Author: Staff Writer

Following the heels of the last four films, a new Pure Flix and Pinnacle Peak Pictures have released a trailer for the storied series God’s Not Dead: Rise Up. Initially announced in 2022, the plotline follows:

The film tells the story of Reverend David Hill, who feels compelled to enter a congressional race after the sudden death of a favored incumbent. Meanwhile, his opponent is determined to push religion out of the public square, causing even greater division in a time of profound political, civil and spiritual turmoil. As David navigates the treacherous waters of modern politics, his faith and principles are put to the ultimate test as he strives to be a beacon of hope and optimism for many people yearning for spiritual and moral leadership. 

The film stars David A. R. White, Isaiah Washington, Dean Cain, Samaire Armstrong, and Scott Baio, with appearances by Governor Mike Huckabee and Grammy Award-Winning band Newsboys.

According to the Friendly Atheist the films are earning less and less with each sequel, and this one is likely to follow suit.

The first God’s Not Dead truly was a phenomenon, making more than $64 million during its run in theaters in 2014. The sequel, which came out in 2016, made over $24 million. That likely covered all the production costs and then some, but it wasn’t a blockbuster by any means.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, the third film in the series, made about $7.4 million. Not even close to the other two.

God’s Not Dead: We the People, the fourth film in the series, was only released in a handful of theaters for a limited run and made just over $1,100,000. But it was used as a promotional tool to get Christians to subscribe to Pure Flix’s paid streaming service.

Another way of analyzing the success of a film is looking at how it did in its opening weekend.

God’s Not Dead made $9,217,013 in 780 theaters its first weekend… which was just astonishing.

God’s Not Dead 2 made $7,623,662 in 2,419 theaters.

God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness made $2,689,677 in 1,693 theaters.

God’s Not Dead: We the People made $1,170,367 in about 565 theaters.

The Roman Catholic Church in Germany formally lost 402,694 members in 2023, the result of an ongoing exodus following revelations of widespread clergy sexual abuse six years prior. According to NCR:

The German Bishops’ Conference said that 402,694 people left the church in 2023. That was down from 522,821 the previous year, but still the second-highest figure so far. At the same time, 1,559 people joined the church and another 4,127 rejoined.

In Germany, people who are formally members of a church pay a so-called church tax that helps finance it in addition to the regular taxes the rest of the population pays. If they register their departure with local authorities, they no longer have to pay that. There are some exemptions for low earners, jobless, retirees, students and others.

In 2018, the Roman Catholic Church commissioned a report to investigate cases of abuse within the church, finding nearly 4000 people were abused by 1700 priests over the last 70 years, with the number certainly much higher, as their own report notes that many of the records of abuse were “destroyed or manipulated.”

In that same time, a mere 1559 people joined the church in 2023 and 1447 joined in 2022. The church still claims 19.5 million members, or about 20% of the country’s population.

Several Elders from Gateway Church, the largest church in the country, have taken a leave of absence following the revelation that senior pastor Robert Morris molested a child and then covered it up, according to a statement from the church.

As Haynes and Boone (the outside law firm Haynes and Boone to conduct an independent and comprehensive inquiry related to the recent events) begins their work, they have recommended that any Gateway Church Elder with a potential conflict of interest take a temporary leave of absence from the Board of Elders. This includes any Elder with a relational conflict and those Elders who were on the Board from 2005–2007.

It was in the period of 2005-2007 that Morris’ victim, Cindy Clemishire, contacted the church regarding her abuse at his hands, which began when she was 12 years old and lasted until she was 16. The back and fourth phone call, revealed in leaked transcript, saw Clemishire express a desire to see Morris pay for his abuses against her, and Morris in turn seeking to buy her off.

Noting that “A leave of absence in no way whatsoever assumes or implies that any Elder had any knowledge of the true facts related to this situation,” Gateway reveals that the recommendation for absence affects three men “Kevin Grove, Steve Dulin, and Gayland Lawshe” who Gateway insist are “men of integrity who have served Gateway Church with distinction, and each of these three Elders has clearly stated that they had no knowledge of the true facts of this situation.”

Morris’s son, Pastor James Morris, who was recently appointed to take over the church from his father, is also taking a break due to his closeness with his father, which could be a conflict of interest.

Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in continues leading his congregation deeper and deeper into deception, recently preaching that the gospel must be accompanied by miraculous signs and wonders in order to be “fully preached.”

As previously stated, the 10,000-member Bethel Church in Redding, California, is an assortment of false teaching and bizarre charismatic shenanigans. From ‘Little God Theology’, teaching that Adam created the animals in Eden, that Michael the Archangel wears tights, and that angels sit around in heaven farting contents, it’s a bizarre world with significant influence.

Bill Johnson: Students Cannot Graduate from BSSM Until They Give 3 FALSE Prophecies
Bethel Pastor Claims Adam is ‘Procreating With God’ and ‘Co-Creating’ When Naming the Animals
Little God Theology? Bethel Prophet Says you are ‘Made like God’ and Made ‘After the God-Kind’
Never Forget: Bethel Church Promoted Prophetic Uno Cards
Bethel ‘Pastor’ Says Michael the Archangel Dresses in ‘Wrestling Tights,’ is ‘always Grumpy’
Bethel Pastrix: ‘Jesus Laid in that Bed with Me and Started to Play with my Hair’
Bethel Church “Pastor” Says Angels Sit Around the Throne of God Having “Farting Contests”
Bethel Chief Prophet says God made Adam ‘Male’ AND ‘Female’ + Adam ‘co-created Eve’
Bethel Church Has a ‘Lab’ Where they Apply Scientific Methods to The Prophetic + People. Only $2750!

In his recent sermon ‘You are called to live a life of miracles‘, Johnson embarrasses himself with his inability to do basic exegesis and not twist scripture, insisting that Christians MUST do miracles, that it is a mandate from God, and that Christians who don’t do miracles can’t/ shouldn’t call Jesus “Lord.”

See more

BIBLE TWIST EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Bill Johnson insists that Christians MUST do miracles, that it is a mandate from God, that the gospel must be accompanied by signs and wonders in order to be "fully preached" and that Chrstians who don't do miracles can't/ shouldn't call Jesus "Lord" pic.twitter.com/4vVYsd1xVe

— Protestia (@Protestia) June 29, 2024

All this while gaslighting his opponents by claiming they are against healing. It’s disturbing stuff, but we’d expect nothing less.

---

h/t Chris Rosebrough. For a more in depth assessment of this awful sermon, see here:

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. Exodus 1:15-17

In a recent self-described “unabashed girl power sermon,” where all the worship for the service was replaced by renditions of Beyonce’s Run the World (Girls) and Survivor, impastor Jen Strickland of Claremont United Church of Christ sought to call attention to women in the bible by heaping praise on the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, and how their struggle to protect bodily autonomy is analogous to efforts today.

“I’ll start off with the bad news. The bad news is that “reproductive rights,” as it turns out, have been under attack since 1500BCE. The good news, I think, is that even in the midst of mind blowing tomfoolery, women of all ages have been around to save the day.”

Strickland says that the midwives exhibited “bravery and courage to tell such a bold lie to such power” by lying about why we’re not killing the Jewish babies,” doing what they could to “subvert the system” and ultimately use “Pharaoh’s own racist and prejudice beliefs about the Hebrews” against him.

These women did what they could in their specific context to allow the Holy Spirit to move and to work so that life could flourish and love could win the day.

Strickland praises Moses mother, sister, and Pharoah daughter for all conspiring against Pharoah and his desire to dictate to the women when they can and can’t have babies, and the praises deceased former US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, one of the most vociferous defenders of abortion and “reproductive rights” the country has ever known, by concluding:

We must never forget that the women who have gone before us have paved the way for more equality and more freedom for all of us today. They found ways to subvert the system in order to improve life.

I also hope we all have appreciation for the more recent saints who have gone before us like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And I hope that you find the same spirit of bravery and faith, and you can figure out how you will subvert the system, in your specific context, in your own special way.

Because I know there are so many of us who have, and still are fighting for equality and visibility and justice for everyone. 

See more

You probaly didn't know this, but according to pastrix Jen, the story of Pharoah vs the Egyptian midwives in Exodus 1 was actually an example of how "reproductive rights" have been "under attack since 1500BCE." See the story at https://t.co/TaAgHXjB3h pic.twitter.com/5k1igsiaV9

— Protestia (@Protestia) June 29, 2024

The Episcopal Church has appointed a new head to lead the heretical and apostate denominational further and further away from God’s light, electing Sean Rowe to the top post for a nine-year term.

Rowe, 49, who was previously the Bishop of the Episcopal Northwest Pennsylvania, is the youngest presiding bishop in the denomination’s history. In his speech following the confirmation vote, which saw him receive 95% approval, Rowe discussed the challenges facing them:

“It’s not too strong to say we’re facing an existential crisis. Not because the church doesn’t have something to offer the world, but because the world around us is changed and continues to change and is changing all the time. God is calling us ever more deeply into the unknown.

We know that we cannot continue being the Episcopal Church in the same way, no matter where we live. It’s time to reorient our church…”

An existential crisis indeed.

With a median congregational age of 69, the Episcopal Church is literally dying. This denomination is thoroughly depraved and ceased long being Christian decades ago, with perhaps only a fraction of a percent of real believers left. Abortion and LGBTQ have long since been lauded and celebrated, and if you throw a stone into a group of Episcopalian priests, a third will be gay, another third will have they/them pronouns, and the rest will be miracle-denying atheists who’d just as soon defecate on the bible than deliver it as God’s word.

Rowe is no different, and the fact that he was able to attain the top post shows he’s utterly and wholly aligned with their values, and nothing he can say or do will stop his wretched denomination from imploding.

Nearly 16,000 youth and adult leaders from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are set to descend on New Orleans for their major youth gathering this July, which brings together “high school age Lutherans from across the country and overseas for faith formation, worship, fellowship, and service.”

It sounds like many people until you realize that this is half of the 31,000 youth that participated in the last event. This steep loss in attendance warms the cockles of our God-fearing hearts, as the fewer teens exposed to the devilish deeds of a damned denomination, the better.

Notably, at the last event, all the teens were told to support transgenderism by one of the speakers, an 11 year-old-boy who believed he was a girl, while heretical Lutheran pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber led the teens in a kind of mock baptismal vow, saying “I renounce the lie that queerness is anything other than beauty.”

Don’t expect things to be any better. As we have previously reported:

At the upcoming event, teens are told to introduce themselves in this way, “Hi, my name is_____ , and I use the pronouns _________.” 

A big theme of the Youth Gathering will be to teach teens to become “disruptive to injustice.” Teens are told to discuss “what injustices you have experienced” and are told, “We are created to be disruptive, to work for justice for all our siblings”. Youth are taught “interrupting phrases” such as “We don’t say things like that here” to “help them disrupt an unjust situation”.

Lastly, teens will be taught not to think of sin as “darkness” because this is racist, woth a pre-gathering informational booklet explaining “One particularly harmful part of theology is associating sin with all things dark and black…(this creates) an implicit bias against things that are black…harmful intertwining of white supremacy and God’s love…”. Teens are asked “How does claiming the holiness of darkness reframe who God is for you?”

Last week, police arrested Jonathan Edward Elwing, senior pastor of Palm View Baptist Church, for possessing child pornography, but new information paints a far more disturbing picture.

Previously law enforcement received a tip that the pedophile pastor used cryptocurrency to buy child porn online. They acquired a warrant and executed it the very next day, seizing his devices and finding four images of child porn on his cell phone.

Things have changed. After seizing multiple electronic devices, including phones, tablets, and computers, a preliminary search has revealed even more images, including ones that shows him sexually abusing a child.

Elwing has now been charged with 14 felony counts related to sexual assault and child pornography, including two counts of capital sexual battery, six counts of production of child porn, and six counts of possessing child porn.

Prior to being arrested, Elwing, 43, resigned from Palm View church. A quick perusal of his social media accounts shows that his church was enrolled in Founders Ministries church search*, and Elwing would frequently share quotes from Voddie Baucham, Jonathan Edwards, Matt Chandler, and Mark Driscoll.

Elwing is married with four children, including one he recently adopted, and it appears he has absolutely destroyed their lives and turned them upside down. It is also unclear if one of the victims is his own child.

---

*Note: Founders Ministries explicitly says that it does not vet churches who voluntarily list themselves on the Founders church search.