Warning to American Pastors

By Rusty Lee Thomas

This is a warning to pastors and Christian leaders. The average pew sitter in your buildings are becoming increasingly aware of the evil, tyranny, and injustice that is taking place under our watch. In times past, church leadership may have gotten away with being silent and inactive at the threats now facing the church in America.

If church leadership continues in that posture, however, the average pew sitter is going to realize how miserably church leadership has failed to prepare them to handle what is coming upon us. Not only did church leadership fail to address and defeat the evil now savaging our nation, church leadership is also failing to equip the saints to handle increased persecution. They may speak glowing messages from God's word, but they are silent where it matters most.

Martin Luther warned, "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

G K Chesterton stated, "Unless a man becomes the enemy of evil, he will not even become its slave, but rather its champion. God Himself will not help us to ignore evil but only to defy and to defeat it!"

Unless church leadership in America returns to this understanding and allows the salt to come out of the shaker and the light from under the bushel, expect a great exodus of Christians leaving church buildings to find authentic, genuine Christianity in the wasteland of America.

Many Christians are tired of Churchianity. What we are facing as God's people in America needs to be addressed, clear instructions from God's word needs to be given, and obedience should be expected. Otherwise the church's witness will continue to ring hollow and our ministries will be discredited by our failures to lead God's people through these times that try the souls of men.

This is not a time to tickle ears, but a time for true under- shepherds of the flock to take the up the staff and rod and beat back the wolves who seek to devour the sheep. If we fail to do this, there is one word for those under-shepherds. It is called hireling. Hireling pastors will be exposed in the days ahead. They will flee when it does not benefit them to pastor the flock. When it is time to pay a price to be faithful to God and His people, they will disappear. Many sheep will be scattered as a result. It is my prayer that they find true under-shepherds who will lay down their lives for the sheep as Christ our Master did for his church.

I'll close with this quote by Charles Finney. He stated, "Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation."

We need to take this exhortation to heart and make the necessary changes, lest our candle stick be removed in Jesus' name!

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Jackson Hole Landslide

Jackson Hole Landslide 
By Jeremy Aughenbaugh,
28 April 2014

Lately, there have been some very interesting events unfolding in Jackson, Wyoming. As some of you may know, there has been a slow and steady landslide creeping down a butte in downtown Jackson along its busiest street for several weeks. As there is shifting in the ground that results in a landslide, I also believe there has been a spiritual shifting over the past several years that continues to leave this small resort community forever changed.

Before 2011, the town Jackson had been harboring Wyoming’s only abortionist with little to no objection from the community. Local pastors would occasionally visit Dr. Brent Blue to encourage him to stop performing abortions but to no avail. There were the annual pro-life banquets and candlelight vigils in the town square. For the most part, those efforts went unnoticed. Pro-life ministry in Jackson, Wyoming was forever changed with the arrival of Operation Save America (OSA) in May, 2011. Jackson had never before had been confronted with the sin of abortion in such a public and powerful way. This message from gentle Christians laying their lives and reputations down to rescue their unborn neighbors was soundly rejected not only by the majority of Jackson’s citizens and political leaders, but also by the church. I noticed things beginning to shift soon after.

Not long after OSA’s 2011 visit, an electrical transformer spontaneously combusted near the Teton Science School, sending fire racing up a butte just outside town limits. It burned for several hours before firefighters were able to extinguish it. In May 2012, OSA and Missionaries to the Preborn came to plead with the town of Jackson to end the sin of abortion. Again, the message was rejected with even more intensity. Several months later, a major wild fire broke out south of town, this time threatening the town itself. It was caused by a resident burning trash in a backyard barrel before darting up the mountainside in a flash.

The smoke appeared so thick that it looked like a mushroom cloud. The air quality in and around Jackson became poor due to the smoke. For some residents, this caused respiratory issues. Residents in the east side of Jackson were put on high alert for an evacuation notice if the fire came any closer to town. Air tankers, helicopters and over 600 firefighters were brought in to subdue the blaze. The fire would go on to burn nearly five square miles of national forest around Jackson and cost nine million dollars to fight. Though it’s not uncommon for fires to occur in this area, a fire of this magnitude threatening the town of Jackson like this one did is truly historic.

There is now a landslide in the town of Jackson adjacent to Powderhorn Plaza, where Abortionist & family practitioner Dr. Brent Blue currently operates. The slide began rapidly moving at the beginning of April, splitting a house at the top of the hill in two making it national news. This has resulted in an entire neighborhood being evacuated leaving residents displaced. Businesses near the slide have been closed, and there has been the threat of underground water pipes bursting that would rapidly flood the area and leave about a third of the town without water. $750,000.00 has been allocated towards the slide by local officials, straining the town’s budget. The Jackson Town Manager said the budget will be affected by the slide for the next two fiscal years. Though the slide has slowed, it is still moving. No one yet knows when or where it will stop. The Governor of Wyoming is planning on inspecting the damage for himself. Thankfully, no one has been hurt.

The cliff itself has been moving slowly for years due to the increased development of the area. Jackson residents have been trying to find the culprits responsible for triggering the recent slide. Some think it’s the businesses or developers that dug into the hill side, some believe it’s the planning engineers, and some have shifted the blame to town and county officials who have issued permits for development. While earth movement and urban development are the usual suspects here, there is an additional factor that should be considered.

I believe the timing of the hillside breaking apart is significant just as with the timing of the two Jackson area fires mentioned earlier. For the first eleven years that I lived here, these things just didn’t happen in Jackson. Now, it seems disasters like these are becoming more common place. We live in a cause and effect world; not only physically but spiritually. The root of these disasters can be traced to man-made causes but they have all occurred after the rejection of repeated public pleas from Christians to end the practice of child murder in the name of reproductive choice in Jackson. Could this be a coincidence? Is God trying to get our attention? The bible says in Leviticus 18:21 “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through to the fire of Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.” It continues in verses 24-25 saying, “Defile not you yourselves in any of these things: for which in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you. And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.” There is a direct connection in Leviticus chapter 18 between the defilement of the land and the abomination of child sacrifice. We have allowed the killing of unborn children in this community for decades. The landslide we’re now seeing is literally pushing people out from across the street where the abortionist’s office is located. I believe we are more vulnerable now than ever before.

As a community, we all share responsibility for this injustice, including me. I knew abortion was taking place in my community for over ten years without making much of a peep. By my silence, I had been an accessory to this injustice. Most of us, if not all of us, know that abortion is taking place right under our noses. None of us can plead ignorance. We will all have to give an account for what we have or haven’t tolerated within our community. Though I believe we are currently on a collision course with God’s judgment, there’s still hope. 2 Chronicles 7:14 states, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” This is a wonderful promise but it has conditions; we must first repent. Without repentance we cannot be healed. It is my hope and prayer that we repent and turn from the sin of abortion sooner than later. Our future depends on it.

Operation Save America

Stand Up

Stand Up [Letter to the Editor]

"In the 11 years I've lived in Jackson, I've never seen this community shaken up so much as when the protesters from Kansas and Operation Save America showed up. I heard a month before that a radical anti-abortion group was planning on coming to protest. I didn't think that was a good idea, because it seemed too controversial.

"I completely forgot about it until the Wednesday morning they arrived on Broadway to deliver their 'shock and awe campaign.' When I saw the graphic pictures of the aborted baby, I was shocked and deeply offended. I wasn't offended that OSA showed the pictures in public, but I was offended that this is happening in our community on Saturday mornings.

"For years, I've driven past Emerg-A-Care, admiring the airplane propellers over the entrance without thinking about what takes place inside. I've since talked with several churchgoers about this. They said they agreed with OSA's pro-life stance but didn't agree with the delivery of the group's message, because it wasn't a loving-enough approach.

"The Bible says an open rebuke is better than hidden love. Isaiah 58: 1 says, 'Show my people their sins.' Abortion is horrific, and showing graphic pictures humanizes it.

"A major turning point in the civil rights battle was the murder and open-casket funeral of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Tens of thousands of people filed past Emmett's body to see the horrors of segregation. As the brutal photos circulated around the country and television coverage of police violence against peaceful protesters in Birmingham made its way into America's living rooms, we decided we weren't going to tolerate it anymore.

"OSA's protesting strategy has led to hundreds of abortion clinics being shut down around the country. They save thousands of unborn children's lives, each year. In Wichita Kan., the hometown of many of the protesters, all three abortion clinics have been shut down. The graphic pictures are effective in changing minds. My family and I stood for several hours with the protesters, and, let me tell you, it was uncomfortable. I haven't been flipped off or threatened like that before, but standing up for those who don't have a voice is worth it.

"To the Christians and churchgoers in this community, don't be afraid to stand up for what you know is right, even if it puts you in an uncomfortable spot among your peers."

Jeremy Aughenbaugh
Jackson [Wyoming]

Jackson Hole News & Guide
Wednesday
June 1, 2011

Jackson, Wyoming Fire, 2012