNow

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recently come under fire for quoting a fictional Bible passage.

According to a CNSNews.com article, in her Earth Day news release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) attributed this quote to the Old Testament: “To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.” However, many biblical scholars cite a problem with that quotation: it doesn’t exist in the Bible.
 
It was not the first time Pelosi has used this alleged biblical passage. The California Democrat has used it on several different occasions, and has even attributed the passage to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah.

Click HERE for full story.

Website Spotlight: Bible Centre

The Bible Centre

This is the first Website Spotlight that has not included an Apostolic website.  Rather, this is a site that has an abundant amount of Biblical resources that might seem worthy of Apostolic perusal.  Although they do have a subject titled the Holy Trinity, they also have subjects that range from Audio to literature.  Spend a few minutes inside this online library, and you may discover why this is our first non-Apostolic website of the week. 

http://www.bibleresources.info/

Old TBC Campus For Sale

The former campus of Texas Bible College in Houston, Texas, is for sale.  Two different listings were posted yesterday, one with a price of seven hundred thousand, and another for nine thousand, five hundred, which is possibly a down payment price. 

Many memories of these buildings can be found in the minds of many Apostolics, so for some these classifieds may bring more then just curiousity.  It may bring back memories of a time long ago, when they were younger, and the TBC Chapel seemed it had been there forever, and it seemed that it would last forever as well. 

It’s still there.  It just has a for sale sign in front of it now. 

You can see the listings here and here.

Obama calls former pastor’s speech a ‘bunch of rants’

Jim Brown – OneNewsNow

Barack Obama had no choice but to further distance himself from his former pastor and his incendiary rhetoric, claims a Clemson University political science professor. 

An outraged Senator Obama (D-Illinois) held a press conference on Tuesday to inform voters that Pastor Jeremiah Wright does not speak for him, but rather “directly contradicts” everything Obama has done in his campaign and in his life.
 
Obama strongly denounced comments made by his former pastor earlier this week at the National Press Club. During his appearance on Monday, Wright praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and defended his belief that Zionism is racism and that the U.S. was to blame for the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Obama referred to Wright’s speech as a “bunch of rants” that “rightly offend all Americans.” He also labeled the comments Wright gave at the National Press Club as “divisive and destructive” and said that they “give comfort to those who prey on hate.”

Click HERE for full story.

Florida lawmakers debate offering a Christian license plate

MIAMI (AP) – Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.

If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that’s not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

Click HERE to read the full story.

Update: ‘I Believe’ plate nixed by Florida lawmakers. Click HERE.

Pentecost Sunday, Mothers Day set to Collide

Due to an early Easter, May 11th, 2008 will host two important church Holidays, Pentecost Sunday, and Mother’s day.  

Pentecost is fifty days after the Resurrection, ten days after the Ascension. Mother’s Day became an official national holiday in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a decree that the second Sunday of May be a day “for a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

There is an interesting article here that discusses this.  It also has some ideas on how to combine the two. 

In Pentecostal churches, Mother’s day often rivals Easter for the biggest visitor day of the year.  Pentecost Sunday is often a wonderful time of excitement in celebrating the Church’s birthday.  Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know your ideas on how to combine the two and take advantage of this rare occasion.  Although it may challenge some of our normal programming for Mother’s day, this could be a great oppurtunity to make the day extra special. 

 

9 members of Congress supported Abstinance until Marriage education proposal

(Washington, D.C.)—While it seems last week’s hearing to review federal funding for abstinence-until-marriage education in public schools was “stacked” against abstinence education, there apparently were some congressmen who stepped up and showed their support for the program.According to a Citizen Link report, some of those congressmen included, “Tom Davis, R-Va., and Mark Souder, R-Ind., who gave oral arguments, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who testified.”

Linda Klepacki, of Focus on the Family Action, is urging citizens to call and thank those congressmen who made their support for abstinence education known at the hearing. Below is a list of those who supported it, along with their phone numbers. According to Klepacki “It’s important to let them know we appreciate their efforts on behalf of our children.”

• Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas, 202-224-6521
• Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana, 202-225-2276
• Rep. Tom Davis, Virginia, 202-225-1492
• Rep. John Duncan, Tennessee, 202-225-5435
• Rep. Virginia Foxx, North Carolina, 202-225-2071
• Rep. Darrell Issa, California, 202-225-3906
• Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio, 202-225-2676
• Rep. Bill Sali, Idaho, 202-225-6611
• Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana, 202-225-4436

Click here for the Citizen Link article.

Apostolic Christian School Dedicates New 110,000 Square Foot Facility

Calvary Christian School in Indianapolis, Indiana, recently dedicated a new 110,000-square-foot facility. Calvary Christian’s new building will more than quadruple the school’s size and allow for a student population of 690 by the time an unfinished wing of the building is complete. Calvary Christian School is part of the Education Ministry of the UPCI Church, Calvary Tabernacle, pastored by Rev. Paul D. Mooney.

Leaders of the 62-year-old school recently dedicated the new facility designed to usher in a new era of growth for the school, which has 157 students and a staff of over 25.

The school was founded in 1946 when a small row of classrooms was added onto the sanctuary at the Calvary Tabernacle church. Then the school added classroom space, and in 1986, it took over the entire church building to include the high school.

In 2001, they purchased an old Cub Foods grocery store building and rallied members of the 1,500-person congregation, which subsidizes the school, to donate money to build the $8.6 million facility.

Builders broke ground on the facility in 2006 and opened to the first group of students last August.

“I Think I Have A Call To Preach”

For all our readers who are Pastors, we encourage you to take a look at this months Pastorial Question for “IBC Perspectives” magazine. The Questions is: How do you respond when someone in your church comes to you and says, ‘Pastor I think I have a call preach’?

Click HERE to leave your comment or see what other Pastors are saying.

Tech Tip: Convert Powerpoint to DVD and Flash

The following link will show you how to convert Powerpoint files to DVD video, Flash video, and PDF files.

Converting a Powerpoint presentation to DVD is great because it is much easier to distribute to others. Also, it’s playable on any DVD player in the world, whether it be a laptop, desktop, or stand-alone DVD player. Converting Powerpoint to PDF is good for those who want to send the presentation slides electronically, but don’t want people to be able to edit or modify the slides. Finally, converting Powerpoint to Flash is useful for those who want to embed the presentation on a web site.

Converting a Powerpoint presentation to video is also great because you can then upload those videos to YouTube or MySpace for sharing. Converting to MP4 format will allow you to enjoy Powerpoint presentations on your iPod or other mobile device.

Click HERE to read the instructions.

Blog: Where have all the Snake Handlers gone?

Rev. Ken Gurley, Pastor of the First Church of Pearland, in Pearland Texas, writes a blog for the Houston Chronical.  His blog,  A pentecostal perspective, seeing life through the Spirit, deals with social issues from a Apostolic view point. 

His latest blog deals with the interesting subject of snake handlers, which many non-apostolics errantly believe is a apostolic tradition. 

Click here for the article. 

 

2008 UPCI Camp Meeting Dates and Speakers

With summer just around the corner, many UPC districts are already beginning plans for their upcoming camp meetings. Camp meetings are a long standing tradition among Pentecostals. Oneness Pentecostals have been having camp meetings since the early 1900s.

The largest of the Oneness Pentecostal organizations, the UPCI, has over 40 camp meetings scheduled for this summer. The see a PDF file with all the UPCI camp meeting dates, locations, and speakers Click HERE.

Note: Camp Meeting information taken from the May issue of the Pentecostal Herald. To save the file to your computer, right click on link and click “save target as.”

Poll: U.S. among most Bible-literate nations.

Americans are among the world’s most ‘Bible-literate’ people and Spaniards, French and Italians are among the most ignorant about what the “good book” says, according to a new study released on Monday.

A poll carried out in nine countries — the United States, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Spain and Poland — also showed Americans were most willing to donate money to spread the message of the Bible.

Click here for the entire article.