Author: Staff Writer

A young American couple who were serving as missionaries in Haiti were murdered yesterday evening, according to Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker in a Facebook post, whose daughter was one of the victims. 

“My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’ve never felt this kind of pain. Most of you know my daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd are full time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs this evening and were both killed. They went to Heaven together. Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. I have no other words for now.”

The couple was part of Missionaries in Haiti Inc., founded by Davey Lloyd’s father 20 years ago to “see the Gospel of Christ make a difference in the lives of Haiti’s young people.

According to an update from the organization’s Facebook page late yesterday evening:

Urgent prayer needed. Sam and I came to the states yesterday since the airport opened back up. This evening when Davy, Natalie and the kids were coming out of Youth at the church they were ambushed by a gang of 3 trucks full of guys. Davy was taken to the house tied up and beat. The gang then took our trucks and loaded everything up they wanted and left.

Another gang came after to see what was going on and if they could help, so they say. No one understood what they were doing, not sure what took place but one was shot and killed and now this gang went into full attack mode. Davy, Natalie and Jude was in my house at the end of the property using the star link internet to call me. So they are holed up in there, the gangs has shot all the windows out of the house and continue to shoot.

Their lives are in danger.

I have been trying all my contacts to get a police armored car there to evacuate them out to safety but can’t get anyone to do. I also am trying to negotiate with the gang so how much $ to stand down and let them leave and get to safety. PLEASE PRAY- Going to be a long night. The phones have all died I can’t get a hold of anybody for the past several hours now to know what was going on.

Then, a final update:

Pray for the families.

“Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them”. Hebrews 11

A ‘pastor’ who was removed from the United Methodist Church 20 years ago for being in a same-sex relationship has been reinstated following the demonic denomination’s recent decision to affirm and celebrate homosexuality.

Earlier this week, the UMC’s Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference voted overwhelmingly to reinstate Rev. Beth Stroud, who was defrocked in 2004 after being discovered in a long-term romantic relationship with another woman. The decision comes after denominational leaders struck down long-standing policies that prohibited LGBTQ individuals from serving as clergy members, opening the door for many others to be restored to leadership within the church. According to the AP:

In a closed meeting of clergy from the UMC’s Eastern Pennsylvania region, Stroud exceeded the two-thirds vote requirement to be readmitted as a full member and pastor in the UMC.

Bishop John Schol of Eastern Pennsylvania welcomed the outcome, stating, “I’m grateful that the church has opened up to LGBTQ persons.”

Stroud was brought into the meeting room after the vote, overcome with emotion.

“I was completely disoriented,” she told The Associated Press via email. “For what felt like several minutes I couldn’t tell where the front of the room was, where I was, where I needed to go. Everyone was clapping and then they started singing. The bishop asked me quietly if I wanted to say anything and I said I couldn’t.”

She was handed the red stole that designates a fully ordained member of the clergy, and joined her colleagues in a procession into a worship service.

Stroud said she doesn’t plan on turning to full-time ministry anytime soon, as she’s spent the last twenty years teaching and is starting a new stint as a professor at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, one of a dozen seminaries run by the United Methodist Church, but said she loves that she now has the option. 

The International House of Prayer’s (IHOP) Kansas City church held its final service last week in Grandview, a conclusion and natural consequence of the sprawling sex abuse scandal brought on by founder and disgraced prophet Mike Bickle. Bickle was uncovered to be one of the most manipulative, creepy, and pervy “prophets’ of the past fifty years, causing his vaunted ministry to implode.

Forerunner Church Senior pastor Isaac Bennett led the service, which was packed to the brim with members and ministry partners exchanging farewells and teary goodbyes to each other, mourning the loss. Mike Bickle was not present.

“This morning our heart is really to just express gratitude to the Lord and gratitude towards those that have served and been a part of this community over the years. There’s no easy way to do this. …I recognize that this has been a very painful season…I’m so sorry for the pain and the difficulty that you’ve been through…. There’s no easy way to do this. How do you bring a close to something like this, the Forerunner Church? And so I appreciate your grace and your patience and your sensitivity during this time.”

Reflecting on their loss, Bennett apologized to and acknowledged those who have moved on and left as a result of the scandal:

“I’m so sorry for that. I really hope that this next season for you is one of comfort and of healing from the Lord.”

Bennett shared that closing various ministries across the IHOPKC missions base, including Forerunner Church, is not something they expected to do, but it needed to happen so they could have a fresh start. He encouraged people to have fellowship in home and small groups over the next few months, join them for mid-week gatherings while they “worship and seek the lord together,” and stay tuned about future plans.

“We’re honored to partner with Jesus in what he is birthing through this people and in this season, and we want to invite you to join, if it’s in your heart to as a fellow pioneer, as the Lord leads us and guides us into the next season.”

While Forerunner Church no longer exists, it is almost certain that the leadership will take a few months over the summer to plan and plot it out and then announce a new church wholly separate from IHOPKC. The 24/7 prayer room, which has been operating for decades and has been a staple of IHOPKC, will continue over the summer, though it is still being determined what will happen in the fall. 

Beth Moore continues her bad choices tour, joining noted Episcopal Priest Miroslav Volf for the Painters, Prophets, Poets Conference, a three-day affair in October where “all are invited into the work of envisioning and promoting Christ’s work of remaking the world in their own particular places, in their own particular ways.”

According to the promo material, the conference is “intentionally multi-disciplinary, bringing a diverse set of voices into the conversation around our shared pursuit of New Creation.” They insist that “Not only do such conversations foster individual growth, they allow for synergy and partnership across denominational, class, vocational, and political lines.”

We last wrote about Moore after she insisted the pulpit within the SBC had become a ‘threat to women,’ after she labeled her entire denomination racist, saying they don’t want black people in power positions, and after declaring that all the Southern Baptists that were ‘sexist’ towards her were also likely racist as well.

As for Volf, he’s a progressive thinker who argued in 2016 that all Christians should vote for Hillary Clinton, as her worldview was more in line with Christian principles and beliefs than Donald Trump. He has strenuously argued that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God and authored the trash book ” Public Faith in Action: How to Think Carefully, Engage Wisely, and Vote with Integrity,” where his true colors shine through. Dr. Brian Mattson explains the issues with the book:

Chapter after chapter the authors lay out the various burning political issues of the day, explaining the debate, the motivations of the various views, and itemizing the points of dispute (in a section called “Room For Debate”). And… that’s it. They never “land” anywhere. Their magnanimity and openness is such that I am reminded of the Chesterton quote: “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of the opening of the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” Instead, we get pages and pages of “hmm-ing, “hawing,” thoughtful head-nodding, and chin pinching.

Consider the chapter on abortion, probably as clear-cut a contemporary moral issue as we can find. The hand-wringing is virtually audible, as if emanating from the physical page. The authors cannot decide whether pre-viable unborn humans should be “accorded the respect, protection, and nurture a human life deserves.”

They must “leave open” the question of when human life begins. And when it comes to debates about abortion in America (a country with the most damningly laissez faire laws in the world), they find the necessary moral judgments “vexingly difficult.” (I have no doubt they do.) When it comes to public policy, we get a lot about the need for expanded health care, education, economic protection and support, safe environments, and so forth, but abortion foes are then backhandedly chided for expending their finite resources into, well, opposing abortion laws.

…And then…One reaches the chapter on (extra points if you guessed it)…marriage. Suddenly our authors have very strong convictions. Suddenly they can say something with a refreshing amount of boldness and certainty. And what they say is that Christians ought to (that is, are morally obligated to) support the idea of marriage for same-sex couples. No ambiguity, no hand-wringing; just full-throated advocacy. It is truly an amazing transformation.

The conference comes a few months after Moore will be appearing at another preaching gig, speaking at Johns Creek Baptist Church, an SBC church with four female pastors.

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Beth Moore will be at John’s Creek Baptist Church in July. They are part of the SBC and they have female pastors. pic.twitter.com/C9L6WvycIj

— Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) May 16, 2024

Last week, we shared that prominent critic of evangelical boogymen, Karen Swallow Prior, was announced as a speaker at the Wild Goose Festival, taking her place at the storied event that is half-part Burning Man and half-part Harrowing of Hell, populated by heretics who’d just as soon smoked weed rolled in bible pages than preach from it.  

Since its inception, the Wild Goose Festival has garnered a reputation as a hotbed of heresy, attracting both budding and seasoned progressive “Christians” who have cast off the boundaries of traditional beliefs. The festival’s lineup reads like a who’s who of wild-eyed heretics and pagan witches, almost entirely populated by those who claim Christ and then revel in the blasphemies and doctrines of demons. 

If it involves punching Jesus in the face and urinating on his limp body, metaphorically and theologically speaking, they’re all lined up with brass knuckles and 32oz Stanley water bottles filled to the brim.

Yet Swallow is right along with them, giving a talk on “Evangelicalism and Social Imaginaries” while across the hall, other speakers are teaching why the scriptures say it’s ok to be in a polyamorous relationship, finding the divine in magic mushrooms and psychedelics, how to be a better pro-abortion activist, why the Bible is fake and can’t be trusted, and why God is a non-binary entity who prefers she/her pronouns (Those are real lectures) 

When pressed about how she could attend this event in good conscience, given it’s a blaspheme-fest, Swallow completely misses the point of concern, offering:

Clearly, Swallow doesn’t care about prohibitions against such associations, which would essentially consists of nearly every speaker.  

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:11-13

This is not a matter of attending a Christian conference with other Christians who disagree on secondary or tertiary issues, but attending a ‘Christian conference’ where half of the people openly repudiate primary issues and really, really hate Jesus despite pretending to love him. 

For this reason, Protestia will donate $2500 to a (biblical) church of Karen’s choice if she gets up on stage during her message at the reprobate Wild Goose Festival and prophetically rebukes the false gospel and countless heresies being insisted upon by enumerable false teachers at the event, calling them out by name for their evil deeds and exposing them for the two-fold sons of hell that they are.

Because we can’t think of a single biblical reason to go to such a wretched and blasphemous event if you’re not going to do at least that, unless you’re not as far away from them as people think.

A pastor who made a name for himself by founding and co-pastoring a church with his active porn star wife has pled guilty to eight felony sex crimes, stemming from the rape of his young sister when she was just eight years old.

In 2020, ‘Pastors Stephen and Angela Dela Cruz, who met in bible college and married shortly after, founded Living Faith Church in San Diego. Their hook was that it was a “church for sinners, by sinners,” using the fact that Angela, who would be preaching and co-pastoring, was an active porn star who spent nearly a decade working as a cam-girl.

As one might imagine, both of these apostates were terrible preachers, unsurprising given their demonic activity and strange sermon names. Amid the sermon titles like “Hearing God through People,” “Prophetic Proclamation,” and “Mastering Money,” there were unconventional sermon titles like “Doggy Style,” God’s Big But!” and “Do you, Boo.”

That they managed to have a full band that sang regular praise and worship songs, have tithes and offerings, serve communion, have altar calls, and preach sermons each Sunday with bible verses sprinkled throughout, frequently urging their 40-50 congregants to go out into the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the while being able to buy private cam shows and nudes from their ‘pastor’ is astonishing.

Given what a creeper Stephen Dela Cruz, what came next isn’t.

According to a statement by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, on May 14, 2024, Stephen Dela Cruz pled guilty to eight felony crimes, including:

• Three counts of PC 261(a)(2)-Forcible Rape
• Three counts of PC 287(c)(2)(a)-Forcible Oral Copulation
• Two counts of PC 289(a)(1)-Sexual Penetration by Foreign Object

The plea brings an end to a complicated legal process that began in 2019 when the victim walked
into the Oxnard Police Department to report that she had been raped by her brother when she was
eight years old.

Nearly six years apart in age, the District Attorney’s office initially filed charges in juvenile court
alleging Delacruz was 14 and 15 at the time of the crimes. Then senior prosecutor Erik Nasarenko
sought to have the case transferred from juvenile court to adult court, arguing that the crimes
involved significant sophistication and planning and were especially violent and severe.

Delacruz
isolated the victim in their Oxnard house and threatened to kill her if she ever disclosed the crimes,
often displaying a knife prior to the sexual assaults, which occurred in 2001 and 2002

While church is now defunct, Dela Cruz and his wife appeared together on her YouTube channel together, just a few months ago, speaking on the importance of “moving on and moving forward.” Given that prosecutors have asked for 30 years in prison, we’ll know in late June where he goes from here.

On May 19, 2024, prosperity-gospel heretic Joel Osteen preached his 1000th sermon before a packed crowd at Lakewood church, giving a message of health and wealth in a sermon titled A Thousand Times More.

Osteen was ordained through his father’s church in 1983 and preached his first sermon on January 17, 1999. He was a stand-in for his father, John Osteen, who was in a hospital bed at the time and passed later that day. Bristling with nervous energy and wearing a suit and jacket too large for him, a mulleted Osteen fumbled his way through 1 Corinthians while encouraging his listeners to “Run your race with purpose in every step” in order to accumulate all the blessings.

For his thousandth sermon, 25 years later, Osteen was much more confident and rehearsed, effortlessly preaching his usual shtick of therapeutic moralistic deism in the form of a “thousand times blessing” telling congregants that “God’s dream for your life is much bigger than your own and he wants you to have prosperity beyond compare”

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Yesterday Joel Osteen preached his 1000th 'sermon'. Here's a bit of what that sounded like and yes, the message was this terrible the whole way through. pic.twitter.com/g8TRoKFMKB

— Protestia (@Protestia) May 20, 2024

Pope Francis continues to let little bits of the antichrist spirit he has inside of him shine through, sharing a host of unbiblical and unorthodox teachings during a rare interview with 60 Minutes, including claiming that human beings are fundamentally good and criticizing American bishops concerned about his progressive shift as “suicidal.”

Francis took aim at “conservative” Bishops unhappy with some of his practices and statements, likely including his decision to defrock a popular American Bishop who spoke out against the Roman Catholic Church locking down during Covid, as well as his continued insistence that they should not refuse communion to pro-choice Catholics like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi:

Norah O’Donnell: There are conservative bishops in the United States that oppose your new efforts to revisit teachings and traditions. How do you address their criticism?

Pope Francis (In Spanish/English translation): You used an adjective, “conservative.” That is, conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box. 

Turning to what give him Hope, Francis insists that “people are fundamentally good” and that while there are some rogues and sinners, “the heart itself is good.” 

Norah O’Donnell: When you look at the world what gives you hope?

Pope Francis (In Spanish/English translation): Everything. You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things. You see heroic mothers, heroic men, men who have hopes and dreams, women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead. And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good. 

Francis has clearly not been reading his bible, because anyone with a passing understanding of the scriptures is aware that they clearly, directly and forcefully repudiate this crazy heresy he’s going off about, including in Jeremiah 17:19 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?,”Romans 3:10-11 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” and Romans 5:10: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

To say otherwise is naked pelagianism, and Francis has just laid his decrepit soul bare.

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"We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good," says Pope Francis. https://t.co/MmLPBhWVU2 pic.twitter.com/7Be2GrKrdB

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 19, 2024