Does anyone know the way? - PowerPoint Presentation

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Does anyone know the way?Slide2

Back in the 1990s, lots of jokes were made about “political correctness”, and almost everybody thought they were really funny. 

Nag

Verbally

RepetitveSlide3

Unfortunately, very few people are laughing now because political correctness has become a way of life in America.  If you say the “wrong thing” you

could lose your job or you could rapidly end up in court.  Every single day, the mainstream media

bombards us with subtle

messages that make it

clear what is “appropriate”

and what is “inappropriate”.  Slide4

The goal is to control what people say to one another, because eventually that will shape what most people think and what most people believe. 

Try the following experiment some time.  Go to a public place where a lot of people are gathered and yell out something horribly politically incorrect such as “I love Jesus” and watch people

visibly cringe.  The name

of “Jesus” has become a

curse word in our politically correct society,

and we have been trained to have a negative reactionto it in public places. Slide5

Have you ever noticed that it’s only the names of God and Jesus that get used in a blasphemous manner?

You don’t hear a Muslim saying “Oh Allah!” or “Mohammed!” You don’t hear someone kick their toe on a rock and say “Oh Buddha!”, or drop their book and say “Hare Krishna!” The Jews don’t say “Abraham and Isaac!” It’s always “Jesus Christ”, “Oh God”.

Christian singer, Barry McGuire, says that there’s a very good reason for that – because the Devil knows who his real enemy is (and it’s not

Krishna or Mohammed or

Buddha) and he wants to get

that name so abused, turned into a swear word, that it loses its power. The name of Jesus, the only name in the universe able to change lives and set people free. Slide6

Billions of dollars of media “programming” has changed the definitions of what people consider to be “acceptable” and what people consider to be “not acceptable”. 

Political correctness shapes the way that we all communicate with each other every single day. Slide7

In America today, there are many groups that are absolutely obsessed with eradicating every mention of God out of the public sphere. 

The following slides are just a few examples that show how political correctness is taking over America.Slide8

Physics

prof a victim of ‘double standard’ in academiaBob Kellogg (OneNewsNow.com) Monday, August 12, 2013 Slide9

A

univeristy in Indiana has sharply denounced one of its professors for presenting the theory of intelligent design to student in his science course, The Boundaries of Science.”In a statement to Ball State faculty and staff, Jo Ann Gora (university president) said: “Intelligent design is overwhelmingly deemed by the scientific community as a religious belief and not a scientific theory…To allow intelligent design to be presented to science students as a valid scientific theory would violate the academic integrity of the course as it would fail to accurately represent the consensus of science scholars.

Outcome:

Physics professor Eric Hedin will no longer be allowed to teach “The Boundaries of Science” course, he will remain at Ball State.Slide10

Authorities are cracking down on public expressions of the Christian faith all over the nation, and yet atheists in New York City are allowed to express their opinion. Slide11
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A judge in North Carolina has ruled that it is unconstitutional for North Carolina to offer license plates that say “

Choose Life” on them.Slide13

School Orders Child to Remove God From Poem

Todd StarnesSlide14

A school in North Carolina ordered a six-year-old girl to remove the word “God” from a poem that she was supposed to read during a Veteran’s Day ceremony.

The girl is a first-grader at West Marion Elementary School. She was supposed to read the poem during a school assembly marking Veteran’s Day. The poem honored her two grandfathers who had served during the Vietnam War.“He prayed to God for peace, he prayed to God for strength,” the poem read.

A parent reportedly found out about the poem and expressed concern about mentioning the word God during a school event. The parent did not want the Almighty’s name mentioned anywhere in the program, according to one account.Slide15

“We wanted to make sure we were upholding the school district’s responsibility of separation of church and state from the Establishment Clause,” Supt. Gerri Martin told the

McDowell News. “We jointly decided that we must err on the side of caution to prevent crossing the line on the Establishment Clause of the Constitution,” Kirkpatrick

told the newspaper,

“As a principal of a public school, I must put aside my personal religious beliefs and follow the law — which upholds that we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but that we, as public schools, cannot endorse one single religion over another.”Slide16

Track Team Disqualified for Thanking God

Todd StarnesSlide17
Slide18

A Texas high school track team was disqualified from competing in the state championships because one of the runners made a gesture thanking God after he crossed the finish line.

Derrick Hayes, the anchor of the Columbus High School 4×100 relay team had just crossed the finish line when he raised his finger to the sky – thanking the Lord for winning the race that would send them to the state finals.But a judge with the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high school athletics in Texas, ruled that the gesture was a violation of the taunting rule – and the Cardinals were stripped of their victory.Slide19

Refusing to Stomp on

Jesus’s Name Gets Student Banned From Class Jenny EriksonMarch 26 at 5:31 PM

News and Views Slide20

Florida Atlantic University has recently come under fire due to a class activity in which students were asked to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper, put it on the floor in front of them, and

stomp on it. It was supposed to teach something about culture and symbolism, and came from an official instructor’s manual.

Apparently this made several students uncomfortable, but one actually spoke out about the insulting and offensive nature of the assignment. Ryan

Rotela

, a devout Mormon, says he picked up the paper and put it back on his desk. “I’m not going to be sitting in a class having my religious rights desecrated,” he told a local news station.

Rotela complained to the instructor’s supervisor -- and was subsequently suspended from class!Slide21

Outcome:

Rotela has been charged with several violations of the student code of conduct, and has been barred from attending the class or even communicating with other involved with the situation. According to the letter, Rotela

engaged in “acts of verbal, written or physical abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment, coercion, or other conduct which threatens the health, safety, or welfare of any person.”

Rotela

claims the “threatening language” referred to in the letter occurred when he told the professor, “Don’t do that again,” and said, “You’ll be hearing from me.”

The school could not be reached for further comment or clarificationSlide22

Student ordered to remove cross necklace at California college

Eric OwensEducation Editor, Daily CallerSlide23
Slide24

An official at Sonoma State University ordered a student working at a freshman orientation fair to remove or hide a cross necklace on two separate occasions. The unnamed official feared that other students could be offended by the two-inch-long symbol of Christianity.

The official, an orientation supervisor, warned Sonoma State student Audrey Jarvis that “the chancellor” enforced a policy against wearing religious items.Slide25

According to Hiram

Sasser, an attorney representing Jarvis, the supervisor advised the practicing Catholic “that she could not wear her cross necklace because it might offend others, it might make incoming students feel unwelcome.”On a second occasion, the supervisor ordered Jarvis to conceal the cross under her shirt or get rid of it. That’s when the liberal arts major decided to bail early on the orientation job.Slide26

Outcome:

“Someone who works here was concerned that the cross might be off-putting to students who are coming to campus for the first time,” confirmed university spokeswoman Susan Kashack. She added that the supervisor’s behavior was “completely wrong.”

“It’s possible that political correctness got out of hand.”

“The president was very upset about it and asked me to contact Miss Jarvis and give a profuse apology,”

Kashack

said.Slide27

School Calls Cops on

Gideons Distributing BiblesTodd Starnes, Jun 19, 2013

Town HallSlide28

Walt

Tutka, a substitute teacher for the Phillipsburg School District, was fired earlier this year after he handed a Bible to a student. Tutka told the young man at the back of a line, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

When the student asked where the phrase came from

Tutka

pulled out a pocket New Testament and showed him the biblical text.

The student told the teacher that he did not own a Bible – so Tutka gave the young man his own copy.The school district later charged Tutka with violating a rule that forbids the distribution of religious literature. The school board terminated his employment in January.Slide29

Hiram

Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, told Fox News their client was specifically targeted because he is a member of Gideon International, a religious society that distributes Bibles across the world.“Walt was a member of the Gideons

and they were out to get him,”

Sasser

said. “The reason we believe he was fired is because he was a member of the

Gideons. They happened to know Walt was somebody they could target.”Fox News has obtained a copy of an email from Phillipsburg Middle School Assistant Principal John Stillo that indicates the school district had an issue with the well-known religious group.“It has been brought to the administration’s attention that Gideon’s may be near our campus to distribute literature to our students,” Stillo wrote in a memo to the school’s staff. “Please make sure they DO NOT step foot onto our campus at anytime. There will be added police and security presence at dismissal.”Slide30

Gideon International has a long history of providing Bibles to public school students. But in recent years, many districts have banned the religious society. Ironically, the

Gideons are welcome to distribute Bibles and deliver speeches in Russian schools.Sasser said it was outrageous that the school would call out the police for a group that had permission from the police to distribute Bibles.Slide31

Outcome:

Sasser said they are going to give the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) one more chance to give Tutka

a “fair shake.” If that doesn’t work, he said they will consider their legal options.Slide32

Police Chaplains Told to Stop Invoking Jesus

Todd StarnesFox NewsSlide33

For the past seven years Pastor Terry

Sartain has ministered to police officers and their families in Charlotte, N.C. Whenever the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. invited him to deliver an invocation, he prayed in “the name of Jesus.”But not anymore.

Volunteer chaplains in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. will no longer be allowed to invoke the name of Jesus in prayers at public events held on government property.

Major John Diggs, who oversees the chaplain program, told

television station WSOC that

the policy is a “matter of respecting that people may have different faiths and that it is not aimed at any one religion or denomination.”Slide34

“I’m very sad about it,” he said. “I’m a pastor and Jesus is the only thing I have to offer to bless people – his life and his person.”

“It brings about a very real concern about where we are heading as a nation,” he said. “I serve a God who loves people unconditionally, who died for their sins on the cross, who wants to reconcile himself to them and love them where they are at – and now I’m told I can’t bless people as a result of that.”The police department said he could still pray – just not to Jesus.Slide35

Outcome:

Sartain asked the police department to withdraw his name from consideration for future public prayersSlide36

Jesus often surprised people with teachings that cut across the grain of human nature.

Lose your life to save it. The first will be last. The meek will inherit the earth. Rejoice in persecution. Pray for your enemies. It’s better to give than receive. Turn the other

cheek. But, by far, the most

outrageous assertion Jesus

ever made — His most

politically incorrect claim of all — was when He declared in JOHN 14:6: Slide37

6 

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.Slide38

This claim rankles people like no other. It has been called arrogant and narrow-minded and bigoted and snobbish.

So why is this claim so controversial? One reason is that it strikes at the core of threegreat myths about religion.Slide39

Myth: All religions are basically the same—many roads lead to God.

Jesus said, “I Am the Way…”Slide40

If you were to go ask people, “What religion are you,” you’d get a lot of different responses--“I’m spiritual, but not religious” or “I don’t go to church”.  You would get  a rainbow of different

Religious outlooks: Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus,

Wiccans, and

Scientologists. Slide41

You would also find a lot of people that mix and match all sorts of practices and parts of different religions to come up with their own favorite blend.

They read the Bible, use crystals, light candles, pray, practice meditation and have a spirit guide… and that’s their “faith”.  There are people who call themselves Christians, but read horoscopes, and believe in the karmic view that if you do good things then good things will happen to you. It’s all about finding their own path.Slide42

“Enlighten” is a board game that promises to take people on a spiritual journey to explore the world’s religions.”

In big red letters on the

web

page are

the

words, “Open your mind, free your spirit, come play with the rest of the world!”   Slide43

Some people have chosen the occult path. The police are using psychics to solve crimes. Universities are employing white witches as their chaplains. The TV is full of it with shows like

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and

Sabrina

.

Every morning the first thing that millions of people will turn to their horoscope to see what the stars say the day has in store for them.

The Pagan Federation is claiming it dealswith an average of 100 enquiries per month from youngsters who want to Become Witches.People are getting sucked in to the world of the occult to try and find their direction in life.Slide44

Some people have chosen the humanist path – There is evident by a current

compaign involving London Buses:Slide45
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The humanist world says I’ll do it my way! There is no God, there is no meaning to life, your just a bunch of Chemicals that have accidentally formed together. Slide47

Many people will state that all religions have the same things in common, even though they have different names.

Is that true? Are all religions

basically the same

thing, leading to the

same place?Slide48

The basic idea is that “all roads lead to God”.  No matter where you start at the bottom of the mountain, when you get to the top, everybody gets to the same peak.  Is that true?  It seems so when you are looking at it from the bottom of the mountain.Slide49

At the bottom of the mountain, there are similarities and crossovers in the path. For example, there are similar sounding teachings.  Jesus

in Luke 6:31 said, “Do to others as you would have

them do to you.” 

Buddha said,

“Consider others as yourself.”  Slide50

Jesus said in Luke 6:29, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.”  Buddha also said, “If anyone should give you a blow

with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon

any desires and

utter no evil

words.” Slide51

There are some similarities at the bottom of the mountain where some of the paths seem

to cross over. The problem with “all roads lead to the same God” comes at the top of the

mountains. Slide52

On the path of Hinduism, at the top of the mountain there are many gods.  Jesus may be one of the gods, but is not the only one there. 

In the afterlife, there is reincarnation to pay off karmic debt (someone sends you back down the mountain to try again!), and eventually when you finally get it right you don’t go to heaven to meet a personal God, you come to your “true self—the highest

reality. (Brahman).”

Christianity says there’s one

eternal God who created the

universe. Hinduism says everything is GodSlide53

At the top of the Islamic mountain, there is one god, Allah.  Jesus is a prophet, but not one of the Trinity, and not the Son of God. 

The afterlife is either paradise or hell, but salvation is not by grace, it is based on the weighing of the good and bad deeds done

during your life.

You can’t really

be sure that you will get into

paradise until you get there.Slide54

At the top of the Christian mountain there is One God in Three Triune Persons (Father Son and Holy Spirit).  Jesus is the Son of God, and faith in

His atoning death and resurrection is the way to salvation. And the afterlife is either heaven

or hell, not based on

anything we do, but on

what Jesus did.Slide55

Let’s compare a parable taught by Jesus with a similar story found in Buddhist literature. Both stories involve sons who became rebellious and left home, but who then saw the error

of their ways and decided to come back and be reconciled with their families.Slide56

In the Buddhist story, the errant son is required to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by spending years in servitude. But you know how the Christian parable of the Prodigal Son ends —

the repentant son being warmly welcomed home by his loving father

and being given

undeserved grace

and forgiveness.Slide57

Other religions are spelled “D-O,” because they teach that people have to do a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God in an attempt to reach out to God.

But Christianity is spelled “D-O-N-E” because Christ has done it all on

the cross — and we just

need to receive Him.

Jesus Christ is God

reaching out to us. Slide58

Matthew 7:13-14

13 “Enter through the narrow gate.

(

A

)

For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.Slide59

Myth: Even if there are differences between religions, they all have equal claims on the truth.

Jesus said, “I Am the Truth…”Slide60

When he was stood before Pilate, Jesus said to him ‘I have come to testify to the truth’. Pilate asked him ‘what is truth’? That is the same question being asked

today. In the world that we live in many saythere is no such thing as ultimate truth. What

might be true to you

might not be true to

someone else.Slide61

Under our Constitution, all religious viewpoints are equally protected. People can believe whatever they want. But some people jump to the conclusion that because different philosophies are equally protected, they must be equally valid.

Is there such thing as absolute truth?Slide62

If you enter a phone booth, you cannot dial any set of numbers and get your home. Every residence and

business has a separate number that must be dialed to reach that location. Slide63

If you want to drive your car to California, you can’t drive down any road that strikes your fancy, make any turn you want, get on any interstate that looks appealing, and arrive at your intended destination. Slide64

If you have a headache, you cannot take any medicine you want to find relief. Some pills might help; others might kill. Slide65

Imagine that your child develops a terrible disease. As a loving parent, you would take your child to the doctor. Now imagine if your doctor said, “There are hundreds of potential cures to your child’s condition. Every treatment is a viable option. I have studied all of these possibilities and I recommend each of them for your consideration. I will not prescribe a

path to your child’s recovery because

that would be arrogant and intolerant.

There are plenty of medical journals

that would dispute my

recommendation. I would also offend many of my colleagues. So, you will have to come to your own conclusion because in the end any medical treatment is going to lead to your child’s health and healing.”Slide66

“Two plus two equals four” is a very narrow statement. But truth is narrow.

And sometimes the truth hurts. If you went to the doctor and he diagnosed you with cancer but decided not to tell you

because it might hurt your

feelings – that’s no good for

anyone.

Slide67

Jesus tells the truth about our human condition, because He is the great physician. His truth reveals our sinful natures. His truth reveals

the wrong things in our lives. His truth reveals just how far we have fallen away.Slide68

The truth does not waiver or change; it remains the same. And because Jesus is the truth, we have a light for the journey.

Psalm 43:3 ‘Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your

holy mountain, to the place

where you dwell’. Slide69

Let’s suppose that researchers at the University of Washington this very week discovered the cure for cancer. After years of research, they developed a treatment that could instantly cure all forms of cancer. The treatment is painless, one-time, and 100% effective. Would it be arrogant for them to say, “This is the only treatment for cancer you will ever need?” Or would that be the most loving thing they could ever say?

When it comes to healing our bodies, most people are

looking for a “silver bullet” solution.

The Bible humanity has the

spiritual cancer, sin. This disease

needs to be cured. Absolute truth in spiritual matters demands that we discern a solution. Christianity provides both the diagnosis and the remedy.Slide70

Myth: Christianity is about rules and regulations.

Jesus said, “I Am the Life.”Slide71

People think Christianity is about being imprisoned by a life of do’s and don’ts

– but Jesus said, no – I have come to set you free, I have come to give you a better life, a more fulfilling life, a more content life, a more abundant life, here, now, today! Free from guilt, free from shame, free from sin, free from anxiety, free from fear, free from dread, free from depression, free from your misery, because I am the life!Slide72

All other religions are man made-up ways to get to heaven, Only Christianity is a revelation from God on how

to get to him. The others are similar because they are man made clones or counterfeits of the true one. Slide73

Jesus is the way — He’s the path to a lifetime of adventure, fulfillment, challenge, and purpose.

Jesus is the truth — and He will provide you with wisdom that works for everyday life and for the turbulent times as well.Jesus is the life. He — and He alone — can give you confidence for your future, for all of eternity.Slide74

Satan knows that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but

through Him. Consequently, he is pulling out all the stops in an

attempt to

destroy

Christianity. Slide75

He does not get lost all the time—he investigates alternative destinations. Are you lost--investigating alternative destinations, or do you know the way? Will you provide directions for others?Slide76

Let’s

PraySlide77

Paul Green: I

am the way, the Truth and the LifeKevin P. Larson: Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Al

Descheneau

: They Like Jesus But Not The

ChurchPierre Naude: Isn't Christianity Arrogant? Lee Strobel: Jesus Christ OnlyKeith Krell: The Scandal of Christianity