"Mark's story [i.e. the Gospel of Mark] is most likely Mark's fiction . . . .The gospel was indeed Mark's creation, a narrative that brought together two distinctively different types of written material representative of two major types of early sectarian movements.  One stream was that of movements in Palestine and southern Syria that cultivated the memory of Jesus as a founder-teacher.  The other was that of congregations in northern Syria, Asia Minor and Greece wherein the death and resurrection of Jesus were regarded as founding events . . . . Mark fabricated his story."

OK, you know how this works . . .  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please no google searches or cheating.  The whole point is to make a guess, not look up an answer! 

This is what happens when young evangelicals--who are justifiably disgruntled with the movement's ties to the Republican party, but who have never heard of the distinction between the two kingdoms--start to leave the movement in great numbers.  They end up doing goofy stuff like this.   Click here: Evangelical movement touts 'Jesus for president' - CNN.com

 Better be nice to your monkey--he (or she) now has rights!  At least in Spain . . .  Click here: Spain set to give rights to apes | Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma

Here is the sad fruit of the "name it and claim it" theology--bitterness, disillusion, and the horrible feeling that "God hates you and has a horrible plan for your life."  Click here: Believer bitter over 'prosperity' preachings - CNN.com

More intrusion from the nanny state:  "eat your vegetables . . . all of them."  There is nothing worse than having your PM (or president) scold you like your mom used to do--when you were six.   Click here: As supermarket prices spiral Brown tells families: 'Stop wasting food' | Mail Online

"Likewise, if I say that I had a vision of an angel, or encountered one or even spoke with one, but you haven’t doctrinally or experientially, come to terms with the reality of angels being in our midst, then you may not attribute it as valid. You may even tag me as someone who worships angels, seeks them for counsel, ministers under the power of, or misrepresents them in some way. In the case of the angel called “Emma,” who I described as having mother-like nurturing qualities, some have automatically assumed that my doctrine is that I believe in female angels. This has never been the case!

For whatever reason God chose to show me this angel in a female persona, He did. This isn’t to say that the angel was female. Angels are spirit and appear in many forms. Perhaps that’s the form God chose this angel to take for the purpose of the revelation He gave me. They are spirit beings of light, created out of God’s glory, without gender, and appear in whatever form God chooses to send them to us."

By now you know the drill.  Please leave your answer in the comments section below.  Please no google searches or cheating. 

"It should never be forgotten that the faith that is the condition of justification, is the faith that works by love. It is the faith through and by which Christ sanctifies the soul. A sanctifying faith unites the believer to Christ as his justification; but be it always remembered, that no faith receives Christ as a justification, that does not receive him as a sanctification, to reign within the heart. We have seen that repentance, as well as faith, is a condition of justification. We shall see that perseverance in obedience to the end of life is also a condition of justification."

Leave your guess in the comments section below.   Please, no google searches or cheating!  The fun is in the guessing! 

Here's yet another sad sign of the evangelical decline.  An amazing 57% of those who attend evangelical churches now say they believe that adherents of non-Christian religions might also be saved.  The more people anchor their faith in the subjective (religious experience), the less likely they are to see evangelical Christianity as a truth claim.  Some of us are hardly surprised by this news.  Saddened, yes.  But not surprised.  Click here: Religious Americans: My faith isn't the only way (OneNewsNow.com)

The PCUSA continues to lose members--some 57,000 last year alone (that's about the same number of people in the OPC/URC combined).  The loss is blamed on the church's liberal theology and blue hair--the church's aging membership.   Many congregations have left to join the EPC.  If you don't give people a reason to stay in your church, they won't.   The PCUSA isn't alone in this.  The Methodist Church has lost 23% of its membership since 1970, and the Episcopal Church is down 33% since the mid-sixties.  Of course, what these churches need is more liberal theology and "contemporary worship."

Here's a noted theologian/writer who believes that Jesus will return within the next 20-25 years.  That's not out of the ordinary.  The catch?   Harun Yahya is a Muslim (widely read around in the Muslim world) who believes that when Jesus comes back it will be as the Islamic Mahdi and a champion of the prophet Mohammed.  This is typical Islamic doctrine, but Yahya is as successful (in terms of sales) as Tim LaHaye.  That means a series of Islamic novels about the end times is sure to come.  Click here: Muslim creationist preaches Islam and awaits Christ - Yahoo! News

How many stories like this one will we read about before the presidential election in November?  Here's a preacher who told his congregation that God wanted them to vote republican.  That's bad enough.  It gets worse.  He was doing this to provoke an IRS investigation, hoping for a court fight.  Shouldn't a guy like this be looking for a new line of work?  He's obviously failed in his calling to preach the gospel.  And if he wants to change things so badly, why not just run for political office (an honorable calling), rather than commit such atrocious behavior in the pulpit.  Click here: ABC News: Pastors Use Pulpit to Challenge Election Law

"The Word of God Himself . . . assumed humanity that we might become God."

Please leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please no google searches or cheating. 

"Obedience is the number one ingredient to Life Eternal; yet, it’s the very least practiced among the religious world.  We will all be sentenced and receive our reward according to our works. Notice first The Book of Yahweh.  Revelation 22:12— And behold, I come quickly, and My Reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work will be."

Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please no google searches or cheating.